Topic: Very happy with my Weather flow

[Dennis Rogers]

I have never seen so many negitive comments about weather flow and new techology as a whole here. Seems many are resistant to change and stuck in the past or ways.

Why I say this, is my weather flow works well. Rain accuracy so far is on par with stations around me. Temps are all within a degree.

Wind works well and totally happy with my weather flow and inline with all the weather stations around me.

Wind updating every 3 secs is better than most stations.

The first drops of rain and you get a rain warning, unlike using the rain bucket everything is soaked before you know it's raining.

Also how long it's been raining is great. I even took down my Davis vue as its performing every bit as good.

The only downers I see is no display, but use my iPad mini as a display.

And I beleive drizzle is not recorded, but hey we get a frost and in later in the day my Davis vue always indicated it was rain and .2mm, so no perfect rain indication bar the manual rain gauge.

I did also get an ambient solar radiation shield and works well.

So impressesmd even by their customer service.

Since I live in the southern hemeisphere I had to reverse the solar panel so it faces North instead of south and they have me the instructions to do this, so did not need to buy the southern hemeisphere solar panel.

Another great feature is no replacing batteries in the sky unit and they use the newer LiFePO4  battery techology I beleive.

[weather34]

hello Dennis

first and foremost if your happy that is all that matters however lets give some insight into why you may see some negatives.

Its been nearly two years this product appeared and was made available to a bunch of selected testers .

During this period the product has vastly improved but what you see as negatives was actually pushing buttons and raising awareness
of issues the loudest way possible to actually have them listen and have a reasonable chance of improving and eradicate those issues.

Here is a list of some issues that have been pretty much eradicated over that period and some that are still apparent.Its not negativity its actually about raising the issues so they can try and eradicate or reproduce. Some testers get hardware and get flattered by the privilege and are afraid to be frank and doesnt this really benefit anyone or weatherflow .

1.Sky battery compartment ...batteries would rattle and were a loose fit in first batch this would cause unknown amounts of false rain due to wind vibrations(solar panel was not available originally). we basically ended up squeezing a thin plastic straw or some cushion fit to reduce the rattling.you now see two thin pieces of cushion inside .
2.Excessive battery drain in Air units ..much improved now
3.Wonky /weak plastic kneck where wind/uv/rain section mounts to main body .another culprit of false rain as it was prone to movement under strong winds .Now reinforced and stronger support under the plate.
4.UV Light sensor diffuser(this would crack under strong UV after a few weeks ).Now improved using different material.
5.Wind reporting incorrect north westerly direction frequently .Now corrected
6.Wind Speeds would not record or display above 40kmh regardless if the winds recorded by comparison hardware were hitting anywhere from 40kmh to 80kmh it wouldnt budge above 40kmh.
7.Wind Speed and directions fail under intense rainfall (build up of water on the plate and water splash/droplets on the sensor.
(Coating applied to later units)
8.UV sensor would read unrealistic values during peak UV periods for example local peak during August is around 9 but would see reading of 12-14 .(This still exists today) .UV calibration was meant to remedy this but it has proven not to be.
9.Rainfall the biggest issue since day one and continues to be the thorn in the side of this product. Raincheck solution was a kick in the ass to any field tester living outside North America .Personally Ive said from day one using these low cost piezo sensors in this manner/design is not the solution or trustworthy and ive yet to see any consistency from one rain event to another .(an external tipping bucket design is on the horizon)
10.Lack of console ..its a big issue not everyone has a disposable income or a tablet/smart phone spare . its an hidden cost.However they provide free apps and a website to view the data.obviously third party solutions help but there(weatherflow) smart home target audience may not be so experienced in using as most consumers want a smart plug and play solution with a clean interface thats the way it is today.
11.Air temperature and humidity ..Humidity would overflow and hit 100% then go to zero (better today).Temperature like all sensors
you need a consistent airflow or siting away from damp shaded areas
(poor humidity readings noticeable in winter in damp shaded areas where shaded area takes longer or be days to dry).Lack of
radiation shield solely relies on one very small ventilation port and is directional(north facing shaded area but if winds are southerly there is no airflow and could be probably blocked from airflow.Not all locations, homes can achieve a permanent 100% shaded area all year round.Solution needed a dedicated properly designed radiation shield to compliment the Air module and get into good reasonable airflow position.
12.there were other underlying minor issues or code issues which most have been resolved with the help of many testers(not myself).

My own experiences with the rainfall sensor , recording fails under really heavy downburst/hail storms ,I see no issues at light rain events where I do see issues is under moderate to heavy rainfall for long periods .
You will have to wait for that day to come to see also how the wind direction and speed performs once the build up of rain on those 4 transducers .
FWIW I don't or never expect to see identical results between the hardware i compare against (Davis VP2) but I do look for and expect some relative common figure between them .

Today remaining teething issues I see
UV sensor on average reports 2-5 index points higher than the Davis sensor on Partly/Mostly Cloudy days and yes all light sensor struggle to deal with light refractions and strong reflections but the weatherflow UV sensor is going a bit awol and is very unreliable under these conditions.

