I did it, ordered a PWS... question about wind...?

Settings Weather
42

PWS = the weather station outside so that is wireless.

Observer-IP box = box that wirelessly gets signal from PWS but must be wired into your home router.

Meteobridge = box that used to be a TP-link router but now solely exists to send weather data to various services. Can be wired or wirelessly connected to your home router. Can read observer-ip data.

Meteostick = USB stick that plugs directly into your meteobridge and allows the meteobridge itself to get the wireless signals directly from your PWS. You donā€™t need this if you are reading the observer-ip box but I had incorrect readings of the observer-ip every few days so I decided to invest in this and get rid of the observer-ip.

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Very helpful - thanks!

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Sorry. Still a bit unclearā€¦

1.) Should both the Observer and the Meteobridge units each be plugged into an existing router. And theyā€™ll be able to find eachother over the LAN and communicate?

OR

2.) the Observer should be connected via Ethernet directly to the Ethernet port on the meteobridge (TL-MR3020)?

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@Miles267 I installed the meteobridge and will try to install the weather station this weekend and do a full blog post.

Here are my notes from installing the meteobridge.

Hope this helps.

:cheers:

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The observer must be physically connected to your home router NOT the meteobridge.

The meteobridge may also be physically connected to your home router OR to your home wifi network wirelessly.

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@boldblue737 @Miles267 Working on a project that might make the bridge go away, more details as it fully materializes.

:cheers:

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Yes!

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#1 is correct Miles.

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@franz - This sounds great as while Iā€™d like a PWS, Iā€™m after something that is more IOT like our Rachios than a hobbyist project!

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@jmone After starting this project, I feel much empathy for all of the pioneers before me. More to come as I can share details.

:cheers:

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So my WS-1400-IP went up today. Mounted to a wood privacy fence. Other than leveling it, I used a compass to point the solar panel SOUTH. What, if anything, should be done to ā€œcalibrateā€ it?

Iā€™ve essentially:
1.) plugged in the Observer IP into my router and updated its firmware to latest. Did not make any other settings changes to the Observer IP itself ā€“ it remains set to defaults.
2.) updated my meteobridge for wunderground and PWSweather.com. Meteobridge appears to be getting the correct time, date, etc. from its servers.

Observer IP is actively communicating with the WS-1400-IP.
Meteobridge is getting data from the Observer IP.
Meteobridge is actively publishing current weather data for my weather station:

https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KARBENTO46
http://www.pwsweather.com/obs/KARBNTO26.html

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@Miles267 Congrats, very cool indeed! My hardware is sitting in the basement, hope to get around to it soon.

I canā€™t help with calibration, will let someone with much more experience chime in.

:cheers:

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I too have confirmed Iā€™m transmitting data to CWOP. Sent CWOP-Support an email confirming Iā€™ve verified my location and data transmission. In the meantime, my PWS is available in PWSweather.com and Iā€™ve selected it within the Rachio.

Once Iā€™m accepted by CWOP, what do I need to change in the Rachio?

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Thanks for all leg work, and sharing of that legwork boldblue737. I was having a hard time figuring out all the pieces but i now have everything set up and working. You helped a ton!

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Confirming Iā€™ve got CWOP setup and my PWS has been validated by NOAA/MADIS. Itā€™s now an official station available in Rachio. Though it hasnā€™t rained in my area since I registered it, itā€™s showing that no precipitation data is available (yet).

This still means the Rachio is taking advantage of all of my PWS data for use with its flex daily scheduling algorithm, correct?

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@Miles267 Yes, if you look at your zone soil moisture graph you should see that station as rendering observed data (ET, precipitation).

:cheers:

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Been monitoring my CWOP data online. Appears CWOP reports that my Ambient Weather WS-1400 PWS ā€œSensor fails following checks: L3 Spatial Consistencyā€

With the following additional info:

Average barometer error: 39.6 milliBars
Error standard deviation: 13.0 milliBars
Worst daily average barometer error: 44.0 milliBars

Is there anything I can do locally to correct this?

EDIT: general consensus here: Ignore it.

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It absolutely POURED in our area today (weā€™re also under flood warning) and my WS-1400 weather station only reported 0.01 in. of rain??? What would cause this?

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I canā€™t speak to inaccuracy regarding rainfall, my WS-1400 has worked perfectly in regards to that since day 1 but as for barometer error that is an EASY and necessary fix that ambient weather actually tells you to doā€¦

If are using the observer-ip box to meteobridge link what you do is first go to major weather website like weather.com and look up the current barometric reading at the nearest airport to you (even small general aviation airport) and write down what the current value is. The go to your observer-ip control webpage and there is a tab that allows you to enter corrections to a whole host of data points, temp, wind direction, and barometric pressure. Look at what your system is reporting and enter the positive or negative number that would correct your pressure to the same as your local airport under pressure. This will instantly correct your data and it will remain perfect from then on, itā€™s just part of the calibration process. Mine was way, way off out of the box but once I entered the calibration number to correct it to a nearby airport value it has been less than 0.01 millibar off for almost 2 months.

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I do my correction in inches of mercury since thatā€™s how we report it in the statesā€¦ For example if my ws-1400 was showing 29.31 but the real value was 29.93 (as measured at a nearby airport) my correction value would be 0.62