Topic: UK member weather station recommendations

[mattpitts74]

Hi all,

I’ve been researching weather stations on and off for many years.  I’ve dabbled with adding various sensors to raspberry pi’s. I’ve finally realised that I don’t have the patience or technical skills to built something accurate enough for my needs.

I’d like to monitor weather partly for growing vegetables purposes, partly to drive various automation projects and so I can share data to the UK met office WOW website.

My research obviously bought me to the Davies weather stations and in a dream world I’d purchase the vp 2 but my funds don’t quite stretch that far.  it seems hard to find much between its either cheap or really expensive when it comes to weather stations.

Lots of people here seem to rate the Ambient stations, but these don’t seem to be readily available in the UK. Or must be under other Brands? This seems to be the nearest I can find in the UK. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Profi-weather-station-Froggit-WH3000/dp/B06X6JPJ6Q

Is anyone able to enlighten me as to whether this is a rebranded ambient station?

So I’m wondering if there are any UK members of this forum that can help me with recommendations for the UK Other than the above options?

[LAdrain]

Gone has the good old days when Maplin would sell the Fine Offset for £50 about twice a year on offer.

Davis are expensive but very good quality, but you need to buy a module to link it to your Computer/Network on top of the basic unit.  This is the option I have gone with to replace my old system  The Davis Vantage VUE was about £350 and then £40 for the USB link.

I have heard good reports about the Aercus™ WeatherRanger® Pro WiFi Weather Station with Real-time Internet Access that comes in at £250 but have not tried one.

Good luck.

[galfert]

Lots of people here seem to rate the Ambient stations, but these don’t seem to be readily available in the UK. Or must be under other Brands? This seems to be the nearest I can find in the UK. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Profi-weather-station-Froggit-WH3000/dp/B06X6JPJ6Q

Is anyone able to enlighten me as to whether this is a rebranded ambient station?

Ambient is made by Fine Offset. There are many other sellers of Fine Offset around the world, and you've pointed out to one of them. Ambient gets a lot of the notoriety because it is the brand for the US. Besides the many reseller brands of Fine Offset there is one (Ecowitt) in particular that is becoming very popular. Ecowitt is like an inhouse brand of Fine Offset. Ecowitt will ship world wide and make sure that you get the right frequency for your country.

Since you mentioned caring for a garden I would not recommend the specific model you linked. That model does not accommodate extra sensors. In particular you may be interested in the soil sensor for your garden. For that reason I would recommend the Ecowitt HP2551 or custom build of separate components if you don't like the all-in-on sensor array. The custom build would be a HP2551-C display with a WS68 anemometer, WH40 rain gauge, WH32 outdoor temp/hum. I would highly recommend a shield for the outdoor WH32 like the RS-00001 or keep it in the shade or build/buy your own Stevenson screen. Then of course add the soil sensor WH0291 (up to 8 of them). You can then also have additional temp/hum sensors that are WH31 (up to 8 of them). You can also have a PM2.5 (up to 4 of them). Check these out at Ecowitt.com

This will automatically upload to MetOffice WOW, and simultaneously to other places like; Weather Underground, WeatherCloud, and to your own custom server that may be useful for your home automation.  It can also upload to PWSweather via the customized server settings. If you want to add even more functionality you can add a GW1000 and then you can tie in a Meteobridge or Weather-Display. And you can also run WeeWx without the GW1000 using the Customized server settings.

[mattpitts74]

Lots of people here seem to rate the Ambient stations, but these don’t seem to be readily available in the UK. Or must be under other Brands? This seems to be the nearest I can find in the UK. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Profi-weather-station-Froggit-WH3000/dp/B06X6JPJ6Q

Is anyone able to enlighten me as to whether this is a rebranded ambient station?

Ambient is made by Fine Offset. There are many other sellers of Fine Offset around the world, and you've pointed out to one of them. Ambient gets a lot of the notoriety because it is the brand for the US. Besides the many reseller brands of Fine Offset there is one (Ecowitt) in particular that is becoming very popular. Ecowitt is like an inhouse brand of Fine Offset. Ecowitt will ship world wide and make sure that you get the right frequency for your country.