Wind sensor is reporting 10-15 kmh less when conditions are gusting somewhere in the region of 50kmh to 65kmh .Too many factors to consider but FWIW both anemometer and weatherflow mounted at identical height with no possibility of backdraft or surrounding objects to influence .
In August we had 23 days where the wind was recorded 40kmh to 59kmh not once did I see the weatherflow hit those readings it topped out at 45kmh.

Rain sensor failing during heavy rainfall and obviously needs a drying period for them to start recording again.

That is what did I for a long time(almost 2 years) was up and down the ladder and had or experienced therefore by raising those issues instead keeping them myself it gives them a chance to diagnose and remedy .

What you see has negative is not what I see , I merely drum it home push a few buttons in the hope it is dealt with /get a response  and I never forget this was a crowdfunded project so it has come a long way but too many need to contact support or do this scenarios before its classed has an out of the box and ready to go product.The day I see no rain issues reported and UV consistency is the day I go and buy one as the whole design concept really appeals to me but I cant help thinking thats a compromise..seperate rain solution will eradicate those known rain issues and allow a better chance to perfect , right now there is little that can done to the rainfall other than they keep tweaking the formula in some way, the current method of design restricts any physical design improvement.

Weatherflow impressive support and they listen......

[Dennis Rogers]

Well I ended up taking my Davis vue down and found my weather flow performs better at the moment and had been recording rainfall, temps, wind on par with my vue.

I do find since I got an ambient radiation sun shield has helped with better temps from the air unit, but moved and mounted it around my yard in several places till I found the right spot and it's in line with every weather station around me and within a degree in C and matches nicely with offical temps here.

Got to 21C here and my weather flow maxed out to 21.1C which is pretty good it feel.

In some parts of the day may very by 2 degrees but levels come right,  same as my Ecowitt will very slightly depending on sun height, etc , and my vue also did but is to be expected if you have no fan to circulate the air, so very impress so far and very close to offical temps and stations all around me only very about a degree.

[weather34]

as above dennis await the day when the heavens open up and your back yard looks like a pond ...if all is good then it shows they are continuously listening and improving.in all honestly removing the vue from the equation was a good thing otherwise you just end comparing day in day out and not actually enjoying the hobby or having the capability of recording or monitoring weather . i gave up comparing one to the other because now i just look at the screen and see the issues ..anyway enjoy the product its unique but other manufacturers in this price range will soon have similar technology..ie ultrasonic solutions ..

[Dennis Rogers]

Yes ecowitt are also testing similar wind sensing techology. Also when weather flow came out through kick starter they are basically test units and not really a final finished products but use kickstarter for testing and feed back on anything needing fixing and the finished out of kick starter is usually the better product.

That applies to anything in kickstarter and why I never buy into kick starter as everything is a test product to help iron out issues before the final product.

And yes it never rains here anymore but is often heavy so yes have had an experince with heavy rain and held up well.

[weather34]

[quote author=Dennis Rogers link=topic=37745.msg388270#msg388270 date=1567332986

And yes it never rains here anymore but is often heavy so yes have had an experince with heavy rain and held up well.
[/quote]

is that a typo dennis  have a great evening ...brian

[Dennis Rogers]

Meant to say when we get rain it's often heavy

[johnd]

When someone publishes a good scientific long-term (eg 6 months) trial of WF at a site where there are high quality reference measurements being made in parallel, like eg Stephen Burt has done for the Vue and VP2 stations with some Vaisala data for reference, then I might start to believe some of the claims. Maybe there are some studies out there? But I've not seen any quoted.

[weather34]

When someone publishes a good scientific long-term (eg 6 months) trial of WF at a site where there are high quality reference measurements being made in parallel, like eg Stephen Burt has done for the Vue and VP2 stations with some Vaisala data for reference, then I might start to believe some of the claims. Maybe there are some studies out there? But I've not seen any quoted.

unlikely that will happen until there is some consistency and they move away from this ridiculous raincheck process . then again a $300 consumer marketed package alongside a vaisala would that offer a true reflection. weatherflow have a professional industry department but i think trying to squeeze that technology and knowledge into this home weather station is asking alot and unlikely be able to hold that price point.as ive always said eradicate the rainfall issues and it will be a refreshing competitive product at that price point alongside fine offset and alike brands.

[johnd]

..then again a $300 consumer marketed package alongside a vaisala would that offer a true reflection...

Just to be clear, I'm not expecting an inexpensive consumer-grade station to perform equivalently to a high-end one - that would be crazy! But what I am trying to say is that unless you test/review/evaluate a station at a site where there is reliable, good quality reference data available then no-one can make any valid comments about the accuracy & consistency of the readings - otherwise comments are just anecdote, sometimes just hearsay, and not very useful.

[weather34]

oh well anecdotes ,if you see it that way then why do we bother sharing our observations. consistency here you see dennis with reasonably acceptable results perhaps many others , unfortunately i havent seen the same acceptable results i only mention what i have observed in the hope it improves and is acknowledged and some cases it has over the last couple of years.
its marketed for home user and home user environments from one to another rarely resemble a ideal field test site .

