Author Topic: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?  (Read 3995 times)

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Offline wcndave

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Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« on: October 13, 2017, 10:41:08 AM »
I would get an Acurite, if the display can set my time (i.e. UK + 1), and the rainfall etc is collated by day correctly based on that, and that I can set the location correctly for upload to WU.

Has anyone been able to do that?

Thanks!

Dave

Offline wcndave

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2017, 09:26:03 AM »
Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

Offline Bushman

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2017, 12:48:29 PM »
Ferris here...  :)  from the Acurite forum three weeks ago:

"Please understand that currently AcuRite and it's (sic)products are only supported within the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. As we expand into other areas we will be making adjustments to the program to allow for these types of things that might appear in other countries/languages. We have no time frame of if or when this will happen. "

The only workarounds (plural) would be Kevin Key's reader or a Meteobridge with Smarthub.
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Offline wcndave

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #3 on: November 04, 2017, 06:13:55 AM »
Thanks.  I read that it was not "supported", however that could mean language, installation, instructions, spares etc....

I wondered if someone had done a simple hack, like set their WU account up first before linking, or adding US zip code and then modifying, or something.  I don't really want to have any other equipment other than the weather station.  Hence reaching out to see if anyone had a simple working solution.  Thanks, and what are the odds that your name was Ferris!

 :grin:

Offline BeaverMeadow

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #4 on: November 04, 2017, 08:57:24 AM »
What about going through a VPN that is based in the U.S.?

Offline Bushman

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #5 on: November 04, 2017, 10:35:24 AM »
A VPN will put the station location in the US.  What is needed is to get the data are relocate it to the UK etc.  Honestly, Meteobridge is your best bet.  Super low power and the size of a deck of cards.
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Offline wcndave

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #6 on: November 04, 2017, 02:14:29 PM »
Thanks I'll look into meteobridge. What about being able to set the timezone on the display?  If it uses NTP, it will never be able to show the correct time.

Offline Bushman

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #7 on: November 04, 2017, 05:22:18 PM »
While it uses IP-based location on the setup, you can enter whatever timezone you want.  Africa, UK, US, etc. and lat/long.  On my Davis unit it reads the internal console clock. 
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Offline wcndave

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2017, 07:29:10 AM »
So, I wonder what it is that doesn't work outside of the supported countries.  Hence back to my question of "does anyone have this working outside US/UK/AUS?"

Offline worachj

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2017, 09:19:27 AM »
So, I wonder what it is that doesn't work outside of the supported countries.  Hence back to my question of "does anyone have this working outside US/UK/AUS?"

I can't answer your question directly because I live in the US, but its my opinion/guess that it will work but with limitations.

Currently "My AcuRite" only supports the United Kingdom, Australia, United States, and Canada, so you will need to choose one of those countries to set up your "My AcuRite" account. The forecasting on "My AcuRite" will be based off the address information that is entered into your device profile. There's nothing you can do to change that, so forecasting on "My AcuRite" will be wrong! But all other readings will be from your registered device.

You should then be able to share your information with Weather Underground. The only problem may be with the barometric pressure readings, but you should be able to adjust it by changing your device profile to use "Pressure Type:Adjusted Pressure" and adjusting the elevation value until you get the correct barometric pressure reading.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2017, 09:26:02 AM by worachj »


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Offline nincehelser

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2017, 09:36:56 AM »
So, I wonder what it is that doesn't work outside of the supported countries.  Hence back to my question of "does anyone have this working outside US/UK/AUS?"

There's nothing in particular stopping myAcurite from working outside of the supported countries other than timezone and forecast issues.

If you're talking about the SmartHUB through myAcurite, it's mainly just the timezone setting that resets 24-hour rain total at at local midnight.  This also affects wunderground rain reporting if done through the SmartHUB.  Otherwise, wunderground isn't impacted because your wunderground station location is set through wunderground itself.

Forecasts through myAcurite (provided by darksky) will not be correct if the correct location is not set.

If you have a "PC Connect" display with a USB port, you could run VIS Reader on a Windows PC and report directly to wunderground.  Weewx on a Linux system like a Raspberry Pi would work, too.


