Weather station... most compatible with ha?

Hardware
1

I saw a couple of weather stations that seems to be very interresting. I’m looking to replace my old (home made) station with one of the motion less station. Anybody can comment on one of these?
ECOWITT Wittboy Weather Station, with Wittboy Wi-Fi Hub and 7-in-1 Outdoor Solar Powered Weather Sensor, Supports WU/WeatherCloud/Wow/Ecowitt Servers

Tempest Weather System with Built-in Wind Meter, Rain Gauge, and Accurate Weather Forecasts, Wireless, App and Alexa Enabled

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I use the Tempest weather station and it works well with home assistant.

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I’m v.pleased with the Tempest. I don’t recall what tipped the scales for me to go with that brand/unit last year when I was shopping.

4

No experience with the Tempest but I’ve owned the Ecowitt sine June 2023 and it has been rock solid. I’ve compared it’s measurements with other stations near me and they are all within a respectable range.

2 Likes
5

OK, Super. Thanks guys.
Any of you in a cold region? How these things behave in snow?

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I have an old AmbientWeather WS-2902C and I have it cxonnected two ways:

  1. The AmbientWeather HA integration which has only needed to be reloaded twice in about 2 years of use -
  2. AmbientWeather includes, in addition to API conections to it’s console for WeatherUnderground and a few others for sending data there as well, a “Customized” connection available for your local network. I have a dedicated RPI4 running WEEWX which keeps a DB of all weather data from the array, and has even a built-in web server for it’s own customizeable web pages of the data, as well as being able to send data to an unlimited number of weather websites all over the world.

My HA runs HAOS in a VM on a separate RPI5. I have daemons that run on the RPI4 host which make REST api calls to HA to populate the sensors shown in the below dashboard card for monitoring the trasmission success/failure to the external weather websites shown. The external web sites prefer the data only once every 5 or 10 minutes. The AmbientWeather WS-29092C aray (on the roof) only sends data to the console (a display in my Den on my local network via WiFi (the “Customized” API SSH connection)) every 16 seconds (the fancier AmbienWeather models send the data every 4 seconds). Hence the first two lines in the card are showing when the array last sent data to the console and how much time has passed between that message to the console from the array and the previous time it happened. I have that because I have noticed it is not always 16 seconds, it is only 16 seconds about 40% of the time, sometimes it is something between 16 seconds and 32 seconds (if 32 seconds I believe hte last message from the array to the console was missed (?)). I have had long conversations with AmbientWeather technical staff and they did verify that even if the batteries in the array are low, that does not change the interval between the array and the console which should be only every 16 seconds. I am not sure where the latency is, it may be the latency might be in the console not sending the data to the “customized” ssh connection right away due to some latency in the console firmware? The HA AmbientWeather integration does not of course have any functionality for the extra WEEWX functionality (nor would any other HA weather station integration). Also, I can set up an SDR (Software Defined Radio) to intercept the data going from the array to the console and decipher it, but I decided to not go that route because the console actually enriches the raw data (monthly/yearly totals etc.) - why reinvent the wheel at that level (and it is included in the AmbientWeather integration anyway)?

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I would suggest you investigate for all weather stations you are considering:

  1. How often is the data sent from the outside unit (“array”) to your related display console.
  2. How long you can save all of the data received. I really haven’t done anything with it but WEEWX saves all of the data forever; some fancier AmbientWeather models have a removeable SD Card in the console itself. I understand the AmbientWeather web site (which is one of the connections natively included in the console) will only keep data for one year.
  3. Are you able to set up a custom connection to whatever weather station you purchase such that you have full control of the data and can manipulate it any way you want, including sending it other places (below is a crazy example of my weather station in northern NJ in the USA - displays on a german website)? Why do this? Because I am crazy and why not? :slight_smile: Check this out: Awekas

P.S.: I have heard from “purists” that for the perfect most accurate weather data collection, unlike an all-in one weather station like what you are considering and what I have, the anemometer should be high up and not near any trees etc.; the thermometer should be about 5 feet off the ground in a place that is not either too shaded or directly in the sun to reflect what people in the area would experience; and the rain collection device be in an area which is not blocked from collecting the correct rainfall amounts etc. Also, some people say that ‘tipping bucket’ method of rain collection is more accurate than the devices you are suggesting but I am not sure how true that is (mine uses the tipping bucket method).

Also do you want one with a heater which would melt snow falling on the unit? If you are truly crazy you would set up a snow pillow for measuring snowfall depth and snow density (SWE - snow/water equivalence)…

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@KruseLuds , thanks for all this information. I know quite a bit about weather stations and how they report. I have a weather station for years and years. Like I mentionned in my post, the one I’m using right now is one that I built from scratch, using my 3d printer and created the whole program myself. I have been extremely difficult about all those things in the past and that’s why I made my own.

But right now, I was only interrested in getting information about motionless weather stations.

I’m just hoping to hear about someone that uses one of the mentionned stations if they perform ok in the snow.
Thanks again

1 Like
8

I love my EcoWitt,

Tried a Vevor, it sucked…

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@Sir_Goodenough great. But… I just received a reply from ecowitt and apparently they do not support at all the communication without internet. That’s sad. So I sent the same question to Tempest. Waiting for their reply.

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I have been using an EcoWitt Wittboy and it is rock-solid.

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This works perfectly for me.
As I add a new Ecowitt Sensor, it just shows up in HA.
My numbers are also going to WU. (By Choice)

As a matter of fact, I just bought a second one for another property…

There is also someone with software for it on GitHub, but I have niot tried that one.

12

From the Home Assistant Tempest documentation page:

There are two integrations for WeatherFlow devices, and you are not limited to selecting just one.

  • WeatherFlow is a local only UDP-based integration that will read data directly from the device. This integration does require the Home Assistant server and the WeatherFlow device to be on the same subnet.
  • WeatherFlow Cloud is a cloud-based integration that closely mirrors the data available via the Weatherflow Tempest mobile applications and is likely a good starting place for most users as it provides both Forecast and Sensor data.

FWIW

1 Like
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Ha! That’s good then.
Thanks

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Did they say what they don’t support? My Ecowitt doesn’t do anything with the internet and just sends its measured data directly to my HA over the local network…

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