Station upgrade advice (Acurite -> Davis)

[Doug Jenkins]

Good morning fellow WeeWx users!

I have started to plan my next side project for the spring. Currently I am using a Acurite 5-n-1 weather station that is attached on our 40ft TV antenna tower since 2018, using weewx since 2019 self-hosting my weewx instance on largoweather.com. I have many neighbors using the site to track the local weather in our neighborhood for their gardens and our kids school is now asking me to do a talk on weather stations for STEM days. 

I now get some decent traffic for the site (all things considering), but the station is not really accurate and I am having connection issues between the station and the console. I have decided to take the weather station project to the next level by buying a Davis 6163 sensor suite, including the Air Quality Monitor module.

I have a number of questions and advice interfacing with the Davis station and WeeWX:

1. Should I use the WeatherLink or a direct connection module? Pros/Cons?

2. Has anyone used the Air Quality module from Davis on their weather station and reported the data using WeeWX?

3. Has anyone used the Davis Sonic Anemometer? I am thinking of putting the anemometer high up on the tower (33ft/10m), but maintaining that will be a big chore. I am surrounded by large oaks, so the higher the anemometer, the better wind reading.

Thanks in advance!

Doug

[Greg Troxel]

Doug Jenkins <do...@dougjenkins.com> writes:

> station project to the next level by buying a Davis 6163 sensor suite,

That's the wireless Vantage Pro2 +. You are probably aware that the
Pro2+ is much more expensive than the Pro2 (6152). That didn't use to
be that case so much - the gap has widened.

I had a Vantage Pro for most of 10 years. It failed, and maybe I could
have fixed it (ISS supercap?), but it was at a time I couldn't deal, so
I got a VP2+ in about 2012 and it has not needed repair.

> I have a number of questions and advice interfacing with the Davis station
> and WeeWX:
>
> 1. Should I use the WeatherLink or a direct connection module? Pros/Cons?

I use the Weatherlink serial. It's ridiculously expensive, but it has
storage in it, so with 3 D cells in the console you will continue to
record data while the power to your computer is out or your computer or
weewx installation is messed up. I suspect you know that, but not
losing data is huge compared to almost all other approaches.

There are ways to get data from the ISS transmissions, rtl-davis, and
other things. There are third-party loggers. My impression is that
some have storage, some don't, I see recording data when the computer is
down as a requirement for stations at this level.

If you are spending on a VP2+ I advise just putting up with paying for
the davis logger.

I got serial and use a usb/serial in the computer. That lets me use one
that isn't flaky, change it, and the cable from console to computer can
be longer because it's just serial, not so high speed. I get a few
missed packets/resets in the logs, and maybe had to clear the logger
once since i got it in December 2017.

> 2. Has anyone used the Air Quality module from Davis on their weather
> station and reported the data using WeeWX?

not me, but others have

Looks cloudy and needs proprietary software setup app, which I find
dreadful but you may not.

WI-FI CONNECTED: Easily connect AirLink to your Wi-Fi network to send data to the Davis Cloud.

Quickly install AirLink inside or outside by following the simple directions on the free WeatherLink app.

But apparently it is bettter than that, and you can get data locally.

I wonder if anyone can say if it works if firewalled, if the internet is
down, if you are someplace without internet, and if you can set it up
without internet.

https://weatherlink.github.io/airlink-local-api/
https://github.com/chaunceygardiner/weewx-airlink/

https://weatherlink.github.io/airlink-local-api/

> 3. Has anyone used the Davis Sonic Anemometer? I am thinking of putting the
> anemometer high up on the tower (33ft/10m), but maintaining that will be a
> big chore. I am surrounded by large oaks, so the higher the anemometer, the
> better wind reading.

I have not, but 10m is the right answer for wind :-)

My entire ISS is about 24' off the ground via two 6' mast sections on a
deck. I lift off the top section every few months to clean white pine
needles from the rain gauge, but in 10 years I have not even thought
about touching the (traditional) anemometer. My problems have been pine
needles (often), wasps under the rain collector (a few times) and
replacing the CR123 (every 4 years or so?).

