Thanks mucho for all this info. It can be pretty overwhelming.
It is overwhelming even for seasoned users as there are options that many have not tried out.
The graphic is well presented.
It is well presented, but realize it only begins to touch the surface of what all the options have to offer and how different or similar they are.
My main objective for now is to connect and be able to view my data on wunderground.
I already have a station ID after registering my station with them.
For my purposes, would you recommend the DAVIS WeatherLinkLive?
It is impossible to say that any option is bad, or that any option is better. There are pros/cons all over the place. Different users have their favorites and there are different budgets and therefore pricepoints. The WLL is a recent addition from Davis. Then there are other 3rd party options. And then there is the options of mixing different loggers with different software to achieve even more options. I will say that the WLL is not a bad place to start. The WLL still leaves you with the opportunity to later on expand your stations capabilities by adding yet more hardware or software to make it do more. You could later on add a WiFiLogger which doesn't need the WLL, or you could add a Meteobridge that does or doesn't need the WLL depending on which type of Meteobridge you get. Or you can expand the WLL with just software by running software such as; Cumulus MX, Weather-Display, or WeeWX. The WLL will upload to Weatherlink.com and it will then upload to Weather Underground.
[the WLL] That is a logger, yes?
Yes, the WLL is a logger. A logger in essence is a piece of hardware the captures data transmitted from your sensors and then makes it available to you in some way beyond the display console.
Someone on another site wrote:
The best web interface, IMHO, is to install use Davis' WeatherLink software, then install the WeatherUnderground plugin and upload your data to wunderground.com.
That is very old advice. That was an old way of doing things that I do not recommend. That was talking about installing Weatherlink PC software which would get data from the USB, IP, or Serial Loggers. The Weatherlink PC software used to have a price, but it is free now, but it has also been discontinued in the sense that no new development is being done to it, although it is made available for free. That software by today's standards looks pretty dated. That software then required a add-on plugin to allow it to upload to Weather Underground. That plugin is now very very old and it does not do rapidfire to Weather Underground. It is not the best way to upload data to Weather Underground. The only way to get data into this Weatherlink PC software is to have a USB, IP, or Serial logger. The WLL will not send data to the Weatherlink PC software, but the Weatherlink PC software can download data from Weatherlink.com cloud service, just not if the WLL uploaded it (I think). The WLL is an easy device to configure and upload to Weatherlink.com and then from there you can upload to Weather Underground.com.
I think with Davis a confusing part is that there have been too many things called "Weatherlink." There is Weatherlink the PC software (now discontinued but available), there is the WeatherLink Live device which is a Logger, then there is Weatherlink.com the cloud service, and there is Weatherlink the mobile app to pull data from Weatherlink.com and from the WLL device, and there is the name of the other loggers that also have the Weatherlink name like Weatherlink IP, Weatherlink USB, Weatherlink Serial. Phew! I've got it but boy is that not just crazy or what.
When people speak of the “software”, are they also referring to the WLL logger?
Not necessarily, depends on the context. The logger can be dumb like a USB logger and that requires being plugged into a device (like a Meteobridge) or to a computer running software to get the data from the Logger. But take the Meteobridge for example...that is both software and hardware, and it can be a logger or not depending on which model you get and how it is connected. The WLL is a logger and it has a built in interface that can be thought of as software, and there is also the software in the form of the mobile app that leverages the WLL, and it also has software in the cloud in the form of Weatherlink.com. Then there is sometimes software that isn't a logger like Cumulus MX, as that requires a logger to make data available to it and it then can "log" or store data.
I want to confirm that I need to order a $200 logger to connect to wunderground or other weather sites, like PWS and weatherlink.
Well yes you need something to get the data directly from the sensors like the WLL, or you need something like the USB logger that then gets the data from the console and then makes it available to some device via that USB connection. All the different logger options have different capabilities, pros/cons and price points. They are all easy, none of them are terrible. It comes down to personal preference and what you want to do, or how much you want to do. Someone once said that the WiFiLogger was simple and it is, and then they said the the Meteobridge was more expensive and did too much so it must be complicated and I disagree with that statement because the Meteobridge has a very nice easy interface and it is basic if you want it to be or you can drill down and do a lot more with it. Someone also once or twice said that the WLL was too expensive and didn't do as much as other loggers, but the WLL can be an excellent building block to then later expand and run multiple software at the same time.
Another basic question: do I need a logger to be able to view the data from my own console on my iPhone?
Yes you do. And depending on which logger will determine how the data makes it to your phone and how "live" is or how delayed it is.
What is the API all about, where does it fit into the equation?
API stands for Application Programming Interface. Many things can have an API. When something has an API it means that it has been designed to hand off data to something else. The WLL has an API that allows 3rd party software to get data (like Cumulus MX, Meteobridge, Weather-Display, or WeeWX), it is the same API that allows the Weatherlink mobile app to get live data on your local network. Then there are could service API, like Weather Underground has an API that you can use to put up a website and have it populate data from Weather Underground. When something has an API it is a good thing. Someone needs to have written a program to leverage this API as typically the API has a documentation that allowed software programmers to write a program to utilize this functionality. You as a user do not need to worry about the intricacies of the API nor how it works. If you for example decided to run WeeWX you would just need to know that in order to get data into WeeWX you have to install the WLL API driver that someone wrote so that WeeWX can get data. But if you are into programming then you can write your own little programs or scripts to do even more custom things with various API.
