Topic: WS2000 Reception questions

[Circle C Weather]

Hello everyone, this is my first post, so here goes. I owned a cabled Davis Vantage Pro for about 18 years with essentially no issues. After a lightning strike took it out, I needed a new station. I've ordered a WS2000 to be delivered tomorrow. I am most nervous on the reception issues. The mounting location is on pole about 10 feet off the ground and 50 feet from the house. It is in a residential neighborhood with neighbor all around. I have a couple questions on console location:

1) Is it better to go on 2nd floor or first floor? 2nd floor is above the sensors, 1st floor is below.
2) I guess a window is best location, but will the windowsill be OK enough? Where in the console is the antenna?
3) I have window screens but they are non-metallic (at least non-magnetic). Has anyone seen an issue with window screens?
4) Is line of sight as important as width of site. Meaning if I can put a string between the console and the sensors, is that line of sight? Or is the angle (or pie slice) open to the sensors important?

Finally, I have some questions on the signal drops. I see there is just that indicator of how many good packets were sent, so I'm assuming there's no measure of percentage good packets received. Also, when a packet is dropped, is the data lost forever? Is it saved into the next packet? I had an issue like this on the old Davis system and had it converted to cable to get around the pesky reception issues. It would just lose the data forever, most annoyingly when it was raining hard!

Thanks for your time...
Jeremy

[Mandrake]

Firstly, welcome to the forum!

I wish I could give a straight answer but that's not possible.
On the whole, digital transmission systems are usually fairly forgiving and provide for lost packets without losing data. So not having 5 bars does not mean loss of data, unless you go for more than a minute say with no bars.

Line of sight, building materials, even trees, what your neighbors are up to electronic wise will all impact the signal to an extent and really all you can do is buy the kit and see.
Some people have no issues with their HP2551/WS-2000 console over quite long distances and others at much closer ranges have real problems. Some folks have even modded their consoles to improve the reception through external aerials.

It is noted that if you purchase the low cost GW-1000 receiver module as well that this has much superior reception and will at least allow you to post the data on-line and watch via an app, but wont provide the pretty WS-2000 display on hand, but may get you out of a hole while you look at changing the console/sensor array locations to get solid reception for the console.

Hope this helps a little!

[StephenR0]

One thing that might ease your mind a bit is that the rain amount from the sensor array is an accumulating value.  That is, it is a counter that just goes up.  I think it resets to zero at some point.  But that's a long time, like over a year.  So you don't lose rain.  You just might not see the current correct amount if it's lost some packets.

[Circle C Weather]

With the old Davis wireless system, I wouldn't lose rain, it just wouldn't register as much new rain as actually fell due to lost packets. I will keep you guys posted on how it goes once I get it and try it. I also ordered 6 of the additional temp/humidity sensors, so I will let the forum know how the placement of those affect their reception.

[Mandrake]

Good luck!

I have one of the additional sensors some 30+ feet from my HP2551 console and through multiple walls at an extreme angle with no problem. Oh and its in a freezer, so effectively a faraday cage with the batteries operating sub-optimally at such cold temperatures. Handily the console shows the sensor packet loss for these as well as the main sensor array so all good.

Personally I am very happy with my console and associated add on sensors; its a great weather station.

One other thing that might help slightly as we head for the Northern latitude winter is to install Lithium cells in your main sensor array. They last longer, maintain a higher voltage (which may just help range) and are less affected by cold temperatures. That all said....I have no evidence on the extra range as during sunny periods the power on array should be via the solar cells and super-capacitor. The battery is really only for backup and cold/dark winter days.

[Jack Bowman]

I am at about 40 feet. I am going through three composite walls and still have a great signal with the ObserverIP. My display base is right at 30 feet and going through 1 composite wall, and again no issues. Good luck and enjoy your new Weather Station

Jack

[hooper]

Mine is probably at 100 ft with 1 wall in the way. I am not sure how accurate the signal strength is. It will say five bars but no temperature reading sometimes. What is weird is that the other readings do no go blank, just temperature. Power cycle fixes it or it will usually fix itself on its own.

