Aercus Instruments WeatherRanger - any good?

[Pixel]

I’ve been given some money (£300) for a significant Birthday beginning with 5 and want to spend it on a replacement weather station. Have used a WS2350 for about 5 yrs but it seems to be getting less and less accurate eg giving strange min/max readings. Has anyone had any experience of this one: Aercus Instruments WeatherRanger http://www.greenfrogscientific.co.uk/aercus-instruments-weatherranger/  (probably a clone of something else ??) It has Wifi connection and most importantly would work with my Apple iMac (no windows machine at home) plus I believe I wouldn’t need to have the computer on all the time.

I like the spec/reputation of the Davis machines but they are too pricey and not sure about the Oregons.

Any help/experience/comment would be appreciated

[4wd]

It's not exactly cheap, I'd tend to recommend  spending a bit more for the Vantage Vue and logger they based the style on.
I'm just wondering what format it logs records which might be incompatible with other systems if it packs up after 2 or 3 years.
I do like the idea of connecting direct to wifi so you don't need a computer running to upload.
The other models in the range look like the ubiquitous Chinese copies of a Watson WH1080 or whatever.

[Pixel]

Thanks for the feedback 4wd. Yes the next step up, Vantage view etc are appealing but out of my price range right now and I'm not sure if they would work with AppleMacs. It was this ability and the WIFI that I found appealing about the Aercus weatherranger yet I haven't been able to find any reviews of it yet... maybe there's a clone of it somewhere on the interweb  

edit: seems there are similar models:  WATSON W-8681-PROII

http://weather-station-reviews.co.uk/weatherstations/review/watson-W8681-pro-professional-wifi-weather-station/

Edited January 28, 2016 by Pixel

[trebor]

have a look at maplin n23dq it looks like the same thing and is a bit cheaper also maplin are ok with customer service and returns if needed.

there is other versions of this unit on amazon and the internet I think they are all clones of this

 http://www.foshk.com/Weather_Professional/HP1000.htm

[Pixel]

^ Thanks Trebor ^

The maplin website has plenty of useful Q and A for this (-:  I'll pop along to their shop and have a good look at the spec as I've now read there are quite a few variations of this weatherstation, transmit freq and memory etc.  Most seem to be made by FineOffset Electronics and labelled for retailers but as you say buying from Maplin means more peace of mind as opposed to other places

Cheers

P

[Mapantz]

19 minutes ago, Pixel said:

^ Thanks Trebor ^

The maplin website has plenty of useful Q and A for this (-:  I'll pop along to their shop and have a good look at the spec as I've now read there are quite a few variations of this weatherstation, transmit freq and memory etc.  Most seem to be made by FineOffset Electronics and labelled for retailers but as you say buying from Maplin means more peace of mind as opposed to other places

Cheers

P

Hi Pixel. I bought the Weather Ranger myself, its basically a clone of the Ambient Weather W-1001. Companies buy thousands of them, and then sell them as their own product.

I had a Davis Vantage Vue before this one, I sold it due to the amount of problems I had with it-  constant supercap failings, the anemometer playing up, the rain gauge as well. I contacted Davis and the company I originally bought it from, and they didn't want to know. If you do a search, i'm not alone! There's numerous complaints about various issues.

Anyway, regarding the original link/station, I have found it to be very good! I've also found various hacks for it, one is changing the graphics display, which you can see in this pic:

The other (which i'm in the process of messing with right now) is to actually grab the data straight from the console to create 16 second updates on your own webpage (If you have web hosting) while the console still sends data to Wunderground.
The console itself, does have a data logger built in, you can set it to log at 1, 5, 10 up to 240 minute intervals. A 4GB memory can allow up to 66 million data points, which is probably 10+ years worth.

I'm also using it in conjuction with my own website (click the pic in my signature) It basically gets the info from Wunderground, and then you can do what you like with it.

I hope that helps.

