Weather Station Hardware > Ambient Weather and Ecowitt and other Fine Offset clones

Connecting Ambient Weather WS-2902A to CWOP

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GoDawgs:
Hello, everyone.  I recently got a WS-2902A up and running and am currently reporting to AmbientWeather.net, WeatherCloud and Weather Underground.  I've been unable to find a way to link to CWOP.  Their system seems a bit more archaic and not nearly as user friendly.

Any tips?

Thanks,

Go Dawgs

galfert:
Method 1: WS-2902A - How to Send Weather Data to CWOP

This method and others listed work for a WS-2000 also

You need to add some devices to your setup to be able to publish to CWOP.

1. ObserverIP - This will get data from your WS-2902A outdoor sensor array. Set it up as a WS-1600-IP or WS-1550-IP.

2. WS-1000-BTH or WH32B - This provides barometric pressure and also indoor temp and indoor humidity and passes it to the ObserverIP device. The WH23B is the newer of the two.

3. Meteobridge - This reads the data from the ObserverIP. Then the Meteobridge can publish live data to CWOP.  Besides a Meteobridge (which you make and license) you can instead buy a WeatherBridge and the building a device work has been done for you and comes licensed. A WeatherBridge is actually a Meteobridge that has been built and licensed.

This is not that hard to do. Once you have this set up you can actually get rid of the display console. Because the Meteobridge (or WeatherBridge) can publish to just about anywhere as it gets data from the ObserverIP. Of course keep the display console if you want but don't publish to the same service with both display console and Meteobridge. The ObserverIP can also publish to the same services as the display console.

Note The reason you need the ObserverIP for this solution and the reason the display console doesn't work to connect the Meteobridge is simple. It is because the ObserverIP has a built in web page with your live weather data that can be read by the Meteobridge. The display console does not have this web page functionality. Also some other model Ambient Weather stations had a USB connection for a PC. This USB connection in those consoles could be connected to the Meteobridge instead of to a PC. The WS-2902A display console does not have a USB connection.

* Method 6 is a new variation of this method. It uses the GW1000 instead of the ObserverIP.
You know what...forget everything else...just buy a GW1000 and make it simple.
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=34922.msg378032#msg378032

galfert:
Method 2: WS-2902A - How to Send Weather Data to CWOP
(See follow-up post for variation of this method that we'll call Method 2.5)

There is actually another method for the WS-2902A to publish to CWOP but it is more complicated. But it is potentially cheaper than getting the ObserverIP, WS-1000-BTH (or WH32B) and Meteobridge (WeatherBridge). It really depends on what computer and network equipment you may already have.

This other method to publish to CWOP mostly requires the use of a computer (an old one you already have lying around, or a cheap one, or it is popular to use a Raspberry Pi because they are cheap, small and take up little space.) Then add some software. You'll also need an old router that can run custom firmware or get a cheap router capable of running WRT or Tomato.

The software you need for the computer is WeeWx. You'll need to use the WeeWx interceptor driver to capture data being sent by the WS-2902A display console via the custom router as it sends to Weather Underground. Once WeeWx has this data it can then publish to a number of services including CWOP. And WeeWx will then also pass along the intercepted data to Weather Underground.

In concept the above paragraph explains how it works without getting too technical. But in reality to accomplish all of that it is complex. Because it requires a whole lot more technical experience. You'll need Linux experience, router configuration experience, and networking experience to redirect Weather Underground traffic to the WeeWx computer. Keep in mind that this custom router does not replace your existing router. It sits between your display console and the WeeWx computer from a network design perspective. But there are a lot of guides and write ups. But you probably won't find all the information in one place. And if you are a real network guru and you already have a managed layer 3 switch on your network then you won't need the router with custom firmware as you'll program your layer 3 switch to do the redirection to the WeeWx computer, but your network will have to also have a wireless access point that is not the router if you are using the WS-2902A display console.

It is much easier and convenient to use the first method in my prior post, although probably more expensive.

Note: I don't have any proof but conceptually this method of capturing Weather Underground data via network redirection could potentially be a solution to get any weather station from any manufacture that publishes to Weather Underground to be able to also send data to CWOP. With one caveat...Stations like Netatmo that don't directly publish to Weather Underground via your network have no WU data to intercept. These station publish to only to their private Internet cloud service and then from there it goes to Weather Underground, so it isn't done over your network.

galfert:
Method 3: WS-2902A - How to Send Weather Data to CWOP

As if that was not enough there is actually sort of a 3rd method which is like a hybrid of both prior methods to get the WS-2902A to publish to CWOP.

This 3rd method requires the ObserverIP and the WS-1000-BTH (or WH32B) but instead of the Meteobridge (Weatherbridge) you do the whole network redirection mentioned in method 2 above.  And so instead of capturing Weather Underground traffic from the WS-2902A display console you are capturing it from the ObserverIP over to the WeeWx computer. But there is more...don't stop reading yet.

This 3rd method actually has an advantage that may reduce some of the complexity of method 2. Since the ObserverIP can be modified to run an older version of its firmware you can then do the Weather Underground network redirection with just the ObserverIP. No need for router with complex custom firmware and no need for network expertise. This is because there is an older ObserverIP firmware that lets you change the IP address for the Weather Underground server. So instead of the ObserverIP sending data directly to Weather Underground you configure it with the IP address of your WeeWx computer and bingo, you have the data in WeeWx without needing to do the complex network redirection and without all that extra hardware. There are many old firmwares available to download for the ObserverIP. I don't know off hand exactly which older version is a good one that lets you modify the Weather Underground server IP address. This feature on the ObserverIP was blocked (removed) from the current firmware versions.

Note: In case you were wondering...The WS-2902A does not have the capability of changing the the Weather Underground server IP address.

TIP You can have multiple ObserverIP devices. Just like you can have multiple display consoles. The possible reason for having multiple ObserverIP devices is to have one with the latest firmware for use with its built in services and possibly a Meteobridge. The second ObserverIP is the one that would be downgraded to the earlier firmware for the sole purpose of communicating with WeeWx. This is in case there is a conflict of interest between two different desired functions. Like maybe a current or future ObserverIP firmware is something you really need for whatever other functional or compatibility reason.

Kalibr:
Cool!  Been wondering about this myself actually.

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