I've been an Acurite user for many years. Probably was in 2013 when I got my first 5-in-1. I upgraded it with the dual solar panel option (The SoCal heat made that a necessity!), purchased the Bridge for it to upload and share my data and even built a Meteobridge for it to share my data elsewhere and with faster updates. Had 4 displays through my home for it, and upgraded the displays several times as newer and nicer looking ones became available. I purchased 2 other complete systems (upgrades too and internet connected) for my dad at his house and my mom at her house.
When the Atlas was in development I was fortunate to be a part of the beta testing. I enjoyed the interaction with the development team and felt like suggestions were being listened to and bugs were getting worked out. Once complete, the reward for being a part of that was a production Atlas unit. I did purchase two additional displays (one was my beta display, one with the new production Atlas plus 2 more) for the various locations around the house.
Yesterday I needed to move the plug for one of my displays to another location on my UPS to make room for something else. When I plugged it back in I was greeted with the Acu>Rite splash screen and that's it. Unplugged again, tried the hidden reset button. Nothing. Left it unplugged overnight, plugged it back in, same screen.
This incident has sealed the fate of my Acurite system and finally pushed me to move on somewhere else. Below I'll list my reasons (and after seeing them all listed out like this, I'm really not sure why I lasted so long, even though most of my equipment was free to me....)
1. The first thing I wasn't pleased with was the new method for getting my data to the internet. I enjoyed being able to share my data where and when I liked to (not just WeatherUnderground) via my Meteobridge. The data was rapid-fire and updated every couple of seconds. Once the new bridge came the MeteoBridge could no longer see my data. So is my data really mine anymore? It now all belongs to Acurite and they can use it as they see fit.
2. Atlas Display: The display is beautiful. There's no denying that. But I'd like to be able to display data on it that is useful to me. The biggest gripe is rainfall. I'd much rather be able to see the amount of rain I've had each day, resetting at midnight local each day. I'm not really interested in seeing it randomly shown at past 24 hours, past 48 hours, past 72 hours....
It would be nice to be able to see the dewpoint year round. Instead it forces me to see heat index and wind chill and occasionally it will display the dew point in certain temperature ranges..
Also I'm running 4 displays. Each one shows different information at the same times. Rainfall and lightning strikes are the most noticed differences. For instance I'll show .25 rainfall on one display and .67 on another. Also one unit will show the weekly rainfall amount as 0.00 despite there being .25 for the day shown. It will however add that .25 for the day into the yearly total. I never figured it out so would just live with it.
3. Atlas unit: It has an amazing array of sensors. If they all worked properly it would be awesome! The lightning detector would frequently show thousands of strikes on bright sunny days. I tracked the issue back to the solar panels. Tried to get it replaced or repaired, but with no receipt or purchase record (reward for beta testing) it was jumping though hoops to try and get anything looked at. I solved my own problem by swapping the solar panel top off my Beta unit onto the Production unit.
The UV sensor never seemed to work properly both on my Beta or Production unit. Sitting in the SoCal sun midday in the summer, I'd at most get a UV reading on 3. Other nearby stations report reading of 10 plus. Was never able to get this sorted out so just lived with it.
These were the things that frustrated me the most. I'm sure there were other smaller things that I just lived with.
My brother has had the same Ambient station since 2014 and it's still pumping out data like day 1 with no problems. I'm probably leaning in the Ambient/Ecowitt direction but still doing my research. The WS-5000 intrigues me with the ultrasonic wind measurement and the display. I really enjoy the lightning detector and this unit is one of the few I've seen that integrates it into the display.
Thanks for listening! Farewell Acurite.