Offline dupreezd

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2017, 09:39:56 AM »
If "My Acurite" utilize Geo-Location blocking, you might be denied access.

I use PfSense as my firewall and block entire countries based on there origin IP address. Granted, if they (the bad guys) use VPN or TOR (Onion Servers), they can circumvent these blocking rules. Still it is better than nothing.

As mentioned in this thread, your options might be VPN or TOR, which is slow due to how they function.
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Offline wcndave

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2017, 10:10:30 AM »
Thanks all.  The MyAcurite forecast you refer to, is that what is displayed on the display, or only when you log in to the acurite site/app?

Pressure sounds fixable (I live at 1,130m).

WU data, not sure how it's affected by rainfall.  If the acurite sends a "day is finished, please reset" command to WU, which thinks I am somewhere where it's not midnight... what will it actually do...

I guess if I register to UK, then being in Italy I am only one hour off, so it's not so bad.

The only way to report from this to WU is through the smartHub right?

Offline nincehelser

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #13 on: November 07, 2017, 10:22:20 AM »
Thanks all.  The MyAcurite forecast you refer to, is that what is displayed on the display, or only when you log in to the acurite site/app?

Pressure sounds fixable (I live at 1,130m).

WU data, not sure how it's affected by rainfall.  If the acurite sends a "day is finished, please reset" command to WU, which thinks I am somewhere where it's not midnight... what will it actually do...

I guess if I register to UK, then being in Italy I am only one hour off, so it's not so bad.

The only way to report from this to WU is through the smartHub right?

The forecast on myAcurite comes from a third-party service (darksky).  The forecast on the display is generated by the display itself using basic rules.

When sending rainfall data to wunderground, one of the parameters sent is how much rain has fallen since local midnight.  When local midnight comes, the reporting system is supposed to reset this value to zero.  If the timezone is not set correctly, the rain total gets reset at the wrong hour.

You don't need a SmartHUB at all.  In your case it might be easier to use a "PC Connect" display that has a USB port and use VIS Reader to send data to wunderground using a Windows PC.  Or a small Linux box running something like weewx.

Offline wcndave

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2017, 11:13:21 AM »
Thanks, that's very helpful.

I assume it's the smartHub that sends the actual data to WU, and therefore would have the wrong hour.

I don't want to keep this connected to PC, I'd like it to run 24x7 without any computers being on.

I do have a Linux Synology NAS on 24x7, I wonder if that could do it?  A raspberry Pi would be acceptable too.

If you use another device, how does the data get from the sensors to the device?

Perhaps, as I am a noob, you could just point me at some tutorial or how to...

Offline wcndave

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #15 on: November 07, 2017, 11:33:39 AM »
Probably google is my friend for installing weewx on synology/pi.

Still curious how it gets the data from the sensors though.

Offline nincehelser

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #16 on: November 07, 2017, 01:21:01 PM »
If you use another device, how does the data get from the sensors to the device?

In the case of a "PC Connect" display, the data from the 5n1 sensor is streamed out over the USB connection.

Offline nincehelser

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #17 on: November 09, 2017, 10:12:31 PM »
I just noticed that it looks like myAcurite will now let you adjust your time zone for a device by selecting from a major world city list.  I don't think you could do that before.

I'm wondering if that would fix the daily rain reset issue on the SmartHUB for those not in a supported country?

Offline Bushman

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #18 on: November 10, 2017, 01:48:10 PM »
Device settings on Myacurite also allow four locations in Great Britain (UK, Wales Scotland and Ireland).  No idea when that was addded.
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Offline TomKeffer

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Re: Does anyone have Acurite working outside US / UK?
« Reply #19 on: November 15, 2017, 05:26:27 PM »
Probably google is my friend for installing weewx on synology/pi.

Still curious how it gets the data from the sensors though.

By either sniffing for packets on the network, or by fooling the bridge into thinking its sending packets to myacurite.com, when it's really sending it to your PC.

Details on the WeeWX Wiki.

 

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