Greg

[Tom Hogland]

I'm using a VP2 - about 12 years worth now. My connection is via a serial Weatherlink in a Weather Envoy, as my weewx install is in the basement and my console is upstairs in the living room. Since the WL Live came out the Envoy is more affordable than it used to be, and works great. If you can put your console next to (or close to) the weewx PC then you can just use the serial/USB module, otherwise you'll need the Envoy. 

I use the standard anemometer on my roof; I also have a Tempest with sonic anemometer, and it doesn't seem to be quite as accurate or sensitive as the old-school version. (It's also $500 extra, and I'm cheap...) My anemometer has needed absolutely no maintenance in that 12 years. I'm also thinking about using the AirLink if I can get it's data pulled into weewx and integrated, but haven't seen any discussion about it in here. 

Next plan is to start using the Tempest to report into a weewx instance and see how it compares to the VP2, If it's accurate and reliable it'll go up on the roof pole with the VP2 anemometer and do it's thing.

[Doug Jenkins]

Thank you Greg and Tom for the advice and insight! I do appreciate it!

The reason I am considering the 6163 (VP2+ Wireless) model is that it would be a very long cable run through my attic (which has poor access) to get to my utility closet where I keep my telco equipment and my dedicated machine for the weather station. Plus I might get a soil/leaf module in the future to monitor my garden once I recover from the sticker shock of buying the initial Davis hardware :)

For the weatherlink data logger, I will need to consider that in the future. Right now I was thinking of just getting the WeatherLink Live 6100 as according to the user guides, it will allow me to pull the raw data for both the airlink and the VP2+ via its API directly from the local device. I see that there are a number of weatherlink weewx drivers on the wiki page from others who are pulling this data today. The weatherlink 6100 will be on a battery backup and directly connected to my home network in a closet that is close to the weather station. I will see if that is enough to go through some of our regular thunderstorms here in West Florida (we lose power on a regular basis).

Based on Toms' feedback, I am not going to go with the sonic anemometer. It is very expensive ($540 today) and what I read is that it is good for up to 90mph. I will use the included anemometer with the VP2+ and see how that goes. I read those cups can go through a cat5 hurricane, just hope I do not have to experience that to test that theory out at home!

I am going to use a dedicated NUC PC for this station as they are currently cheaper than a RPI4 (8GB) and will have a M.2 SSD. That should be more than enough hardware to run the website and weewx with no issues.

anything else I am missing?

[Tom Hogland]

Only other thing might be, why the 6163? If you need 24-hour fans and the solar/UV then that's what you need, but it's a hefty price increase to get those. I think the 6162 loses the fan, and the 6152 (that I have) loses the solar/UV. Otherwise, the wireless is all the same, as are the basic weather sensors (the "ISS" to Davis). Note that the 6152C/6162C/etc are the cabled versions - all the ones without the C in the model are wireless, and all of the anemometers are wired to the ISS regardless of model (although Davis has a wireless anemometer adapter, either AC powered or solar).

If the WL Live will integrate both devices then that's probably the way to go - the Envoy pre-dates the Airlink by quite a few years and I can't see any docs that say it will see the Airlink. (In fact none of the Envoy docs mention the Airlink...) The Envoy + Weatherlink datalogger mostly duplicates the WL Live functionality, so you don't need both. The Envoy *may* be more reliable, depending on a LOT of variables, just because it's a dedicated ISS receiver that's hard-wired to your weather PC, while the WL Live depends on your weewx sniffing network packets for data.

I have a *real* Dell/Ubuntu server in the basement, so weewx happily runs on it. If I was to duplicate it today I'd probably go get a Dell/HP/Lenovo micro-form factor PC instead. Models with 6-8th gen i5 CPUs, 16GB memory and decent drives are under $300 and that lets them run generic Linux on them - very easy to support, troubleshoot etc. A "spinny" drive would be my choice - I'm too old-school to trust any form of SSD for the constant writes that these systems do, and a 250GB-500GB drive is cheap. I've still got 20+ year old drives in the basement that function perfectly, although they're worthless when it comes to capacity - too easy to fill up a 4GB drive these days :-)

[Dan Hinckley]

I have been running two wireless VP2’s in windy marine environments (Florida: high heat and humidity; and Maine: freezing (with a built-in heater for the rain gauge) for several years, talking to two NUC’s. I change the batteries annually (consoles, the ISS units and some standalone 6332 transmitters), use UPS on the NUC’s. Very happy with the combination.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "weewx-user" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to weewx-user+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/396cb8fe-992f-4d4f-8b04-f9085cd41bc0n%40googlegroups.com.

