Author Topic: Looking for a good recommendation on the Used market? (Read 2784 times)

kq6up · « **on:** February 13, 2019, 04:22:18 PM »

I would like to log barometric pressure/humidity/temperature at my house. I twas be nice to send out over APRS. However, at this point I would prefer to purchase some used gear . Peet brother's stands out to me, but are these some other brands that have older tech (hardwired etc) that could be found on the used market?

Thanks,
Chris Maness

galfert · « **Reply #1 on:** February 13, 2019, 04:42:20 PM »

What is your budget? Why not a complete station with wind and rainfall also?

kq6up · « **Reply #2 on:** February 13, 2019, 04:48:08 PM »

I have a manual rain gauge that I am happy for the moment. I find myself rather limited in time to spend siting an anemometer correctly. Personally, I think it is better to have no data than bad data. I have a packet TNC with a dedicated radio and antenna that is not doing much at the moment. It has been ages since I have checked my packet mail, and I think it could be put to better use. I am thinking $200 would be ok. That is why I am interested in used. I could possibly hold off and save to get the Peet Bro's 2100. However, not a huge priority -- it would just be cool. I teach college physics and high school physics, chemistry, and geology.

Regards,
Chris Maness

galfert · « **Reply #3 on:** February 13, 2019, 04:58:06 PM »

This little device for $30 does what you ask but I'm not sure about APRS support. I'll be taking a closer look at it soon.

https://www.amazon.com/ECOWITT-Gateway-Temperature-Humidity-Pressure/dp/B07JLRFG24/

You can add more sensors for outdoor temperature and humidity.

https://www.amazon.com/ECOWITT-Gateway-Temperature-Humidity-Pressure/dp/B07MZ4RWY1/

I realize it doesn't interface with your old stuff. But this new stuff is pretty affordable and uses latest digital sensors. It also has its own free cloud logging service.

kq6up · « **Reply #4 on:** February 13, 2019, 05:01:26 PM »

That does look pretty cool. I can probably get a Peet bros. later when I have more time, but this is nice (probably no APRS tho).

Thanks,
Chris Maness

PaulMy · « **Reply #5 on:** February 13, 2019, 06:18:38 PM »

I am testing that Ecowitt GW1000 which has indoor temp, humidity, and pressure. My testing includes the PM 2.5air quality and wireless soil moisture sensors. It can upload to WU, WOW, Weathercloud, and Ecowitt.net. AQPRS/CWOP is not part of the current upload.

Enjoy,
Paul

kq6up · « **Reply #6 on:** February 13, 2019, 06:56:12 PM »

Yes, I purchased the Ecowitt -- maybe there will be some future support for APRS/CWOP in the future. I am OCD about barometric pressure, so NOAA would have good data, and there are no weather stations close to me that have bothered to carefully calibrate there equipment.

Regards,
Chris Maness

galfert · « **Reply #7 on:** February 13, 2019, 07:19:49 PM »

I too am reviewing the GW1000 with additional sensors that Ecowitt sent. The GW1000 seems like a replacement for the older ObserverIP / Weather Logger from Fine Offset. Just like that prior version did not directly support APRS/CWOP this newer version does not either, but I said I wasn't sure because what I'm not sure about yet is about the possibility of expanding via a Meteobridge as is currently done with the older version. Boris seems receptive to adding expandability to the Meteobridge if the capability is there on the local network device to pull data from it.

kq6up · « **Reply #8 on:** February 15, 2019, 12:35:39 PM »

Thanks a lot. That little thing is really neat. If some day they add APRS compatibility with Raspberry Pi or the like, it would be incredible.

Here it is: https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KCAGRAND5&cm_ven=localwx_pwsdash#history

galfert · « **Reply #9 on:** February 15, 2019, 12:50:15 PM »

Quote from: kq6up on February 15, 2019, 12:35:39 PM

Thanks a lot. That little thing is really neat. If some day they add APRS compatibility with Raspberry Pi or the like, it would be incredible.

Here it is: https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KCAGRAND5&cm_ven=localwx_pwsdash#history

Glad you like it. It is very neat. And it is expandable to form a complete weather station and more with extra sensors. More sensors coming in the future also.

It is possible to report to APRS/CWOP if you install WeeWx on the Raspberry Pi. You'll also need the Interceptor driver for WeeWx. The Raspberry Pi will need to create a hotspot and then the Raspberry Pi connects to the network via Ethernet port. Then the GW1000 connects to the Raspberry Pi's hot spot. What WeeWx does with the Interceptor driver is capture Internet packets intended for Weather Underground and copies the data for its use. WeeWx then will pass along the data to Weather Underground. But since WeeWx has the data now too, it will then be able to publish it to the APRS network via CWOP. You can also customize WeeWx if you have your own preferred APRS server or network.

I'm hoping to find other ways to pull data from this GW1000 yet. Like connecting the Meteobridge to it. I said prior that I wasn't sure about APRS because I didn't want to rule out these possibilities and more since I'm working with Ecowitt as they develop this product.

kq6up · « **Reply #10 on:** February 15, 2019, 01:02:58 PM »

What would be the approximate time involved in setting this up? I am very proficient in Linux, but if there is a ton of configuring I probably would have to shelve it (time constraints). That is what appealed to me about the Peet bros. ultimeter-2100. I already have a PR station going with a Kantronix TNC, so it would literally be plug and play. However, did not have $400 to drop on a WX station. This is working really nicely, and I would say that my barometry itch is sufficiently scratched on the home WX station. It would be cool to get the data to CWOP, and my understanding is that broadcasting APRS packets is a very easy way to do that.

