WXforum.net
Weather Station Hardware => AcuRite Weather Stations => Topic started by: radioman61 on November 15, 2018, 08:25:35 PM
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Is there an official end of life date published for the smart hub? I’m stuck with the access on my Atlas but have a good 5 in 1 at a remote location and that Access is nothing but a constant pain in the butt. I’m going to go back to the Smart Hub there.
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End of February 2019.
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Thank you sir.
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If you don't want to use the old smart hub, might want to look at using a SDR with a RP3. They work fine, plus you are not limited to the amount of 433Mhz sensors you can have.
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Greetings,
I just bought and set up a pre owned Pro Weather Center myself. It came with the old smartHUB unit and I guess that I will have to upgrade by February. Being new to all of this, I have never heard of the SDR with a RP3. Would you please tell me more about it and is it an alternative to the AcuRite Access hub?
Thanks!
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Here's one place to start: http://www.desert-home.com/2015/02/reading-acurite-5n1-sensor-set-this.html
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Greetings,
I just bought and set up a pre owned Pro Weather Center myself. It came with the old smartHUB unit and I guess that I will have to upgrade by February. Being new to all of this, I have never heard of the SDR with a RP3. Would you please tell me more about it and is it an alternative to the AcuRite Access hub?
Thanks!
You also have to wire a baro sensor to the Pi in order to have a "complete" system.
It's an alternative to the Access hub, but it will not report data to myAcurite. Also, Atlas support isn't available yet.
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Greetings,
I just bought and set up a pre owned Pro Weather Center myself. It came with the old smartHUB unit and I guess that I will have to upgrade by February. Being new to all of this, I have never heard of the SDR with a RP3. Would you please tell me more about it and is it an alternative to the AcuRite Access hub?
Thanks!
You also have to wire a baro sensor to the Pi in order to have a "complete" system.
It's an alternative to the Access hub, but it will not report data to myAcurite. Also, Atlas support isn't available yet.
Still don't understand why Acurite doesn't enable a CWOP upload option on the Access... It can't be that difficult.
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Greetings,
I just bought and set up a pre owned Pro Weather Center myself. It came with the old smartHUB unit and I guess that I will have to upgrade by February. Being new to all of this, I have never heard of the SDR with a RP3. Would you please tell me more about it and is it an alternative to the AcuRite Access hub?
Thanks!
You also have to wire a baro sensor to the Pi in order to have a "complete" system.
It's an alternative to the Access hub, but it will not report data to myAcurite. Also, Atlas support isn't available yet.
Still don't understand why Acurite doesn't enable a CWOP upload option on the Access... It can't be that difficult.
Pure speculation, but I wonder if CWOP really wants a bunch of newbies sending data. Or maybe Acurite is afraid of the support nightmare that might ensue when the newbies ask why they aren't passing CWOP's tests.
Does any weather station manufacturer provide CWOP reporting out-of-the-box? Someone asked this question of Facebook and I couldn't think of any.
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Greetings,
I just bought and set up a pre owned Pro Weather Center myself. It came with the old smartHUB unit and I guess that I will have to upgrade by February. Being new to all of this, I have never heard of the SDR with a RP3. Would you please tell me more about it and is it an alternative to the AcuRite Access hub?
Thanks!
You also have to wire a baro sensor to the Pi in order to have a "complete" system.
It's an alternative to the Access hub, but it will not report data to myAcurite. Also, Atlas support isn't available yet.
Still don't understand why Acurite doesn't enable a CWOP upload option on the Access... It can't be that difficult.
Pure speculation, but I wonder if CWOP really wants a bunch of newbies sending data. Or maybe Acurite is afraid of the support nightmare that might ensue when the newbies ask why they aren't passing CWOP's tests.
Does any weather station manufacturer provide CWOP reporting out-of-the-box? Someone asked this question of Facebook and I couldn't think of any.
Davis I believe passes with the dongle. (forget the name they use for it)
You have to install your thermometer in the right place anyway, or you won't pass quality control... The QC however isn't perfect by any means, because Davis users are putting their whole arrays up on their roofs.
Acurite could just call the CWOP upload option for "advanced users". Beginners should stick to Wunderground... especially if they aren't going to read how to place their station in the correct locations.
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Greetings,
I just bought and set up a pre owned Pro Weather Center myself. It came with the old smartHUB unit and I guess that I will have to upgrade by February. Being new to all of this, I have never heard of the SDR with a RP3. Would you please tell me more about it and is it an alternative to the AcuRite Access hub?
Thanks!
You also have to wire a baro sensor to the Pi in order to have a "complete" system.
It's an alternative to the Access hub, but it will not report data to myAcurite. Also, Atlas support isn't available yet.
Still don't understand why Acurite doesn't enable a CWOP upload option on the Access... It can't be that difficult.
Pure speculation, but I wonder if CWOP really wants a bunch of newbies sending data. Or maybe Acurite is afraid of the support nightmare that might ensue when the newbies ask why they aren't passing CWOP's tests.
Does any weather station manufacturer provide CWOP reporting out-of-the-box? Someone asked this question of Facebook and I couldn't think of any.