Since you mentioned caring for a garden I would not recommend the specific model you linked. That model does not accommodate extra sensors. In particular you may be interested in the soil sensor for your garden. For that reason I would recommend the Ecowitt HP2551 or custom build of separate components if you don't like the all-in-on sensor array. The custom build would be a HP2551-C display with a WS68 anemometer, WH40 rain gauge, WH32 outdoor temp/hum. I would highly recommend a shield for the outdoor WH32 like the RS-00001 or keep it in the shade or build/buy your own Stevenson screen. Then of course add the soil sensor WH0291 (up to 8 of them). You can then also have additional temp/hum sensors that are WH31 (up to 8 of them). You can also have a PM2.5 (up to 4 of them). Check these out at Ecowitt.com

This will automatically upload to MetOffice WOW, and simultaneously to other places like; Weather Underground, WeatherCloud, and to your own custom server that may be useful for your home automation.  It can also upload to PWSweather via the customized server settings. If you want to add even more functionality you can add a GW1000 and then you can tie in a Meteobridge or Weather-Display. And you can also run WeeWx without the GW1000 using the Customized server settings.

Thanks for the suggestions, thats really helpful.   I have contacted Ecowitt.  Is it possible to setup a weather station without the screen?  I'm not that bothered about seeing the data that way, would rather log data on another computer such as raspberry pi with WeeWx?

Also are you able to share link to radition shield?  Thanks

[galfert]

Thanks for the suggestions, thats really helpful.   I have contacted Ecowitt.  Is it possible to setup a weather station without the screen?  I'm not that bothered about seeing the data that way, would rather log data on another computer such as raspberry pi with WeeWx?

Also are you able to share link to radition shield?  Thanks

Yes you can omit the display. Instead use the GW1000 to then send data to WeeWx. You can add the display later if you want.

Radiation shield:
http://www.ecowitt.com/Others/115.html

[Mandrake]

Another option that's opened up for UK folks is that Froggit in Germany is now selling some of the ecowitt kit, though at this time not the HP2551 console.
This is a good way to buy the sensors and GW-1000 without the shipping from Hong Kong and customs risks.

You can still buy little extras like the radiation screen from ecowitt as you need or in fact a HP2551 screen as you go.

[mattpitts74]

Another option that's opened up for UK folks is that Froggit in Germany is now selling some of the ecowitt kit, though at this time not the HP2551 console.
This is a good way to buy the sensors and GW-1000 without the shipping from Hong Kong and customs risks.

You can still buy little extras like the radiation screen from ecowitt as you need or in fact a HP2551 screen as you go.

Thanks Mandrake, I cannot seem to find the ecowitt stuff on the froggit website, unless I’m missing something?

[galfert]

Another option that's opened up for UK folks is that Froggit in Germany is now selling some of the ecowitt kit, though at this time not the HP2551 console.
This is a good way to buy the sensors and GW-1000 without the shipping from Hong Kong and customs risks.

You can still buy little extras like the radiation screen from ecowitt as you need or in fact a HP2551 screen as you go.

Thanks Mandrake, I cannot seem to find the ecowitt stuff on the froggit website, unless I’m missing something?

Everything on Froggit's website is from Fine Offset (same as Ecowitt stuff). They don't seem to carry the equivalent to the HP2551 though it seems. That is everything on their website is Fine Offset except for stuff that looks like this sensor array:
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[galfert]

Froggit's DP1500 is the same the Ecowitt GW1000.

[Mandrake]

Yes. to be clear if you want a HP2551 in the UK then the only option is to buy from Ecowitt
If you drop them an e-mail they will quote you a USD $ price including fast air courier from Hong Kong. There maybe a UK customs charge as well but it seems variable and which you'll pay to the courier once it arrives.

Its fairly painless and I have my all kit from Ecowitt. It will come with UK power adapters etc
You could purchase just the HP2551 screen from Ecowitt and then Buy the DP1500 from Froggit which comes with the sensor array. This will get you the best of both worlds and minimise customs risk.

I suspect that Froggit will have the HP2551 at some point as well as the soil moisture sensor and PM2.5 sensor