Weather station recommendation?

Emphyrio · June 10, 2018, 3:04pm

I looked around online for a weather station, and the one that jumps out is the Ambient Weather WS-2902 Osprey. This has all the convenient features in a solid and affordable package. It also support Weather Underground.

@wpattison: it was my understanding Weather Underground is no longer offering a free tier? So I would have to pay a monthly fee or something? I would like my weather station to communicate directly with Home Assistant, not relying on any cloud service for it’s information. But i think only the Netatmo component is available for that, and that’s it.

Still not sure which would be the best option

wpattison · June 10, 2018, 4:31pm

Is the free tier removal recent? I setup a free account not long ago - was I super lucky? Yikes!

Yeah, other than Netatmo, not sure about anything else directly interfacing with Home Assistant.

This changes my plans… I was just researching PWS’s this morning. If WU kills off the free API access I’ll move to Netatmo. Thanks for the heads up.

MarkR · June 10, 2018, 5:46pm

I have a davis vue and I have it feed into WU via Cumulus, then from WU to Ha. Dead easy and brilliant.

ebnerjoh · October 8, 2018, 11:49am

Hi,

I have also a weatherstation which is connected to Wunderground, but as the service will be discontinued I am looking into an “onPrem” Solution.

I need the follwoing sensors for Automation:
*) Outside Temp
*) Solar Radiation

I want to have the following sensors in addition
*) Windspeed and direction
*) Rain

What options are there to integrate a Weatherstation directly to HA and not via the cloud?

Br,
Johannes

Yuran · October 8, 2018, 12:06pm

How does that work if WU disanle the api?

stibbons · October 8, 2018, 1:20pm

I’m using weeWX, running on a Raspberry Pi Zero W connected to my weather station via USB, to get data from the station. The MQTT extension for weeWX is then publishing that data for HA to pick up. Been running this for the last six months or so with no problems.

weeWX supports a lot of different stations. I’m using an Aercus WS3083 and I’m happy with it.

Emphyrio · October 8, 2018, 5:20pm

The option that appeals most to me is the Ventus W830 weather station. Feature wise it’s quite nice and it’s relatively cheap. Then to combine it with weeWX on a Raspberry Pi Zero W as @stibbons was suggesting.

I don’t have this running yet, it just seemed like the best option that could work with Home Assistant, after some research. The Ventus can be bought in Europe, it’s technically identical to Ambient Weather WS-2902 Osprey (US-only) and it is mentioned on the weeWX supported hardware list I believe.

Nutti85 · October 8, 2018, 6:08pm

Netatmo has been extremely reliable for me. You have the added luxury of indoor modules also. A bit pricey maybe, but very good.

Emphyrio · October 8, 2018, 6:59pm

@Nutti85 Does Netatmo measure solar radiation?

Nutti85 · October 8, 2018, 7:15pm

No, but you can probably add a sensor from other weather services for that.

hammer1 · November 6, 2018, 3:53pm

I am running the MQTT extension in weewx, but am very new to HA - can you give any more details about how I hook up data published to my MQTT broker to HA, please?

garrettshannon · January 10, 2019, 3:48pm

Ambient Weather looks pretty interesting, especially with the latest update. Their WS-1550-IP sensor doesn’t include a remote display (keeping the cost down) which I don’t need anyway since I plan to monitor through my HA dashboard. It looks like if I bought that weather station the only way to get the data from it is to go through the Ambient Weather server. Does anyone know if it is possible to access my weather station directly and keep everything local? Or am I just misinterpreting? If my internet went down or the Ambient Weather servers went down I would loose access to my weather station correct?

tube0013 · January 20, 2019, 4:02pm

I just got an WS-1401 from Ambient. I didn’t even set up their receiver box yet, and got the weather station readings coming into HA with mqtt from a RTL-SDR dongle and the rtl_433 program.

I get a n update every 16 seconds:

ambient/Fine_Offset_WH24/183 {"time" : "2019-01-19 21:02:30", "model" : "Fine Offset WH24", "id" : 183, "temperature_C" : 2.100, "humidity" : 68, "wind_dir_deg" : 68, "wind_speed_ms" : 0.560, "gust_speed_ms" : 1.120, "rainfall_mm" : 7.200, "uv" : 38, "uvi" : 0, "light_lux" : 866.200, "battery" : "OK", "mic" : "CRC"}

Koen · March 11, 2019, 8:22pm

Hi @tube0013,

Can you eleborate a litle bit more about how you used this receiver? I also have a RF weather station but uncertain what receiver to bu and how to integrate it into HA.

Cheers,

GaryK · March 11, 2019, 8:39pm

I’m interested in your setup also. I have the 1550-IP.

glyn · March 11, 2019, 8:47pm

You could use Weewx, running on a Raspberry pi to collect the data. Go to the web site (weewx.com) and it lists the weather stations that it supports. Then add the weewx - mqtt driver add-on which can be used to send various data to mqtt sensors in Home Assistant.

