Author Topic: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable  (Read 1474 times)

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Offline alanb

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Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« on: August 27, 2021, 03:01:40 PM »
https://ambientweather.com/ws-2000-usb

Has anyone rigged up a portable power bank with this USB cable and a standard USB wall charger to provide a battery backup for the WS-2000 console? If so, what power bank are you using? Have you tested it to see how long it will power the console when the power is out?
Alan - Ambient WS-2000, WH31E x5, WH31L, Ecowitt WN32(WH32E)
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Offline WA4OPQ

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2021, 03:14:56 PM »
I can't answer your question, but I'd like to thank you for the link to cable. I'm replacing all the wall warts on my desk to one large 5v device. I unsuccessfully tried to find a 90 degree adapter on Amazon that fit the console. This will work great.

There have been others that have found a 5v backup solution and have posted info in this forum, but I can't find that thread right now. I'll be back.

Online Rover1822

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2021, 04:03:39 PM »
I have not used that cable , I do have the basic power brick plugged into an UPS. That UPS also has USB out's , so I figure that cable would be fine.

Ambient:
  WS-2000
  PM 2.5(2)
  WH31B(2)
  WH40E
  WH31P
EcoWitt:
  GW1100
  GW1000(4)
  WH31(2)
  WH57
  WH51(12),
  WH40
  WH5360B
  WN34S
  WittBoy WS90 + GW2000
  WS90 (other one) + GW1100
Personal Sites: Weather Cam

Online Rover1822

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #3 on: August 27, 2021, 04:08:46 PM »
I can't answer your question, but I'd like to thank you for the link to cable. I'm replacing all the wall warts on my desk to one large 5v device. I unsuccessfully tried to find a 90 degree adapter on Amazon that fit the console. This will work great.

There have been others that have found a 5v backup solution and have posted info in this forum, but I can't find that thread right now. I'll be back.

Quite honestly there are very few native 5V backup solutions, meaning the batteries are maintained at a level for 5V, typically they are at least 6V (rare) and in most common (12 -24V)
I run a backup , UPS, that has a  USB out. I have one GW1100 on that output.

Then I have a power strip that has 6 USB outs, connected to that, from which I run 3 GW1000s.

In the end , they are backed up, well until the battery in UPS dies







 
« Last Edit: August 27, 2021, 04:10:25 PM by Rover1822 »
Ambient:
  WS-2000
  PM 2.5(2)
  WH31B(2)
  WH40E
  WH31P
EcoWitt:
  GW1100
  GW1000(4)
  WH31(2)
  WH57
  WH51(12),
  WH40
  WH5360B
  WN34S
  WittBoy WS90 + GW2000
  WS90 (other one) + GW1100
Personal Sites: Weather Cam

Offline alanb

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #4 on: August 27, 2021, 04:12:49 PM »
I can't answer your question, but I'd like to thank you for the link to cable. I'm replacing all the wall warts on my desk to one large 5v device. I unsuccessfully tried to find a 90 degree adapter on Amazon that fit the console. This will work great.

There have been others that have found a 5v backup solution and have posted info in this forum, but I can't find that thread right now. I'll be back.
I have been searching the forum for a 5v battery backup discussion on the WS-2000 console or HP2551-C but haven't found anything. I must be using the wrong search terms. I have found discussions on using a UPS, but not a 5V UPS power bank.
Alan - Ambient WS-2000, WH31E x5, WH31L, Ecowitt WN32(WH32E)
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Online Rover1822

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #5 on: August 27, 2021, 04:17:43 PM »
Why not use a standard UPS backup solution, you have the power adapter to convert 110AC to the input for the 2000 console.

These are cheap, well kind of , if I'm missing the point , please elaborate

I'm using one of these to keep my console alive and other things

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FWAZEIU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ambient:
  WS-2000
  PM 2.5(2)
  WH31B(2)
  WH40E
  WH31P
EcoWitt:
  GW1100
  GW1000(4)
  WH31(2)
  WH57
  WH51(12),
  WH40
  WH5360B
  WN34S
  WittBoy WS90 + GW2000
  WS90 (other one) + GW1100
Personal Sites: Weather Cam

Online olicat

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #6 on: August 27, 2021, 04:18:06 PM »
Hi!

For my HP3501 console I use this cable and a standard USB wall charger. I haven't tried it yet, but it should also work with a power bank, provided that it outputs 5V.

AKYGA Cable USB A / DC 2.5 x 0.7 mm AK-DC-02

Sorry, I didn't find it on amazon.com.