[dunc1ca]

I would love to see a 915 MHz repeater hit the market.  I originally had my array mounted on a TV antenna only 10 metres from console and would suffer frequent dropouts of data.  I have lithium batteries installed, although the signal had to go through a couple of wood walls.
I tried relocating the console a few times.  I ultimately had to relocate everything to the other side of the house.  The array is less than 5 metres from the console now with perfect signal.  Unfortunately, the location is not optimal for measuring wind due to trees.  If Ambient Weather or some other compatible 915 MHz repeater is available, it would certainly get some consideration from me.

[Mandrake]

I think it unlikely that we will ever see a repeater device for the Fine Offset weather stations at the various frequencies they support, and I am not even sure if it would be technically feasible.
I will ask the design team if they have any plans to do a longer range solution and see what they say.

[Circle C Weather]

Well I got the station, and like I expected the reception issues are probably the lone critique. Everything else has been very stable and impressive. I tried downstairs and near the window was actually worse. I have it upstairs and through 1 wall, and it's more reliable than downstairs through a window. I think that interference plays quite a role in this since there is more going on in the kitchen downstairs than in my room upstairs. Time will tell, but I can't plot reception rate which should be added as a variable.

I believe the loss of transmission will lose whatever was going to get sent, meaning if the rain tipped during that time, I suspect it will be missed. Same goes for wind gusts. I haven't proven it out yet for sure. I would be interested if someone has really tested this out. Being a weather nut, I don't want to miss that big gust or the details of torrential rains...

Jeremy

[CW2274]

Well I got the station, and like I expected the reception issues are probably the lone critique.

If reception was a big concern, you should have never bailed on Davis, especially since you didn't have the upgrade of the spread-spectrum frequency-hopping (FHSS) transmitter and receiver of the VP2 vs your old VP1, which by the way, only lasted you a mere 18 years.

[Circle C Weather]

Yes, I know. I debated long and hard about this station. I haven't given up on it yet, and I feel that Davis is charging too much for a product that hasn't really been updated in many, many years. I think the lightning may have also killed my logger, so that would mean shelling out too much even for a Vue.

In terms of value, the WS2000 has a lot going for it. I may end up buying a Yagi and trying that out if it's too flakey.

[WA4OPQ]

I retired from the radio world, about 40 years of working on repeaters.
There are several reasons that we won't see a repeater.
First is that our weather stations operate on one frequency. A repeater uses two, an input and an output.
Secondly, the weather station market is small. The market for weather station repeaters is too small for the engineering costs.

[Mandrake]

As I think I mentioned purchase a GW-1000 as well. These are very reasonable cost and run on a USB power source and is little bigger than a matchbox.
You can place it anywhere and it has excellent sensitivity so should improve the odds of data reception. This can give you an independent record of your sensor data to that of your WS-2000 console and as a bonus you can see the data live on your phone which you cannot do via the ws-2000 alone.

I have never seen a significant difference in the measurements between the two (they will likely always be fractionally out since they are using different timepoints unless you are looking at averages etc)

Finally I have asked the techs at Ecowitt if they have any plans for longer range stations or something like repeaters and will post if I get anything tangible.
(Update from Ecowitt - latest sensor array WS-80 and updated GW-1000 should be capable of up to 300M in good conditions. So the issue of range is something they are taking on board)

[Circle C Weather]

Thanks for all the useful info guys. I took your advice Mandrake and just bought a GW1000. That could definitively answer the questions on lost packets and lost data. It should be here tomorrow. Hopefully Mandrake you are right on the lost packets not really missing any information (rain, wind gust), and this fretting is all for nothing. The GW1000 will be able to test it head to head.

I have found that even my cell phone placed close to the console affects it, but I guess that has interference too. All this has me thinking if these radio waves everywhere are really healthy for us.

I had one final question on the archiving on the WS2000. How long does the unit keep a data record internally? At a 5 minute interval, how long will it keep data before either stop saving it or overwriting it? I backed up onto SD card once already.

Thanks for all the help so far. Jeremy