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Chinese clone weather station set up tips and connection to weather underground

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Pauatahanuiweather:
I recently purchased a Chinese clone weather station from Trademe (local trading website). It is a model WH2950 Maxkon WIFI Wireless Home Weather Forecast Station Outdoor with Solar Charging Panel. I think it is a rebranded Fine Offset like the one seen in this wxforum post https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=34926.0
Here’s some info that might help others set it up to send to the internet sites such as Weather Underground. The installation instructions with the weather station to get it going with the console mostly worked OK, but see my comments below about southern hemisphere calibration.
To get it working with internet sites such as weather underground or weatherbug the instructions say to use WSTOOL. I downloaded this onto my android tablet from Google Play. This WS tool app does not work on my android tablet. The WS Tool app would not find/setup the weather station on WiFi. A tip from someone else pointed me to the Ambient Weather Osprey Tool app on Google Play, but it only worked if I did the following. First set up the Weather station console as per set up guide. As part of the first time set up sequence the console goes into wifi setup mode (wifi icon blinking fast). I couldn’t get Ambient Weather tool to work at this stage, so out of frustration I left it for a few hours and noticed the weather station console ‘Timed out’ trying to make the wifi connection (i.e. the wifi icon went off). Then I initiated the Wifi connection again by pressing Rain and Alarm simultaneously on the console for 3 seconds (wifi icon flashing fast). Next run the Ambient Weather Osprey Tool app again and it worked first time connecting it to Weather Underground! I had previously registered for Weather Underground, but I think you can do it as you set up the device. Hope that helps someone else not waste the time I did.
Southern Hemisphere calibration. Because the weather station has a solar panel you have to face it north for the panel to face the sun. Unfortunately the unit has been designed to face south (northern Hemisphere) and this means the default calibration for wind direction is 180 degrees out if you’re using it in NZ i.e. the console says southerly wind when it is blowing a northerly. There are instructions at the back of the manual on how to recalibrate it for southern hemisphere. The bad thing about this is you have to climb up to the weather station and temporarily tape the wind vane pointing north, then use calibration mode on the console to adjust the reading 180 degrees. That is sort of OK if you only do it once, but if you ever ‘factory reset’ the console then you’re back up the ladder to redo the calibration. This is very poor software design – it should just be a setting for southern hemisphere.

Now can anyone help with another wifi problem I have. I have subsequently found that the weather station console will not reconnect to the Wifi router if the router is powered off and on (e.g. by power cut). This means my weather data is not going to Weather Underground. Very frustrating. So far the only way I have found to get it going is by ‘factory resetting’ the weather station console and doing all the setup again, including the cumbersome wind direction calibration. Does anyone know how to get it to reconnect to the wifi router without doing a factory reset?
According to the Ambient tool the weather station console uses easyweather1.2.0 firmware.

galfert:
After you get it going with the Ambient app then switch and use the WSTOOL app and check for firmware update. I'm not saying there will be an update...but just maybe, and that might fix your problem. I would report the issue to both Maxkon and Fine Offset and hope that they issue a firmware update to address the problem.

You could also return it and get instead the newer WH2900 which uses the same display but different outdoor sensor array. This new version has the solar panel on top and it doesn't need to be oriented toward the sun.

Bushman:
Try assigning the unit a static IP address.

Pauatahanuiweather:
Thanks for the tips. I'll try the static IP when I get a fine day so I can climb up the ladder to re-cal the wind direction after doing the factory reset.
I'll let you know the outcome.
Re the firmware, the Ambient tool tells me I am running easyweather 1.2.0 and shows a link to upgrade it to 1.1.4. which is a lower number. So i'm not confident about trying that in case it is incompatible.

galfert:

--- Quote from: Pauatahanuiweather on September 16, 2018, 03:49:57 PM ---.
Re the firmware, the Ambient tool tells me I am running easyweather 1.2.0 and shows a link to upgrade it to 1.1.4. which is a lower number. So i'm not confident about trying that in case it is incompatible.

--- End quote ---

No, try the the firmware update with the WSTOOL app. I know it didn't work for setup. But now that it is configured on the network run the WSTOOL app and see what it says for firmware.

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