Topic: An answer to DoctorKnow's question about my Ambient Weather Stations

[kmahler]

Kmahler,

I hate to go off topic a bit, but does that fine offset/ambient wx station still work in the image? I am thinking of buying one as a back-up... has it lasted and is it any good? You seem to know your stuff. I think Meteobridge is the best way to upload myself.

Tell you what, I'll start a thread in the Ambient category so as to not hijack my own thread.

DoctorKnow, you asked about the Ambient Weather station in my WX Cam picture. There are actually two. A very old (~8 year) WS-2080 and a brand new (< 1 month) WS-1400-IP.

My opinions on each are given in bullets below. I'm happy to go into more detail on either for you or even chat on the phone. I'm happy to discuss WX stations and WX in general.

Ambient Weather WS-2080

• In service off and on for about 8 years
• Has held up mostly well
• I don't use the console except as a terminal to feed data into a computer
• Build quality low
• Accuracy - poor
• Value - moderate
• Overall - It was a good starter station and I feel that I have gotten my money's worth from it. I've outgrown it. I have replaced several elements including the electronic sensor and anemometer cups (they broke in high winds).

Ambient Weather WS-1400-IP

• Purchased as a replacement for the WS-2080 that I'm going to retire
• First unit had a serious issue with the anemometer out of the box. It wouldn't spin until winds reached above 4mph and stopped when they dropped to 3.5mph. AW replaced the sensor unit promptly after having to show them a video showing it compared to 2 other stations. Had it been my only station, they never would have believed there was an actual problem. The replacement unit performs better but, still not as well as I'd like. I give Ambient a C+ on customer service. I'd give them an A if it did not take a youtube video to convince them it was flawed.
• It is very limited in services you can update with the ObserverIP
• Overall, I'm not impressed and don't feel that it's a very good value

[DoctorKnow]

Thanks Kmahler, you have been very helpful. I have noticed the anemometers on the ambient 1400s are not built well at all, and do not spin properly, and you have found that to be the case as well, but I would never buy one of those combined weather stations for the price they are asking for them. The 2080 anemometers seem to be very responsive to wind however. One thing I can say about the acurite 5n1 is that the anemometer will spin at low speeds, if it is lubricated properly.

I am surprised that you had a poor experience with Ambient. I have heard many say that they had good experiences with the owner when they had issues. I bet they know the anemometer sucks and that there is nothing they can do about it. Maybe they should try lubricating or recommend lubrication before installation.

[kmahler]

I wouldn't call it a bad experience. But, as you can see from this http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=31791.0 thread where you can read verbatim Ambient's response. It was not until I posted a video on youtube that he acknowledge that there was something wrong with my sensor unit.

[squallseeker]

Your experience matches my own with the anemometer; I just installed the unit this past Tuesday.  I was searching for a suggested lubricant when I found this post.  It appears from your video the cup spacing on their older model was greater, and of course there's the whale-looking integrated unit sitting directly underneath it on the 1400... but overall I'm quite happy with the unit.  I've read the internal input is just a 2-pin connector and so I can attach any pulse-per-rotation equivalent device to that, so for just $159 for the complete package and $99 to replace an outside unit, I'm ecstatic... I just need to swap the anemometer and I'll keep using the vane as it seems plenty sensitive.  I'm considering building a custom acoustic to attach to it (job is sensor design and interface engineering).

The other sensors seem pretty dead on... barometer change of 0.01 absolute, 0.02 relative, and rain gauge gain of 0.967 saw them very close out of the box.  That said, I encountered power problems early in a rain storm with receiver and router being dropped three times in quick succession, which caused a substantial over-report of rain; I had them on a UPS in about 5 minutes, deleted 2 data points at WU and corrected rain level in the IP Observer which also updated to WU.  Only issue now is my sickly looking wind speed graph.

[arlowx]

Your experience matches my own with the anemometer; I just installed the unit this past Tuesday.  I was searching for a suggested lubricant when I found this post.  It appears from your video the cup spacing on their older model was greater, and of course there's the whale-looking integrated unit sitting directly underneath it on the 1400... but overall I'm quite happy with the unit.  I've read the internal input is just a 2-pin connector and so I can attach any pulse-per-rotation equivalent device to that, so for just $159 for the complete package and $99 to replace an outside unit, I'm ecstatic... I just need to swap the anemometer and I'll keep using the vane as it seems plenty sensitive.  I'm considering building a custom acoustic to attach to it (job is sensor design and interface engineering).

The other sensors seem pretty dead on... barometer change of 0.01 absolute, 0.02 relative, and rain gauge gain of 0.967 saw them very close out of the box. 

Only issue now is my sickly looking wind speed graph.

I have just added a new VP2 to the same post that my 2 year old WS-1400 is mounted to & the readings (other than humidity) are surprisingly close, generally within a decimal point or two. I will have a chance to compare rain totals over the next few days as it looks like a few days of rain here. I also have a CoCoRahs gauge as a baseline.

I have to say that my Ws-1400 anemometer has always worked well, spins freely in the slightest breeze. It is the software-side of the Ambient/WU wind records I have found frustrating as it is averaged out considerably & doesn't seem to reflect high wind/gusts very well. There is a bit of reading on that issue in this forum.

On the WS-1400, I have separated my wind instruments from the base due to clogging from snow as seen here & it's been running fine since: 

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=30796.msg305687#msg305687

But were I to do it over again, I would do as you have mentioned & add a separate anemometer (I tested an Inspeed reed-switch anemometer) to the Ambient ISS (2-wires) & leave the ISS physically unmodified. The wind direction vane was the harder unit to remove from the base unit & works fine where it is.