I am putting this in this topic area because it generally pertains to a comparison of limits on how often one can upload data from a PWS (mainly cellular or cloud-server based) to a commercial hosting site.
As an Onset HOBO RX3003-based weather station, I am limited to a minimum interval for connecting and uploading of every 10 minutes, and that the station's logging interval must be half of that (5 minutes) or less. At these most-frequently allowed settings, We are only using about 20% of the monthly cellular data allotment under the HOBOlink plan, which would indicate I could upload much more frequently without exceeding that limit. So I called Onset and asked if our minimum connection interval could be halved to 5 minutes. I was told no. In fact, they mentioned that I could pop my own SIM card into the unit, but on second thought, they said, even having done that, the logger unit would still only connect every 10 minutes minimum.
After hanging up, I got the usual follow-up customer survey email, so I wrote the following in the comments section. I have waited to post this here to make sure any anger of the moment has gone away, even though what I wrote was, I believe, entirely based on fact.
Response to Onset follow-up survey Aug. 8, 2018:
"Onset HOBOlink seems to limit cellular data upload connections to a minimum interval of every 10 minutes for no apparent technical reason. I am told I cannot do a more-frequent upload to HOBOlink and then Weather Underground, yet I am only using 20% of the monthly permitted data volume. This is contributing to our Weather Underground-based kiosk and on-line displays of "present" conditions to be regularly up to an hour or more behind. This is unacceptable for public display. All others in my immediate area who use WU, with less expensive monitoring stations and software / hosting, are updating between every 10 seconds and 1 minute. Once every 10 minutes does not suffice for public information, environmental awareness and STEM encouragement purposes. I must use WU for the display because the HOBOlink display is not "kiosk capable" (auto-updating, attention-getting, flexible in format, and controllable in auto-display). I am dissatisfied with Onset's HOBOlink service limitations and will be highlighting these factual limitations publicly now, so that other potential weather monitoring system purchasers can be aware of them as part of their decision-making. This does not even include the multi-day HOBOlink server and AT&T outages that I have experienced over the last few months since launching our unit in mid-April.
"That said, the RX3003 device itself has been working well at gathering data, and Tech Support rep [name was here] has been very professional in his manner. But they are both working within a system the limitations of which are readily apparent to someone trying to make good use of it for public display and awareness."
In looking about, I noticed that Davis' weatherlink.com server/host package, for example, offers a 5 minute connection interval, for less than the $300 annual fee of Onset's best package.
Rich K.
