Topic: WittBoy = GW2001 (station) = WS90 + GW2000 on Kickstarter & Beta test

[rage302]

WS90 firmware 1.2.5 is a joke. Do not update. I get rain in early mornings while the sky is clear.
I think it's water form melting frost.

I had this phenomenon more often on the older firmwares. On FW 1.2.5 it's less often on my WS90.

greetings rage

[Gyvate]

WS90 firmware 1.2.5 is a joke. Do not update. I get rain in early mornings while the sky is clear.
I think it's water form melting frost.

Imo it's not a joke. The sensor has just become more sensitive, and detecting dew etc. is even WMO compliant.
If it's unreasonably high, this can be compensated by a higher gain.

Not sure what your expectation are here ...
New sensor firmware and all works out perfectly without any additional calibration ?? - That's not going to happen due to design.

I have have two WS90, one on 1.1.9 and one on 1.2.5, and, as it has started raining a bit more in my area, I'm slowly getting tier 1 and 2 gain factors which align with the WH40 readings.
And yes, the 1.2.5 gains are different from the 1.1.9 and 1.2.1 gains. This I mentioned in an earlier post.
So if you want to collect proper and enough data to determine matching gain factors, you will need to stick with a certain firmware (at least for one device).
From this point of view not updating can imo make sense.

And honestly, with the WS90 I don't care too much about exactly the same readings at the same time as long as the end of the day the rain sum is matching my WH40 and my manual rain gauge (+/- 0.2 mm variance accepted).

[Mapantz]

Honestly, the defence of the WS90 haptic rain sensor is laughable!

They've increased the sensitivity of it in the the latest firmware, yet, when I had one a few months back, it was recording 3mm of dew on some occasions. Then it would record far too much rainfall in standard rain events, and also not read any rainfall in other events.

Adding gain is a waste of time, because there's no consistency in the first place.

Ecowitt need to stop the manufacturing of the WS90. They ought to carry on improving the WS80 instead, and create a better rain tipping sensor.

[Gyvate]

Honestly, the defence of the WS90 haptic rain sensor is laughable!

They've increased the sensitivity of it in the the latest firmware, yet, when I had one a few months back, it was recording 3mm of dew on some occasions. Then it would record far too much rainfall in standard rain events, and also not read any rainfall in other events.

Adding gain is a waste of time, because there's no consistency in the first place.

Ecowitt need to stop the manufacturing of the WS90. They ought to carry on improving the WS80 instead, and create a better rain tipping sensor.

I guess you could apply at Fine Offset as a marketing and technical consultant to product management ...   
Maybe you can convince them that you are the absolute matching guy for such a position ... 

[Jonesy]

Honestly, the defence of the WS90 haptic rain sensor is laughable!

They've increased the sensitivity of it in the the latest firmware, yet, when I had one a few months back, it was recording 3mm of dew on some occasions. Then it would record far too much rainfall in standard rain events, and also not read any rainfall in other events.

Adding gain is a waste of time, because there's no consistency in the first place.

Ecowitt need to stop the manufacturing of the WS90. They ought to carry on improving the WS80 instead, and create a better rain tipping sensor.

I guess you could apply at Fine Offset as a marketing and technical consultant to product management ...   
Maybe you can convince them that you are the absolute matching guy for such a position ... 

I soon realised that the ws90 haptic rain sensor was rather "experiential" so added a more traditional tipping bucket, WH40 to my sensor array. I am enthusiastic what the haptic method of rain detection can offer in terms of immediacy of measurement and minimum maintenance over the tipping bucket method.

[giusCB]

They've increased the sensitivity of it in the the latest firmware,

some testers did the comparative tests of the rain gauge in the wrong way, I tried to explain how to do it but they did not listen to me. Ecowitt had working with incorrect data and they have made a wrong update. Personally i recommend using the 1.1.9 fw. version and adjusting the gain correctly, but even in this way the rain gauge will never be totally reliable.

[Rover1822]

I've mentioned this before, as an item marketed as a simple device, IMHO, it is not. I wouldn't recommend one to someone unless they were a pure hobbyist interested in the technology, and willing to jump through the hoops that we expect will be coming .

For someone just wanting a simple weather station, as this is marketed, probably not for them, most don't want do a somewhat complicated firmware upgrade, or work out a complex calibration. (assumption here as I work in IT, a lot are not tech savvy enough yet), this is occasionally evidenced here, and I would consider this a forum filled with tech savvy people. Just my opinion, again.

As things progress, I hope a simpler, more accurate version is released. But for now... ehh, not something I would give to my parents.

