My lightning detection had been spot on. Every time I get one from my tempest I also get one from WeatherBug or another weather service.
I have visibly seen lightning without it being picked up by Tempest ....
FWIW, the WH57 from Ecowitt is just as erratic.
Isn't lightning determined by various stations deployed around a given area (the ones with antennas on the roof) not the actual Tempest?
No. It's based on an EMP detector that listens for pulses around 500 Khz. The strength of the pulse indicates distance. In theory this works well.
2 Likes
Got it... I wasn't sure as I remember tempest asking me if I wanted to mount a system on my house.
@rlithgow1: Tempest was doing a beta a while back to find people to mount special sensors on their houses for lightning, you are not mistaken about it. But they can get a couple to cover a pretty wide region. The pulses are pretty easily detectable and just a few sensors can triangulate them for a pretty large area. I volunteered but never heard back unfortunately.
@FiveNines: As for one of the prior questions, there is/are community drivers that support the Ecowitt Gateway (I use the slightly older version, the GW1000). You can find them from the Community Driver list (Custom Device Drivers [Wiki] - #163 by yracine66). For example, my Ambient/Ecowitt driver is on there (since someone mentioned my Tempest driver before).
My experience for lightning detection has been that it is "OK". I have both an Ecowitt Lightning sensor AND the Tempest... We had some in the area yesterday apparently. The results were:
Ecowitt = Fri Apr 21 23:50:46 EDT 2023 & 12.0 miles distance
Tempest = Fri Apr 21 23:52:02 EDT 2023 & 8.7 miles distance
I missed it so I have no idea which was closer on time. But I do not have any array or anything I need to worry about lightning for so it has always been an "interesting" but extraneous thing for me.
2 Likes
tried the thermo with the ecowitt in the sauna.. no go .. our sauna getss to 250 ..
as for the wittboy.. not really necessary.. this one needs no heater.. and i have 3 of these at 3 different locations.. you can have more than one reporting to hubitat if you do creative port forwarding..
anyway.. one is at our cottage. that gets over 300 inches of snow and it is still working after all winter.. i would also get many wh31 sensors to provide multiple temp readings..
one of mine is now going on like 4 years and still working strong
right now a 20% off coupon.. on amazon,.
also ecowitt lets you integrate with weather underground and create a station to share with friends etc.
3 Likes
From researching, apparently Ambient Weather and Ecowitt source their products from OEM Fine Offset. There is a certain amount interchangeability in their products.
1 Like
I have nothing to base this on other than looks, but I'm pretty sure the Tempest is made by Ecowitt. There is one difference, I want to say Luminance or UV Radiation?? I have thought about getting the tempest, but I have really gone down the Ecowitt rabbit hole, so I really don't need or want the actual weather station being on a separate system (my actual weather station is a 7-year-old Accurite 5 in 1 that barely limps along). It is soon to be replaced, most likely with an Ecowitt, I just don't know if it will be a Wittboy or one of the other stations. Even without that piece I have found so many other ways to integrate Ecowitt into our home. I use it to monitor plant moisture levels (plants on top of cabinets as well as outdoor on the patio), ground temperature (comes in handy for knowing when to put down pre-emergent and fertilizer), monitor temp and humidity in various rooms and on the patio (I have 3 rooms left to switch over from my Sonof sensors), lightning strikes and rain, as well as indoor air quality. Before the end of the year I plan to
- Replace the actual weather station itself.
- Have temp/humidity sensors in all rooms in the house (I have 3 rooms left todo)
- Add an Outdoor Air quality sensor
- Add more soil moisture monitoring
- Add a weather cam.
the nice thing about Ecowitt, all the various sensors are relatively inexpensive, so you can build out your system to your needs as your finances allow, so you don't have to lit to your spouse/ partner about how much you actually spent.
As for mounting, I have mine mounted on a 8' 3/4" conduit fastened to my back fence. As a matter of fact. I need to redo the arm holding my rain gauge on, as i figured out a better way to do it.
Per a thread in the Ecowiitt community, the Wittboy is compatible with this console. I suspect maybe some others as well. It looks like it is also compatible With any of the TFT and LCD displays based on this table
*
3 Likes
I was leaning towards the Wittboy, you just made that decision easier for me.
1 Like
As long as the Ecowitt gateway has the option to upload data to a custom server (which I believe they all can), then it can integrate with Hubitat.
I’ve never looked into it in detail, but I suspect that’s incorrect.
I would guess the Wittboy design is a knockoff of the Tempest. IIRC the Tempest was brought to market at least a year or two before the Wittboy was released.
yes tempest is NOT made by ecowitt
1 Like
As I said based on looks. Both made in China. We know once one company gets a design over there, they all start making the same thing. Maybe the same company had to wait X period of time before releasing their version of it too. You are correct, the Tempest did come out a t least a year (probably longer) before the Wittboy. I think the Wittboy was released in 2022.
Yes. Mine has been pretty accurate. If you are close to a commercial airport, or an airport that has a lot of large jet traffic, be aware it can pick up those jets taking off as lightning. They do disclose that in the listing on their website. I live 9 miles from Alliance Fort Worth airport (Primarily cargo with FedEx and Prime Air hubs), and I found quickly that it was picking up those flights (9 miles away, multiple times a day, at even times (0 or 5's, i.e., 1300, 1310, 1315). When I set up my alerts, I just set them to alert for 1-8 and 10- 25 miles.
1 Like
Well, I went with this one. Here's hoping everything goes smoothly.
4 Likes
That is the other one I have been debating. I’ve been down to that or the Wittboy. Knowing the Wittboy is compatible with that display, I may end up going that route.
I will say their community isn’t as active as this one. Pretty much just a place to ask questions and they answer. Not much in the way of dialog or discussion.
1 Like
I think you said you lived in a relatively warm area, so maybe this doesn't concern you.
I live in upstate NY, where winters are relatively cold and snowy.
I.dont.know.if that diaplay.works with hubitat i think you need the ws100 1100 etc.
Oh well. I still like the display. 
