PWS Recommendations

There is a lot of information on the community pages about PWS and how to get them working.

Is there a recommended solution from the community for a device that works best?

Looking for a package of everything I need without breaking the bank.

Hi Josh, welcome to the community.

Overall you can find many different opinions / discussions on pros / cons of different PWS(s), but my personal recommendation tends to be AcuRite 5-in-1 system. Be sure to get a version with a network Hub, like this one (link). Setup is pretty straight forward and it usually comes with everything you need in under $150.

The next more affordable option tends to be Ambient Weather systems, with main advantage being a solar battery on some models, but they also come with a potential issue if your neighbor gets one too, more on this here (link).

The cheapest “professional” stations tend to be from Davis, but they are not without their own problems (link), and frankly with 5-in-1 sensor being that much more affordable, I prefer to not be as attached to mine and be in a position to afford a replacement at the first signs on trouble.

Overall, you are more likely to find a PWS with support for Weather Underground, rather then CWOP or pwsWeather.com which are the networks supported by Rachio. Fear not, www.wufyi.com is were you can relay Weather Underground data to pwsweather network, free of charge and without requiring a local computer.

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@jfirstenberg - I think a couple of us are watching this one -> https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/weatherflow-smart-weather-stations/#/ It is not out yet and new orders won’t ship until December 2017 or January 2018. They’re just about ready to ship the first half of the system (Air), but precipitation, wind and solar will depend on the second half (Sky) which will be probably eight weeks out.

Take @Gene’s comment to heart about replacing the unit as I’ve seen a neighbor’s unit go from being very close to the rain gauge mounted on my fence to being way off. Not sure if there are leaves or other stuff in the rain collection area or if it has fallen out of calibration.

And like Gene said, Davis tend to be more professional, but also much more $$$. I think he said he could replace his AcuRite system five times over before he spent as much money as one Davis system.

So how close is the nearest NWS (National Weather Service) station to your location?

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Thank you @Gene and @DLane The nearest NWS station is about 15 miles away.
Trying to balance the cost of RACHIO and a PWS with the benefit it would create.

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No worries :slight_smile: glad to help.

One thing you could check as well is wunderground stations in your area. I’ve written what to look for here (link). If you have a good quality station in your area, but it is not yet part of one of the weather networks supported by Rachio, you can still use it via www.wufyi.com, without needing to purchase your own.

Cheers,
Gene

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Hi Gene … I’m really a novice. I went to PWSweather.com and setup my station but it does not seem to be working. I don’t really know what to put in some of the fields and I can’t find any place where they are described. I used the station ID from Wunderground but I don’t know what goes in the URL field. Do you have any advice for me? I’d really like to use wufyi if I could get PWSweather to work.

Thanks … Randy

Hi Randy, yes sorry, I know setup should be easier / self explanatory, but I didn’t yet get a chance to improve it.

The trick is to customize the example URL found at www.wufyi.com or www.beta.wufyi.com (advantage of beta URL is that it does not require a wunderground API key, thus allowing you to avoid one whole step).

You would need to copy and paste the example url somewhere and systematically replace parameters with your own, so for example:

beta.wufyi.com/?wuID=UndergroundStationID&pwsID=PWSstationID&psw=YourPWSpassword

would be customized to include your parameters:

beta.wufyi.com/?wuID=WUstation&pwsID=PWSstation&psw=PWSpassword

If everything works as it should, you should see something like:

“The latest data from 150 seconds ago was transferred over to pwsweather.com

Otherwise you will get a notice about an error (such as wunderground station being wrong, or pwsweather password being incorrect…). If you see an error, check the parameter you are trying to use, or email the URL you are trying to use to setup@wufyi.com and I’ll help you further.

When you are finished customizing your URL, you will need to periodically request it. This will trigger a one time data transfer between wunderground and pwsweather, each time your custom URL is requested.

In order to automate this process (which is the last step you would need to do). You would need to setup a free account at a cron-job provider, such as www.cron-job.org. There you would use the custom wufyi URL you’ve created within a cron-job setup dialog, which looks something like this:

This is it. From now on just check back if you see an issue, otherwise data should be transferring automatically in the background.

Again, don’t hesitate to contact setup@wuyfi.com in case you run into any issues.

Cheers,
Gene

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To make information relationship a bit clearer, here is a diagram (for www.beta.wufyi.com)

Note that all of the customization for the data exchange are done via a custom wufyi URL, which gets specified within the cron-job setup.

Cheers,
Gene

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Gene

Please add

https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KCOLITTL533

And

https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KCOLITTL348

Thank you!

Don’t mind helping you out, but I prefer to avoid putting unused load on the server. Would it be possible for you to choose the station you are going to use out of the two you’ve asked for? Looking at the two station you’ve mentioned, seems that 533 (link) is the one that is most in agreement with the other stations in the area (as far as rain data is concerned). As such I’ve added that station here (link), let me know if it doesn’t work out and I’ll add the other one.

Cheers,
Gene

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Totally understand keeping the process clean and efficient.

Thank you for your help and expertise.

Gene

Please add https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KCOLITTL348

And you can remove KCOLITTL533.

348 is a middle school that seems to maintain their equipment.

533 has been erratic on precip. My closest station, one block over, has totally lost his rain gauge.

Thanks again for your help.

Done (link), be on the lookout for PWS_Wx99323

Cheers,
Gene

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Gene,

Couple you please also add https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KFLLOXAH47 ? Much appreciated in advance!

Done (link), be on the lookout for PWS_Wx87226, right now it is setup to use weather underground as a source, in case you run into issues with this setup, PM (link) your Access hub’s device ID and we can switch your setup to use data from myacurite instead of WU.

P.S. Seems your station is offline on the WU site, didn’t pay attention at first. Can you please double check that your WU station ID is KFLLOXAH47 or message me your AcuRite hub’s device id as can be seen here: https://www.myacurite.com/#/devices

Cheers,
Gene

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Thanks! I just set it up before asking you. How long does it take to get the initial data load? I will send the device ID anyway. I didn’t know this was an option.

I cannot comment on how long does it usually take a WU station to start populating data from Acurite, never measured it, but I was able to switch you over to use AcuRite data instead.

By the way, in case you own a Gen 3 Rachio, or a Gen 2 version from Costco, you would still need to finish setting up a WU station as Pwsweather is not supported on newer generation of controllers.

Make sure your WU station ID and station key (not your password), as can be seen here: https://www.wunderground.com/member/devices
are specified here:
https://www.myacurite.com/#/share-weather

Ah, good to know since I just ordered the Gen 3 from Costco. I thought this was the way to go. Still learning but you are making it easier than flying solo so thanks again and again! I will give WU a couple days before digging in if it doesn’t load data.

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Are you saying the device “key” code on WU is supposed to be entered into the “password” field for the WU settings in MyAcurite? I had entered my login password so maybe that is the reason no data is uploading?

I found the answer…

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