[giusCB]

new fw. for ws90 https://osswww.ecowitt.net/uploads/20220921/WS90_V1.2.6%20Firmware%20&%20Toolkit.zip
" For those that 1.2.5 works, then it is no need to upgrade. Only those user that has extra counted during mist rain condition (with 1.2.5), then this upgrade is recommended. "

[giusCB]

today's rain

Davis VP2 19.2mm
WS90       21.4mm (125fw with stock gain setting 0,75,1,1,1,1)
manual     20  mm

wind
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[MonsterDog6]

Are you going to try with firmware version 126 also to compare?

[Gyvate]

Are you going to try with firmware version 126 also to compare?

there is a rainy week forecast in my area - so quite some data expected, hopefully at different rain rates - so data for 1.2.5 and 1.2.6 will be collected and an on-the-fly adjustment tried ...

[giusCB]

Are you going to try with firmware version 126 also to compare?

no, the firmware 126 should only be installed if you have ghost rain problems. This happens especially with beta stations that had a slightly different rain sensor.

I decreased the gain 2,3,4,5 from 1 to 0.95

[MonsterDog6]

ok I come back to you with my data on my observations on my 2 ws90 with different firmware one with ver.125 and the other with ver.126.

for the moment the ver.126 being less sensitive on the precipitations less than 4mm/h I should raise the gain from 1 to 1.25 to test


Manual collection ................15mm

Netatmo srnsor............10.5

a ws90 with ver.125 .............11.5mm

another ws90 with ver.126....8.7mm

piezo rain gain 1 to 5 was all 1.00

[giusCB]

today ... 
8.4mm vp2
8.5mm manual
5.9mm ws90 125fw. 0.65 , 0.95, 0.95, 0.95, 0.95

[Gyvate]

so far, for rain rates not bigger than 10 mm/h (higher rates I didn't have so far in this test series)
my two WS90 remain "inside or at the border of the WH40 and WS69 corridor" and two manual gauges with these settings

WS90 (HW rev. 1) FW 1.2.6: 1 (1.02), 2 (1.60), 3 (?), 4 (?), 5 (?)
WS90 (HW rev. 2) FW 1.2.5: 1 (0.95), 2 (1.40), 3 (?), 4 (?), 5 (?)

[Gyvate]

Anyone interested in the inner life of the GW2000 ? here you go
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[giusCB]

the quality of the welding is incredibly cheap, moreover, the antenna is positioned in wrong way. The polarization of the antenna on the sensors is horizontal, here it is positioned vertically. 

[giusCB]

today' with drizzle condition
0.4mm VP2
0.5mm Manual
1.1mm WS90 (gain 0,65, 0,95 0,95 0,95 0,95 )

to much sensitive the 125fw. Not only today, i'll tested the 126 asap (on ecowitt page: " Only those user that has extra counted during mist rain condition, then this upgrade is recommended. " )

[Gyvate]

the quality of the welding is incredibly cheap, moreover, the antenna is positioned in wrong way. The polarization of the antenna on the sensors is horizontal, here it is positioned vertically. 

Doesn't this depend on how the gateway is positioned ? It comes with a wall mount so the idea is that is put on the wall => antenna is horizontal.
Only when you put it flat on the e.g. table, the polarisation is the opposite...

[davidefa]

I'm not an RF expert but think these antennas produce a circularly polarized pattern so vertical or horizontal ( or mixed ) positioning should be acceptable

[BaseLine]

I was thinking about getting a WH32 sensor for my greenhouse but will this overwrite my WS90 temp/hum outdoor data? I do not have a physical console. I use the phone app.

[kheller2]

I'm not an RF expert but think these antennas produce a circularly polarized pattern so vertical or horizontal ( or mixed ) positioning should be acceptable

In the old days, patterns were omni-directional donuts.  These helical RF (rubber ducky) antennas behave similar.  Orientation can be important at the far reaches of signal.

[wsNoordbergum]

I was thinking about getting a WH32 sensor for my greenhouse but will this overwrite my WS90 temp/hum outdoor data? I do not have a physical console. I use the phone app.

WH32 will overwrite your WS90 temp/hum
You should buy the WH31 multichannel sensor

[BaseLine]

I was thinking about getting a WH32 sensor for my greenhouse but will this overwrite my WS90 temp/hum outdoor data? I do not have a physical console. I use the phone app.

WH32 will overwrite your WS90 temp/hum
You should buy the WH31 multichannel sensor

Thanks. It seems they do not have any WH31's using 868 MHz.

[Gyvate]

they = ?
when I checked I could see that both Ecowitt or Weather Spares in the UK have WH31s with 868 MHz available.
e.g. https://shop.ecowitt.com/products/wh31?variant=41418885267618