Looking for reliable weather station -- reliably working with WeeWX

[Max G]

I have used the WH3080 and 3081 with the occasional lookup problem, which is a known issue with the weather station hardware.

It looks like the hardware had it; as in: I get the "Can't set a number" error in the EasyWeatherPlus software, when I want to set the Interval from 30 to 5 minutes.

From what I am reading the above error is related to a broken air pressure sensor

Given the USB lockup issue, and the issue reported by others, such as solar readings, etc. I had it with this unreliable business.

I am prepared to buy another weather station which works well with WeeWx.

Failing that, I dump the lot and and build my own, or simply use the data from some nearby wunderground station.

I am not keen on another FineOffset for said issues.

Any hints appreciated.

[rich T]

Max

I'm running two stations; Davis Vantage Pro 2 and Acurite 5+1 (with the Smart Hub, not the Access).  I have no issues with those stations running Weewx on a Raspberry PI 3.  The Davis I use the vantage driver and the Acurite 5+1, I use the interceptor driver running through a TP-Link managed switch.  

Rich

[Max G]

Thanks Rich...

The Vantage Pro is certainly a good piece of equipment, but costs more than I am prepared to spend.

Can certainly live with the Acurite 5+1.

I didn't get the Acurite intercept thing... is it the smart hub... is this device required in order to intercept TCP traffic?

Or will WeeWX simply listen to TCP traffic on the network and does its magic? with the interceptor driver only?

The Acurite 5+1 is usually 200AUD. But I am not keen to spend another 130AUD in the smart hub.

 

[rich T]

Basically, I have the smart hub and raspberry pi plugged into the managed switch with the smart hub port mirrored to the raspberry pi port.  I have the interceptor driver listening for the TCP traffic.  Another option I'm currently using is RTL Dongle and RTL_433 software to decode the signal from the Acurite 5+1 and pass that data to Node-Red. At this time, I did not try the weewx-sdr driver.

[Max G]

:) OK, if I understand you correctly, there is a hardware interface of sort required between the weather station and the computer...

I have got a 433MHz dongle... :) what software do you use do decode the signal? Where does it run on? Raspberry? 

 

[RobbH]

Max, I am no expert, but I do currently have an Acurite 5-in-1 sensor, along with two additional temperature/humidity sensors, using an Acurite "smart hub" to receive the signals and the Interceptor driver to import the data into weeWX. It works well, but there are a few catches. 

First of all, the Smart Hub is a discontinued product, no longer supported by Acurite. It no longer works as originally intended, to upload data to Acurite's servers. However, it can still work with weeWX. Some work is required to make that happen, though. In these forums, the Smart Hub is often referred to as the Acurite Bridge.

The Access is the product that has replaced the Smart Hub in Acurite's line. It does work as the Smart Hub did originally, receiving data from wireless sensors and uploading it to Acurite's servers. However, it does NOT work well with weeWX, because the data is encrypted. I think there is an unencrypted feed of data to Weather Underground that can be used with weeWX, but the data set is much more limited.

If you can obtain a working Smart Hub (apparently, some of them were bricked during an Acurite update; the first one I got did not work at all) you will need to change your local network's DNS settings, so that when the Smart Hub tries to send data to hubapi.myacurite.com, it will go to the machine running weeWX, instead. If your router gives you that level of control, great. But if not, you'll have to make other arrangements. In my case, I now have a Raspberry Pi running the pi-hole software as a local DNS server, and it works very well.

As Rich mentioned, there is another option. Instead of using the Smart Hub, you can use a Software-defined radio (SDR) receiver to receive the signals from the sensor(s) and the sdr driver to import the data into weeWX. I have absolutely no experience with that and can't offer any worthwhile comments. But since you say you already have a receiver, it's probably worth a try.

Good luck to you! As I said, I'm no expert, so there are probably some mistakes in the summary I gave you, but I hope someone will correct them.

[rich T]

There is really no hardware interface.  You have a dongle capable of receiving 433 MHz, plug it in a Raspberry Pi or laptop.  Download the RTL_433 software to decode the signal.  As a note, there is no pressure sensor in the 5+1, it is in the "smart hub" and console.  You can use an i2c sensor for that reading. As for displaying / archiving the data, you use weewx with the weewx-sdr driver installed.  Search this group about the weewx-sdr driver. If you are going the Raspberry approach, I would suggest using a Real Time Clock (DS3231).

On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 7:46:05 PM UTC-4, Max G wrote:

[Craig Thom]

I am also using an Acurite 5-in-1 (and eight additional sensors (including the lightning sensor)) connected to a Raspberry Pi.

rtl_sdr is the tuner, and rtl_433 uses rtl_sdr to receive and decode packets from known devices, including the Acurite ones.  Then the WeeWX SDR driver uses rtl_433 to read the data.

The only catch is that you lose the pressure sensor if you bypass the Acurite display or hub or Access, since that's where the pressure sensor is.  I bought a BMP280 breakout board and wrote a WeeWX service to read it (using i2c, because I couldn't get my SPI Python code to work, and I didn't want to use someone else's code).  It's possible there's a 433 MHz pressure sensor, which would be a lot easier.

On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 7:46:05 PM UTC-4, Max G wrote:

[Max G]

Thanks guys...

All clear now... as it so happens, my rPi1B had a corrupt SD card today... installed WeeWX on another Pi instead of fixing this one.

I also had a second base station, which I now use to continue with the WH3080 for the time being.

Given your input and what I researched the Acurite 5+1 in conjunction with the SDR sounds like a great solution.

I run loads of sensors on networked Arduinos for my property automation; hence air pressure won't be an issue to capture elsewhere.