Author Topic: Query on Pro Weather Center with AcuLink Remote Monitoring & App 01050C / 01055  (Read 5995 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline kilogulf59

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 55
  • Cannot operate a weather rock...
    • THE INTEGRATED CLOSE COMBAT FORUM
I was looking at a Davis Vantage Vue weather station and the $$$ is holding me back. A friend suggested this unit AcuRite Pro Weather Center with AcuLink Remote Monitoring & App 01050C/01055 which, to me, looks like it has the same features as the Davis.

FYI, I want the station strictly for home use and am not a junkie or anything hardcore like that.

What do you all think of these units?
Take Care and Stay Safe,

Ken aka kilogulf59

Offline Beaudog

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1217
It is an OK unit.   Not Davis quality but seems to record data very close to my Davis VP.

Internet upload is limited but you can pull the data with a phone or Ipad.

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=20299.0

Offline nincehelser

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 3337
A good buy for the money.

The main gripe most "hard core" people have is that it only updates wunderground every 15 minutes.  Updates to their proprietary MyBackyardWeather are real-time, though and can be accessed via mobile apps.   

Other differences:
   The radio range is much shorter than Davis....about 330 feet on a good day.
   Wind speed updates only occur ever 18 seconds.  Davis is 2.5 seconds.

On the plus side, Acurite's system is flexible...you can easily add two more sensors to this setup.  The $8 Temp/Humidity sensors are a popular choice for monitoring other parts of your property.  More sensors can be added by adding more bridges (3 sensors per bridge).

Additional display units are also available, and not too expensive.  Some are even in "color". 

Offline ctccbc

  • Senior Contributor
  • ****
  • Posts: 276
  • Acurite 01035, Weather Display
    • Chris Collins Morehead City, NC Weather
There are some issues with the Acurite stations that are still being fixed. It seems the latest 5-in-1 has fixed the issue when the humidity gets stuck at 98 percent or occasionally at 1 percent. The main issue is with the solar-powered aspirator stopping or the issue with not getting enough sun on the solar panels to turn the aspirator during full sunshine. The new solar panels add-on may solve this problem, but I'm not sure anyone has them yet, since they are just now being made available. Otherwise, it is a good unit. The wind and rain data are very accurate. I use the Acurite to power my website, moreheadcityweather.com.  I have temporary rigged up an aspirator fan until I'm able to try the new double solar panel units. I would give it a 7 to 8 (out of 10) rating.

Chris
moreheadcityweather.com

Offline kilogulf59

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 55
  • Cannot operate a weather rock...
    • THE INTEGRATED CLOSE COMBAT FORUM
Well thanks for the helpful info...I just ordered one...

I couldn't believe the deal, first it was on sale from $199.99 to $129.99. Then I found a 20% off coupon code and saved $26 there, then I got free shipping!!! Helluva unit for $109!!!

Don't stop now folks...if there's anything else I should know feel free to tell me. I'm new to this home weather station thing...

Take Care and Stay Safe,

Ken aka kilogulf59

Offline haroldashe

  • Senior Contributor
  • ****
  • Posts: 196
Chris, that is a really neat weather website!

Offline kilogulf59

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 55
  • Cannot operate a weather rock...
    • THE INTEGRATED CLOSE COMBAT FORUM
OK, this unit is soooooo cool...I have to get out to set it up.

I believe I even get a station or page at Acurite.com
Take Care and Stay Safe,

Ken aka kilogulf59

Offline Beaudog

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1217
You should wind up with a page like this. You then need to go to weather underground and set up a station. And then use the share command at mybackyard weather to send the data to WU.

http://www.wunderground.com/


Offline kilogulf59

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 55
  • Cannot operate a weather rock...
    • THE INTEGRATED CLOSE COMBAT FORUM
That's great and thanks for the information.

Once I get all squared away I may just do that, send to the WC that is...

BTW, this is all new to me so any hints and/or advice is welcome...
Take Care and Stay Safe,

Ken aka kilogulf59


Offline kilogulf59

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 55
  • Cannot operate a weather rock...
    • THE INTEGRATED CLOSE COMBAT FORUM
Thank you...nice 1911A1...

Here's my .45...a mid-1977 Colt's Government Model Mk. IV Series 70 .45 ACP and here's the full thread..."My 45"



Take Care and Stay Safe,

Ken aka kilogulf59

Offline Beaudog

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1217
Nice story.   The one I pictured is a 1945 Remington rand.   I bought it in 1962  for a whopping $20.

And if they try to confiscate weapons I will bury it in the backyard before I give it up

Offline kilogulf59

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 55
  • Cannot operate a weather rock...
    • THE INTEGRATED CLOSE COMBAT FORUM
OMG...I wish I had a WABAC Machine! $20!!!!

