Topic: Warning: Not all Ambient Weather Stations are made by Fine Offset

[galfert]

This is just to inform would be buyers that Ambient Weather sells stations from different manufactures. In the weather station department I count 3 different manufactures currently. Most people assume that they are all made by Fine Offset. But Fine Offset is not the manufacture of some of these other less popular models.

What this means is that sensors are not compatible. I feel Ambient Weather offers these other brands to have more choices to offer as for example Fine Offset clones do not have a pool sensor. And then there is the other 3rd brand that seems to just fit a very low entry level that would definitely not qualify most people visiting this forum.

It also means that expandability option that you normally hear about like using an Ecowitt GW1000 and software like Weather-Display or Meteobridge will not work with those other ones that are not Fine Offset made.

If anyone knows what company is the manufacture of these other brands please let us know.

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tags: Ambient OEM brands

[waiukuweather]

the Red one is often rebranded
its often known as the Funk WH4000

[mauro63]

a possible solution

http://www.uctechnologyltd.com/products.aspx?TypeId=12&FId=t3:12:3

[galfert]

the Red one is often rebranded
its often known as the Funk WH4000

I've also seen it as Bresser. But I don't think Bresser is a manufacturer, and they are no longer carrying it. Also I think Funk seems to be a Froggit branding, not a manufacturer.

a possible solution

http://www.uctechnologyltd.com/products.aspx?TypeId=12&FId=t3:12:3

Yes, good find! UCTECH seems like the manufacturer for green circled ones.

[Felixus]

Hi,

The red one is branded in the UK as Youshiko YC9390:
https://youshiko.co.uk/collections/digital-weather-stations/products/youshiko-weather-station-premium-quality-large-hd-display-official-uk-version-with-wifi-internet-wunderground-professional-6-in-1-wireless-sensor-wind-speed-direction-rainfall-temperature-humidity-uv

This station can also be bought from Amazon for £20 more than from the UK distributor:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Official-Wunderground-Professional-direction-Temperature/dp/B07DWCTD5K/ref=sr_1_27_sspa?crid=1QHV4P453Y86S&dchild=1&keywords=youshiko+weather+station&qid=1584964925&sprefix=Yous%2Caps%2C341&sr=8-27-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzVEtRSlQ1WUNJRlBEJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzE1OTEwNVoyRDk0QzU0WlhLJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA4NDM1ODdPWFc5V1JTV0FOWlMmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

UK market is really poor when it comes to smart weather stations. It's almost impossibld to buy a Fine Offset clone in the UK.

[galfert]

UK market is really poor when it comes to smart weather stations. It's almost impossibld to buy a Fine Offset clone in the UK.

I know plenty of people with Fine Offset clones in the UK. My best advice is to contact Ecowitt directly. You'll be able to get any configuration you want.

But there are other UK distributors of Fine Offset:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Froggit-weather-station-WH3000-Displays/dp/B06XGY1B8W/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06X6JPJ6Q/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07TVMQ2CK/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aercus-Instruments-Wireless-Weather-Beginners/dp/B08147S3HX/

....and there is more than these. Still I would just buy from Ecowitt to get the best configuration.

[Felixus]

Thanks Galfert,

Correct, however I only consider a proper modular weather station to be HP255X and these are impossible to get from a UK distributor. Misol clone from Aliexpress with ecowitt firmware and wifi firmware worked for me. I'm able to upload data to ecowitt.net. This was much cheaper than to buy it directly from ecowitt.

I think there's a gap in the UK market when it comes to semi-professional PWS...

[Mandrake]

You just need to search carefully and be in the know

If you want a HP2551 and don't want to purchase from Ecowitt there are several options now in the UK
Misol via Amazon UK
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/MISOL-Wireless-weather-station-wunderground/dp/B07RQRGH9G/

Or Froggit in Germany which happily will ship to the UK and even has a English option for the web display.
Froggit will also supply many of the additional sensors if you want.
The froggit version of the HP2551 is called the HP1000SE
https://www.froggit.de/product_info.php?language=en&info=p436_hp1000se-pro-wi-fi-internet-funkwetterstation.html

Or you can contact Lucy in Shenzen (Ecowitt) and they will give you a quote in USD and will ship you one though it might take a few weeks from order/paying via Paypal to shipping etc

[galfert]

I was looking for that Misol on the UK site and didn't find it. But I didn't search too hard either. I only searched for Misol Weather Station and it didn't come up...weird. Then now that I see the listing I've noticed it has a poor Bestsellers rank of #1001 in the Thermometer and Meteorological Instruments category but not listed in the Weather Station category. I would have expected a much higher rank. In the US the comparable WS-2000 has a Bestseller rank of #30 in Weather Station category.

[Mandrake]

I suspect the UK is a oddity through history.
Previously most folks would have purchased a weather station in the UK through Maplin (previously Radio Shack) as they were actively marketed and on the high street. When that went out of business it left a bit of a void.

Misol and Froggit have sold items through Amazon UK as marketplace traders in a small scale ever since but I don't think they have made much effort.
You really have to try hard to find suppliers of Fine Offset equipment and often these are only available in small bursts now hence the low ratings.

