Personal Weather Station who's running what?

[Pinesmoke]

After 18 months up on this hill I've come to realize we take a real beating up here on a regular basis. T has been saying she wants a weather station to see how badly the forecasts and warnings miss our real world.

I've been reading into these and thought I would drop this to see what you guys have and what you've seen living with them.

 

[begreen]

I've had a weather station since 2006. We live in a microclimate that often is quite different than surrounding areas. It's helpful to know what our actual local temp and rainfall is for gardening. That said, Weather Underground is pretty good if you don't have a weather station. I can check the weather at about 6 different stations within a 10 mile radius via WU.

 

[Pinesmoke]

I'm hooked into WU as my source for weather. The is a PWS 4 miles down the hill but it must be sheltered since we will be taking an 85 MPH beating and it's showing in the 40s. I'm leaning toward a WS2000 unit. Has some good reviews.

 

[begreen]

Yes, we can be getting a trace of rain while 10 miles away they are getting drenched.

I have the Davis Vantage Pro2. It's been a good workhorse. I sent it in for a rebuild about 6 yrs ago. For a replacement I have been eyeing the Tempest system which is a much more modern design.

Tempest Weather Station

The Tempest Weather Station provides the most precise, local forecast available. Simple to install and completely wireless - get instant access to weather data.

shop.tempest.earth

 

[Pinesmoke]

I had looked at a couple of models that didn't have an indoor display, just an app and wondered if the app is pulling directly from the base unit or if it pulls from the net. I run starlink so my connection is solid but server based data is always in the back of my mind as a downside.

ETA
Reading into the tech sheet it says BT connection from the base to phone although I can't tell if it's local data, offline, or online data through the base.

 

[begreen]

Yes, good questions. I wondered the same and thought about getting a cheap tablet to use as a fixed display, but i wouldn't be happy if everything had to be pulled down from the cloud. I like having weather info during extended outages too. BT seem like a stretch. It's range is not great. As far as I can tell, local communication is via the home wireless network. The hub that bridges the outdoor sensor to WiFi stores up to a week's info in case of an extended power outage.

I like the haptic rain sensor and enclosed wind sensor. I have to clear wind blown debris out of the Vantage's rain bucket several times a year due to the numerous trees that shed needles on the property. I had to remove our sensor from the roof top because of this. I'm getting to old to scramble up there regularly. And our wind aneometer's bearings are starting to tire causing below low readings. Not bad for 18 yrs service, but a wearing part none the less.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0012/8512/8294/files/Tempest_Spec_Sheet_220301-web-view_b9e8f3ce-caed-4d67-a0ac-8fa190e61084.pdf?v=1719888884

 

[Pinesmoke]

Interesting about the week's storage, I didn't catch that. The hub was described as having wifi for network connection and BT for phone and tablet as well as internet. It sounds like it has local, offline connection. Coupled with the storage in the base I would bet it would run offline.

People praise the CS they have, I'll give them a call on that.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Begreen I had a chat with them this morning. Looks good.


Gonna order it.

 

[begreen]

Great. I'll need to wait until after the holidays to order but I look forward to hearing your experience.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Great. I'll need to wait until after the holidays to order but I look forward to hearing your experience.

Just a FYI it's 50 bucks off right now.

 

[begreen]

This may be a dumb question, but are there any security risks having this open channel from the home wifi network to the cloud?

 

[Pinesmoke]

Looks like you can simply run local with a tablet for display. I don't know about the connection until I set it up though, theoretically a connection to WU could be straight from your hardware. Again I don't know yet till I get the hardware.

Supposedly there are nearly 20k units out but less than half are connected to the mothership.

I may ending up local only. I'll let you know

 

[Wood1Dennis]

I'm running a Ambient Weather WS-2000. I'm online on Weather Underground and on Ambient Weather. This WS-2000 has a counsel that I have in the mudroom, and I can access it anywhere on line. Before this one I had an older Ambient Weather model that was online only which was a PITA.
I like the WS-2000. It was not to expensive, does a good job. The main station is 50 feet up on an antennae mast. I have an extra monitor in an outbuilding, and I use the main one in my living room to see how I did when I fired the furnace before leaving for work ;-)

 

[Pinesmoke]

I'm running a Ambient Weather WS-2000. I'm online on Weather Underground and on Ambient Weather. This WS-2000 has a counsel that I have in the mudroom, and I can access it anywhere on line. Before this one I had an older Ambient Weather model that was online only which was a PITA.
I like the WS-2000. It was not to expensive, does a good job. The main station is 50 feet up on an antennae mast. I have an extra monitor in an outbuilding, and I use the main one in my living room to see how I did when I fired the furnace before leaving for work ;-)

I was pretty well settled on the ws2000 when ti's was pointed out by begreen. No display was a con but after researching it there isn't a lot of trouble setting one up. The solar power was a plus in my decision.

 

[begreen]

Same situation here. I like the WS2000 too, but experience with servicing parts over the long haul have me looking at the lowest maintenance systems. The one con I am reading about the Tempest is that some are reporting the haptic rain sensor is not as accurate as a calibrated comparative system. I will be keeping the Vantage Pro for comparing the two for a while, during the 60 day trial period.

 

[Pinesmoke]

In reading the user forums it seems the reason sensor issue is gone now. It'll be interesting to see your comparison.

 

[begreen]

In reading the user forums it seems the reason sensor issue is gone now. It'll be interesting to see your comparison.

You're ahead of me. Thanks for the update. I was hoping it was a software issue corrected by a firmware update.

 

[Wood1Dennis]

My WS-2000 came with two temp/humidity sensors. One for outside, one inside. I had an old one from my old unit that I thought I could use, but it would not work. So I purchased the extra for the outbuilding. I think you can hook up several more. I considered getting one to monitor my freezer temp, but decided not to.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Just a follow up. I installed the tempest a week ago and it was pretty straight forward. It needs a 2.4ghz wifi connection. My netgear stuff was set to auto detect so it just hooked up easy easy.

It is talking to the tempest servers right now to allow remote app access although it's not pushing to WU.


Some storms blew through last week and it was getting lightning data from 20 miles out. You could watch the distance close as the storm tracked through.

For an indoor display I just stripped an old tablet and launched the app. I downloaded an app to not let the screen sleep.

Everything has been solid so far.

 

[begreen]

Is the tablet getting the info via bluetooth or wifi?

 

[Pinesmoke]

Since I'm on the Temest servers its wifi right now, via the app. When I get a minute I'm going to cut the interweb and play with pure local by BT.

 

[begreen]

Nicely done. Is that an older Samsung tablet? It might be good to have a screensaver for it to prevent burn-in.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Yeah it's a Samsung A2 I think. About 5-6 years old. Not sure if the lcd screens will burn. I'll have to check into that although the user fiori at Tempest is all charter about leaving them on. Some run kiosk browser to do it as well.

 

[Pinesmoke]

@begreen check your pms.