Regards, Oliver

Online Rover1822

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2021, 04:42:24 PM »
To the UPS , linked before, I have a power strip that has 6 USB power outlets , that I use for testing and permanent residence of various stuff, right now , 3 GW1000s

This unit is plugged into my UPS

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QG9MTVR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

But... I go back to the original question , and maybe I haven't looked hard enough, but I am very familiar with UPS , and the needs required by what I plug into them.

If the basic question is a USB back up power supply, that is probably what I would search for. Forget the 5V in the search.

I don't need a UPS dedicated to just 5V , and really , if you look at cost, getting a standard UPS has more advantages, such as a USB port, which was included in the one I linked to.

But I do not want to say this is this the answer. If the whole point is to make it portable , there are a myriad of USB power packs that are used by travelers to make sure they have extended power for their cell phones. They are basically just a battery pack to augment the one on the device.

Now, if this is to get through power outages, go back to UPS solutions that apply power when mains are interrupted




« Last Edit: August 27, 2021, 04:51:42 PM by Rover1822 »
Ambient:
  WS-2000
  PM 2.5(2)
  WH31B(2)
  WH40E
  WH31P
EcoWitt:
  GW1100
  GW1000(4)
  WH31(2)
  WH57
  WH51(12),
  WH40
  WH5360B
  WN34S
  WittBoy WS90 + GW2000
  WS90 (other one) + GW1100
Personal Sites: Weather Cam

Online Rover1822

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2021, 05:43:49 PM »
And I may be totally overthinking this. Would help alanb, if you might just say what you are trying to achieve, not so much in technical terms, just ... "hey, this is what I want"

I have a problem with overthinking things, went to to therapy and they kicked me out for overthinking it
Ambient:
  WS-2000
  PM 2.5(2)
  WH31B(2)
  WH40E
  WH31P
EcoWitt:
  GW1100
  GW1000(4)
  WH31(2)
  WH57
  WH51(12),
  WH40
  WH5360B
  WN34S
  WittBoy WS90 + GW2000
  WS90 (other one) + GW1100
Personal Sites: Weather Cam

Offline alanb

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #9 on: August 27, 2021, 07:27:05 PM »
And I may be totally overthinking this. Would help alanb, if you might just say what you are trying to achieve, not so much in technical terms, just ... "hey, this is what I want"

I have a problem with overthinking things, went to to therapy and they kicked me out for overthinking it
Your points are well taken and a small conventional UPS is something to consider. I was just looking for an inexpensive way to get a few hours of battery backup for the console in a small form factor ... was kind of thinking of something like this: https://www.amazon.com/ZMI-PowerPack-Ambi-USB-C-Power/dp/B07N7ZQ68Z/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8.
« Last Edit: August 27, 2021, 07:31:38 PM by alanb »
Alan - Ambient WS-2000, WH31E x5, WH31L, Ecowitt WN32(WH32E)
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Offline WA4OPQ

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #10 on: August 27, 2021, 08:50:59 PM »
Aha! When I said earlier that there were discussions on this I was wrong. The discussions were on the Ambient Weather group on Facebook. I reviewed a few discussions using the search feature.
One of the problems encountered with devices that were designed for charging cell phones is that they sometimes will disconnect the load or not return to charging when power returns.
Apparently this device works well:
https://www.amazon.com/TalentCell-Uninterrupted-27000mAh-Wireless-Smartphone/dp/B07WLD32RP/ref=psdc_764572_t5_B07W8MCBMS

Offline alanb

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #11 on: August 30, 2021, 01:53:52 PM »
https://ambientweather.com/ws-2000-usb

Has anyone rigged up a portable power bank with this USB cable and a standard USB wall charger to provide a battery backup for the WS-2000 console? If so, what power bank are you using? Have you tested it to see how long it will power the console when the power is out?
Well, I decided to give this a try using the USB power cable from Ambient, this power pack from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/ZMI-PowerPack-Ambi-USB-C-Power/dp/B07N7ZQ68Z), and a 2.1A USB wall wart from an old Motorola phone. I had to use a USB C male to USB A female adapter (that I already had) to attach the Ambient cable to the power pack. I also have an inline USB power meter on it for testing. The console is drawing between .11 and .16 amps.