[Pixel]

^Mapantz^  Great to hear you are getting on well with the Weather Ranger, thanks for all the info. I have also checked out your site - very good. The Meteotemplate looks like a lot of fun. Very intrigued to know how you've changed the graphics display.. I guess I'd need to be running windows to do that.

Just found the W8681 pro (another rebranded W-1001) here in the UK for £190 so will go for that.

Many thanks

P

Edited January 29, 2016 by Pixel
spellin

[trebor]

54 minutes ago, Pixel said:

^Mapantz^  Great to hear you are getting on well with the Weather Ranger, thanks for all the info. I have also checked out your site - very good. The Metoetemplate looks like a lot of fun. Very intrigued to know how you've changed the graphics display.. I guess I'd need to be running windows to do that.

Just found the W8681 pro (another rebranded W-1001) here in the UK for £190 so will go for that.

Many thanks

P

there is some info on the net that says they don't all have memory card slots so watch out if that is important to you.

Edited January 29, 2016 by trebor

[Ukwoody]

The only thing that would bother me is how often the windspeed is sampled.  If it is only every 16 seconds ( as I found inferred on one site) that would miss many gusts.

Would be interested to know the specs on that aspect.

woody

[Mapantz]

19 hours ago, Ukwoody said:

The only thing that would bother me is how often the windspeed is sampled.  If it is only every 16 seconds ( as I found inferred on one site) that would miss many gusts.

Would be interested to know the specs on that aspect.

woody

I did know the full answer to this, but I cannot find the link to where I found it.

In short, the outdoor array will store details within those 16 seconds, and send the highest gust that was recorded within that 16 second period. The wind speed is calculated in a certain way. The upshot is, it actually does very well! The Davis stations miss out on high gusts regularly as well (a search will bring up with reports on weather forums) - I to had problems with gusts being missed on the Vantage Vue- physically watching it spin round like merry hell, and the console not registering it.

I've been impressed with how the WS- 1001 has captured wind readings, I've broken a few wind records on it this Winter. I can be sat there, watching as the anemometer takes a battering from a big gust of wind, and see the console not updating, then a few seconds later, it will show that big gust. If it continues to get battered, it will still log in between data sends.

[Pixel]

I just ordered the Maplin version of this weather station from their web-outlet store  - If there's anything wrong with it I can take it to my local store for exchange... which sells it for more !

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-professional-solar-powered-wi-fi-weather-station-n23dq

[Mapantz]

Right, after a lot of faffing, i've figured out how to obtain 16 second updates from the Ws-1001 and send them anywhere you like, ie; your own web server.
It is complicated and involves spending £30 on a TP LINK MR3020 portable wireless router. 
It needs to connect to the PC/Laptop first, then access it the same way you would if you were changing settings on your normal router- through the web browser. Then you have to upgrade the firmware to the freely available OpenWrt (not for the faint hearted, although straight forward) The new, cheap router, essentially becomes an expensive router. It then has to be configured to your own connection, which is straight forward. The weather station will then have to connect to this new router, instead of your normal one, and by doing that, you can capture the updateweatherstation.php that the station sends to Wunderground. It can still be sent there, and it can also be sent to multiple other locations, ie; my web server. All I have to do now is, get my template to read from that file every 16 seconds. The beauty is, nothing on the station is affected, the data still goes to Wunderground for logging purposes.

I know lots of people who wanted this kind of option, and unfortunately they made a mistake- they spent too much money!

They've purchased this for 140 Euro's - http://www.weerstationkopen.nl/meteobridge/

And it's exactly the same as this for £25 -  http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TP-LINK-TL-MR3020-Portable-3G-4G-Wireless-N-Router-150-Mbps-Travel-Router-AP-/281656145746?hash=item419403b752:g:FNoAAOSwk5FU0mNm

The difference being, I've flashed exactly the same firmware on the device I bought- bargain!

[Mapantz]

Good news! It turns out you don't need a TPLINK MR320 after all! I can use it as a wireless repeater anyhow, can extend my WiFi signal with it.

It is possible to send your weather data from the WS-1001 to your own webs server with no extra hardware, just a simple change in the console firmware.

