Topic: WeatherLinkIP with a simple RJ45-to-WiFi adapter?

[GBAllison]

OK, I have finally myself completely lost while trying to figure out WeatherLink, WeatherLinkIP, and the annoying lack of WiFi connectivity.  Please help? Here's what I'm trying to do:

• My weather station will be a Vantage Vue, mounted outside. The console will live indoors, less than 100 feet away.  The whole house is set up for WiFi (tri-band), but there's no cat5 at the console. There's no room to install a PC beside the console, and I don't want to dedicate an always-on PC to this function anyway. My old weather station was on weatherunderground--that's where I want the new weather station to publish. I'm not going to build my own web site; and I don't really care about any of the others. I definitely want it to publish Rapid Fire; specifically I want as little lag as possible between the readings and the postings.
• It would be nice to have some ability to monitor the station results in real time or near real time from an iPhone.
• Yes I know about WiFiLogger. But right now that's only sold in the UK and I'm in the US.

So that's what I'm trying to accomplish.  When I started my reading it looked like all I needed was the WeatherLinkIP device, and attach it to a little RJ45-based WiFi adapter/antenna.  Something like Amazon Foto4easy Vga11g 2.4ghz Wireless Wifi Network Dongle Bridge Rj45 Ethernet Port, or maybe an even simpler Netgear N300 WiFi Range Extender (EX2700) with RJ45.  What do you think?  Does that make sense?  Would that give me what I'm looking for?

Then I saw the other, USB-based data logger.  So I thought--wait, that's even better!  There are a zillion little USB-WiFi adapters out there.  But then I got lost in how to buy the USB data logger, and how it wouldn't work with weatherunderground?

Of course I read about the Meteobridge, but I completely don't understand why I need a small-form-factor Linux PC simply to get an RJ45 Ethernet signal onto WiFi.  And then I can only upload to weatherunderground every 15 minutes?  That's not good.  And with all that, it's getting to be really expensive.  Building WiFi shouldn't cost more than the whole weather station.

As you can see, I've got myself twisted around the axle.  Not sure what research is right and what I've got wrong.  Help?

Thanks!

[GBAllison]

quick update ... I just learned that WiFiLogger *is* available in the US.

https://www.scaledinstruments.com

[bchwdlks]

...

Then I saw the other, USB-based data logger.  So I thought--wait, that's even better!  There are a zillion little USB-WiFi adapters out there.  But then I got lost in how to buy the USB data logger, and how it wouldn't work with weatherunderground?

Of course I read about the Meteobridge, but I completely don't understand why I need a small-form-factor Linux PC simply to get an RJ45 Ethernet signal onto WiFi.  And then I can only upload to weatherunderground every 15 minutes?  That's not good.  And with all that, it's getting to be really expensive.  Building WiFi shouldn't cost more than the whole weather station.

As you can see, I've got myself twisted around the axle.  Not sure what research is right and what I've got wrong.  Help?

Thanks!

Go back and re-read the Meteobridge solution. The 'small-form-factor Linux PC' runs a software solution that:

• supports multiple vendors, dozens of stations
• already set up to send data to 30+ weather networks or software packages
• allows the user to set up events to load MySQL tables, ftp uploads, http uploads, emails, tweets or sms

It is more than a RJ45 to wifi solution. It is an extremely flexible solution that has been around for a good while, and has wide usage and lots of knowledgeable users and multiple support options.

WiFILogger is a work in progress (beta release) and shows lots of promise.

[GBAllison]

Thanks bchwdlks ... I appreciate the response.  And sorry about my words on the Meteobridge ... I wasn't trying to disparage it ... indeed I get it that it delivers a ton of functionality.