I just hooked it up a couple of hours ago, and everything seems to be working as expected. Now I will unplug the wall wart to test how it will work during a power failure ... will report back with the results.
Alan - Ambient WS-2000, WH31E x5, WH31L, Ecowitt WN32(WH32E)
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Offline solartempest

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #12 on: August 30, 2021, 03:41:23 PM »
I measured my GW-1000 power consumption at up to 0.426W at 5.209V (0.0818A). It fluctuates a bit below that, but this would be a good number to consider.

For my HP2553BC, the power consumption was up to 1.74W at 119V (0.0146A). This is for the display on white. I prefer the display on black, which had much lower power consumption.

Personally, I have my HP2553BC on a 120VAC UPS. In my area, in case of power outages my ISP has very poor backup power so there is not much use backing up my GW-1000 as my internet typically goes down immediately. I am not running any logger on my home server for the GW-1000 either (although I know many of you are).

Measurements as per below:
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Ecowitt GW1000, HP2553BC, WS80, WH51x4, WH41, WH45, WH40, WH32, WH31x2, WH57x2.

Offline alanb

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #13 on: August 30, 2021, 06:27:19 PM »
OK, I have let the console run on the power pack battery for 4 hours and 14 minutes with no issues. It drew a total of 669 mAh from the power pack which is rated at 10000 mAh. So I think this will give the console all the battery backup I need, even if the power pack capacity is over rated. The next step of my test is to plug it back into the wall wart to make sure the power pack will charge back up while still powering the console. ZMI, the power pack manufacturer recommends that you use a PD (Power Delivery) capable charger when using the power pack as a UPS as I am. However, I suspect with the low draw of WS-2000 console that the 2.1A wall wart will recharge the power pack and drive the console OK. I will report back with the results. Here are a couple of pictures of my test setup. [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
« Last Edit: August 30, 2021, 10:50:20 PM by alanb »
Alan - Ambient WS-2000, WH31E x5, WH31L, Ecowitt WN32(WH32E)
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Offline WA4OPQ

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #14 on: August 30, 2021, 06:54:00 PM »
To me, the more important number is the 140mA. In theory that should give you 71 hours of power.

Offline alanb

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #15 on: August 30, 2021, 07:05:46 PM »
To me, the more important number is the 140mA. In theory that should give you 71 hours of power.
If I am home, I will have my generator running long before 71 hours  :-). Chances are with an extended outage, my ISP (Mediacom) will be down too. When we had the derecho storm a year ago and we were without power for 8 days, everything was out for much of that time ... power, cell phone service, Internet, cable, land line phone. I started my generator after about 12 hours to keep the fridge and freezer going, but even if I had had my WS-2000 at that time and even if it had survived, I wouldn't have been able to publish it. I suppose it still would have been interesting to capture and back up the data though. In any case, my preliminary testing tells me that this solution is more than adequate for my needs.
Alan - Ambient WS-2000, WH31E x5, WH31L, Ecowitt WN32(WH32E)
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Offline alanb

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #16 on: August 30, 2021, 10:40:53 PM »
As expected, the 2.1 A wall charger worked just fine recharging the power bank while simultaneously powering the WS-2000 console. So, unless I run into some unexpected problem, I think I have my solution for a WS-2000 console battery backup. :)
Alan - Ambient WS-2000, WH31E x5, WH31L, Ecowitt WN32(WH32E)
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Offline WA4OPQ

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #17 on: August 31, 2021, 12:48:04 AM »
I ordered the USB cord today. It goes to my multi-outlet 5v charger, which runs through my 1.4KW UPS which runs for almost three hours, long enough to fire up my 4KW generator.

Offline alanb

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #18 on: September 01, 2021, 06:23:29 PM »
Today, I discovered another nice advantage of using the small lightweight power bank as a battery backup / UPS for the console. I wanted to change some settings, namely the display labels shown on the console for the indoor temp/humidity and the 3 WH31E channels. Typing text using the console buttons is not the most pleasant task, but it is much nicer if you can take the console with you to a comfortable chair. So all I had to do is unplug the USB cable coming from the wall charger, then carry the console still operating along with the power bank still attached over to my recliner to work on the settings changes. I worked on the settings for 15 minutes or so, then simply moved the console and power bank back to its normal location and plugged the wall charger back into the power bank. No disruption of the console functions, no console reboot, no standing in an uncomfortable position trying to not accidentally yank the short power cable out while messing with the settings ... easy peasy.
Alan - Ambient WS-2000, WH31E x5, WH31L, Ecowitt WN32(WH32E)
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Offline WA4OPQ

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #19 on: September 04, 2021, 10:21:23 PM »
My cord arrived yesterday and it's installed. Thanks to your information and link I've been able to free up another space on the power strip that serves my desk.

