Topic: Anyone attempted to talk directly to the device?

[shackledtodesk]

I'm wondering if anyone has attempted to port-scan the device to see if it is listening on any ports to see if you can query the device directly? 

Alternately, has anyone sniffed the traffic it sends out?

I'm looking to see if it is possible to get updates from the BloomSky weather sensors on a more frequent basis than every 5 minutes.  I've emailed technical support, but they only say that there is no way to communicate directly and that it only updates every 5 minutes.  It would be nice to know how frequently the sensors actually update their readings and really nice if you could query them locally instead of relying upon their API.  One of the thoughts I had was to proxy the traffic from the device to make adjust the barometer readings in-flight so they'd be corrected for altitude in WU.

Anyway, this is just me asking questions as part of my research before I break down a buy a weather station. 
tia.

[VaJim]

why?.....just curious....with that type of question (and it is interesting) why don't you just build your own?

[nincehelser]

It appears the Bloomsky turns off its wifi between transmissions, I assume to preserve power.

I haven't looked at it in depth, but I have an IP that comes on and goes off every 5 minutes or so registered to AMPAK.  I'm pretty sure it's the Bloomsky.

That will make talking to the device a bit of challenge. 

[VaJim]

It appears the Bloomsky turns off its wifi between transmissions, I assume to preserve power.

I haven't looked at it in depth, but I have an IP that comes on and goes off every 5 minutes or so registered to AMPAK.  I'm pretty sure it's the Bloomsky.

That will make talking to the device a bit of challenge. 

...sounds like the Nest thermostat...

[shackledtodesk]

why?.....just curious....with that type of question (and it is interesting) why don't you just build your own?

It's a question of time and skills.  I'd rather be able to have a "basic" weather station up and running quickly (and semi-inexpensively), then use my skills on the software, network, and data analytics side of things to extend what is provided by the vendor. 

I guess from a business model or philosophical perspective BloomSky is supposed to be simple and provide community driven weather.  But I was hoping that something that started as a KickStarter would be a bit more hackable by design.