Weewx-archive for EVERY weather station that works with WU

[Christian Schaaf]

Here is a weewx-solution that works with just about ANY weather station capable of uploading data to Weather Underground. When my old Ambient Weather Station WS-1400 was defunct, I got myself a EuroChron EIWS 1. This weather station, although less expensive, showed higher accuracy than the WS-1400 but it had a big downside: It doesn't have a web interface and only communicates with Weather Underground. Also, there are absolutely no drivers for weewx. So, I had to find a new solution to acquire and store my data in my weewx data bank. The answer is in hindsight pretty simple: Use the Wunderground-API to retreive the daily data as JSON-string, convert to CSV, import it to the weewx data bank and then visualize it. The problem: weewx terminated every time I tried to run it without driver - or with the Observer IP driver but no device present. The only viable way was a solution that didn't need weewx to be running. It is possible: 

(1) First, retrieve the JSON-data from WU and convert to CSV with a php-script called WXDailyHistory.php by Ken True (https://github.com/ktrue/WU-History/blob/master/WXDailyHistory.php)

(2) Then, map the fields of the CSV to your weewx data in your csv-import.conf and import to your weewx db using wee-import with the option "echo y" (answer all prompts with "y")

(3) Use wee-reports to generate your html-reports, just as weewx would do.

I run all three jobs on task-scheduler (very similar to a crontab) on a Synology Station. The result is the same as my former Observer IP station. The important difference, it works with EVERY WEATHER STATION compatible with WU. And you stay the master of all your data, not relying on WU to do it for you (WU has a tradition of being notoriously unreliable in this domain).

Check it out here: https://schaaf.b-24.de/WX/index.html

[Bob Atchley]

Hi Christian,

I had never heard of the "EuroChron EIWS 1", but it turns out it is almost identical to the Youshiko YC9388 which I have (and the Bresser 6 in 1, Garni 935PC, Ventus W835 and probably others).  The big difference is that mine has a console with USB connection to a PC (well Raspberry Pi 2 in my case), I had to write a driver for weewx (ws6in1) but this is now available and working.

I don't know, but you may be able to purchase this console to compliment your weather station.  The big advantage over the WU method is that in case of server/WU failure the console can store months worth of data and is battery powered ... and I like having an always on console.

Like you I have found this weather station to be significantly more accurate than my previous weather station (ws2300 in my case) and so far I'm very pleased with it.

Bob

[Christian Schaaf]

Hi Bob,

thank you very much for the advice. The stations do look very similar. My base station does also in fact have a USB-port. But when I checked the manual, I found this: "Important:The USB port (7) on the base station is used exclusively for firmware updates." So, I figure that the Raspberry-Pi-solution is most probably not going to work in this case, unless there are hidden features on this device. I do in fact remember an agonizingly long downtime of WU-servers a couple of years ago (was it in 2017?) which in fact led to me discovering and installing weewx alltogether. But in the meantime, I have not experience such problems with WU anymore. Lets hope that they're grown out of their infancy and these problems are now ghosts from the past...

The USB port (7) on the base station is used exclusively for firmware updates.

[Peter B.]

Hello Christian, 

Many thanks to this solution.
I was looking for a solution for a Bresser Station (which uses only WIFI), but I want to use weewx further.

Could you please explain your solution more in detail for a newbie? ;-)
Which steps do I have to implement in my actual weewx 4.0. installation?

Thanks in advance, 
greetings
Peter