The QC however isn't perfect by any means, because Davis users are putting their whole arrays up on their roofs.
Do you really think that comment doesn't deserve a :roll: :roll: :roll:...
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CW2274,
There is one particular Davis owner up in Greenville near where I live that sends to CWOP, and the pictures this person uploaded show the station on the roof. The thermometer is out of range in the summer. It makes others look off. Also to my east near Atlantic Beach, they have stations that are way off. When you try to compare your data to that mess, it is not helping anyone... At least get your thermometer right, if nothing else!
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No kidding. Just because someone owns a PWS sure as hell doesn't mean they know what they're doing with it, Davis or otherwise. As I've stated countless times before, as a whole, I pretty much condemn QC just for this very reason. If folks want to keep ](*,) because the neighbors keep bringing them down, well.... :roll:
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Still don't understand why Acurite doesn't enable a CWOP upload option on the Access... It can't be that difficult.
There's a developer on the WeatherFlow support forum banging his head against the wall right now trying to sort out all of the conflicting APRS/CWOP documentation trying to figure out why his new uploader keeps failing, so I'll disagree with your analysis.....
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Still don't understand why Acurite doesn't enable a CWOP upload option on the Access... It can't be that difficult.
There's a developer on the WeatherFlow support forum banging his head against the wall right now trying to sort out all of the conflicting APRS/CWOP documentation trying to figure out why his new uploader keeps failing, so I'll disagree with your analysis.....
Thanks for that info. I had no idea it was that tough. I know Kevin Keys figured it out for the acurite smarthub, but had no idea it was all that complicated...
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I have a RTL-SDR V3 dongle plugged into the RP3 and use RTL433 (https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433) to decode the 5+1 and various Acurite sensor data. I also use a BME280 sensor for the pressure and AS3935 board for lightning detection and both of these are interfaced via the RP3 i2c bus. As for weather display software I use weewx. As for the smarthub, it still should work (need pass the data to the RP3), except not being able to upload to MYAcurite after its end of life.
Greetings,
I just bought and set up a pre owned Pro Weather Center myself. It came with the old smartHUB unit and I guess that I will have to upgrade by February. Being new to all of this, I have never heard of the SDR with a RP3. Would you please tell me more about it and is it an alternative to the AcuRite Access hub?
Thanks!
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Got any details to post Storm017? Would be helpful.
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Here's one place to start: http://www.desert-home.com/2015/02/reading-acurite-5n1-sensor-set-this.html
Thanks for the link. I realized that I did know what SDR is when I clicked on the link. That is not something I want to delve into though. I just bought a new Access unit anyway.
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Got any details to post Storm017? Would be helpful.
The RTL-SDR V3 dongle is plugged into the RP3 and RTL433 to decodes the 5+1 and various Acurite sensor data. All this data is feed into Node-Red on the RPI3. The BME280 sensor and AS3935 board data are also feed into Node-Red. All that data is published from a mosquito mqtt broker installed on the RPI3. Using Weewx, just subscribe to these topics.
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I replaced my smarthub with the Raspberry pi 3 about 8 months ago when i heard about the change, it has been working great since and you can forward your data to other sites also.
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I replaced my smarthub with the Raspberry pi 3 about 8 months ago when i heard about the change, it has been working great since and you can forward your data to other sites also.
Can you forward multiple sensor data too or just the data from the PWS?
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Can you forward multiple sensor data too or just the data from the PWS?
Using weewx with the SDR driver and Acu-Rite hardware, you can write a sensor map to send any rtl_433-supported sensor as whatever reading you want. If you have a tower sensor, you can send that as your outdoor temp/humidity in place of the 5-in-1 readings. You may even be able to mix and match wireless sensors from other manufacturers if rtl_433 supports them, but I have not tried it.
Weewx has a limit of only one station driver (SDR driver in this case), but it does have the ability to insert additional sensor observations from other sources with some custom coding. I personally have an i2c BMP-280 barometer module being included in my observations, since none of the Acu-Rite sensors contain a barometer that sends wirelessly for rtl_433 to intercept.....
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End of February 2019.
Is there any way to re-purpose an old smart hub or is it a complete loss after Feb 2019?
It should still work with Meteobridge.
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End of February 2019.
Is there any way to re-purpose an old smart hub or is it a complete loss after Feb 2019?
It should still work with Meteobridge.
I'm not sure it's going to continue to work with meteobridge. Meteobridge will need to provide certain support to keep the SmartHUB happy, like providing the time in the simulated responses from the myAcurite servers.
Other software, like AcuParse, have been updated to provide such support.
Past that, I've only heard of a few folks salvaging the radio chip for other projects.
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I'm not sure it's going to continue to work with meteobridge. Meteobridge will need to provide certain support to keep the SmartHUB happy, like providing the time in the simulated responses from the myAcurite servers.
Other software, like AcuParse, have been updated to provide such support.
Past that, I've only heard of a few folks salvaging the radio chip for other projects.
Doesnt Meteobridge just packet sniff the sensor data from the passed-through TCP traffic?
Will the old hub just merrily send packets even if it is not connected to the myAcurite servers?
