What is Ambientweather.netAmbientweather.net is an online weather service by Ambient Weather. This service was designed to only be used with Ambient licensed hardware.
You don't need a weather station to enjoy Ambientweather.net. Anyone can check it out and see the stations that have decided to make their data public. Go check it out and see all that it has to offer. A new version 2.0 recently launched with a map and many new features. This service is evolving and there are future plans for new game changing things.
https://ambientweather.net/Who can't upload to Ambientweather.net?If you have similar hardware to Ambient you cannot upload to Ambientweather.net. It must be Ambient branded to upload. There are several limiting factors. The firmware is different in your similar looking hardware and you don't have a license from Ambient which is governed by Ambient by whitelisting device MAC addresses on their servers that are allowed to use Ambientweather.net.
If you think your hardware should be able to upload to Ambientweather.net but doesn't seem to have the functionality, then perhaps it has outdated firmware. Try updating your firmware to the latest version. Some earlier models didn't gain this ability until after they were manufactured and require updating. You should update your firmware anyway.
If you have Ambient Virtual Weather Station software (VWS) you can't upload to Ambientweather.net. This software has been discontinued and is no longer being developed. This software precedes the existence of Ambientweather.net. Therefore this software will not gain the capability to upload to Ambientweather.net. Ambient developed Ambientweather.net as a follow-up to VWS. The growing trend in the past decade is for software to go into the cloud and that is why this decision was made to put all efforts into the cloud and stop with VWS. New hardware can't use VWS. But old hardware often can be adapted to support Ambientweather.net, but it will require some investment on your part to expand your stations capabilities. See below for requirements and options.
Why is uploading to Ambientweather.net limited to Ambient licensed hardware?Uploading to Ambientweather.net is limited because to run this service requires resource expenditure. The more stations and data the costlier it is to run, maintain and support. Ambient does not make any money off your data. This is different than other online services that monetize your data by selling it, which is what allows them to provide a free place for you to upload data. There are several advantages to Ambientweather.net, one of them being no ads.
Other companies that sell weather stations have services that are also limited to only their customers. You wouldn't expect to be able to upload to myAcurite.com if you didn't have an Acurite hardware. Same for Weatherlink.com if you didn't have a Davis station. Ambientweather.net is more like these companies than like Weather Underground.
What are the different ways or requirements to upload to Ambientweather.net?Your options to upload to Ambientweather.net are (pick one):
- Buy an Ambient branded weather station that support this feature. For example: WS-2000, WS-5000, WS-2902A...and others. But not WS-1900 because that doesn't connect to the Internet. But you can add an ObserverIP to some models to add this capability, or add a second display with the capability.
- Buy a WeatherBridge from Ambient (this what they call a Meteobridge, it is the same thing it just has a different name). The Ambient WeatherBridge has the required license built-in. Tip: add a GW1000 to gain Meteobridge/WeatherBridge compatibility for your Fine Offset clone station. Davis stations can support various versions of the Meteobridge depedning on their logger: USB, IP, or the new WLL, or they can use the NANO version.
- Buy a Meteobridge elsewhere or make your own and then add the $100 license from Ambient (new lower price, previously it was $160). You only need to buy this one time license if your Meteobridge didn't come from Ambient.
https://www.ambientweather.com/amwevwamweac.html - Make sure your station has the latest firmware. Updating which you should do anyway may gain you this ability.
* Your Meteobridge/WeatherBridge can be the standard, NANO, or PRO model. Ambient currently only sells the standard and the NANO. But if you bought the PRO from Ambient back when the used to sell it then you are all set.
