Author Topic: Best weather station for multi-site  (Read 2194 times)

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Offline garlandclan

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Best weather station for multi-site
« on: August 15, 2024, 09:10:05 AM »
Hey there!

I'm an IT provider who does more than just IT.  One of clients, a ski park, would like to have a weather station at the top of each of their lifts.  The main objective is to gather wind speed information, but the other info would be nice to have as well. What I'm looking for is what a recommendation might be for a weather station model that could be setup to use ethernet or wireless for connectivity, where we can gather up all the info in a single place, using something like Weewx or Weather Display.  Finally place all 5 weather stations on a single page and be able to alert on wind over a certain speed.

I'm leaning toward Davis Instruments, as I know they have a single unit pole mount unit, with a console that goes inside, that can be connected to the network.  I have read that both Weather Display AND Weewx can be run in a way to support multiple stations.  But wanted to hear from the group.

Thank you,
Sean

Offline R.Sidetrack

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Re: Best weather station for multi-site
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2024, 09:58:50 AM »
In my opinion, the choice of hardware is separate from the choice of a server system to "publish" the weather data publicly (presumably the published data would not allow viewers access to the underlying settings).

In your situation, there isn't much use for each of those stations to have a display console. So no reason to pay for one either.  Choose Ecowitt hardware, use a GW2000 gateway for both ethernet and WiFi conectivity.
https://shop.ecowitt.com/products/gw2000

There is al kit available at that site including the GW2000, or just put together your own from the various components. https://shop.ecowitt.com/collections/lan-wlan-weather-station/products/wittboy

All of the sensors at Ecowitt will work with the GW2000, so you could assemble your own packages / kits.
« Last Edit: August 15, 2024, 10:04:08 AM by R.Sidetrack »
Graham

--- Variety of Ecowitt devices; CumulusMX on Raspberry Pi4 ---

Offline garlandclan

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Re: Best weather station for multi-site
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2024, 10:14:46 AM »
I'll check it out.  We may need/want a display at the top of the lift as well, as there is an operator there (supposed to be).  You bring up a great point though, that we really only need to talk to the sensors, and can read them elsewhere.

I'll check into this - thank you!
Sean

Offline R.Sidetrack

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Re: Best weather station for multi-site
« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2024, 10:20:55 AM »
For a display at the top of the lift, the console would not be useful as its quite small (meant for one person at a time). So you would have 5 consoles for the operator to look at. If you have multiple systems, the consoles need to be reasonably close to the weather sensors as they are also the gateway.   Instead, locate the console/gateway convenient to the weather sensor (where you can get good RF data reception)  and consolidate ALL your various station data on a browser page, and set up a bigger monitor showing that page at the operator control area.  And perhaps your clients might also like to have a BIG monitor/TV/etc showing that browser page visible to skiers.  8)

And aside from WeeWx or CumulusMX etc,  which run on a local server, today I started fooling around with SmartMixin, which is a hosted web app. Off the bat, it loads data from the 3 Ecowitt gateways that I have on my property. Screenshot below.  https://smartmixin.io/ 

I don't yet know much more, except that I installed the free version, there is also a $2 / month version but I can't say what that includes. I'm not likely to pay for that version.  :)
« Last Edit: August 15, 2024, 10:33:43 AM by R.Sidetrack »
Graham

--- Variety of Ecowitt devices; CumulusMX on Raspberry Pi4 ---

Offline garlandclan

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Re: Best weather station for multi-site
« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2024, 10:50:39 AM »
To be clear, the way the lifts operate is there is an operator at the bottom, and one at the top.  They are there to assist with boarding/off boarding, and handling emergencies like falls.  If wind becomes to much for a lift, the person at the top (only reading the single display of that particular station) can radio to the bottom to stop people getting on, and they can empty the lift.  In the security office, we could have a large TV displaying all statuses, and of course we'd want it on the website as well for patron usage to see the weather status on their favorite lifts.  The lifts are thousands of feet apart both base and top.

I like where this is going, and that view is great.  Lots of ideas here.  Now to proof one, and get it installed before November ;)  Think I'll put a weather station at my moms, and I have my Davis here at my house, which will allow me to see how the software your messing with will work.  Also just started looking at Weather Link LIve or whatever it's called from Davis (since I have a Davis system here).  Can check out my Saratoga script site at https://weather.lavacrawlers.com.


Offline vinceskahan

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Re: Best weather station for multi-site
« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2024, 05:00:51 PM »
Depends on your networking solution.  For a ski area I'd think you have distance limitations for both ethernet and wifi no matter which way you go about it.

Personally I like using Home Assistant as a consolidated dashboard of MQTT data.  You can easily set HA to do things like change the color of an item based on its value.  That's how I indicate door/window open/closed state (Zwave), and weather data (MQTT or REST interfaces).  For example, the wind gauge changes color as the gust speed changes.

So you'd need one MQTT broker system (easy in docker) and one HA system (again in docker) and one or more weewx setups (again easy to do).  I run all the docker stuff on an ancient 8GB ram i3 NUC so you don't need much compute at all.  Really comes down to how do you connect the weather station to the weewx instance.

(reminder - you can't connect the new Davis consoles to anything other than their cloud.  There's no local API.)

Check with surrounding ski areas and see how they do it.  Leverage the trails others have blazed.
« Last Edit: August 15, 2024, 05:03:08 PM by vinceskahan »
WeeWX sites on a pi4:
  Davis VP2+DFARS
  EcoWitt GW1200, WH32 outdoor T+H, multiple WH31 indoor T+H, WH51 soilMoisture, WH34 soilTemp
  Davis AirLink (inside)
  PurpleAir (outside)
Home site:        https://www.skahan.net/  - sorry, but I block incoming other than US/CA/AU due to bots from elsewhere
Wunderground: KWAFEDER15
PWS:                KWFEDER15
CWOP:              CW6881

Offline mcrossley

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Re: Best weather station for multi-site
« Reply #7 on: August 16, 2024, 04:28:56 AM »
I'd say a big consideration for you is how well the station and sensors stand up to the harsh, freezing conditions. Again i I'd probably look at what solutions other ski resorts are using.
Mark

Offline garlandclan

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Re: Best weather station for multi-site
« Reply #8 on: October 16, 2024, 05:26:45 PM »
Thank you all for the recommendations.  I have surveyed the site pretty closely, and I believe if we were to do the Ecowitt equipment, we're close enough to the "hut" where we already have connectivity.  For clarity, we have connectivity (extensive point to point network to each lift and area of interest) to all of the lift base, and top locations, and some other intermediate locations across the property.  It's pretty nice to have wireless, and cameras everywhere that "just work". 

Anyway - what I *think* I have figured out is that we can grab a sensor (like the WS90) for the top of a tower near the top of the lift, while installing the GW2000 in the hut about 100 or less feet away.  Then we can connect that to our network. 

For capturing the data, I'm assuming we can use WeeWX or something as someone said, in a multi-tenant way to gather from multiple devices, and then either build, or somehow connect the multiple devices to a location where we can pull the data for a website.

Assuming I'm on the right path here, if I did want a display IN the hut for the operator there dedicated for that lift, would I just add one of the consoles and point it to the GW2000 for that lift?  Or do I have to do something else?

Thank you all!!!!
Sean

Offline R.Sidetrack

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Re: Best weather station for multi-site
« Reply #9 on: October 17, 2024, 06:46:33 AM »

Assuming I'm on the right path here, if I did want a display IN the hut for the operator there dedicated for that lift, would I just add one of the consoles and point it to the GW2000 for that lift?  Or do I have to do something else?
If you have a GW2000, one option is to avoid a dedicated console and just use a browser on a PC or a tablet. The GW2000 by default uploads data to ecowitt.net, and a browser page can display that. Attached is a snippet of one of mine.
« Last Edit: October 17, 2024, 06:52:34 AM by R.Sidetrack »
Graham

--- Variety of Ecowitt devices; CumulusMX on Raspberry Pi4 ---