Author Topic: ws-2902a connecting to awnet app  (Read 1083 times)

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Offline Platokidd

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ws-2902a connecting to awnet app
« on: April 14, 2019, 10:29:02 AM »
Having issues connecting my ws-2902a to the  awnet app, does not verify.
The app does show it connected to WU .
My ws-2000 shows fine on the aw dashboard in the  app. 
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W/o being able to see the ws-2902a device on the awnet app AW dashboard, I'm guessing I will never be able to update the firmware?
 The ws-2902a pws is at my camp location and the ws-2000 pws is at home.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2019, 10:33:41 AM by platokidd »
Ambient
1-WS-5000 1-WS-2902A 2-WS40/RAIN 1-WH31L 
1-METEOBRIDGE 1-PM2.5 (WH41B) 3-WH31 1-SRX100LX

ECOWITT
2-HP2550 2-HP2560 2-GW2000 2-GW1100
2-WS68 1-WS80 1-WH32EP 10-WH31 1-WH40
1-HP10 2-WH45 4-WH55 5-WH51
1-WN30 1-WH41

1-DAVIS 7714
1-STRATUS
1-Fisher Barometer 1436R-22
PWS at 2 locations.
1- Storm Sensor-Zelda the dog ;)

Offline kbellis

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Re: ws-2902a connecting to awnet app
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2019, 11:42:55 AM »
You may want to confirm that your phone and your display console are both on the exact same network; i.e., watch out for subnet issues.

Offline galfert

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Re: ws-2902a connecting to awnet app
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2019, 12:29:40 PM »
So are you saying you clicked on Next and nothing happened? What firmware are you currently running on the WS-2902A?

The WS-2902A sometimes needs to be factory reset. Before factory reset make a note of your rain totals so that you can enter them back unless you feel good about the information that AmbientWeather.net or WU has for reference.

https://ambientweather.net/help/how-do-i-restore-console-to-factory-default-osprey-series/
« Last Edit: April 14, 2019, 12:34:44 PM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
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Offline Platokidd

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Re: ws-2902a connecting to awnet app
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2019, 04:28:17 PM »
So are you saying you clicked on Next and nothing happened? What firmware are you currently running on the WS-2902A?

The WS-2902A sometimes needs to be factory reset. Before factory reset make a note of your rain totals so that you can enter them back unless you feel good about the information that AmbientWeather.net or WU has for reference.

https://ambientweather.net/help/how-do-i-restore-console-to-factory-default-osprey-series/

Last version was 4.1.1 as it was just updated  weeks ago when I was using this ws-2902a pws at home. I deleted it when I was having issue setting up the ws-2000 at home.

After the pic I posted above it times out and gives me a error message. Should of took a pic of that message, but it was about not connecting to the wifi. But yet it is connected as I can see the ws-2902a pws on Ambient and WU.

Oddly enough I was able to show WU through the app by filling in the login info manually.
Reading the help section on the  Ambient  website, it says to make sure the awnet app has the location turned on and I just noticed mine was off.
The campground has repeaters through out the grounds that could also be an issue even though there is a repeater 20 feet away from me.

Now, if I do a factory reset, will that reset me to the old version that my ws-2902 came with?  At this point I rather not have to do a reset unless I have too.

Cell service is also very spotty at the campground if that matters.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2019, 04:33:29 PM by platokidd »
Ambient
1-WS-5000 1-WS-2902A 2-WS40/RAIN 1-WH31L 
1-METEOBRIDGE 1-PM2.5 (WH41B) 3-WH31 1-SRX100LX

ECOWITT
2-HP2550 2-HP2560 2-GW2000 2-GW1100
2-WS68 1-WS80 1-WH32EP 10-WH31 1-WH40
1-HP10 2-WH45 4-WH55 5-WH51
1-WN30 1-WH41

1-DAVIS 7714
1-STRATUS
1-Fisher Barometer 1436R-22
PWS at 2 locations.
1- Storm Sensor-Zelda the dog ;)

Offline Platokidd

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Re: ws-2902a connecting to awnet app
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2019, 04:31:29 PM »
You may want to confirm that your phone and your display console are both on the exact same network; i.e., watch out for subnet issues.

 Subnet issues,, will have to read up on that point to understand fully.
Thanks
Ambient
1-WS-5000 1-WS-2902A 2-WS40/RAIN 1-WH31L 
1-METEOBRIDGE 1-PM2.5 (WH41B) 3-WH31 1-SRX100LX

ECOWITT
2-HP2550 2-HP2560 2-GW2000 2-GW1100
2-WS68 1-WS80 1-WH32EP 10-WH31 1-WH40
1-HP10 2-WH45 4-WH55 5-WH51
1-WN30 1-WH41

1-DAVIS 7714
1-STRATUS
1-Fisher Barometer 1436R-22
PWS at 2 locations.
1- Storm Sensor-Zelda the dog ;)

Offline kbellis

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Re: ws-2902a connecting to awnet app
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2019, 04:43:13 PM »
 Just make sure that you connect to the same access point.