Thanks,
Chris Maness

galfert · « **Reply #11 on:** February 15, 2019, 01:11:54 PM »

Since you are proficient in Linux and you already have experience with the Raspberry Pi this shouldn't be hard at all. An afternoon if that worth of time. Just follow the numerous instructions and guides for WeeWx. Read up on the addon Interceptor driver for WeeWx. You can also go ask for help in the various WeeWx forums like the on in this forum for WeeWx or the Google Groups for WeeWx...and there may be others I'm not aware of.

kq6up · « **Reply #12 on:** February 15, 2019, 01:18:42 PM »

Good to go then. I will check it out.

Regards,
Chris Maness

kq6up · « **Reply #13 on:** February 18, 2019, 01:17:18 AM »

Is there anything specific I need to do other than following the weewx and weewx-interceptor installation and prerequisites? Weewx is working, but not showing my actual data yet.

Regards,
Chris Maness

galfert · « **Reply #14 on:** February 18, 2019, 07:42:47 AM »

Did you set up the hotspot on the Pi and connect your GW1000 to that hotspot? The Interceptor driver only works if it can directly get the data coming from your data logger.

kq6up · « **Reply #15 on:** February 18, 2019, 11:11:48 AM »

Ah, I figured it could be something like that. In other words my I-net router behaves like a switch, and it can't see the packets from/to the router.

Regards,
Chris Maness

galfert · « **Reply #16 on:** February 18, 2019, 11:35:26 AM »

Correct the Pi can't see the Internet traffic coming from the GW1000 if it is just connected normally on your WiFi network. Unless you have a managed switch which then allows you to put put a port into promiscuous mode (to be used by the Pi) where it then sees the packets that are not intended for it. So it is a simple solution to put the GW1000 on the Pi'a hotspot so that it can see that traffic, thereby not requiring you to have a managed switch that you put into promiscuous mode.

kq6up · « **Reply #17 on:** February 18, 2019, 01:07:54 PM »

Ok, weewx not showing the sample file anymore, and WU not reporting. It is reporting to ecowitt. I am now connected through the raspberry pi, but not sure why it is not talking to WU. I can connect my laptop to the pi hotspot, and I can brows the inet. So probably not a connectivity issue.

Regards,
Chris Maness

kq6up · « **Reply #18 on:** February 18, 2019, 01:17:05 PM »

Ok, now reporting to WU, but getting import driver failed when I do #/inet.d/weewx status

galfert · « **Reply #19 on:** February 18, 2019, 01:27:14 PM »

Well now you are beyond my expertise as I haven't messed with WeeWx to this level....yet. I recommend asking in the WeeWx sub.

https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?board=119.0

kq6up · « **Reply #20 on:** February 18, 2019, 03:09:19 PM »

The engine was failing to launch because RaspAP (to configure the hotspot) had attached to port 80. I moved it to 8080, and now the engine is running. Everything is reporting, but no weewx status page yet.

Thanks,
Chris Maness

kq6up · « **Reply #21 on:** February 19, 2019, 06:52:38 PM »

Quote from: galfert on February 18, 2019, 01:27:14 PM

Well now you are beyond my expertise as I haven't messed with WeeWx to this level....yet. I recommend asking in the WeeWx sub.

https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?board=119.0

I have it running now. Time to get it sending to CWOP.

Chris

galfert · « **Reply #22 on:** February 19, 2019, 07:51:53 PM »

Wow you are on a roll! Good going!

Thanks for the update.

kq6up · « **Reply #23 on:** February 19, 2019, 08:16:05 PM »

Just found out that wind is an essential data entry for CWOP dataset. Not sure I have the time to set a pole 30ft above my house. Wife might not dig that idea either -- hmm. How about some compromised data from a WX vane on the chimney? How bad is that?

Thanks,
Chris

galfert · « **Reply #24 on:** February 19, 2019, 09:00:20 PM »

My CWOP station reports winds on a temporary 10 foot pole from the ground and it passes with flying colors (Green check box and thumbs up). I know my wind is not as accurate as it under-reports wind speed a bit but the overall trend and wind direction is spot on. But my neighbor CWOP stations also under-report wind. On AWEKAS it matches up perfectly with neighbor stations. So they too must be under-reporting wind speed. When I get around to it installing my new pole it will be 16 foot telescoping flag pole which will help some, but I haven't felt the urgency even though I've already bought it.

The big thing to know though is that if you get an all-in-one anemometer with a rain gauge built in like I have, Ambient WS-2902A or WS-2000, then you don't want to go much higher than 16 feet as what little benefit you gain in improved wind speed you will then get poor rain and temperature readings. So for the All-in-one design I would say anywhere between 8 to 16 feet is the optimum height. If you put an all-in-one on the roof then you'll want to be sure to have enough clearance above the roof so as to not affect with radiant heat temperature readings.

The good news is that with the Ecowitt design sensors you can get a separate anemometer. But still don't kill yourself if you find a 32.8 foot pole unsightly or too expensive or just too much work, just put a 5 to 6 foot mast on your roof and call it a day. It will be just fine.

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Author Topic: Looking for a good recommendation on the Used market? (Read 2784 times)