[Pixel]

@Mapantz yes I had wandered about the direct to webserver bit..  but at least you now have a wireless repeater

I haven't received the weather station yet, it's on back order. Maplins web store at Amazon is expecting 300 of them next week. I don't mind waiting as they are £40 cheaper there than in the shops (-:

Edited February 12, 2016 by Pixel

[Mapantz]

11 minutes ago, Pixel said:

@Mapantz yes I had wandered about the direct to webserver bit..  but at least you now have a wireless repeater

I haven't received the weather station yet, it's on back order. Maplins web store at Amazon is expecting 300 of them next week. I don't mind waiting as they are £40 cheaper there than in the shops (-:

Here ya go - http://warehamwx.com/weatherstation/homeweatherstation.json

refresh that every 15 seconds, you'll see that the data changes. That's coming straight from the console, but it isn't affecting what goes to Wunderground. 
I should be running it next week, on my front page. Everything will update as I see it on my console.

[Mapantz]

19 hours ago, Pixel said:

@Mapantz yes I had wandered about the direct to webserver bit..  but at least you now have a wireless repeater

I haven't received the weather station yet, it's on back order. Maplins web store at Amazon is expecting 300 of them next week. I don't mind waiting as they are £40 cheaper there than in the shops (-:

Got it running! Have a look by clicking the pic in my signature. One or two little bugs to iron out, but its running how I want it to.

Brian, who made the template has modified a php script ( found halfway down this page: http://obrienlabs.net/redirecting-weather-station-data-from-observerip/ ) to parse the data that comes in. All I did was edit the firmware on my console to input my server under the wunderground settings, so it gets sent to both of them.

[Pixel]

On 2/13/2016 at 2:02 PM, Mapantz said:

Got it..

Weather station arrived on Sunday 21st Feb 2016 after 20 days wait.. but I got it cheap!  It's £199+ on the Maplin website but you can get it on Maplin_Webdeals @ Amazon Marketplace £159.99 delivered (on a Sunday!) using a search for SolarWifi WStation or N23DQ - good luck.    Please don't ask for direct link cos i haven't got one - google is your friend or for 40 quid nip down to Maplins it's worth it (-:

Here's it's live output so far:

https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=IWELWYN8

(the wind direction and gusts are not to be trusted as i haven't put it up high enough yet)

From unpacking to setting up on wunderground took half and hour ( i registered the station as a 1001 - hope that's right?) - The manual is in pigeon English but hey they made good and it works

Important stuff from the 'about' menu on the fab colour display:

N23DQ

storage 3705MB

HARDWARE REVISION 2

OPERATING SYSTEM VERSION 5.0.4

FIRMWARE REVISION NUMBER 2.2.7

FREQUENCY 433 MHZ

@Mapantz, Do I need to do a firmware update? i'd love to know how to personalise the display like yours and more (maybe PM me and post here too to share) as there seems to be so much one can do on this w-station.. I'm loving it.. so simple to set up and easy to read + i can send my weather to anyone !

 

 

 

[Pixel]

Oh dear I’ve broken my weatherstation - please help!

Whilst looking on tinternet for forums on how to change the display on my new toy (Maplin N23DQ) aka WS1001-wifi-clone, I came across this site;

https://ambientweather.wikispaces.com/ws1001-wifi

and this one:

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=28709.0

(hello Mapantz!)

and this one:

http://fineoffset.com/hp1000.htm

In my enthusiasm (ignorance and probable stupidity) I rushed to take the bait to uploaded the latest firmware to my shiny (working correctly) weatherstation - seemed like a good idea at the time. well.. now it’s not receiving any data from outside unit as well as the inside one.. so I had a look at the “ini’ files within the firmware update to see that my control unit (display) was now programmed to listen for 915mhz.. (Canada/America?) so I edited that - below 

[Option]

WH26=false

Transmitter=WH24

Frequency=915M

Units=Metric

Langue=English

TimeZone=15

LuxToWM2=1267

UVISlope=100

Backlight=false

Brightness=false

StationID=

Password=

 

to this:

to Frequency=433M

 

after re loading edited firmware...still not working + full factory reset

but the real problem is I can’t find the 2.2.7 Firmware I had before -  It’s missing from tinternet

Please can someone show me a firmware update for this weatherstation that can say hello to 433mhz? 

