WXforum.net
Weather Station Hardware => AcuRite Weather Stations => Topic started by: Bushman on March 31, 2018, 03:36:47 PM
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One would think that their systems would allow non-US residents to buy an Access. One would be wrong. I tried to use my Access coupon and it bounced. TWICE. Online with the bank, we watched the charge on my US dollar credit card go through, only to immediately be canceled by Acurite. Clearly, they do not want my business! Well to heck with them. A Pi Zero and some IP spoofing and my current SmartHub stays intact. And I save a couple hundred US on all the stuff I was going to buy.
What a crappy company!!!!
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One would think that their systems would allow non-US residents to buy an Access. One would be wrong. I tried to use my Access coupon and it bounced. TWICE. Online with the bank, we watched the charge on my US dollar credit card go through, only to immediately be canceled by Acurite. Clearly, they do not want my business! Well to heck with them. A Pi Zero and some IP spoofing and my current SmartHub stays intact. And I save a couple hundred US on all the stuff I was going to buy.
What a crappy company!!!!
Could it be that their equipment is NOT "certified" (transmitter frequencie(s)) for non-US locales?
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Well that would only prove Acurite is more stupid than I thought. I mean seriously, imagine Apple selling a new model that would only work in the US.
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Well obviously I made the right choice to buy a davis vantage. I was going to get a smarthub when they announced the access and smarthub to be retired. That decision alone to force an upgrade concerned me. Acurite does not appear to be a trustworthy company. Looking forward to getting my Davis setup and running Then will need to figure out an interface to send data to WU. A really good deal on a weatherlink usb or ip is in the future. Hopefully I can come across cheaper alternative. Everything expensive in canada.
Doug
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In Canuckistan, your best bet is a non-Davis (i.e. Bellfryboy) logger and either a Raspberry Pi or Meteobridge.
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Well obviously I made the right choice to buy a davis vantage. I was going to get a smarthub when they announced the access and smarthub to be retired. That decision alone to force an upgrade concerned me. Acurite does not appear to be a trustworthy company. Looking forward to getting my Davis setup and running Then will need to figure out an interface to send data to WU. A really good deal on a weatherlink usb or ip is in the future. Hopefully I can come across cheaper alternative. Everything expensive in canada.
Doug
It's too bad you feel that way. I hope you enjoy whatever you get, but as a former Davis owner, I'm quite happy with what Acurite is offering.
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Could it be that their equipment is NOT "certified" (transmitter frequencie(s)) for non-US locales?
That would be my guess, since 433.92 Mhz is NOT an ISM band in ITU Region 3 (Asia/Australia).
It's too bad you feel that way. I hope you enjoy whatever you get, but as a former Davis owner, I'm quite happy with what Acurite is offering.
As a new Davis owner, let me say that I'm happy to be free of re-configuring weewx and rebooting my Acu-Rite console every month because the 5-in-1 decided to randomly select a new sensor ID. Score one for Davis' use of old-school DIP switches to set the station's address!
Let me add a footnote and say that I'm currently running four weather stations at my house. The brand new Davis VP2 has been the statistical outlier most days, especially in low winds. To Acu-Rite's credit, the 5-in-1 has been reading with the majority, and in every non-frozen precipitation event that we have seen in 2018 the 5-in-1 was within one (0.01") bucket tip of the Stratus 4" manual gauge. When it wants to work, the Acu-Rite is an excellent station.....
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Could it be that their equipment is NOT "certified" (transmitter frequencie(s)) for non-US locales?
That would be my guess, since 433.92 Mhz is NOT an ISM band in ITU Region 3 (Asia/Australia).
That might be part of it, but companies like Amazon (or their resellers) seem to have no trouble selling Acurite devices everywhere.
I'm not sure why Acurite is so constrained in the countries they are willing to support, especially when the other Primex companies seem to be more "international".
Be that as it may, Acurite (or their credit card processor) is very picky.
Here are a few of the "rules" I'm aware of:
1) Credit card billing addresses and shipping addresses must both be within the US.
2) Certain email address domains (like cox.net from what I hear) will automatically be rejected with no reason given.
3) If too many failed attempts are made to place an order, your email address is flagged. You have to use a new one to get an order through. They don't tell you this either.
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First of all, Canada is not in Asia. 433.nn is so common here it hurts. My credit card address is US, the card is US and the shipping address is US. I have no such issues using my US dollar credit card all over the world, and online (recently, purchases in UK, Spain, Sweden etc.) The Acurite order was rejected almost immediately. Twice. I figure Chaney is just stupid. Which is borne out by the horrendous shipping charges to Canada. Lack of dealers etc. Frankly, it is not worth it to me to chase this. And it will be a snowy day in h377 when I buy more Acurite product. Thankfully there are far better, competitively priced options available,
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One more thing on the frequency. If what is said is true about certification, what will Chaney do with all its non-US owners? Dump them?
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One more thing on the frequency. If what is said is true about certification, what will Chaney do with all its non-US owners? Dump them?
Just like they dumped their US-based owners unless they buy a new hub..... ](*,)
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It just occurred to me that I have a Meteobridge box lying around. I think that will easily do what MyAcurite will do without extra cost. I am waiting to hear back from Acurite why my Access code purchase would not work. I am not expecting much.