Weather Station Hardware > What Weather Station Should I Buy?
Any users reviews for Ambient Weather WS-5000-IP3
rrajarajan:
Hi I was looking to buy a weatherstation and came upon the WS-5000-IP3. The difference I see from a regular WS-5000 is that there is no display unit instead of that there is an access point that talks to the sensors and uploads data to the net.
Does anyone here have that specific model and have any info to share.
Pros and cons.
Right now I have a very basic LaCross weather station - essentially just an indoor/outdoor temperature sensor with display. This is going to be a big upgrade for me.
R.Sidetrack:
I don't have any Ambient equipment.
But ... you can avoid Ambient poor support and buy a similar product from Ecowitt, with good support, likely at a better price too.
For instance, this is similar: https://shop.ecowitt.com/collections/weather-station/products/hp2553... but it includes a display. While that price may look lower, after "shipping" it may not be.
I suggest pricing individual Ecowitt components, leaving out the display. Depending on the features you want, a GW1100 gateway is entry level, or a GW3000 is fully featured. In the USA some Ecowitt items are available on Amazon at good pricing, but some are not.
For more suggestions, tell us more about what you are looking for. For instance, how do you want to review / see / store /display the resulting data?
Wooks61:
Take a look at:
https://meshka.eu/Ecowitt/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=start
rrajarajan:
--- Quote from: R.Sidetrack on June 04, 2025, 03:48:54 PM ---I don't have any Ambient equipment.
But ... you can avoid Ambient poor support and buy a similar product from Ecowitt, with good support, likely at a better price too.
.......
For more suggestions, tell us more about what you are looking for. For instance, how do you want to review / see / store /display the resulting data?
--- End quote ---
Thanks for your reply. I spent the past few days looking/reading/educating myself.
As for what I am looking for - to start with the basics and be in a position to expand if and when I get deeper into it.
So a good starting place in my mind would be an all in one unit that posts to the net so that I can remotely view the data. A tablet display would be nice but not essential.
The observation I had with the current display products is that they all needed a power supply (via a cable) and where not totally battery operated.
I have seen some DIY e-paper display + Raspberry PI type of projects to show it on a kindle like display - That would make a good summer project for me - I have a background in DIY electronics as a hobby and software programming (I'm a SW Engineer).
Now the Ecowitt WS90 with GW-2000 is a potential candidate for me. Amazon (USA) has it for $199, which is a reasonable price to start with and have the ability to expand.
There is another kit with WS90 and the WS3900 display for $40 more - which is tempting. I need to google the WS3901 and read more about it to find out if that supports expansion by adding more sensors and has web connectivity (I'd assume so).
R.Sidetrack:
You could have the (no display) gateway [say the GW2000] post data to ecowitt.net (for free), then use a spare/under-used tablet to display the data. Or display a PC browser page etc.
If you are interested in local data storage / manipulation beyond what is available at ecowitt.net, CumulusMX is very easy to set up to retrieve data from Ecowitt.
My personal preference is to have separate sensors (no 7-in-1 etc) so that if there is a problem with a component just that item can be easily replaced. So I use WS40 (rain), WS68 (wind & solar) and a WS30 (temperature & humidity), plus a gateway. Only my WS68 is mounted up high, which minimizes maintenance hassle. I actually have 2 complete stations about 700 ft apart, my primary station uses a GW3000, the backup uses a GW2000. But the combination units are certainly popular.
There is a compatibility chart at Ecowitt that shows all the devices that can work with any given gateway. You should take a look here: https://shop.ecowitt.com/products/ecowitt-gw3001
Scroll down to almost the bottom of the page and look for the greenish chart.
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