Topic: Acurite Station Functionality and Features Offered

[galfert]

I'm not an Acurite user. But I'm curious what functionalities are offered and what they are called.

I've read that the bridge, or SmartHUB device will stop working and is discontinued. I understand that offered direct uploading to WU.

- Do the newest Acurite stations require a PC to run 24/7 to publish data to MyAcurite? (or is there another solution now that the SmartHUB is gone?)

- What functionalities are available today with Acurite stations? (Not a specific question...just tell me something may not know, I suppose it sends to WU)

- What other weather networks does MyAcurite service publish to other than their own site if any? (WU, WeatherCloud, PWSweather, any of these or others?)

- Is a map of other Acurite stations available to the public? or to other Acurite owners? (Like Davis WeatherLink http://www.weatherlink.com/map.php)

- What solutions are available today to publish your Acurite Station data to other weather networks (like CWOP, PWSweather, WeatherCloud...etc)

- Can you run your own weather software on your computer like Weather Display? (I suppose this is ties to my previous question)

- How live is the data on MyAcurite dashboard? (How many seconds or minutes?)

- How live is the data published from MyAcurite over to WU? (How many seconds or minutes?)

- Are there any new solution coming that is not out yet....for example Atlas series...do they do anything different?

- Any other cool hacks or work arounds to do neat things with Acurite? (for example is SDR capture possible?)

[nincehelser]

I'm not an Acurite user. But I'm curious what functionalities are offered and what they are called.

I've read that the bridge, or SmartHUB device will stop working and is discontinued. I understand that offered direct uploading to WU.

Acurite plans to stop myAcurite support for the SmartHUB at the end of February 2019.  Using third-party solutions, it is possible to keep the SmartHUB running after that point.  Acurite's solution is the Access, which was offered for $40 to all owners of SmartHUBs and older Acurite Bridges going back about 7 years or so.  That offer ended in March of 2018.

- Do the newest Acurite stations require a PC to run 24/7 to publish data to MyAcurite? (or is there another solution now that the SmartHUB is gone?)

You can still use a PC Connect display to publish data to myAcurite.  Those displays have a USB port that can be connected to a computer running the PC Connect software.  Or you can run some third-party solutions like weewx, metobridge or VIS Reader.

If you want a stand-alone network reporting device from Acurite, you'll want the Access.

- What functionalities are available today with Acurite stations? (Not a specific question...just tell me something may not know, I suppose it sends to WU)

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking for here, but they do easily support other various add-on sensors with the SmartHUB and Access.

- What other weather networks does MyAcurite service publish to other than their own site if any? (WU, WeatherCloud, PWSweather, any of these or others?)

MyAcurite doesn't publish to other services itself.  The Access and SmartHUB report to wunderground directly.  In the future the Access may report to other services.

- Is a map of other Acurite stations available to the public? or to other Acurite owners? (Like Davis WeatherLink http://www.weatherlink.com/map.php)

Acurite doesn't provide any "public" access, but myAcurite users are able to share sensor data between themselves.  There is no map provided by Acurite, but some users have been working on such a project.

Acurite has demonstrated a public mapping ability on some TV weather reports, but I've no idea if that's headed to a public release.

- What solutions are available today to publish your Acurite Station data to other weather networks (like CWOP, PWSweather, WeatherCloud...etc)

Weewx, Meteobridge/Weatherbridge, VIS Reader, and Acuparse are popular as well as others.

- Can you run your own weather software on your computer like Weather Display? (I suppose this is ties to my previous question)

Way back when Weather Display used to be an advertised partner of Acurite.  Something happened, though... I think the author of WD did some re-coding and started using VIS Reader as an interface in an agreement with Acurite.  Later Acurite and VIS ended their partnership and went different directions, leaving WD without an Acurite interface.  I think the current VIS Reader (not the same as the one that used to be distributed by Acurite) may still work with WD.

- How live is the data on MyAcurite dashboard? (How many seconds or minutes?)

Currently it is 5 minutes.

- How live is the data published from MyAcurite over to WU? (How many seconds or minutes?)

Data is sent to wunderground from the Access, SmartHUB, or PC Connect in "rapid-fire" fashion.

The actual rate depends upon the sensor and sending device, though.

For a 5n1, the updates through the Access are 18 seconds... through the SmartHUB, 36 seconds... through PC Connect, 36 seconds (I think).

For an Atlas, updates are 10 seconds through the Access.  (SmartHUB and PC Connect are not supported)

- Are there any new solution coming that is not out yet....for example Atlas series...do they do anything different?

NDA territory, here.

- Any other cool hacks or work arounds to do neat things with Acurite? (for example is SDR capture possible?)

RTL_433 supports various Acurite sensors.  Many have built their own hubs using RTL_433, weewx, $20 RLT TV dongles, and Raspberry Pis.

[galfert]

  Nice work nincehelser! I just knew you would be the one responding 

Thank you so much for giving me (and others) a clear understanding of Acurite. I'm anxiously waiting to see about the Atlas series (Atlas Elite actually) when it comes out.

I did not know about the Access. I do remember seeing the name but I thought it was the same thing as the SmartHUB. That makes more sense now that it is a new device.

Sounds like the Access device is pretty important....I think I surely would want one if I had an Acurite system.

Why are people so upset about the SmartHUB gong away if the Access is its replacement? How are they different?

[Bushman]

Upset?  Because the EOL'ed a decent piece of hardware with no easy, inexpensive way to upgrade.  That is why.

[nincehelser]

The Bridge/SmartHUB design was around 8 years old.

Very little memory was left.  Further upgrades were proving impractical.  It was a 10-meg half-duplex device that was driving a lot of people nuts with some gigabit networks.  Many were complaining that the antenna was no good.  No battery backup was another common complaint.  There was no encryption.  The list goes on....

It was just time to let it go and re-vamp the hardware to fix all those complaints plus set the stage for supporting new sensors and features.

Acurite also made some protocol changes to make things cheaper to support in the back-end with AWS.  This is a major driver in why Acurite is planning to drop the legacy protocol after February 2019. 

If you look at some of the other threads, you'll see some hardware teardowns and analysis.