GaryK · March 11, 2019, 9:23pm

Ambient isn’t on their supported hardware list.

ghvader · March 11, 2019, 9:26pm

I’ve been happy so far with this one.

danmarotta5 · March 11, 2019, 10:24pm

i use a rainwise MK-III and scape of the internal web page for key data items … works great
i also have 3 awair indoor Air Quality Monitors
i also use a netatmo for monitoring a remote location … this is also a cheaper alternative to the rainwise MK-III as you can have an indoor module (base) outdoor module and a rain gauge

the later two are supported by HA …

tube0013 · March 12, 2019, 3:03am

@Koen @GaryK

I’ve got a one of these SDR RTL dongles:

running this on a pi zero w:

with the script found here:

github.com

james-fry/hassio-addons/blob/master/rtl4332mqtt/rtl2mqtt.sh

#!/bin/sh

# A simple script that will receive events from an RTL433 SDR and resend the data via MQTT

# Author: Chris Kacerguis <[email protected]>
# Modification for hass.io add-on: James Fry

# Below are rtl_433 options and the supported device protocols as of 25/10/2017
# **NOTE that the protocol number is NOT persistent and seems to change**
# Hence always verify protocol numbers in logs when starting the add-on
# The key arguments required are:
# -F json  --> this sets JSON formatted output for easier MQTT
# -R <protocol number>  --> this tells rtl_433 which protocol(s) to scan for

# Usage:  = Tuner options =
#         [-d <RTL-SDR USB device index>] (default: 0)
#         [-g <gain>] (default: 0 for auto)
#         [-f <frequency>] [-f...] Receive frequency(s) (default: 433920000 Hz)
#         [-H <seconds>] Hop interval for polling of multiple frequencies (default: 600 seconds)
#         [-p <ppm_error] Correct rtl-sdr tuner frequency offset error (default: 0)

This file has been truncated. show original

I use these options along with my mqtt settings.
PROTOCOL=“70”
FREQUENCY=“915M”
GAIN=“60”
OFFSET=“350”

I get the output like I said above every 16 seconds over mqtt, it’s the same data that is sent to the ambient receiver, this just sniffs it and spits it out over mqtt.

in HA I have mqtt sensors set up for the incoming message.

sensor:
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/Fine_Offset_WH24/183"
    name: "Ambient Temperature"
    unit_of_measurement: "°F"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.temperature_F }}"

  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/Fine_Offset_WH24/183"
    name: "Ambient Humidity"
    unit_of_measurement: "%"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.humidity }}"
  
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/Fine_Offset_WH24/183"
    name: "Ambient Wind Direction"
    unit_of_measurement: "°"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.wind_dir_deg }}"
    icon: mdi:compass
  
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/Fine_Offset_WH24/183"
    name: "Ambient Wind Speed"
    unit_of_measurement: "mph"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.wind_speed_ms|float * 2.23694 | round(0) }}"
    icon: mdi:weather-windy
  
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/Fine_Offset_WH24/183"
    name: "Ambient Wind Gust"
    unit_of_measurement: "mph"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.gust_speed_ms|float * 2.23694 | round(0) }}"
    icon: mdi:weather-windy-variant
  
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/Fine_Offset_WH24/183"
    name: "Ambient Rainfall Amount"
    unit_of_measurement: "inch"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.rainfall_inch }}"
  
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/Fine_Offset_WH24/183"
    name: "Ambient UV"
   #unit_of_measurement: ""
    value_template: "{{ value_json.uv }}"
  
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/Fine_Offset_WH24/183"
    name: "Ambient UV Index"
  #unit_of_measurement: ""
    value_template: "{{ value_json.uvi }}"
  
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/Fine_Offset_WH24/183"
    name: "Ambient Light"
    unit_of_measurement: "lux"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.light_lux }}"
  
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/Fine_Offset_WH24/183"
    name: "Ambient Battery"
   #unit_of_measurement: "lux"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.battery }}"
    
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/Fine_Offset_WH24/183"
    name: "Ambient Time of Reading"
    #unit_of_measurement: "lux"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.time }}"
    
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/rain-total_prior_day"
    name: "Rainfall Prior Day"
    qos: 0
    unit_of_measurement: "inch"
    value_template: "{{  value | round(2) }}"
  
  - platform: mqtt
    state_topic: "ambient/wind_gust_high"
    name: "Wind Gust High"
    unit_of_measurement: "mph"
    icon: mdi:weather-windy-variant

utility_meter:
  daily_rainfall:
    source: sensor.ambient_rainfall_amount
    cycle: daily 
  monthly_rainfall:
    source: sensor.ambient_rainfall_amount
    cycle: monthly
  yearly_rainfall:
    source: sensor.ambient_rainfall_amount
    cycle: yearly