I am not sure that this is going to get any easier now that the UK is leaving the EU.
I have suggested to Ecowitt that they should look to direct sell through Amazon UK however I am not sure what numbers they would need to shift to make that viable. However given the lack of competition and scale (must be comparable in market to Canada or even bigger) I would of thought there was a good market case. I know that they are considering it but who knows!

[gszlag]

Ecowitt has been offered here in Canada through amazon.ca for some time now. Don't see why they are not in the UK.

Ambient products seem to come and go on amazon.ca but tend to have that crazy nonsensical amazon pricing from time-to-time. But the Ambient 2902a is currently there. Oddly, I am seeing a new brand called EP-Home that seems to be FineOffset equipment but there are a couple of strange looking stations I don't recognize.

Ecowitt pricing is really good right now at amazon.ca. Don't know if amazon.ca will deliver internationally  but keep in mind that you might lose your warranty fi it is considered "grey market" Best to check in advance.

I bought my inadvertent grey market Ambient WS-2000 through amazon.com even though it was available on amazon.ca. Despite import fees/international shipping/currency exchange it was far cheaper. According to posts on this forum galfert? Ambient is I guess - the American brand of FineOffset equipment and EcoWitt could be considered to the international brand of FineOffset.Hard to say if the new CEO of Ambient might be changing marketing strategies or not but there is clearly a huge demand for Ambient product internationally. If they don't want to or can' t deliver product internationally I suspect that gap will be filled by EcoWitt and other branded FineOffset equipment.

Too many brands of essentially the same piece of hardware will result in some confusion in the marketplace but it should all eventually shake out at some point.

Keep after ecowitt. If it is available in Canada should be available in the UK.

Nice problem to have.. people chomping at the bit to buy your products but you can't or won't deliver the goods. I would hate to have to explain that to my CEO!

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I suspect the UK is a oddity through history.
Previously most folks would have purchased a weather station in the UK through Maplin (previously Radio Shack) as they were actively marketed and on the high street. When that went out of business it left a bit of a void.

Misol and Froggit have sold items through Amazon UK as marketplace traders in a small scale ever since but I don't think they have made much effort.
You really have to try hard to find suppliers of Fine Offset equipment and often these are only available in small bursts now hence the low ratings.

I am not sure that this is going to get any easier now that the UK is leaving the EU.
I have suggested to Ecowitt that they should look to direct sell through Amazon UK however I am not sure what numbers they would need to shift to make that viable. However given the lack of competition and scale (must be comparable in market to Canada or even bigger) I would of thought there was a good market case. I know that they are considering it but who knows!

[CW2274]

Confuse people? What could be more confusing than this?

I posted some time last year that all of this "nonconformity" would keep someone like myself well away from this PWS manufacture, however many half-dozen there are. I was promptly told basically "well Davis does it too." I frankly don't see it that way, and since the potential buyers are the ones with the wallet...
Just sayin'...

[wxthomson]

I asked the administrator if Ambient Weather could get it's own category on the website and was told that it would confuse people.

Confuse people? What could be more confusing than this?

After 22 years, I am a little surprised we haven't earned it.

Isn't there already an Ambient Weather section under "Weather Station Hardware"?

[wxthomson]

No, the category is "Ambient Weather / Ecowitt stations and Fine Offset clones", which is only about 10% true. Fine Offset accounts for about 10% of our overall business.

Then what weather stations does Ambient manufacture?

[Waimarie]

Ecowitt pricing is really good right now at amazon.ca. Don't know if amazon.ca will deliver internationally  but keep in mind that you might lose your warranty fi it is considered "grey market" Best to check in advance.

I tried to purchase from Amazon CA from New Zealand but they won't ship to me, same as Amazon Australia.  Only Amazon.com will ship but they don't supply 433MHz.  However Misol are good through AliExpress for some full stations or Ecowitt for sensors

[Mandrake]

You need to bare in mind that Ecowitt as a direct brand from Fine Offset has only existed a few years and is still growing.
Previously to that the only option to get a Fine Offset station was through resellers such as Maplin (RIP), Misol, Froggit, Aercus and one of the biggest of course being Ambient Weather.
There are of course many other smaller brands such as Pantech etc

In time I am sure that the Ecowitt brand will become much larger and more readily available worldwide.

[galfert]

I have privately come to an agreement with Ambient. I have not deleted Ed's posts, he removed them. We should respect that Ambient is trying to preserve the brand name they have built.

What this means is that we as an enthusiasts community should stay clear of Ambient's Facebook and not discuss Fine Offset nor Ecowitt there. We should also stand clear of Ambient's Amazon Reviews Q&A and not discuss Fine Offset and Ecowitt there. In return Ambient will not try and stake any claim to their own Ambient forum section, because that will not work for our users that have embraced the expandability capabilities of having a Fine Offset clone station. To us it is all the same stuff and many of us have hybrid stations. We are a different crowd than what congregate over in Facebook and Amazon. It makes zero sense for us to have a separate Ambient and separate Ecowitt section. We are able to help each other because of the shared framework. We wouldn't solve anything by having separate sections.

