Author Topic: Weather Flow  (Read 3377 times)

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Offline dport

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Weather Flow
« on: March 24, 2017, 08:37:24 PM »
How is everyone feeling about the new Weather Flow smart station that will be released later this spring? I saw a couple posts awhile back about this but nothing recently. Looks compelling as I am between this and the new acurite elite for my next purchase. Oh, and Weather Flow will work with Nest, which is a huge bonus for me.

http://weatherflow.com/smart-home-weather-stations/

Offline Jáchym

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2017, 08:46:15 PM »
Probably similar to NetAtmo and to be quite honest - not something for a real weather geek...

Temperature range -10F (-23C) ± 0.7°F is not very exciting.
Wind direction ± 5 deg
Solar radiation: 0 to 1900 W/m2 -> nonsense... theoretical max is around 1440...
Precipitation ± 0.2mm
etc.

Bottom line - more a design thing and probably well adapted for easy setup and connection to smartphones etc. Good for someone who wants to have a general idea about current condtions. Not a replacement for stations such as Davis, Acurite, Ambient etc.

Offline CW2274

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2017, 09:20:25 PM »
Just stick a red alcohol thermometer up against a shaded tree and save yourself ahellofalot of money. :roll:

Offline Scalphunter

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2017, 10:52:48 PM »
lol what an joke. -10. must be for sunny California   just about 95 5 of the US  of A gets colder then that.



Offline vreihen

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2017, 08:29:19 AM »
I bought into the campaign last year, and plan to use it alongside my Acu-Rite 5-in-1.  They are behind schedule in delivering them, due to an engineering change they needed to do after the first test units arrived.  I'm hoping to see the package in a few months, and was actually going to hit up Home Depot today to buy the required 1.3" OD pipe for the mast.....
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Offline ValentineWeather

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #5 on: March 25, 2017, 08:37:26 AM »
Just stick a red alcohol thermometer up against a shaded tree and save yourself ahellofalot of money. :roll:

 :lol:  I've done this before.
Randy

Offline waiukuweather

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #6 on: March 25, 2017, 07:55:08 PM »
Should be better than Netatmo I think

Offline CW2274

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2017, 08:21:30 PM »
Should be better than Netatmo I think
Why? Not saying you're wrong, I just don't really see the difference.

Offline vreihen

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #8 on: March 25, 2017, 09:16:14 PM »
Should be better than Netatmo I think
Why? Not saying you're wrong, I just don't really see the difference.

WeatherFlow is claiming that they will broadcast sensor readings locally at one-second intervals, and have a hub for local API access to the data.

AFAIK, Netatmo has an encrypted data stream to their cloud servers, does not offer local data access, and has sensor update intervals on the order of minutes and not seconds if memory serves me correctly.

Feel free to check my memory, but I ruled the Netatmo out as a toy a long time ago when I read about no local data access and pathetic sensor update intervals.  As I said, I have a WeatherFlow on order.....
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Offline Jáchym

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2017, 09:41:08 PM »
That sounds nice, but I have one question then.

AFAIK, the main problem with NetAtmo intervals is not that it would not be able to send more often, it is because the wifi would drain the battery immediately if it was sending data every 2s. It aggregates data and then sends them off at longer intervals.

So, either WeatherFlow will use a different technology, or the battery life will be close to useless. I didnt check which one is correct :D

Offline CW2274

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2017, 09:42:26 PM »
Should be better than Netatmo I think
Why? Not saying you're wrong, I just don't really see the difference.
As I said, I have a WeatherFlow on order.....
8-)   Do you have constant shade planned or some kind of radiation shield in mind?

