Topic: Acurite Atlas/Access CWOP and APRS

[cwp101]

Good afternoon:

I thought I posted this question before but for the life of me I can't find it so forgive me if I'm duplicating something.

I just purchased an Acurite Atlas 5 in 1/Access and have it up.  However, I find now that I cannot send my WX data to CWOP and/or Amateur Radio APRS.  I had a chat session with Acurite earlier today and 'Chris' told me that the only place their systems send data is WeatherUndergound.

From reviewing the data here it appears that some people are using a separate computer (Linux) with either Acuparse or Weewx to somehow 'intercept' the data from the Access and send it wherever they want.  I'm not particularly interested in dedicating another PC to the Weather Station, though a Raspberry Pi might be an option. 

I realize that if I want to send the data to APRS I'll need a radio and TNC as well.  I'm familiar with APRS and am a licensed amateur radio operator.

Although I'm familiar with Linux, Acuparse looks quite daunting to install even in the 'automatic' mode.  Weewx looks a lot simpler.

My question is, "Are these the only methods to send Acurite weather station data somewhere other than WU?"

If so, I'm going to return the system for a refund.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts.

Carmine, K3CWP

[galfert]

My question is, "Are these the only methods to send Acurite weather station data somewhere other than WU?"

Yes, pretty much Acuparse and WeeWX are some of the most popular solutions for Acurite users. But there are other ways. Another method involves building an SDR system that is capable of picking up the sensor transmissions directly. But that has its challenges and technical hurdles too. Another simpler method involves using one of the older Acurite displays that have USB data connection called USB Mode 3 and then connection to some of the various software like Meteobridge or others. But then you can't use an Atlas as USB Mode 3 only works for some 5-in-1 consoles. USB Mode 3 not supported by the Access. Acurite doesn't make it easy to get at the data as other brands.

Lastly an indirect method is to generate a WU API key and use their API with some other software that will pull data from WU and then send it elsewhere. Weather-Display is one (there are others) that do this.

[galfert]

What did you decide to do?
(I just updated my response above with the inclusion of another method - WU API)