Please be respectful when discussing Ambient on this and other threads on this matter. I fully support Ambient and their efforts. We want to ensure that Ambient remains a viable company. Feel free to throw polite constructive feedback.

I hope that Ambient and Ed continue to visit our forum. I'm very excited in the recent uptick in posts from Ambient and I want to continue to welcome them. I'm very excited also about the new Ambientweather.net 2.0 and there is much more to come.

[Rover1822]

I agree, a separate Ambient section IMHO would probably lead to a lot of headaches trying to reduce cross posting and also increasing moderation efforts.

[gszlag]

@galfert

...very diplomatically said.

Since WXFORUM is a weather enthusiast user forum, weather manufactuers/distributer participation here will definitely attract all kinds of technical questions and perhaps gripes regarding warranties, and all sorts of other issues etc. It has always been the case since the dinosaur age of the internet. Anyone remember usenet?

So yes, we will be mindful of our pints and quarts as always and manufacturers would of course try not to do too much corporate flag waving on our user forms.

Other than that, I am sure that my fellow forum-ers here would welcome any and all manufacturer representation with open arms if they have something to contribute.

A suggestion. Since this board (Ambient Weather/Fine Offset/Fine Offset clones) is a hardware forum, I've noted that many discussions ( i am guilty of this also) centers on the the Ambient Weather Network(AWN).

Since AWN has transitioned to a public weather network perhaps we can open up a new board under Weather Related Organizations along with Weather Underground, AWEKAS, etc. All discussions specific to the AWN could be addressed there.

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<snip>
...Feel free to throw polite constructive feedback.
<snip>

[galfert]

A suggestion. Since this board (Ambient Weather/Fine Offset/Fine Offset clones) is a hardware forum, I've noted that many discussions ( i am guilty of this also) centers on the the Ambient Weather Network(AWN).

Since AWN has transitioned to a public weather network perhaps we can open up a new board under Weather Related Organizations along with Weather Underground, AWEKAS, etc. All discussions specific to the AWN could be addressed there.

Ambientweather.net is not like all those other weather related organizations. All those other weather organizations are open to anyone that wants to send them data. These organizations then make that data available to their customers at a price. Ambientweather.net does not want anyone's data for the sake of the data. The purpose of Ambientweather.net is to provide a service only to their customers that purchased their hardware.

The purpose of Ambientweather.net is for their customers, much the same as Weatherlink.com is only for Davis customers and myAcurite.com is only for Acurite customers. They don't sell data. With Ambientweather.net you don't have to have their hardware to view stations that belong to others (if they are marked public). The same is true for Weatherlink.com.

If you want to discuss Ambientweather.net then do so in the Ambient hardware section, as what is uploading there is Ambient hardware.

[Chucktin]

This discussion is certainly enlightening! I bought an Ambient "Falcon" WS-8478 from Amazon. It works and we get (very) local data from it. So as a starter it's OK. But getting it to report data to Ambient Net or Weather Underground? That's a laugh.
I spent the last week wrestling with the Internet settings and just maybe I've got it to report to ... somewhere in cyber space. Also the manual - who "writes", well assembles, garbage like that.

[ambientweather]

This discussion is certainly enlightening! I bought an Ambient "Falcon" WS-8478 from Amazon. It works and we get (very) local data from it. So as a starter it's OK. But getting it to report data to Ambient Net or Weather Underground? That's a laugh.
I spent the last week wrestling with the Internet settings and just maybe I've got it to report to ... somewhere in cyber space. Also the manual - who "writes", well assembles, garbage like that.

Sorry you are having an issue. I wrote the manual.

Feel free to email me eedelman@ambientweather.com, and I will be happy to assist you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[galfert]

If you have ever tried to write a technical manual you might realize that it is much more difficult than it sounds. Do you dumb it down so much that it helps the novice and risks boring the skilled hobbyists? Also if you dumb it down too much then there is potential for information overload and you'll lose your novice audience. If you provide high level complexity even if it isn't a lot of information then the novice will not understand it. It is impossible to write a manual to suit every potential user's skill level. I've glanced over the manual (out of curiosity) and it seems appropriate to me for the majority of users.

I'm curious to know exactly how the manual is garbage? Ambient manuals can't be that bad if Ecowitt decided to appropriate it for themselves (for the FO models) rather than them attempting to write their own.

[Chucktin]

While I have not written a manual I was up close and personal with a effort to write one for software that I was hands-on from day one. It was a fiasco of the first water. For which even paying $1.00 was too much. The manual wasn't even good for TP.

[Gyvate]

recent available Ambient (Fine Offset/Ecowitt clone) stations/models are listed in our MUST READ thread in chapter 5 as per August 2023

the old ObserverIP 1.0 is not mentioned as it has, even with its last firmware upgrade, limited sensor registration possibilities, whereas its successor the ObserverIP 2.0 module/gateway/hub ... is top notch

the ObserverIP 2.0 gateway is functionally equal to a WH2650/GW1100 (with the known Ambient restrictions = not able to process Ecowitt sensors)