Huh??? I don't use an intermediate computer. I bring my data straight into Hubitat using @ogiewon 's driver....
1 Like
???
@ogiewon doesnāt have a Tempest driver. The drivers available either use a cloud WS API or a cloud HTTP API.
For a completely local integration, an intermediate computer is needed, because the HE platform doesnt permit user drivers to bind an arbitrary UDP port to listen to the Tempest bridge/hub on the LAN.
2 Likes
ACK!!! I meant to type @augoisms driver... That said I wasn't thinking in terms of that I was simply thinking I'm pulling all the data in period...
1 Like
Guilty as charged (much of the time, anyway.) 
There are quite detailed instructions on this in the Ambient installation guide and IRRC on their web site. Distance from home or trees, etc., what could interfere with wind, temp, rainfall accuracy, height, etc. Surprisingly hard on my property to find a spot, mainly due to shadows from a few large trees that kept making spots undesireable. Mine ended up on top of an 8' pole I attached to a fence and I've not had to do anything w/it since I installed it. I did wipe it down a while back w/a washcloth.
Like anything else in the world, sitting out in the sun 24/7 will eventually eat the device up, but that's true of anything sitting outside so another reason for me not to over-spend on a weather station in a location where I can ignore the weather 99% of the time.
When you first put it up you do feel a little geeky bad-ā ā ā since you can now tell your neighbors "Oh yeah, just got my PWS set up. PWS? Oh, that's Personal Weather Station, I'm kinda like a NOAA branch office now. So I've got that going for me."
2 Likes
I have heard that Tempest can be inaccurate. For the owners what are your experiences?
How about cleaning? It looks simpler than the traditional bucket design which can catch leaves and grit.
Any weatherstation is as accurate as its placement. I have the Tempest and the ecowitt. The readings from the two match for temperature, rain, humidity, lightning strike distance ā¦..
1 Like
Do any of these weather stations have the ability to measure snow amount? Granted Iām not entirely sure how that would work practically.
@aaiyar very surprised to hear this. Iāve had my Tempest since Christmas 2020 and have never had a battery issue in Charlotte NC.
1 Like
Interesting. I was just looking at the ecowitt online the other day. Seems like it also has local integration options like the Tempest, so could be attractive as long as it works.
1 Like
Ha! You and me both! I wouldn't have known without receiving this email.
It's truly local in the sense that you can integrate it with Hubitat without an intervening computer functioning as a UDP listener.
It does not have a lightning sensor - that's a separate module. Other that that, it looks like a clone of the Tempest, at a substantially reduced price.
2 Likes
I have an Ambient Weather WS-1550-IP weather station. I have replaced the bridge module with an Ecowitt GW-1100. It has the ability to locally report all attached sensors. The Ambient Weather bridge requires you to query the Ambient Weather website for that information. I have added six outdoor temperature/humidity sensors and six soil moisture sensors to my system. It works great.
@djw1191 I donāt know of any non-professional weather stations that can accurately and timely measure snowfall. That requires a heater around the rain cup. Davis Instruments has some options for that, but their devices are much more expensive. Their solution requires buying a replacement rain collector cone that has an integrated heater for the Vantage Pro2 weather station. Your minimum setup will cost ~$800, and I think the Ethernet interface (data logger) would also be required for an additional cost ($140). If you are interested, I suggest checking out Scientific Sales website.
1 Like
Just remember, the Ecowitt and Ambient hardware (indoor and out) are the same, with very similar local integration options.
1 Like
Me too, no intermediate computer.
There is Hubitat driver for this purpose.
Definitely outside my price rangeā¦ thanks for the info though!
1 Like
Love my tempest. I have it mounted about 7ft off the top of my roof on a long metal fence pole. Itās fairly accurate for me and Iāve never had any issues with it running out of power even on overcast days. I donāt care as much about rain tracking as I do about illuminance as I use it to assist with turning on lights with motion when light levels outside are low (below 8000 lux). Iāve also never cleaned it in the 2+ years itās been mounted up there. I setup a tempest pi for a weather console on my kitchen counter.
1 Like
That's not the case with the WS-2000 or WS-5000, and I think also with the WS-2902.
With the Tempest, if you want a purely local integration, currently, youāll need a local LAN intermediate between the Tempest bridge/hub and Hubitat.
Thanks @jlv It could be that the units with display are more capable. I just donāt have any experience with any of the displays. The weather specific displays didnāt fit our need, so I bought the unit that didnāt include a display. The Ethernet bridge thing-a-ma-jig that was included in the bundle was just ok. The Ecowitt bridge is sooo much more useful for me.
This does point out that everyone needs to fully understand the context that comments, rants, and recommendations are made in. As always, YMMV*
- some assembly required.
1 Like
I haven't had any inaccuraces with my Tempest except for the times the kids were watering outside and hit the haptic sensor with the water. It recorded some rain but Tempest cloud will remove that from their history with "Rain Check" that removed the false reading. I still had to remove it from my local historical database since I record locally.
The sitting of your weather station will determine the accuracy. I did my sitting closer to the ground in back yard to focus on temperature and humidity. A roof mounting will be more accurate with the wind and solar but not temperature.
As for cleaning the coatings on the unit keep it pretty clean I only had to once remove a lot of bird crap that happened when a flock of birds decided to use mine as a target.
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