I don't want to tic anyone off with an off topic conversation...so we can switch to PM or Email if you want to...
Take Care and Stay Safe,

Ken aka kilogulf59

Offline SlowModem

  • Weather at the speed of dialup!
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6641
  • WX @ 26.4 kbs
    • Watts Bar Weather
And if they try to confiscate weapons I will bury it in the backyard before I give it up

If they try to confiscate guns, I'll give them the bullets first.   8-)
Greg Whitehead
Ten Mile, TN USA


Offline tandy1000

  • Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 107
I'm joining the ranks of you guys. I've spent a long time experimenting with decoding the Oregon sensors with an Arduino and various temperature sensors with an XRF and Raspberry Pi. This has really been about data collection and alerting (using custom scripts and Zabbix (open source monitoring system)) versus weather observation.

Stumbling on this made me realize it would be the cheapest method, and will at least give me some data while I wait for a Vantage Pro 3 to come out. Kilgogulf59 - thanks for the 20% off mention! I ordered the station and two more temp/humid sensors.

Ideally I would like to post to Aculink, Wunderground, as well as use the raw data locally for a home weather server. Linux is my ideal choice, but I could do Windows if need be. nincehelser - I believe your solution intercepts any aculink.com traffic - is that correct?




Offline nincehelser

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 3337

Ideally I would like to post to Aculink, Wunderground, as well as use the raw data locally for a home weather server. Linux is my ideal choice, but I could do Windows if need be. nincehelser - I believe your solution intercepts any aculink.com traffic - is that correct?

Yes.  It will spit out the payload string for any sensor it hears.  It's a perl script so it's easy to modify to suit your needs.  As-is it's focused on a 5n1 sensor.

If you like Linux, that's probably the option for you.  I'm trying to keep everything as standard as possible so it is easy to modify.

Offline tandy1000

  • Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 107
Yes.  It will spit out the payload string for any sensor it hears.  It's a perl script so it's easy to modify to suit your needs.  As-is it's focused on a 5n1 sensor.

If you like Linux, that's probably the option for you.  I'm trying to keep everything as standard as possible so it is easy to modify.

My perl isn't great, but I can probably figure it out. I have a spare RasPi, I just need to get the Ethernet dongle. Does your script also capture additional tower temp/humid sensors? Thanks!

Offline nincehelser

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 3337
Sure.  Here's the listener portion in all its one-line glory:

sudo tcpdump -A -n -p -l -i eth0 -s0 -w - tcp dst port 80 | stdbuf -oL strings -n8 | stdbuf -oL egrep "mt=5N1|mt=pressure"

As written, the egrep portion filters out everything but the 5N1 and the pressure messages.  If you leave out the egrep statement, everything will come through.  Or you can modify the egrep to allow the tower statements through and nothing else (mt=tower I think, but don't quote me on that).  Once you see the raw messages come through, the mt values become clear.  mt probably stands for "model type". 

For those not familiar with egrep, the "!" in this case is an "or", meaning looking for data lines with the pattern "mt=5N1" or "mt=pressure".  Modify this as needed to match your specific situation....either tighter or looser.  grep (and egrep) are standard commands in Unix/Linux for looking for patterns in strings.  If you're scratching your head, just trust me on this.  Learning how to use grep and its relatives is extremely useful if you want to learn the Unix/Linux world.  It looks obscure and incomprehensible to the uninitiated, but it's a very useful and powerful command to know.

The "parser" section should then be able to extract the the temp and humidity with little to no modification.  If you have both a 5n1 and multiple towers, then you may need to add a few more lines of code to tell them apart.  Basically you just grep the payload string for the unique identifiers for each sensor as needed.

Offline vreihen

  • El Niņo chaser
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1216
  • K2BIG
This has really been about data collection and alerting (using custom scripts and Zabbix (open source monitoring system)) versus weather observation.

I never thought to have my work network monitoring system watch my home weather station, but it is essentially just data to graph and alarms when you think about it.  Given that I spent over $400 on an ethernet temperature probe for the server room a few years ago, I probably could have done that for under $100 with a bridge and tower sensor.....
WU Gold Stars for everyone! :lol:

Offline tandy1000

  • Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 107
I never thought to have my work network monitoring system watch my home weather station, but it is essentially just data to graph and alarms when you think about it.  Given that I spent over $400 on an ethernet temperature probe for the server room a few years ago, I probably could have done that for under $100 with a bridge and tower sensor.....


It has proven to be fairly useful. It's nice to have the data, even if it's not "pretty."  My real goal is to aggregate disparate data for home energy monitoring. In my old house, the temperature upstairs can vary quite a bit from downstairs. So I'd like to know - given the temperature outside, and how hot it is inside, how long will it take my window AC to get it to the desired temperature?

If I can analyze that type of info over time, I hope to develop trends so I can know exactly the right time to turn on the AC. In the end I doubt it will really save me a ton of money, but it's interesting nonetheless.