Author Topic: (Updated) My New Setup WS1200 + MeteoBridge & MeteoStick + AmbientCamHD  (Read 2765 times)

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Offline mikemm

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I hope the information I've posted is helpful to newbies that are considering a weather station, all the planning and problem-solving that is involved, and maybe the photos may give someone new some help.

My setup is on a steep hillside promontory in San Diego, California, USA.  Shown in photo below, it is situated on top of my 3 story townhouse, with of course approvals from the homeowners association.  I have views from the Pacific Ocean and Mission Bay through Mission Valley and west to the Mountains, which are perfect for a weather camera.  I've added a 3 foot pole segment since this photo was taken.  My Weather Underground station is: http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KCASANDI503


The Sensor is an Ambient Weather WS-1200.  Of course, if you've done your research, you know this sensor is really a rebranded Fine Offset WH24 sensor module.  I've done calibration of its outdoor temperature, barometric pressure, and outdoor relative humidity; most weather stations nearby me didn't bother doing calibration.  In the data I pull from the sensor, I convert in particular the Solar measurements to kWh/sm (adding the time element) as an estimate of how much power that a home-wide solar panel system could really generate given daily variations in cloud cover. 

Inside my house I've got two of their WS-1200-Consoles, which really are TFT consoles from Fine Offset (and is where software updates originate from).  Really helps in troubleshooting the sensor and the MeteoBridge.

You can see in the next photo that in accordance with my homeowners association rules, I have to do a non-permanent non-connected no-guy-wire flat roof mount.  Fortunately all that was sold by Ambient Weather, and was simple to setup, and get true-north aligned.  Getting the pole plumb took some work since the roof itself it not perfectly level.  I made sure to GROUND the setup (a mistake many people forget to do).  The pole has a slight sway, and the Fine Offset wind vane is particularly sensitive to being level; my wind direction sensing in particular will never be as accurate as I would like given my restrictions.


The camera is an AmbientCamHD.  Of course, assuming you've done your research, you know the camera is really a re-branded Foscam.  I can use the full Foscam API to access the camera (including still image capture), even though the AmbientCamHD documentation does not mention this.  The camera points west toward the ocean and a larger portion of the sky (and is shown on my Weather Underground station).  I decided to use an ethernet cable to connect to the camera instead of using its built-in WiFi ... the cable is hacker-proof, full-speed at high-rez, and I had to run a power cable up to the camera anyways. (Most people considering to purchase the AmbientCamHD do not realize that even though it is WiFi enabled, there is a multi-corded cable coming out of the back of the camera, and a power cord must be run to an AC outlet).

It took some particular effort to mount the camera on the pole, which I'm required to do by the homeowners association.  The AmbientCamHD only has a mount-to-wall bracket, and Ambient Weather does not sell any pole-mount adapter for it.  But I found an easily built adapter bracket design online needing only readily available parts from a hardware store.  Shown in the photo, I was able to successfully get the camera mounted onto the pole.


Inside I have the AirBridge/WeatherBridge, which of course everyone knows is really a re-branded MeteoBridge and MeteoStick.  I've placed my cable modem, home router, a switch, and the MeteoBridge onto an APC Uninterrupted Power System sold for gamers at Best Buy in the USA.  The setup only drains 14 watts, and the UPS can keep all those low-power components online when power fails for up to 2.5 hours.  I deliberately put the AmbientCamHD's power supply onto a regular outlet (letting it go offline) to conserve some power during an outage. 


My home network has access to a Port Monitoring business-grade switch, and I can use WireShark to real-time watch the exact data packets being sent to WU and to CWOP from the MeteoBridge.  In theory I could also monitor the sensor measurements being sent over USB from the MeteoStick to the MeteoBridge.

I've been able to configure the MeteoBridge to control the AmbientCamHD (aka Foscam) settings using the Foscam API at sunrise and sunset.  The camera does have some internal time-based controls, but I'd have to change the times manually monthly as the seasons change.  Using the MeteoBridge Templates and Services, the MeteoBridge actually knows the unique sunrise and sunset times each day, and can flexibly control the camera on a daily basis with me needing to do nothing manually.   

The MeteoBridge also does the forwarding of the camera image to Weather Underground's webcam.  I could of course configure the webcam to do that directly, but by intermediating through the MeteoBridge, I get all my status information (sensor, camera, sites) on the one Live Data screen on the MeteoBridge ... very convenient.  And of course I've setup the MeteoBridge to send ME a comprehensive weather dataset via Microsoft Office macro automation (as well of course to sending weather data to rapid-fire to WU and normal to CWOP).

The only change I'm considering is to actually provide wired power up to the sensor module rather than rely upon its batteries and solar array.  The RF signal loses strength at night when its on battery-only power.  And when we had 5 consecutive days of sunless rain, the batteries in the sensor failed and I was offline for nearly 6 hours.  I've already successfully temporarily connected a proper wattage AC adapter to the sensor module instead of its batteries and the module not only worked well, I got nearly +25db of extra signal strength.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2016, 04:13:06 PM by mikemm »
CWOP ID: EW8360, WU/PWS: KCASANDI503
Ambient 2902C Sensors | WS2000 Console | Dahua 5MP Low-lux WeatherCam | MeteoBridge & Raspberry Pi | APC UPS
Web sites: WU, Ambient+Cam, PWS, Windy+Cam

Offline mikemm

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Re: My New Setup WS1200 + MeteoBridge & MeteoStick + AmbientCamHD
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2016, 04:24:59 AM »
To bring the cabling inside the house from the roof, in the photo below I settled on this solution that I found recommended online.  I needed to bring at least 4 and up to 5 cables (camera power + camera ethernet + 2 satellite TV + future sensor power) from the roof through a stucco cement exterior wall, and I didn't want 5 separate holes.  The PVC entry port and vertical access-way are waterproof, nicely painted keeping most of the cable mess out-of-view, and the U-bend PVC has been stuffed with some insulating material to keep out wind and insects.  Inside I put a nice set of access ports mounted in the drywall so it does not look like a kludgy mess of a hole in the wall.  Have to think about eventual re-sale of the home!
« Last Edit: January 17, 2016, 04:03:23 PM by mikemm »
CWOP ID: EW8360, WU/PWS: KCASANDI503
Ambient 2902C Sensors | WS2000 Console | Dahua 5MP Low-lux WeatherCam | MeteoBridge & Raspberry Pi | APC UPS
Web sites: WU, Ambient+Cam, PWS, Windy+Cam

 

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