Replacement for DarkSky, need Lux

[kharrison]

I am trying to find a replacement weather data service for DarkSky. Created a virtual device using the OpenWeatherMap system driver but it's not showing an attribute for illuminance - is that correct? I don't want to get into PWS or other hardware solutions, is there a different driver or free weather service that I should look at to get lux? Thanks...

[rlithgow1]

Hue outdoor sensor...

[rlithgow1]

You can try Wunderground. It shows lux... and a lot of other stuff..

[nclark]

OpenWeatherMap does have LUX but you need to turn it on in the "Optional Attributes".

Once on, save preferences and scroll back down to...

Save again and click Poll Data. You should find ....

[thebearmay]

If it’s the one I’m thinking of there should be an illuminated attribute - may need to change a preference to get it.

[HAL9000]

@nclark

penWeatherMap does have LUX but you need to turn it on in the "Optional Attributes".

Which device type driver are you using? I'm using the built-in one, but don't have those options under preferences.

[bill.d]

Community driver, with calculated illumination (lux):

OpenWeatherMap-Alerts-Weather-Driver

OpenWeatherMap-Alerts Weather Driver UPDATE - 12/01/2020: You now can choose either OWM or weather.gov as the source for Weather Alerts. weather.gov only provides alerts for the United States while OWM provides global weather alerts (see link below). UPDATE - 10/20/2020: OpenWeatherMap now provides global weather alerts. As of version V0.2.8 this driver uses OWM for all of it's data and no longer polls weather.gov (NWS) for weather alerts. This means that weather alerts are available from…

[kharrison]

Thanks for the suggestion, I was using the stock OpenWeatherMap driver, so I switched to the custom OpenWeatherMap-Alerts-Weather-Driver, toggled the optional attributes on, saved everthing, clicked Poll Data repeatedly but still only the old attributes (those provided with the stock driver) are showing. I verified that I'm using the custom driver:

• InternalName : OpenWeatherMap-Alerts Weather Driver
• UpdateInfo : 01/23/2023

Is there something extra I need to do to get this to work? Thank you.

[rlithgow1]

Delete and recreate the device with the new driver.

[kharrison]

Deleted and re-created the device with the new driver, then copy/pasted the API key from openweathermap.org. Tried to poll data/refresh, got nothing. Turned on extended logging, getting this error:

OpenWeatherMap.org Weather Driver - WARNING: 401:Unauthorized

I verified that the API key is correct, even generated a second one, same result.

I checked the "My services" page on openweathermap.org and it says that I am on the Free Plan. Is that sufficient to get the driver to work?

[mbishop]

If you just got the key, it's a v3 key. There's a v2.5/v3 toggle in the settings.

[kharrison]

I've set the toggle to v3 but I'm still getting the error. I checked the log files and the API call does indicate that it's using v3 now, but same result.

UPDATE: Still not working, I found these reasons listed why a 401 might be returned:

• You did not specify your API key in API request.
• You are using wrong API key in API request. Please, check your right API key in personal account.
• You have FREE subscription and try to get access to our paid services (for example, 16 days/daily forecast API, any historical weather data, Weather maps 2.0, etc). Please, check your tariff in your personal account and pay attention at our price and condition.

I can eliminate the first two reasons because an API key has been specified and the key is correct, I have checked it character by character. As for the third possible reason, I only have the following four options turned on in the driver settings:
API Key Version (2.5 = OFF; 3.0 = ON)
Enable Extended Logging *
Display All Optional Attributes
Illuminated *

I don't think any of those options would require a paid subscription. So I'm at a loss as to why something that should be this simple is failing ... any ideas?

[aaiyar]

While I had no issue getting it to work, I found OWM to be unsatisfactory for illuminance readings.

There are so many local factors affecting illuminance that using values from weatherstations at airports or atop buildings bore little relevance to the illuminance outside my house. Even cloud cover can be local.

I ended up getting two Hue outdoor motion+lux sensors and used an average of the two lux values. The sensors cost about $60 for the pair. I chose to modify them to be hardwired so I’ll never have to climb up and change batteries.

This has worked really well for the last 3 years. I get your reluctance to purchase a hardware solution. But my experience indicates that an OWM cloud integration for illuminance does not provide a satisfying automation experience.

[kharrison]

Thank you for those recommendations. I may eventually move to a hardware solution, but presently I am setting up a new hub for a new home and need a stop gap measure to get outside temp, humidity and luminance. I have been using DarkSky at the old home for several years and had zero problems, but I understand it's shutting down so I need an alternative for the time being.

For those of you who have this driver working, do you have a subscription or are you using the free plan? Just looking at the Hubitat log file, the api call is specifying "onecall" which is a subscription plan. Maybe this same syntax works for free plans, I don't know. I have searched other topics regarding whether the free plan works with this driver but I can't find an answer...

dev:422023-02-14 09:46:15.375 AMwarnOpenWeatherMap.org Weather Driver - WARNING: 401:Unauthorized

dev:422023-02-14 09:46:15.371 AMwarnOpenWeatherMap.org Weather Driver - WARNING: Calling https://api.openweathermap.org/data/3.0/onecall?lat=xx.xxxx&lon=-xx.xxxx&exclude=minutely,hourly&mode=json&units=imperial&appid=xxxxxxxxx

[bill.d]

Looks like this post may point you in the right direction. And that thread is probably a better place to ask questions on the use of the driver:

OpenWeatherMap-Alerts-Weather-Driver

@whimsicalimpulse The driver is not receiving a valid return from the API poll. If you look in the logs (with 'Extended Logging' turned on) you will probably see "Weather Driver - WARNING: 401:Unauthorized". This is not a issue with the driver. It is something you need to resolve with OWM. OWM is not recognizing your API Key as valid and is not returning data. You may have an API key from OWM, but it is either not a 'One Call By Call' API key, or you did not put in payment information. In…

[kharrison]

Thank you. That resolved the issue, the Hubitat integration requires a subscription. I agree that "Custom Drivers" is the better place to discuss the driver, but my original question was about the stock driver and it kind of morphed into this

[rlithgow1]

@kharrison

Thank you for those recommendations. I may eventually move to a hardware solution, but presently I am setting up a new hub for a new home and need a stop gap measure to get outside temp, humidity and luminance.

I would certainly recommend a Tempest Weatherflow for that. Then you can also incorporate that into weather underground as well.

Tempest

[mbishop]

FWIW, I also wound up using a physical meter for outdoor illumination, albeit a bit of an unconventional one. I spent a while looking at outdoor motion sensors that could report illuminance... before I realized these giant solar panels on my roof have an excellent idea of how bright it is outside. So my automations look at watts of solar production, not lux.

I use the OWM driver primarily to retrieve forecasted cloud cover for the current and next day.