Offline CW2274

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #11 on: March 25, 2017, 09:52:39 PM »
Something else just caught my eye about this. The literature tells you to keep it in the shade to avoid temp spikes (ya think), but yet has a UV index/solar radiation sensor. How does that work :?:

Offline Jáchym

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #12 on: March 25, 2017, 10:16:46 PM »
Something else just caught my eye about this. The literature tells you to keep it in the shade to avoid temp spikes (ya think), but yet has a UV index/solar radiation sensor. How does that work :?:

This is why I personally would not want an all in one station,  but you have many like this,  eg Vue

Offline CW2274

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #13 on: March 25, 2017, 11:02:04 PM »
Something else just caught my eye about this. The literature tells you to keep it in the shade to avoid temp spikes (ya think), but yet has a UV index/solar radiation sensor. How does that work :?:

This is why I personally would not want an all in one station,  but you have many like this,  eg Vue
Undoubtedly, but at least a Vue is properly designed to sit in the sun.

Offline hankster

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2017, 11:30:30 PM »
So, either WeatherFlow will use a different technology, or the battery life will be close to useless. I didnt check which one is correct :D

They are using 915 or 868 MHz depending on where you live.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2017, 11:44:13 PM by hankster »

Offline hankster

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2017, 11:33:21 PM »
Something else just caught my eye about this. The literature tells you to keep it in the shade to avoid temp spikes (ya think), but yet has a UV index/solar radiation sensor. How does that work :?:

The UV/Solar sensor in located in the Sky along with Sonic Wind Sensor and Haptic Rain Sensor.. The Air does the temp/hum/baro/lightning.

Offline CW2274

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #16 on: March 26, 2017, 12:43:19 AM »
Something else just caught my eye about this. The literature tells you to keep it in the shade to avoid temp spikes (ya think), but yet has a UV index/solar radiation sensor. How does that work :?:

The UV/Solar sensor in located in the Sky along with Sonic Wind Sensor and Haptic Rain Sensor.. The Air does the temp/hum/baro/lightning.
Ohhh, I see now. #-o Thanks.

Offline vreihen

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #17 on: March 26, 2017, 08:28:45 AM »
8-)   Do you have constant shade planned or some kind of radiation shield in mind?

Per the FAQ on their Indiegogo campaign:

What if I don't have a shady spot for the AIR?
No problem. There are plenty of off-the-shelf radiation shields that you can purchase and place the AIR inside. Go search on Amazon - they start at about US$35.


I plan to build a fan-aspirated housing as soon as I have the Air unit in-hand to measure the case.....
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Offline vreihen

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #18 on: March 26, 2017, 08:51:44 AM »
AFAIK, the main problem with NetAtmo intervals is not that it would not be able to send more often, it is because the wifi would drain the battery immediately if it was sending data every 2s. It aggregates data and then sends them off at longer intervals.

So, either WeatherFlow will use a different technology, or the battery life will be close to useless. I didnt check which one is correct :D

Believe it or not, I read somewhere that NetFlow's wireless chipset not delivering on the manufacturer's claimed power draw was the reason why they scrapped the first test batch of units back in December.  I also seem to recall that they were going to make the polling/transmit interval a configuration option, so that each user could pick their tradeoff between battery life and data frequency.

One of the reasons why they decided to add the *free* hub device after the campaign closed is so that they could offload the web/API server functionality to a device powered by wall/mains power.  Campaign backers PUSHED for local API access, so that this project didn't turn into another Netatmo.  They also pushed for external/solar power options for the Sky (wind) unit, so I guess that you could say that they're using a "different" technology to work around battery life concerns.  :-P

My only personal concern is the accuracy of the haptic rain sensor, which is why I have an Acu-Rite tipping bucket unit disassembled on my workbench today so that I can retrofit a NodeMCU for logging rainfall from an alternate source for comparison.  I also suspect that sleet/hail will wreak havoc on the haptic sensor's readings, but an un-heated tipping bucket isn't much more useful with frozen precipitation.....
« Last Edit: March 26, 2017, 08:54:27 AM by vreihen »
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Offline Dennis Rogers

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Re: Weather Flow
« Reply #19 on: August 06, 2019, 12:12:32 AM »
Even rain  buckets are not accurate

 

anything