Hello everyone! This is Cole from Savannah, GA. I'm very interested in setting up my weather station network on cellular service. If anyone has any tips/trick/concerns about some of my ideas below, I'd love some feedback, especially if anyone has attempted anything like I detail below.
Power/Internet service at my home has been spotty, and I often lose power/internet during severe weather (the times I'm most interested in recording weather measurements), and I want to put my weather sensors on a cellular network to record/report weather data. To do this, I know I need backup power (solar, battery, etc.), as well as a cellular-capable wifi device. I tried to make a block diagram to explain my intended setup.
Power:
- Considered solar panels, but due to size, am leaning towards a UPS Battery Backup. Based on quick calculations, the below UPS could power my devices for over a week.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HDC236Q/ref=ewc_pr_img_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1Data/Internet:
- Reporting to WeatherUnderground and Ambient Weather on most frequent reporting intervals would use less than 250MB of data per month by my estimates.
- Considering a device like SkyRoam to act as a dedicated cellular transmitter for my weather network.
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https://www.skyroam.com/solis-lite - With Skyroam's pay-as-you-go plan, I'd use 3GB of data a year (only $24/yr).
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https://www.skyroam.com/wifi-pricing I'm currently using the AmbientCWOP service to send my data to CWOP, however I'm considering adding a WeatherBridge to my network which would handle reporting to CWOP.
A few notes:
- I have considered the Ecowitt WS6006 to do all of the above, but I don't know how the data from that station can be reported to CWOP.
- If the WeatherBridge arrangement works in my block diagram, I would strongly consider replacing my Ambient Osprey sensor array with Ecowitt sensors (so that I can mount my rain sensor and anemometer separate). Ecowitt also appears to have a few more durable sensors (I'd like to measure water temperature from my dock).
Any insights would be appreciated!
CWOP: FW7647
WU: KGASAVAN162