Offline galfert

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Re: ws-2902a connecting to awnet app
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2019, 09:52:57 AM »
Even if you are on the same access point it sounds like the camp WiFi network may have some advanced networking features. These are the kind of things Kelly is referring to as subnet issues. It is becoming common for public hotspots to have client protections so that one guest device cannot spy on another guest device. These public hotspot networks are designed to only serve out the Internet and nothing more. Meaning you can't get internal client to client connections to work for device to device communication. On such a network you would also have the same trouble getting a computer to print to a network printer over that network. Of course there are work-arounds where you could use printing cloud services to still get to the printer (like HP ePrint...or Google Cloud Print) or you could use the printer's WiFi Direct Hotspot (which doesn't use the local network). So I'm not talking about not being able to print but rather not being able to print in the over the local network sense.

So what can you do? Well a few things....

  • Setup a rogue hotspot of your own on the camp network. This is basically your own WiFi access point that acts as its own router...so a network within a network (make sure your router's LAN subnet is different than what the camp site uses so that traffic can be routed between networks.) But you need a router can can use a WiFi network as its WAN connection. These are often referred to as Travel Routers.  You then connect the WS-2902A console to your Travel Router's WiFi access point and do the same for your mobile device. This is the same as having a double NAT situation which is not desirable in normal circumstances but is okay for this situation. But if the camp WiFi requires the guest to authenticate or agree to terms through a captive portal then this could be a problem even without this setup. Some Travel routers handle captive portals.
  • The other thing you can do is take the console home every time you need to do a firmware update. Then take it back to the camp WiFi. You don't need the outdoor sensor array ...so this should be simple. This of course is if the camp website allows the console to work and doesn't have a captive portal so that the WS-2902A can connect without further action required.


« Last Edit: September 07, 2020, 08:17:25 PM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
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Offline galfert

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Re: ws-2902a connecting to awnet app
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2019, 10:41:53 AM »
In summary two separate and unrelated issues you could be dealing with are a captive portal and/or intranet access (permission to local network connections). It could be either one of these or both of them.

There is also a slim possibility that that are some nonstandard network practices in play by the camp network. In some cases I've seen network devices not work well when subneting is not a full class C meaning not 255.255.255.0. Or maybe they use a default gateway that doesn't end in x.x.x.1 or other things like this. I've not tested to see if the WS-2902A has issue with these situations or other subnet issue situations.

Sometimes the manufacture can issue firmware updates to fix these problems if they are discovered. It even happens to reputable network device manufactures. A few years ago I ran across a Cisco Linksys router (back when it was still Cisco) that would not get on the Internet. Turns out that the DHCP address being handed down by the ISP was ending in 0. The router did not like that and it wasn't an easy thing to figure out because when I connected a laptop to the modem the ISP gave me a different IP address and the Internet worked. I fixed the issue by cloning the Laptop's MAC address onto the router to force the ISP to give me a different IP address that didn't end in 0. Technically there was nothing wrong with that IP address ending in 0 but the router didn't know how to use it and it treated it as an invalid WAN IP address. This was not something that was obvious at the time and took a while to figure out. Just using this story as an example that device manufactures sometimes don't implement proper full network stacks into their devices because they don't know better or because there is constantly new things happening. You should make sure your router and devices get frequent updates. So when you have a less than normal network situation then you can end up with problems. Finding these issues can be a challenge and often requires networking expertise.
« Last Edit: April 15, 2019, 10:49:47 AM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
Weather Underground Issue Tracking
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Offline ws03

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Re: ws-2902a connecting to awnet app
« Reply #8 on: May 14, 2019, 02:35:09 PM »
Not mentioned in the instructions or app,
is that one needs to  TURN OFF  (cell phone)  MOBILE DATA
during (cell phone app) wifi-related operations.

i went in circles for a half hour before calling support the next day to find this trick out.
He said they discovered this issue after the instructions were released.
(not sure why it cannot be mentioned in the downloadable app's step-by-step  instructions which could be updated/released any time)

Offline galfert

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Re: ws-2902a connecting to awnet app
« Reply #9 on: May 14, 2019, 03:10:16 PM »
Well it is technically not necessary to turn off mobile data. What is necessary is to turn of your phones management of WiFi where it will automatically switches to mobile data if it detects that the WiFi network you are connected to does not have Internet access. Turning off mobile data is just a way to circumvent how your device handles WiFi networks without Internet. When you are configuring your WS-2902A you need to be able to temporarily connect to its WiFi in order to send it the configuration settings for your WiFi network connection. That is the point in the process that breaks the completion of the setup when your phone decides that it doesn't like the temporary WiFi network on your WS-2902A that is only used for initial configuration purposes.

So turning off mobile data just makes it so that if you connect to a WiFi that has no Internet, that the phone doesn't like because of the advanced WiFi setting you have configured that is turned on (Adaptive WiFi) then in that case the phone can't switch to mobile data because it is off. So the phone has no choice but to stay on that WiFi without Internet. Which would also occur had you just turned off Adaptive WiFi.

Also on my phone at least Samsung Galaxy S8, when this switch to mobile data occurs you get notified that the phone has switched to mobile data because the WiFi network you connected to had no Internet. I also believe the newest version of the awnet app warns you about this to turn off what it calls Adaptive WiFi before you begin the configuration process.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2019, 03:19:29 PM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
Weather Underground Issue Tracking
Tele-Pole

 

anything