Or does it have to be connected to work?
Edit:
I think I will ditch the hub and try my hand at a Raspberry Pi and Weewx.
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Will the old hub just merrily send packets even if it is not connected to the myAcurite servers?
No. If it does not receive certain responses back from the servers, it will start resetting in an attempt to re-acquire communications.
It's not hard to simulate the responses from the Acurite servers, though.
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What should be done with the smarthub? Throw it away?
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What should be done with the smarthub? Throw it away?
I believe that you mis-spelled "responsibly recycle as e-waste" above..... :roll:
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What should be done with the smarthub? Throw it away?
I believe that you mis-spelled "responsibly recycle as e-waste" above..... :roll:
:)
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Have been operating successfully on old HUB for awhile. I know it's going to become unsupported soon. I just hooked up my new Access device. Everything seems to work correctly. Disabled sharing to Wunderground from old HUB and enabled sharing on the Access device. Is it OK to continue to operate the old HUB at the same time? Same sensors connected to each. I want to observe both for awhile to verify that my setup is correct.
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There is no need to run both, but it won't hurt anything, you will just use more bandwidth from your data provider that you may want to reserve, depending on how many phones, tv's, PC's etc are being used at one time.
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Thanks Doc. I will probably retire the old HUB in a few days. I'm sorta sad to see it go as it's performed reliably for a long while.
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I found the Access to be better for me as far as signal power. The smarthub was much more difficult to aim in my location. The Access is much more plug and play, I just wish it would send to more weather sites besides Wunderground.
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I am having a reporting issue with one of the temp/humidity sensors. Smart HUB shows strong signal and continuous data while Access shows poor signal and lost data. Smart HUB and Access are positioned near each other. I'm not sure why Access is not getting same signal from the sensor.
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Acurite is ending service and support for SmartHUB effective February 28, 2019 and basically rendering these devices useless bricks.
I am calling on Acurite to do the right thing and release the firmware to the public domain so we aren't left with a useless brick that we paid good money for.
https://t.co/9mXS9pIBng
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Acurite is ending service and support for SmartHUB effective February 28, 2019 and basically rendering these devices useless bricks.
I am calling on Acurite to do the right thing and release the firmware to the public domain so we aren't left with a useless brick that we paid good money for.
https://t.co/9mXS9pIBng
That would be pointless, as the vast majority of users don't have the necessary equipment or skills to modify the firmware.
It's not like it's a common Linux-based device.
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That would be pointless, as the vast majority of users don't have the necessary equipment or skills to modify the firmware.
It's not like it's a common Linux-based device.
Not exactly. There are plenty of people (like myself) that posses the skillset and technical expertise to update the firmware and make it into something usable rather than a doorstop.
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That would be pointless, as the vast majority of users don't have the necessary equipment or skills to modify the firmware.
It's not like it's a common Linux-based device.
Not exactly. There are plenty of people (like myself) that posses the skillset and technical expertise to update the firmware and make it into something usable rather than a doorstop.
I'll call you on that. Please demonstrate by converting the hardware to do some simple network task.
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It is not that simple. The firmware source code needs to be released by Acurite so that changes can be made.
There is a kludgy hack out there that will keep the SmartHUB functioning and allow it to continue to post data to Weather Underground but it is well beyond the technical know how of most users.
https://github.com/therippa/pyAcurite
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It is not that simple. The firmware source code needs to be released by Acurite so that changes can be made.
There is a kludgy hack out there that will keep the SmartHUB functioning and allow it to continue to post data to Weather Underground but it is well beyond the technical know how of most users.
https://github.com/therippa/pyAcurite
No. I'm asking you do to something very basic with the hardware. Acurite's firmware is not needed.
I'd suggest you look into Acuparse. It's far more developed than the "kludgy hack...well beyond the technical know how of most users" you suggest. Acuparse is already in use by quite a few people.
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Not exactly. There are plenty of people (like myself) that posses the skillset and technical expertise to update the firmware and make it into something usable rather than a doorstop.
I'm pretty sure that the hardware in that thing is not much more powerful than the lunar lander had in 1969, and Acu-Rite threw in the towel on the device because they were already maxing out the hardware and had no room for expansion.
Development time would be better spent by removing the radio module from the old hub and wiring it up to a new Pi or Arduino, both of which have current development libraries and enough headroom to do something semi-useful.....
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I was trying to connect SmartHUB via RasPi bridge: wifi--[RasPi]--lan--[SmartHub] as described in the net, so RasPi can catch all calls to non-existing Acurite servers and forward it to Weather Underground. It could work, except after hard reset SmartHub started looping into some boot mode to check new firmware and I gave up.
So if anyone is interested here is the software to build cheap replacement for old SmartHub with RasPi and RTL SDR dongle:
https://github.com/adam-aph/RasPi-Weatherd
The advantage is that it can handle all your existing sensors - in my case this is 5-n-1, Lightning and Tower. I plan to add to it BMP180 sensor, so WU will get pressure data soon.
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If you pressed the button on the bottom of the hub, I believe it will cause the hub to basically become bricked... I'm not sure if it's possible to undo it either.