Author Topic: What is "Outdoor #5"?  (Read 3527 times)

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Offline Bushman

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What is "Outdoor #5"?
« on: September 13, 2014, 12:56:39 PM »
Got my MB  working on  sniffing the Acurite bridge but when I log into the Meteobridge, I see "Outdoor #5" as a temp.  Docbee says it is just reporting what is in the pass-thru stream.  The temp is CLOSE to indoor, but not.  Anyone know WTH that temp is?
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Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2014, 01:03:45 PM »
Are you picking up a neighbor? I didn't know the bridge had an indoor temp sensor. ?

Offline Bushman

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #2 on: September 13, 2014, 01:18:11 PM »
Well it says Outdoor #5 yet it is an indoor temp (or close to it).  AFAIK the nearest Acurite station is about 1000 meters away.
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Offline Bushman

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #3 on: September 13, 2014, 01:27:31 PM »
I'll try switching to another channel...
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Offline nincehelser

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #4 on: September 13, 2014, 02:10:05 PM »
Got my MB  working on  sniffing the Acurite bridge but when I log into the Meteobridge, I see "Outdoor #5" as a temp.  Docbee says it is just reporting what is in the pass-thru stream.  The temp is CLOSE to indoor, but not.  Anyone know WTH that temp is?

The Aculink protocol doesn't pass text descriptions like that.

Offline haroldashe

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #5 on: September 13, 2014, 02:18:52 PM »
George, he's talking about the Meteobridge live data screen.  I have that sensor showing, too, but I don't know what it is, either.


Offline nincehelser

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #6 on: September 13, 2014, 02:41:57 PM »
George, he's talking about the Meteobridge live data screen.  I have that sensor showing, too, but I don't know what it is, either.

The sensors that the Acurite bridge is hearing can be seen on the web page for the bridge.

If it's not showing up on that web page, it's not originating from the AcuLink bridge.

Offline haroldashe

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2014, 12:26:26 AM »
For my set-up, "Outdoor #5" is the tower sensor in the birch tree.  "Outdoor" is the 5in1.  "Indoor" and "Outdoor #6" both refer to the tower in the sunroom. 

Offline Bushman

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #8 on: September 14, 2014, 09:47:05 AM »
If the sensors are one and the same with different labels, why the temp discrepancies?
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Offline haroldashe

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #9 on: September 14, 2014, 02:29:31 PM »
I think it's a timing thing.  This screen shot is from my live data page and shows (I think) the timing of the various transmissions to the Meteobridge.  I've never really paid much attention to it, but now that you've managed to arouse my curiosity, I'll look more closely at it.


Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #10 on: September 14, 2014, 02:36:08 PM »
Since we are talking about the bridge, what is that transmitter inside the bridge for? Would that possibly be reading an indoor temp and transmitting it?

Here is a link to a pic.

http://techobsessed.net/2013/02/acu-link-bridge-and-acu-rite-weather-station-teardown/

Offline vreihen

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #11 on: September 14, 2014, 05:00:00 PM »
My guess was that it was a kludge to feed the barometer signal from the bridge into the RF data stream, but I never looked any deeper to see if this made sense.....
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Offline nincehelser

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #12 on: September 14, 2014, 05:23:51 PM »
My guess was that it was a kludge to feed the barometer signal from the bridge into the RF data stream, but I never looked any deeper to see if this made sense.....

It does nothing useful as far as I can tell.  It might be for an unimplemented home automation system feature or possibly to retransmit to a custom display that handles multiple sensors.  Or maybe it was intended to be a range booster of some sort.

I have caught it emitting noise before when a bridge was acting goofy.  Acurite told me it shouldn't be active at all.  I thought it might be interfering with the real signal, so I disabled it, but it didn't seem to help matters noticeably. The bridge still functioned normally.






Offline Bushman

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #13 on: September 14, 2014, 07:02:25 PM »
All pretty interesting...  curiouser and curiouser...
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Offline vreihen

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #14 on: September 14, 2014, 08:10:36 PM »
Do the FCC docs shed any light on this?  Do they even have to file with the FCC for this type of product?????
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Offline nincehelser

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #15 on: September 14, 2014, 09:21:24 PM »
Do the FCC docs shed any light on this?  Do they even have to file with the FCC for this type of product?????

It's registered as a Part 15 low-power unlicensed transmitter.  It's allowed to operate within the 70cm band even though that's reserved for amatuer use in the US.

I looked up the ID last year, but the interesting information appears to be "Permanent Confidential"  (schematics, block diagram, and operational description).  There are other documents, publicly available, but I found no clues in them.

