Topic: PM 2.5 battery out - I want an ALERT! using WS2000

[mvcl]

When the batteries are exhausted in my PM2.5 Outdoor Monitor, the data, not surprisingly, drops off. There is no data at all; the chart for its values is blank.

I am running my WS2000, sending data to WeatherUnderground.net

I want to set an alert for this NO DATA condition. With the Ambient Weather web site I can set alerts to be sent when data values are either greater than or less than a certain value. But I don't see anything about triggering an alert when there's NO DATA - i.e. batteries out.  It’s not exactly any value less than or more than, which are all that the alert-system allows me to set up. So what can I do to get an SMS or EMAIL alert when the batteries run out?

[alanb]

I don't have a PM2.5 on my WS-2000, so I can't tell you what values to check for on the battery alert. I do have battery alerts set for the array, several WH31E sensors and the WH31L lightning sensor. I discovered the values to use by trial and error. A good battery on all the devices except the WH31L have a value of 1 to indicate a good battery. The ligntning sensor has a value of 0 to indicate a good battery. So I have my alerts set up to alert me if the WH31L > 0. All other sensors alert me if the battery values < 1. There was a post on this forum a couple of years ago where this was discussed, but I can't find it now. I'll keep looking and if I find it I will add the link.

EDIT: OK, I found the old thread ... here is the link: https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=40432.msg437861#msg437861

[G.Brown]

I have mine set to "Battery level: PM2.5 Sensor (CH2) less than or equal to 60%" - just set the percent to something very low.

[mvcl]

Thanks so much for your response, and the reference to the older thread.
Since my post, I've found also that it's easy to generate an alert using Home Assistant from the WS2000's PM2.5 outdoor battery low. LOW does come before it then falls over to NO DATA. 

I'm good to go now!