[gwwilk]

Weather Flow's 'Rain Check' vitiated it's intended use as a check on my Vantage Pro2+'s rain gauge readings.  They're both at the same address, and while initially I noticed higher Weather Flow readings, these have regressed to the point of negligible differences.  I attribute this to 'Rain Check' for which I haven't found a place to turn it off.

This isn't the result I wanted at all.

[weather34]

Weather Flow's 'Rain Check' vitiated it's intended use as a check on my Vantage Pro2+'s rain gauge readings.  They're both at the same address, and while initially I noticed higher Weather Flow readings, these have regressed to the point of negligible differences.  I attribute this to 'Rain Check' for which I haven't found a place to turn it off.

This isn't the result I wanted at all.

is the option not in the app being here in istanbul european side there is no rain check validation available to use and rain check is only a option to be used in north america as that is where source of data is compared too or adjusted against .

IOS app beta not sure if it is in public release

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[gwwilk]

Thanks, weather34, but the beta isn't available here.  Hopefully they'll release it soon...

[weather34]

Thanks, weather34, but the beta isn't available here.  Hopefully they'll release it soon...

ok you can login to your website version and goto settings

https://smartweather.weatherflow.com/settings/station/1234/

click manage devices
click sky
click advanced
should be there

edit ... sorry should’ve mentioned jerry that 1234 should be replaced by your station id ...

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[Dennis Rogers]

I took down my Davis vue but have left my ecowitt ws-2029a clone due to being online, an easier screen to see and better looking than my Davis and my weather flow matches it and when I had my Davis up match it as well with temps and everything else and all the stations around me my weather flow matches up pretty well and dont even live in the usa.

I imported one to New Zealand and even had to reverse the solar panel so it faces south and so far even rain has been recording well.

I did have to move my air to different places before permantialy to get the best temps that matched the stations around me and our forcast and now have it reporting temps well and did enclose it in an ambient radiation shield.

Also not everyone wants the best and biggest weather station out there.

Also love the fast winds updates which is something you dobt get on offsets and even the acurite atlas only updates wind at 10 sec intervals.

Also as this is a new product expect issues as it's always going to happen and dobt expect any rain measurements with with tipping buckets to be 100%,  Accurate either.

We have had rain so heavy here at times even the bucket cannot keep up with the rainfall and at times found my Davis was behind in rainfall.

There is no perfect weather station rain recording which is why you need a manual rain gauge as this is still more accurate than tipping buckets

My Davis after a frost always recorded .2mm of rain when it was not raining.

Think some on here just resist change and for home weather stations. We are not scientists so why does it matter if your not 100% accurate anyway.

It's like everyone cannot afford the best or even want the best car, but in the end do all not do the same job?

All I know is my weather flow is showing great results and up there with my offset and Davis. And all the stations around me in WU is preforming well.

The thing I do find is my offset does react to temp changes faster than my air and temps at certian times of the day can vary by 2 degrees, but then the offset is miles smaller so cooling and heating is faster. The air is a lot bigger and even bigger with the ambient sheild on so will be slower to react.

Just looking at temps now.

Both started at 4.3 C now the air is 4.2 and offset 3.6C and that is in an hour, so would say it's not too bad
. Offical christchurch temp is 3.4C.

Therr are minor differences at times in the day but not miles off.

What matters most is my observations and having scientific 100% accuracy is unimportant.

It works gets the job done and that's all that matters and better than the offset and the acurite atlas of only a ten sec wind update and in the price range of the weather flow I dont think there is anything else that updates wind at 3 sec intervals which for the price is very impressive.

Even the weather guys themselves cannot always even get the weather correct so so most of us we dont need or even want the best accuracy. When you get to serious it kills the hobby and you get set in a box and refuse to look outside it.

Hense the negative comments I have seen rubbishing weather flow.

Sure there are comments and feedback weatherflow need, but it's not to say its rubbish or outright call it junk as has been said on these forums.

All that matters if you enjoy it and by your conversations pretty accurate that's all that matters and there is yet not a perfect weather station out there? They cannot have 100% accuracy in everything.

So what's it matter to most folks?

Think your guys who are so serious must spend more time and money maintaining them than accually seeing results. Takes a lot of mantinace if your so serious to get the best accuracy

[gwwilk]

Thanks, weather34, but the beta isn't available here.  Hopefully they'll release it soon...

ok you can login to your website version and goto settings

https://smartweather.weatherflow.com/settings/station/1234/

...

No joy.  The above URL gets a 'Page Not Found' error when my station ID is entered instead of '1234'.

[waiukuweather]

you can get a second windspeed/rain sensor and mount that at ground level and set to be the rainfall measurement
good on you Dennis for posting this I say

[weather34]

Thanks, weather34, but the beta isn't available here.  Hopefully they'll release it soon...

ok you can login to your website version and goto settings

https://smartweather.weatherflow.com/settings/station/1234/

...

No joy.  The above URL gets a 'Page Not Found' error when my station ID is entered instead of '1234'.

what is your id ?

[gwwilk]

what is your id ?

Apparently I can't send you a personal message with the ID.  I'm somehow blocked by you.

[weather34]

what is your id ?

Apparently I can't send you a personal message with the ID.  I'm somehow blocked by you.

try now ?