The FCC ID is: RNERF09150TRX registered to Chaney Instruments in Hong Kong.



Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #16 on: September 14, 2014, 09:38:28 PM »
As long as it doesn't have a spy apparatus like a cam and mic, it doesn't matter. If they want to know what I keep my thermostat on, big deal. :twisted:

Offline vreihen

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #17 on: September 17, 2014, 07:32:05 PM »
Back to the original question, I have been spending way too much time discovering the shortcomings of the Meteo* products and their AcuRite interfaces over the past few days.  If you look at the "system" tab in MeteoBridge, there is a Messages pane at the bottom of the page that shows some interesting debugging and informational logs.  Mine displays these three lines whenever the data logger starts:

Code: [Select]
logger (17.09.2014 19:02:23): station 0 (AcuLink): multifunctional sensor 02935 already registered (th0/rain0/wind0).
logger (17.09.2014 19:02:23): station 0 (AcuLink): temperature sensor 08607 already registered (th5).
logger (17.09.2014 19:02:23): station 0 (AcuLink): multifunctional sensor 01065 already registered (th1/rain1/wind1).

From what I can tell, the device names in MeteoBridge match up with those used in the larger/older MeteoHub package.  th0 was the first temperature/humidity sensor detected, and th1 was the second one detected.  In my case, both th0 (on mast) and th1 (smashed on ground) are 5-in-1 sensors.  For some reason, the software starts numbering "tower" (cheap temp/humidity standalone sensors) starting at th5.  If you are picking up th5 and th6 an don't own any tower sensors, then perhaps the AcuRite radio protocol travels further than expected and you are picking one up from far away?????
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Offline joegr

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #18 on: September 18, 2014, 12:20:49 PM »
I have a th5 message in the log and temperature readings from it are being sent to Acurite's web site.  However, it doesn't show up on the Meteobridge live data page.
Anyway, I traced it down to an old Atomic wall clock with an outdoor temperature sensor.  The readings on the web site match the outdoor temperature display on the clock.  The point is that the other sensor you are seeing may not be an Acurite branded tower sensor.


Offline Bushman

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #19 on: September 18, 2014, 01:38:07 PM »
Well now that is interesting!  I do have an old Micronta (Radio Shack) wireless (433 I think?) still operating.  Right now the sensor is inside,.  I wonder if the bridge is picking that up?
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Offline nincehelser

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #20 on: September 25, 2014, 02:03:12 AM »
I have a thought on where the meteobridge might be picking up some temperature data...

The barometric sensor in the bridge sends out raw data instead of an actual human-understandable reading.  There are 13 parameters sent which are run through an equation to get the absolute pressure reading.  The operating temperature of the barometric sensor is embedded in that data across 4 or 5 of those parameters.

If you run those parameters through an equation provided by the sensor manufacturer, you can extract the temperature at which the barometric sensor was running.

In the case of the Acurite bridge, this might be pretty close to the temperature of the room it is sitting in as there are no major heat generators in the bridge itself. 

I've no idea how this might to relate to the labels metobridge assigns, but it might explain where some data is coming from.

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #21 on: September 25, 2014, 08:26:20 AM »
The indoor temp reading is coming from the bridge. It also shows humidity, but this reading is not even close to what the humidity of the house is. It is 30% low.

Outdoor #5   1 min   21.1°C 98% (dew 20.8°C, heat 21.1°C)   70.0°F 98% (dew 69.4°F, heat 70.0°F)   
Indoor   22 sec   23.3°C 30% 1021.0hPa (1020.3hPa)   73.9°F 30% 30.15inHg (30.13inHg)


Notice the barometer reading. 30.15 is correct. 30.13 is what I am displaying after I corrected pressure in the offset as well as I could at the time. I still need to run it up a bit.

Offline Bushman

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #22 on: September 25, 2014, 09:26:28 AM »
My indoor and Outdoor  #5 are close in temp but not hum.  And now there is an Outdoor #6...  :)
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Offline joegr

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #23 on: September 25, 2014, 09:33:40 AM »
As far as I can tell, the bridge always reports 30% for indoor humidity.  It's probably just some default value with no actual sensor.

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: What is "Outdoor #5"?
« Reply #24 on: September 25, 2014, 09:34:06 AM »
I've moved my setup to another room, away from the noise of my router, and my signal to bridge now has 3 bars for the 5 in 1. I am still dropping up and down on Wunderground. Last night it was normal for a while.