WD40, you can always PM me. I may not always have the right answers. I do strive to help those who post that maybe I have experience in the field or area. Please don't take offense if I don't agree with the purpose of your post. I am a nobody here, just voicing my opinion.

The posts that are made, here, are ultimately used for posterity for others that do searches for answers. It is not , in my opinion a chat channel , to just throw out thoughts, unless there is a basis.

You have a nice day as well.

@Weatherstation De Hout

I know this offer.
However, the price is... deadly.

Yes, I know that John contributes significantly here on the forum.

Ok, you're probably right. I'll write to him.

You are rather new here . This argument / discussion has been going on for many years.
You can get ticked, you can stomp your feet , but it is what it is. I'm sure Ambient is aware of the negative press they get in here (over the years for their practice). But it doesn't seem to rise to a level to make a difference on their bottom line.  It is also why, most of us will stipulate the the limitations and positives for purchasing from Ambient.

I discovered this forum years after I had bought a lot of Ambient stuff, I got an education. All depends on what you need, etc. I figure most , by far are happy with what they have and will never look for a resource such as this forum, and the glorious/extensive  documentation that Gyvate provides in the Wiki.

It is all still on the buyer, caveat emptor . Nothing against Ambient, they are following their practice, and If where them, probably not suggest alternatives.

Ambient , used to be well respected, but as mentioned, merged bought out.

The initial lockout on certain products unless branded by Ambient, stems from before the buyout, in an effort to maintain brand and market share (IMHO). Some of us remember the old Ambient, and the individuals that would post in in here from that company. That is no longer the case.

Whatever the case, I have delivered my opinion.

I don’t really have a problem with the proprietary stuff as I understand them wanting to protect themselves and wanting to insert compatibility issues to force customers to continue buying their products. If I understand Gyvate correctly, Ambient doesn’t allow all available features into their firmware (e.g. 10 min avg wind, choice of feels like/apparent temp, temperature compensation for arrays ...). The features are there, but Ambient requires Fine Offset to remove them from the firmware Ambient uses. Now, Ambient could claim they do this to eliminate features that if used would result in inaccuracies, but I would be willing to bet their reason is simply to dumb-down the software, making it easier (and cheaper) to deal with. They could choose to retain and market the features, but that would also take a little more effort and money, and they likely figure it would have little effect on sales. As a hobbyist, I would rather have the features available and then I could decide which features I want/don’t want to use