I currently have a PWS (Personal Weather Station) running on my house (AcuRite 5in1 with internet bridge: http://bit.ly/1l2o813 ), which transmits data to the weather underground.
My PWS tracks rain fall which would be awesome to be able to delay my sprinklers based on the rainfall collected by my PWS.
This would be useful for people that doent have a PWS too, since they might find a nearby neighbor that has one, and they
can use that data for Weather Intelligence as well.
So if we can pick the source of where the “Weather Intelligence” gets it’s rain data, that would basically be the solution.
@aaronrryan‌ Personal weather stations are awesome, and we definitely support them. And while we appreciate the suggestion of using personal API keys, I’d guess that if we started using WU’s API thousands of times per day without paying for our own license, we would be shut off pretty quickly, key or no
The good news is that we do support weather stations that report through the MADIS, HamWeather, and PWSWeather networks. PWSWeather is probably your best bet, so I have an email in to the folks over there to see if there’s an easy way to connect your system to their network as well as WU’s. I’ll let you know what we hear back.
@aaronrryan‌ I too have the acurite 5 in 1 and publish to weather underground as well. I am using WeatherSnoop (http://www.weathersnoop.com/home/) to publish to PWS. So my AcuRite published to Weather Underground, and then WeatherSnoop, which had to be installed on a computer downloads from weather underground and then publishes back to PWS. It was very easy to set up, and ensures that rachio is using my weather data.
@donandersonjr‌ you’re more on the ball than the PWSWeather folks, who finally responded to my email and said that AcuRite can’t post to PWSWeather. Guess they were wrong
Are there more instructions that we can put up to help @aaronrryan‌ and others set up their systems? Send me a message if you’re interested in helping us put together a step-by-step guide. We’re not weather station experts here, but we’re always willing to learn.
My acurite also post to several sites via metrobridge router which is connected to my acurite bridge. It also post to Wunderground, Weatherbug Backyard, Weatherforyou, CWOP. Works very good.
I bought Meteobridge and am running it on a DLINK DIR-505L, and have my Acurite 5in1 uploading to PWSWeather now. I tried enabling the “Use weather data from nearby personal weather stations” but it doesnt pick my station “KCABREA6”.
@aaronrryan‌ we’re working with the Aeris folks to figure out why you’re not seeing your station. I’ll give you an update when we get their results back.
Mine Says its using MID_E4745 Not sure which station that is… One of the Weather Station sites my station is EW4745 (E4745) Not sure if its using mine or not… Lol…
@aaronrryan‌ That’s fantastic and thanks for sharing! This is really useful information for the community. We wrote an article on PWS that essentially validates what you did. Aeris backed off on the PWSWeather network http://pwsweather.com/ until they can consume that much data. Hopefully they will have the integration before the end of the year. If this does not happen we will look to switching to WU if there is enough demand. I’m glad to see there are definite work-arounds. Please let us know if you have any further feedback or questions!
@aaronrryan‌ We’ve had quite a bit of interest in this, any chance you could put together a quick walk-through of how you did this? I’ll publish the article for you If not no worries. Have a great weekend.
The core component of this solution is the meteobridge, which cost $20 for the hardware (DLINK DIR-505L from amazon) and the software from meteobridge.com for 59 Euros. You can check that the meteobridge will work with your weather station at: http://www.meteobridge.com/wiki/index.php/Stations
Here is a summary of what I did (which only applies when using the AcuRite Internet-Bridge).
I bought the Acurite 5in1 with Internet Bridge from acurite.com, got that installed and updating to the internet.
Once I got this working, I plugged in the Acurite internet-bridge into the ethernet port on the meteobridge. The meteobridge acts as a transparent bridge, and the acurite bridge thinks it is just on the local lan. The meteobridge “sniffs” the traffic from the acurite bridge and this is how it is able to collect the weather information and send it to a weather network of my choice. I needed to select “Acurite Internet-bridge” from the “Select Station” menu: http://www.meteobridge.com/wiki/index.php/Select_Station
Before you start uploading data you should update the “System” menu and put in your Latitude and Longitude and the “Select Station” menu to add your Altitude, because this data is sent to CWOP along with your weather data.
The next step is getting the CWOP data sent to NOAA. When I contacted CWOP-support@noaa.gov, they replied that my station ID has been added to the “Active Member” list and would show up at NOAA in a few days. You can always check the list to see if your station is on there at: http://www.wxqa.com/members.txt
Once you’re on the “Active Member” list you are now a part of NOAA. It took me 5 days of being on the list before Rachio app could see my station. The Active member list will also show the mapping between your “Call/CW” and “NWSID”. The NWSID is the ID you will see in the Rachio App.
@aaronrryan‌ Wow this is great, thank you so much. I’m sure this will help anyone looking to make this integration. Hopefully Aeris does not take too long to incorporate the PWSWeather network. If by the end of 2014 (8 weeks) they haven’t figured it out, we will more than likely move to a different weather service. Once again thanks for this and have a great weekend! Let us know if there are other features you would like or have any feedback.
I think setting up CWOP is a bit complex for the average user. Especially since it requires special software and hardware to get it there. WUnderground on the other hand, was very straightforward and simple. I think most PWS that are internet connected are able to send data to WUnderground. It’s unfortunate Aeris doesn’t include data from wunderground, it would make it alot easier for users that already upload to wunderground and dont want to do the extra steps and costs of installing a meteobridge or other custom solutions.
I dont mind so much since I like playing around with the technology and in the process I’ve learned a bunch about the many weather networks available on the internet.
@aaronrryan‌ Agreed on the complexity of CWOP, you’d think there was a simpler way…?
Aeris is moving to PWSWeather, if it isn’t finished by end of year will take a hard look at other options. Unfortunately WUndergroud current API pricing is about 6x times more expensive than what we have today, for which it’s hard to justify that gap.
Lucky you on building that stuff out, jealous for sure
I plan on doing the same process as described above but for those that are not DYI types, you can purchase the Meteobridge as a consumer product such as the WeatherBridge from Ambient Weather. It’s just more expensive going that route.