[Greg Troxel]

Tom Hogland <tom.h...@gmail.com> writes:

> If the WL Live will integrate both devices then that's probably the way to
> go - the Envoy pre-dates the Airlink by quite a few years and I can't see
> any docs that say it will see the Airlink. (In fact none of the Envoy docs
> mention the Airlink...) The Envoy + Weatherlink datalogger mostly
> duplicates the WL Live functionality, so you don't need both. The Envoy
> *may* be more reliable, depending on a LOT of variables, just because it's
> a dedicated ISS receiver that's hard-wired to your weather PC, while the WL
> Live depends on your weewx sniffing network packets for data.

This is the part I don't understand. With envoy or console and
e.g. "Weatherlink serial":

You can set it up without any proprietary apps, and without any cloud
accounts, and without any working internet.

The logger, at least in the console, keeps logging data while power to
the computer is out, and weewx gets this data and puts it in the db
when the computer is back.

So with weatherlink live:

Is it just like a console, data logger, and then a wifi interface that
gets an ip address and you can then connect to some port and it's just
like serial?

Do you need a proprietary app to set it up?

Can you get data locally without WLL sending to the cloud?

Can you set it up without letting it talk to the internet?

Can you get data locally if the internet connection is down or
firewalled, as long as the wifi works from the weewx machine.

When you get data locally, is that straightforward and non-kludgy, vs
some kind of "interceptor" driver?


I looked at the hardware guide

https://www.weewx.com/docs/hardware.htm#vantage_notes

and the user's guide

https://www.weewx.com/docs/usersguide.htm#[Vantage]

and it looks like IP connection to weatherlink, but I didn't understand
the degree of non-consensual cloudiness (regardless of whether on is
concerned with reliability or privacy :-).

Greg

[Doug Jenkins]

Greg:

In my research, I found that you can locally access the raw data directly from the weather link device via their web api. In the api calls, you reference the local ip of the weather link device and port to get the data.

I think most of the weather link drivers perform the same function. I was looking at some of the repos of these drivers and they are essentially pulling the UDP data. This is also the same for the airline, just a different URI.

I am thinking of taking the risk and getting one of these devices and giving it a shot. I noticed there isn't a guide on how to setup one of these devices from start to finish. I will probably do a guide on my experience.

DDJ

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "weewx-user" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to weewx-user+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/rmipmmlognc.fsf%40s1.lexort.com.

[Doug Jenkins]

Tom:

the reason I am considering the 6163 with the 24 hour aspiration fan is because where I am going to mount the ISS.

On my property, I really have 2 locations to mount the ISS (minus the anemometer), on my TV Tower that is mounted to the side of my house, or on a post in the front yard. The front yard would be ideal, but I was worried someone would steal/damage the unit as it would be sticking out from the street. The location would be perfect on a meterological prespective, but a $1000+ station unprotected is asking for trouble where I live. Plus mounting this device out there would require me to get a solar wireless transmitter device ($149) for the anemometer that is going up the TV tower.

So if I go with mounting the station on my tv tower, I will be putting it up 4 feet above the roof line. With the florida sun, I expect the temp readings to be considerably off, so I figured a aspirating fan would tamper that effect. Again i could be wrong on this approach, so if anyone has run into this as an issue, please let me know.

for the rest of the sensors, I want the UV/Radiation sensors so I can know the UV index at my location.

Again thanks for the great information, it is helping me plan and design this setup out. :)

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "weewx-user" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to weewx-user+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/fdcc8d07-0186-451b-ae45-63670fdfe3bcn%40googlegroups.com.

[Doug Jenkins]

Ok I pulled the trigger and ordered the Davis 6163 (with console), Airlink, and Weatherlink Live today. My first attempt with WeeWX will be using the weatherlink weewx driver and the airlink driver to collect the data.

I will report back with my setup, configuration, and experience for others that are interested.