Author Topic: Looking to replace an old Acurite 5-in-1  (Read 2129 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline tygunn

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 38
Looking to replace an old Acurite 5-in-1
« on: October 27, 2017, 11:24:00 AM »
I've got a ~6 year old Acurite 5-in-1 with the old 1035 LCD console; after 6 years its now incapable of reporting remotely reliable data to Weather Underground, so its time for a new station.

One big feature I want is a DECENT in-house display.  I'd like to see live stats at a glance with some basic historical comparisons.  Sunrise/set is a nice to have too.

The Ambient Weather WS-1002-WIFI OBSERVER looks pretty much what I'm looking for, but the reviews I'm seeing are extremely mixed.  Seems just as unreliable as my Acurite.
An Acurite 5-in-1 with the HD display looks like it would be reasonable from a feature standpoint, but then I know just how unreliable Acurites are.
The Vantage Vue seems like it would be a reliable choice, but the display is terrible; looks like its from the 80s and only shows a tiny amount of data at any one time.
Even the Davis Pro2 has a pitiful display, and it costs a load more.

So it looks like the options are:
1) Get a low quality station that is unreliable, but has a decent screen.
2) Get a high quality station that is reliable, but has a crappy screen.

Am I missing any other options?

Offline Bushman

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 7549
    • Eagle Bay Weather
Re: Looking to replace an old Acurite 5-in-1
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2017, 11:31:16 AM »
Yeah, get whatever station you want, then use a tablet to display the weather.  Maybe Meteotemplate etc.?
Need low cost IP monitoring?  http://wirelesstag.net/wta.aspx?link=NisJxz6FhUa4V67/cwCRWA or PM me for 50% off Wirelesstags!!

Offline tygunn

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 38
Re: Looking to replace an old Acurite 5-in-1
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2017, 11:40:24 AM »
Yeah, get whatever station you want, then use a tablet to display the weather.  Maybe Meteotemplate etc.?

I'll have to investigate this more thanks.  A Rapberry Pi looks like it would be sufficient to run a Meteotemplate installation.  It looks like that might be a reasonable option.  I've already got a meteohub which I was trying to use for my acurite. 

Offline CW2274

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6730
    • Conditions @ CW2274 West Tucson-Painted Hills Ranch
Re: Looking to replace an old Acurite 5-in-1
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2017, 03:12:03 PM »
1) Get a low quality station that is unreliable, but has a decent screen.
2) Get a high quality station that is reliable, but has a crappy screen.
Just get the piece of junk, at least you'll have a pretty blank screen to stare at.

Offline BeaverMeadow

  • Senior Contributor
  • ****
  • Posts: 282
Re: Looking to replace an old Acurite 5-in-1
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2017, 04:04:02 PM »
Just get the piece of junk, at least you'll have a pretty blank screen to stare at.
[/quote]


I would wait for the Acurite Atlas Elite. The company says it will be available asap and before the (2017?) winter solstice occurs in the Northern Hemisphere.

Offline tygunn

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 38
Re: Looking to replace an old Acurite 5-in-1
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2017, 04:16:24 PM »
I would wait for the Acurite Atlas Elite. The company says it will be available asap and before the (2017?) winter solstice occurs in the Northern Hemisphere.

My only qualm with anything coming out of Acurite is that they're not very responsive to fixing things that are broken.  The bug with the internet bridge where it would reset rainfall during the day was never fixed (https://support.acurite.com/acurite/topics/rainfall-resets-sporadically?topic-reply-list[settings][page]=10#topic-reply-list), for example.

Offline bchwdlks

  • Senior Contributor
  • ****
  • Posts: 196
Re: Looking to replace an old Acurite 5-in-1
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2017, 05:50:27 PM »
...
 A Raspberry Pi looks like it would be sufficient to run a Meteotemplate installation.  It looks like that might be a reasonable option.  I've already got a meteohub which I was trying to use for my acurite.

You will not be disappointed with a Davis and the Raspberry Pi. With  the Meteohub and the Pi you can have any type of displays that you want.

You can use any number of the software packages. I have a Davis VP2 with meteobridge . The Pi2 feeds images to the web for 2 web cams,  and I have experimented with  Cumulus, Meteotemplate, and Home Weather Station packages. 

The Home Weather Station is at one end of the house on an early Android tablet. It is an excellent single screen display of weather. The Meteotemplate has one screen configured for a phone display and another configured for a 24" monitor that allows digging into the weather database for historical information. I did remove the Cumulus since it was never being used.

Offline nincehelser

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 3337
Re: Looking to replace an old Acurite 5-in-1
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2017, 06:23:50 PM »
I would wait for the Acurite Atlas Elite. The company says it will be available asap and before the (2017?) winter solstice occurs in the Northern Hemisphere.

My only qualm with anything coming out of Acurite is that they're not very responsive to fixing things that are broken.  The bug with the internet bridge where it would reset rainfall during the day was never fixed (https://support.acurite.com/acurite/topics/rainfall-resets-sporadically?topic-reply-list[settings][page]=10#topic-reply-list), for example.

Huh?  I haven't seen anyone complain about that issue in quite a while..  If it wasn't fixed, people would still be complaining about it.

Offline tygunn

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 38
Re: Looking to replace an old Acurite 5-in-1
« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2017, 06:29:44 PM »
Huh?  I haven't seen anyone complain about that issue in quite a while..  If it wasn't fixed, people would still be complaining about it.

They never marked it as closed.  So I can only assume.  Last I tried the internet bridge was in April this year and there was no real solution provided by Acurite.  That's why I switched to Meteohub, which ultimately didn't work properly with the Acurite USB console (other random blips), which led me to using the Acurite USB console with the PC Connect software, which ultimately led to getting random 500MPH wind gusts reported.


Offline nincehelser

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 3337
Re: Looking to replace an old Acurite 5-in-1
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2017, 06:39:00 PM »
Huh?  I haven't seen anyone complain about that issue in quite a while..  If it wasn't fixed, people would still be complaining about it.

They never marked it as closed.  So I can only assume.  Last I tried the internet bridge was in April this year and there was no real solution provided by Acurite.  That's why I switched to Meteohub, which ultimately didn't work properly with the Acurite USB console (other random blips), which led me to using the Acurite USB console with the PC Connect software, which ultimately led to getting random 500MPH wind gusts reported.

That doesn't mean much.  They rarely ever close a thread.

Changes were made in the protocol with regards to the time setting.  I'm pretty sure that cleared everything up.