The second possible solution would be getting that HauteSpot thing, but it would be cost prohibitive for me (HauteSpot = 500 bucks, serial weatherlink datalogger = 148 bucks;need both to operate). If anyone has any experience with the HauteSpot, ie, does it upload all sensor information to any 3rd party PWS site, please respond. Maybe the price will eventually go down.
About the price of HauteSpot, I wrote them after this post complaining about the price. I received a swift reply from Mr. Bob Ehlers which I have included below:
Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate it. I will try to give you my best response.
We are familiar with a number of competing alternatives to our HauteWIND product which are priced lower and we understand that our price point is a competitive disadvantage for us, but we believe our pricing is justified.
We are first, and primarily, a commercial developer of wireless solutions optimized for video surveillance and public safety network operation. Our software and hardware are designed for military, federal/state/local government and commercial use. We saw an opportunity to take what we had already developed for a commercial customer and turn it into a retail product.
The enclosure we are using, the processor boards that we are using, the radio modules that we are using, even the antennas we are using are designed for performance, durability and reliability. We design, build and support our products from a US location. So our costs are admittedly high as the entire product is made in USA, boards and all.
Yes, it is possible, and Ambient Weather already offers, a cheap Ethernet only version which uses a network file server product as the compute board. This works fine, but there is no complete product support, no warranty, no tech support for end users trying to figure out how to use it with their firewall or router at home, etc. The file server product was never built to be used as a weather station and the manufacturer could cease manufacturing any time or change the software architecture at any time, making it impossible to continue production of a derived product. Not an ideal way to move forward.
Our retail partner, Ambient Weather, as well as backend service providers Weather Underground, WeatherBug and others all have been very impressed with our reliability, ease of use, technical support and customer satisfaction. They appreciate that we have worked closely with them to offer a product which is reliable, easy to use and a good value. The back end services have actively been pushing deployments of our products commercially, as they see that we significantly increase reliability and control for Personal Weather Stations associated with their services.
Using EPIA boards or other computing platforms, yes, a hobbyist could assemble their own product for less money, if they worked hard at it. As a manufactured product offered at retail, we need to allow margin to the retailer, we need to allow for technical support costs, we need to allow for RMA costs (we have had customers damage the product by opening it up and trying to modify it which we have still covered under our RMA policy), shipping costs, inventory carrying costs and more. So even if we used cheaper components we would still have to price the product at $350-400 minimum in order to stay in business. Understand that we receive many technical support calls regarding customer network configurations, having really nothing to do with our product per se. We support these customers and the cost of this support, as well as direct product support, is embedded in our pricing model.
Our retail partner, Ambient Weather is free to set his own price and charge whatever margin he believes the market will bear. Our MSRP is just that, a suggested price. We do not sell direct in the USA, as we do not want to compete with our retail channel. So retail pricing is a retailer decision, not ours.
If we decide that we should start manufacturing our products in China, reduce product quality, or reduce our focus on excellent customer service and support, then we will be able to reduce our product pricing, but for now, we will continue with the pricing we have. I hope you understand our position.
Thanks again for the input.