Thanks again alanb for sharing the info.

Offline alanb

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #20 on: September 05, 2021, 05:58:56 PM »
As a test, I decided to let my WS-2000 console run on the battery pack (with the charging cable disconnected) until it failed ... went dark ... just so I would know for sure what the capacity is. It didn't go as long as I had estimated. The console was powered by the battery pack for 19 hours and 14 minutes, then shut down. Although that is nowhere near what I calculated from my preliminary test, it is suitable for my purpose. It is rare where I live to have a power failure for more than a few hours, the exception being the 2020 derecho which had the power down for 8+ days. Other than that, I have never had a power failure longer then 6 or 8 hours in the 52 years I have lived in this community. As I said earlier, unless I am away from home, I would have my generator running for essential power (sump pump, refrigerator, freezer, heat, lights, etc.) within a few hours of an outage. So with this latest test, I am still happy with this solution as a battery backup for the WS-2000 console.
Alan - Ambient WS-2000, WH31E x5, WH31L, Ecowitt WN32(WH32E)
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Offline plunet

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #21 on: September 07, 2021, 04:17:48 AM »
One thing I would add to this - there is a risk continually running power into a power bank. The design of these things will have a circuit to manage charging, but it's probably not been designed to be charged on a continual basis. And most use cases would have expected charging and discharging to not happen concurrently. That's not to say it can't cope with it, and it probably can. But if there was a failure, the power density in Lithium based batteries usually ends up with a runaway thermal condition that results in fire. If you compare a powerbank with a UPS, the UPS design is obviously more focussed on providing the protection you expect for this kind of application.

If you wanted to minimise your risks, I would suggest ensuring you have a reputable brand of powerbank where the charging circuits probably are more robust, and not something a bit cheaper/unknown brand, although one gotcha you have here is that they might not support charging and discharging at the same time. And consider hosting the powerbank in a metal box, so that if the worst were to happen, it would likely be contained.

I've seen a few too many incidences of where equipment with Lithium batteries have met an unfortunate ending and an increasing number of domestic and commercial fires have Lithium batteries as the root cause.

For example, my Ecowitt outdoor AirQuality detector, which should charge via it's solar panel, it has a micro USB socket to be able to top up the power  in the internal battery. Ecowitt do not expect you to provide a permanent power supply to the USB port, but expect you to provide a power top up from time to time when the batteries get low. Because I'm lazy I've run a permanent USB power connection to the unit, but I don't give it power 24/7, but just a boost of power for an hour once a week so it gets charged in the manner that the original designers expected.
« Last Edit: September 07, 2021, 04:22:25 AM by plunet »

Offline alanb

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #22 on: September 07, 2021, 01:47:59 PM »
Yes, the lithium overheating/fire risk is of concern to me. The power pack I selected is supposed to be able to be used as a UPS allowing pass through current to a device. https://www.amazon.com/ZMI-PowerPack-Ambi-USB-C-Power/dp/B07N7ZQ68Z. I guess there is no way to know for certain however that it can be safely used as advertised. The only indicators are 4 LED's showing the charge level. When all 4 are lit solid it indicates it is fully charged. If it is charging and nearing a full charge, the first 3 LED's are lit solid and the fourth one is flashing. When a device is drawing power from the power pack battery, all 4 LED's flash.

When I am powering the console with it, all 4 LED's remain lit and do not flash. I have looked at it several times a day and don't ever see a flashing LED indicating that it is charging or drawing power from the battery. That is really the only indication I have that it is passing power through to the console rather than taking power from the power bank battery.

But I agree, it is a concern.
« Last Edit: September 08, 2021, 01:10:10 AM by alanb »
Alan - Ambient WS-2000, WH31E x5, WH31L, Ecowitt WN32(WH32E)
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Offline WA4OPQ

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #23 on: September 07, 2021, 04:39:09 PM »
It might be wise to set it on a small piece of metal and keep it away from combustible items.  Just in case.

Offline plunet

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Re: Ambient WS-2000-USB Power Cable
« Reply #24 on: September 08, 2021, 09:04:16 AM »
I didn't realise there were specific "UPS type" USB power banks - if that is the case then the design should be taking into account continious charging and permitting a load at the same time as charging. Bonus. In that case with a UPS designated powerbank the risk should be less, but if you wanted to be super risk averse, putting it in a metal box will reduce risk further.

 

anything