Topic: Starting a new Ecowitt system. WS90 or WS80 + WH40?

[dratsabdeye4]

This would be my first real weather station. I've been researching many different brands and I've decided to start with an Ecowitt system. I already ordered a GW1100, gonna get it up and running once it's here. Now I'm trying to decide between getting a WS90 or the WS80 and a WH40.

I really like the idea of being notified as soon as the rain starts with the WS90's haptic sensors, but apparently they are less accurate than traditional rain collectors. How much so? I don't mind a mild loss in accuracy if the build quality/reliability is better, but if it's that bad I'll steer clear.

Is there any difference in accuracy in the other sensors (lux, temp/hum, etc)? Anything else I should know about either of these setups before committing to one? Any personal opinions on which one is better/worse? Any help would be appreciated!

[jpochmara]

About 9 months ago I got a WS90 from Ecowitt via Amazon because there was a $30 coupon.  I then added a WH32BP for indoor temperature/humidity and pressure.  Not long after that I added a WH40 for better rain measurements.

If I was starting again today, I would purchase a WS80 and WH40.  The WS90 is fine, but I do not use the haptic rain gauge feature.


Note: I need the WH32BP because a read the sensors via a SDR dongle.  And the consoles typically have the indoor temp/hum and pressure builtin, not sure about the GW1100.

[box]

This would be my first real weather station. I've been researching many different brands and I've decided to start with an Ecowitt system. I already ordered a GW1100, gonna get it up and running once it's here. Now I'm trying to decide between getting a WS90 or the WS80 and a WH40.

I really like the idea of being notified as soon as the rain starts with the WS90's haptic sensors, but apparently they are less accurate than traditional rain collectors. How much so? I don't mind a mild loss in accuracy if the build quality/reliability is better, but if it's that bad I'll steer clear.

Is there any difference in accuracy in the other sensors (lux, temp/hum, etc)? Anything else I should know about either of these setups before committing to one? Any personal opinions on which one is better/worse? Any help would be appreciated!

WS80 and WH40 vote here

Replaced my WS68 (trad cup anemometer) after it failed (lasted  2.5 years) with a WS80 no issues, worked straight out of the box


Not sure what your mounting plan is, but separate sensors will enable you to find a better location for each rather than a compromise for both

[dratsabdeye4]

Planning on putting the rain sensor in a clearing on a 4x4 pole, about 4-5 feet off the ground. The main array I am still trying to figure out where to put since our house has mostly trees around it.

And thanks for the feedback! Def leaning towards the WS80 rn

[box]

Planning on putting the rain sensor in a clearing on a 4x4 pole, about 4-5 feet off the ground. The main array I am still trying to figure out where to put since our house has mostly trees around it.

And thanks for the feedback! Def leaning towards the WS80 rn

Rain sounds good, rain measurement is really local anyway -it can be different at opposite ends of the same field!

Do the best you can on wind, higher the better and bias away from prevailing winds if you can, as they will be the ones you measure most often.

Before you go firm on locations try all the sensors on site and make sure they can reach your gateway unit. In my case I had to move the gateway so that it got a clear view of the wind sensor through a window.Think about maintenance too, at the least you will need to change batteries from time to time

Hope it goes well

[dratsabdeye4]

I will keep all of that in mind! I don't have a ladder so I am limited on height but I think there's still a few spots that would be good. Thanks again!

[mcrossley]

My vote would be for an 80 + 40

You can then put the 80 up high, and the 40 down low where it should be. Plus I think the 90 rain measurement is a novelty item.

[old76]

I went for a WS90 rain measurement a joke, had to get a WH40 to get rainfall

[Rocketman]

Get the ws80 and wh40 run the latest firmware

[CoolWeather]

Hi,

I just noticed this post about getting a WS80 and a WH40. I take they are Ecowitt? I want to buy these and collect the data using SDR and processing it using WeeWX.

Do you have any tips?

About 9 months ago I got a WS90 from Ecowitt via Amazon because there was a $30 coupon.  I then added a WH32BP for indoor temperature/humidity and pressure.  Not long after that I added a WH40 for better rain measurements.

If I was starting again today, I would purchase a WS80 and WH40.  The WS90 is fine, but I do not use the haptic rain gauge feature.


Note: I need the WH32BP because a read the sensors via a SDR dongle.  And the consoles typically have the indoor temp/hum and pressure builtin, not sure about the GW1100.

[vinceskahan]

I just noticed this post about getting a WS80 and a WH40. I take they are Ecowitt? I want to buy these and collect the data using SDR and processing it using WeeWX.

Do you have any tips?

Why would you use SDR and work that hard when there is an excellent driver for weewx that can query an Ecowitt gateway ?   Just spend the extra $30 and buy a GW1100 gateway and do it the easy way if you're ok with that gateway requiring internet connectivity to Ecowitt (China) for their watchdog timers in the firmware.

There are many discussions about that in the Ecowitt forums here....

[jpochmara]

The latest release of rtl_433 will decode a WS80, if you go with a WS90 you will need to down load the latest code from Github and compile rtl_433.  There is no released version of rtl_433 that includes WS90 support.  Get a good quality SDR dongle, I have heard people have problems with the lower quality dongles.

Consider getting a height extension for the WH40:

https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=44074.0

[CoolWeather]

Thank-you for getting back to me.

I’m getting the WS80 and the height extender and bird spikes seem like a good idea. In the future I’m also considering getting the WS68 which I could put 10 metres high for better wind speed, and direction.

Looking at SDR dongles I was thinking of getting the Adafruit Software Defined Radio Receiver USB Stick - RTL2832 w/R820T, or the RTL SDR -SDR with an antenna kit.

[jpochmara]

I use the RTL-SDR SDR dongle and have not had any issues.  I have a external antenna, my sensors are located about 250ft from my house and the external antenna helps out quit a bit.

[CoolWeather]

Hi,

I'm trying to ensure that any automation rules I create on my openHAB server regarding weather have no internet connection dependencies. WeeWX also has an SDR driver, which seems to work just fine.

I just noticed this post about getting a WS80 and a WH40. I take they are Ecowitt? I want to buy these and collect the data using SDR and processing it using WeeWX.

Do you have any tips?

Why would you use SDR and work that hard when there is an excellent driver for weewx that can query an Ecowitt gateway ?   Just spend the extra $30 and buy a GW1100 gateway and do it the easy way if you're ok with that gateway requiring internet connectivity to Ecowitt (China) for their watchdog timers in the firmware.

There are many discussions about that in the Ecowitt forums here....

[jpochmara]

I use the SDR driver in weewx and it does work.  I have had to update some of the devices in the driver, like adding in the WS90.  The weewx sdr driver does not seem to have much development activity going on.

I have been thinking of moving over to using the weewx MQTT input driver.  rtl_433 can send data to a MQTT server.  The new data path would be rtl_433 -> MQTT -> weewx.
This also allows other things (OpenHAB, Home Assistant, etc) to get access to the "raw" weather data if you wanted/needed that.

I also use the weewx MQTT output driver.  This is how I get a "real time" weather display in Home Assistant.