[4wd]

I would ask on WXforum if you haven't already.
As you say the fix will be fairly simple if you can somehow find the older firmware.

[trebor]

8 hours ago, Pixel said:

Oh dear I’ve broken my weatherstation - please help!

 

have a look at the maplins website the questions for the n23dq have your solution, spooks can send you a working firmware

or just wait for maplins.

you may have to change the date in the settings file it only appears to load new firmware by date not revision number.

[Mapantz]

14 hours ago, Pixel said:

Oh dear I’ve broken my weatherstation - please help!

Whilst looking on tinternet for forums on how to change the display on my new toy (Maplin N23DQ) aka WS1001-wifi-clone, I came across this site;

https://ambientweather.wikispaces.com/ws1001-wifi

and this one:

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=28709.0

(hello Mapantz!)

and this one:

http://fineoffset.com/hp1000.htm

In my enthusiasm (ignorance and probable stupidity) I rushed to take the bait to uploaded the latest firmware to my shiny (working correctly) weatherstation - seemed like a good idea at the time. well.. now it’s not receiving any data from outside unit as well as the inside one.. so I had a look at the “ini’ files within the firmware update to see that my control unit (display) was now programmed to listen for 915mhz.. (Canada/America?) so I edited that - below 

[Option]

WH26=false

Transmitter=WH24

Frequency=915M

Units=Metric

Langue=English

TimeZone=15

LuxToWM2=1267

UVISlope=100

Backlight=false

Brightness=false

StationID=

Password=

 

to this:

to Frequency=433M

 

after re loading edited firmware...still not working + full factory reset

but the real problem is I can’t find the 2.2.7 Firmware I had before -  It’s missing from tinternet

Please can someone show me a firmware update for this weatherstation that can say hello to 433mhz? 

Did you change the firmware number in the update.ini?

Every time I change something in the firmware, I move the version number up by an increment of 1. ie; Version=2.2.7 to Version=2.2.8 - 2.2.9 etc..

433Mhz is correct..

How did you do the update? Using an SD card?

[Pixel]

5 hours ago, trebor said:

have a look at the maplins website the questions for the n23dq have your solution, spooks can send you a working firmware

or just wait for maplins.

you may have to change the date in the settings file it only appears to load new firmware by date not revision number.

Spoke to chap at Maplins and he kindly sent me 2.2.2 firmware so I triied that and could get the Weatherstation to update its firmware.. didn't work..... so then I changed the date to today in 'main.ini" and "update.ini" on the micro card and tried again..

No Luck - I'm at a loss what to do now as I can't seem to get any firmwares to load so am stuck with a station that's listening out for 915mhz ! I've posted on WX forum very late last night but am still in moderation so my post isn't there

- Have I missed something? Anything else I can try?

Edited February 24, 2016 by Pixel
spellin

[Pixel]

3 minutes ago, Mapantz said:

Did you change the firmware number in the update.ini?

Every time I change something in the firmware, I move the version number up by an increment of 1. ie; Version=2.2.7 to Version=2.2.8 - 2.2.9 etc..

433Mhz is correct..

How did you do the update? Using an SD card?

tried update with SD card yes (it worked when i updated it to 2.2.9 from one of those websites) so will now try 2.3.0 ? Maybe work?

[Mapantz]

http://www.warehamwx.com/downloads/update.ini

http://www.warehamwx.com/downloads/main.ini

Save those in place of your others @Pixel

You'll need to enter your WU user and pass, as well as your WiFi details.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Mapantz

[Pixel]

Oh wow - yippee - it's working !!!!

 

I changed the dates and the firmware number up by one digit and got the update the firmware

THANKS GUYS couldn't have done this without you - brilliant

now gonna try that fancy screen (-: