ecowitt sensors are very reliable and integrate well with Hubitat using integrations from @snell and @sburke781 both of which are linked below:
These sensors are actually fairly inexpensive for their quality, running in the $15-30 range for moisture and temperature/humidity sensors. However, I found a cheaper alternative that also works with the ecowitt integration.
Basically, you need a gateway made by Misolie; the Misol GW1000 is exactly identical to the ecowitt GW1000. It costs about $20 on AliExpress. Misol soil moisture and temperature/humidity sensors are also identical to the equivalents sold as ecowitt sensors, and cost between $5-10.
The reason you need the Misol gateway is because the gateway and sensors are all configured to use 433 MHz, whereas ecowitt equipment sold in the US uses 915 MHz. As far as I can tell, it is legal to use 433 MHz equipment in the US because there's lots of other products that do ....
Anyway, if you're undecided about getting ecowitt sensors because of the cost involved, these lower-priced alternatives might help .....
I'm using the Misol WiFi gateway (GW1000) and soil moisture sensors at my friend's house.
Edit: I was just thinking. Since ecowitt hardware is limited to a particular number of sensors of each type (eg. 8 soil moisture sensors), using this gateway also becomes a way to increase the number of sensors available for automation.
Thanks! I forgot to look at the Misol alternatives (Ecowitt, Misol, and Ambient Weather are all made by Fine Offset). I know it’s because we’re all focused on watering of our gardens right now, but your timing was excellent. I was just about to order a single Ecowitt soil sensor and WiFi bridge combo yesterday for $95 CAD shipped from Amazon.com, but held off. Glad I did.
Instead, I just ordered 3 of the same soil sensors and the same WiFi bridge from Aliexpress for $83 CAD shipped!
It’s been a little damaging to my wallet since Aliexpress started accepting PayPal
Really appreciate your post and thanks for confirming that they are the same and work with our existing HE integration. That makes a big difference, as some of these 433MHz & 915MHz devices can be incompatible due to firmware differences.
This is the GW1000 and not the GW1100. So there is no built-in web server (even the ecowitt GW1000 doesn't have one).
Because there is no web server, all the setup has to be done using WS View. With the ecowitt GW1100, you have the choice of using the built-in web server or WS View.
That’s fine for me. I’m used to using IPTool with my Ambient Weather IP Observer gateway, and it’s just for setup. I don’t need to check in on a web server for soil moisture, and all my other sensors are either on IP Observer or various other devices around my home.
It’s too bad PWSWeather still doesn’t handle soil moisture, because that’s where B-Hyve gets my station data from. But just getting the readings in HE should be enough to allow me to override the watering schedule when it’s not needed. Even if I have to use the readings to manually adjust the soil moisture in the B-Hyve app, it’s still a step up from the guesswork I’m doing right now.
I'm in the same boat with a Bhyve and ecowitt setup. We don't use any of the smart watering features in the bhyve app except for weather hold off, tied to our PWS. The others never seemed to work and the forums were filled with complaints similar to ours. I've considered switching it out for a Rachio but haven't done it yet.
The rain delay with my station details does seem to work very well, versus the other stations that were 30 min or more drive from our house. We live in a valley with the ocean just over the mountains. A short distance can mean dramatically different conditions around here.
I don’t have an in-ground system, and with the investment I’ve put into Raindrip, we’re unlikely to switch to one. Around here, we’re restricted in the summer if you’re using regular sprinkles or a hose, but there are no watering restrictions if you’re using a drip system. We’re not hung up on green grass. I mow maybe three times before it turns brown. Our hot and dry summers would need too much water to keep it green. El Niño is suppose to deliver us another hot one this year. Forest fires are our bigger concern versus green lawns.
I recently picked up an 8 zone B-hyve controller at Habitat for Humanity to play around with. I paid only $35, but even at full price this seems like a better deal than Rachio because you have control through either HE or HA, but for far less. Because I’m not the bright green lawn type, I could be completely off-base, but the B-hyve multi-Zone controllers seem like a good choice if you’re not already invested in Rachio or another competitor.
We've seen the same things, I've only been using the PWS input for a few weeks this season so we'll see how it works out.
We have the 12 station Bhyve smart controller (the one before the current XR model). It works fairly well, although there are a few caveats. The wired rain sensor input won't hold off a web/app controlled program, only a program created/timed directly on the controller itself. The web/app programs all seem to ignore it. For the last few months a bunch of people on the forums reported the smart watering features weren't working. Data wasn't being updated, etc. We don't use smart watering so I didn't notice. The data shown in the app/web also seems off sometimes (some zones report rain precipitation but others don't, when they are defined the same, etc). For the highest WAF we use their app to program and control schedules, only have HE polling the Bhyve API for monitoring purposes. It doesn't seem like Orbit invests too much into the tech itself. Minimal firmware updates. Bugs go unfixed forever. Rachio seems to have more support but of course it costs more.
I'm finally adding my own ecowitt rain sensor later this week, my GW1100 picks up a neighbors sensor but its on the fringe of receiving so it doesn't consistently report in. I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays into the weather holdoff with the PWS and making it more accurate.
Of course if anyone tries these and runs into any oddities, let me know on my driver thread and I can make edits if needed to specifically support them.
I also saw mention that they can handle more devices... so that might be interesting to see what the numbers are because my driver (at least) is designed with the max numbers in mind although it has some flexibility just by design.
Hi guys, just on this note. Does anyone know if a standalone wind sensor exists I.e just a zigbee sensor that senses windspeed without any other integration or alternative hubs.
Hmmm so not quite out of the box then. I was hoping there'd be a simple device similar to a water sensor or equivalent. I'm basically trying to retract an awning before the windspeed hits a certain velocity. Any ideas or hacks would be welcomed
I would buy the least expensive Misol weather stations (this one would work just fine) and the Misol GW1000 bridge off Aliexpress, then use one of the integrations listed in the first post to get the wind speed into HE. Wind cup anemometers are really simple and last a long time usually. Even if the cups break, it’s not expensive to get replacement parts. Just had to do that myself and even with shipping it was only $15. That’s a lot for a simple piece of plastic, but it didn’t break the bank. They work by simply activating a reed switch on each revolution. Not an overly complicated piece of hardware.
It’s really not hard to integrate the bridge, and it’s really stable. Adding a Zigbee version of a device like that would be a potential nightmare. 2.4 GHz frequencies do not penetrate building materials easily, but 433 MHz and 915 MHz signals do, so you’ll get very reliable results over a long distance. Plus, these low frequency devices have great battery life. You will average about two years or more with lithium batteries. It depends on how cold it is in the winter for you and if the station has an integrated solar cell or not. Mine does not.
If you are concerned about long term reliability, then you could go with one of the Ecowitt ultrasonic anemometers, but they’re in the $200 range once you add the Ecowitt bridge that would be needed for that sensor because it uses the 915 MHz North America frequency instead of the International 433MHz used by the aforementioned Misol devices. Depends on your budget.
True, I forgot about the current $50 off coupon that’s available. Better deal if you’re interested in the ultrasonic anemometer. The new bridge has Ethernet too, which might be preferable for you.
Plus, if you use an Ecowitt (or the alternative) gateway, the data does not even have to leave your network. Since it runs in USB it is easy to keep running even if your other power fails (although I doubt that would help with your awning).
True, but if he was away from home, and the hub and ISP router were on battery back, in the event of a power outage he could still receive a notification that his awning is about to go sailing off into the neighborhood
