Stephen Collins

Mastofolk, my 10 year old Netatmo weather station has given up the ghost. I’m after a replacement that will feed readings to #HomeAssistant and ideally has hooks for HomeKit as well, though I can probably get HomeBridge to manage that.

EcoWitt come highly recommended, but there looks like a bit of an Australia tax. Any suggestions gladly accepted.

Mar 9 at 4:27amWeb
Show threadDaniel O'ConnorMar 9
@trib I have a Sainsmart (clone) and have my server run tcpdump to sniff the plain text traffic as it uploads to wunderground and then generate MQTTT for HASS.. which is to say: if you find a good solution please let me know 😭
Show threadStephen CollinsMar 9
@Darius that is VERY Home Assistant areas.
Show threadLennartMar 9
@Darius @trib
I wrote something for that a while ago https://github.com/lhw/cloudweatherproxy
GitHub - lhw/cloudweatherproxy: A HA integration that functions as proxy for weatherstations publishing to Weather Underground and Co

A HA integration that functions as proxy for weatherstations publishing to Weather Underground and Co - lhw/cloudweatherproxy

GitHub
Show threadStephen CollinsMar 9
@lhw @Darius thanks! I'll play around.
Show threadDaniel O'ConnorMar 9
@lhw nice! I pondered something along those lines but didn't want to mess around with DNS spoofing etc.. tcpdump -> bodgy python -> mqtt was ugly but functional :)
Show threadSoup For My FamilyMar 9

@trib Ecowitt is on my shopping list for when I eventually do this. This bloke’s video+writeup (whole channel really) is worth checking out for an Aussie review.

https://www.thestockpot.net/videos/localweather

Actual Clouds > The Cloud — The Stock Pot

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned while building a modern smart home is this: good automations start with good data. If your inputs are unreliable, delayed, or generic, your automations will never be what you promised your SO they would be. My ‘inside the house’ data is pretty solid, than

The Stock Pot
Show threadTim SerongMar 10
@gurgle @trib I got one of those (the "wittboy") a few years ago for the same reason (no moving parts) but since discovered the haptic rain gauge is far from accurate if you have anything other than normal solid rain. It's terrible with light showers and other oddities - I got suspicious when I saw occasional wild variance between it and my old manual nylex rain gauge from Bunnings, so I went and also got one of these https://shop.ecowitt.com/en-au/products/ecowitt-wh40h?_pos=3&_psq=rain+gauge&_ss=e&_v=1.0 - hooks up to the same gateway, and has much less variance with my manual gauge. I've been meaning to write this up properly on my blog for ages but somehow just haven't found the time yet (sorry!)
Ecowitt WH40H Wireless Self-Emptying Rain Gauge with 3.5cm Enhanced Rain Funnel Design

Show threadSteveMar 9
@trib personally I have a tempest, it’s a bit of a pain to get here though. There’s 2 modules for home assistant, one that can pull from the weather flow cloud and another that is local only. It does not have native HomeKit though
Show threadFrank’s TingMar 9
@trib yeah my ecowitt is pretty good so far
Show threadMelissa BearTrixMar 9

@trib

Have you looked into a esp32 and buying the sensors separately

Hugz & xXx

Show threadI can’t believe its not @twcauMar 9
@trib Ecowitt seems to be widely available without the Australia tax on Aliexpress, at least last time I checked a month ago.
Show threadDaniel CarosoneMar 9

@trib yeah, i have the ecowitt gw2000c base station and wh90 weather station (along with some other sensors). Other than the soil moisture sensors which have a tendency to die (not unique to this brand), they're fine.

It pushes to home-assistant, so you need to expose the web api listener to the base station and give it an access token.

ETA: they usually get significant discounts in the various online sale events, if you can time the purchase to match

Show threadwarkolmMar 9
@uep huh, I haven't had any issues with my wh51 soil moisture sensors!
Show threadDaniel CarosoneMar 9
@warkolm that's what I have too. 2 of 3 currently offline. replacing the battery didn't help.
Show threadMattRMar 9
@warkolm @uep yeah 1 of my 3 seems to have died because it leaked
Show threadFurbland's Very Cool Mastodon™Mar 9
@trib what exactly's wrong with your old one? i might be able to provide fixes/troubleshooting advice
Show threadFurbland's Very Cool Mastodon™Mar 9
@trib ...never mind, it looks like one of those fancy smart ones. i was thinking one of the little LCD type clock things
Show threadStephen CollinsMar 9
@GroupNebula563 my reading suggests 6-10 years of reliable service. It’s lived a life. And there are definitely better things around now.
Show threadFurbland's Very Cool Mastodon™Mar 9
@trib fair enough :P
Show threadwarkolmMar 9
@trib I have a brand new, never setup ecowitt ws90 with a gw1100 I would be happy to sell you
Show threadStephen CollinsMar 9
@warkolm pm me with info on how to send you money and post details.
Show threadMathiasMar 9
@trib
I (in Germany) run an ecowitt ws90 (by Shelly) via ZBT-1. I had some issues with the zigbee connection until I updated the ws90 firmware. But have been happy since. Now 3 month.
Show threadMattRMar 9
@trib if you go Ecowitt I get readings into HomeKit from home assistant using the HomeKit Bridge integration, works great
Show threadI can’t believe its not @twcauMar 9
@mattrobertson @trib There is a HA native integration available for some Ecowitt devices: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/ecowitt/
Ecowitt

Instructions on how to integrate Ecowitt Weather Station within Home Assistant.

Home Assistant
Show threadMattRMar 9
@twcau @trib yeah I use that but it doesn’t get it into HomeKit
Show threadI can’t believe its not @twcauMar 9
@mattrobertson How are you bringing your HA into HomeKit? @trib
Show threadMattRMar 9
@twcau HomeKit Bridge integration, you can make anything in HA look like a HomeKit device if you try hard enough :-)
Show threadStephen CollinsMar 9
@twcau @mattrobertson HomeKit Bridge integration pushes LIFX lights and Sonos speakers to HomeKit for me, as setting them up again in HomeKit is a massive PITA. Works like a charm.
Show threadI can’t believe its not @twcauMar 9
@trib @mattrobertson Intereesting, as I’ve not noticed any issues with my areas of devices using HA’s native HomeKit integration (except that a single HomeKit bridge in HA can’t handle more than 150 entities). Need to review my setup at some point to look
Show threaddamonMar 9
@trib Which bits of it do you use? I’ve got some bits and pieces from Apollo that do a lot of the internal sensors and I have some Hue motion sensors outside that report temperature (but not humidity). If you have the wind or rain addons then I don’t have any suggestions (but interested to see what you find – my Netatmo is probably approaching that age too).
Show threadStephen CollinsMar 9

@damonism I have the whole shebang - indoor, outdoor, rain, wind.

The Indoor/big module has taken to dropping out multiple times each day, disconnecting the entire setup from both the Netatmo account and Home Assistant.

Show threaddamonMar 9
@trib That’s definitely not something I’ve seen yet – mine seems to be pretty rock solid with Home Assistant. But I only have the indoor module and the outdoor temp module, none of the other ones.
Show threadRich CampoamorMar 9
@trib
Tempest works well
Show threadAlexMar 9

@trib ecowitt were fine (no NZ tax) for me, when bought direct.

https://shop.ecowitt.com

All my gear has been theirs for ages. 433 Mhz models for our region.

Ecowitt Shop | Weather | Garding | Smart Home Product supplier

Ecowitt provides professional weather products to people around the world. With strong technology and factory backup, ecowitt will be your perfect choice! Check our store for more weather products.

Ecowitt
Show threadJF  Mar 9
@trib I can confirm you that ecowitt works well
Show threadOliver StuekerMar 9

@trib
Since I was already running Mosquitto as #MQTT broker, I flashed #OpenMqttGateway on an #ESP32 module with a 433MHz receiver and got myself a non-smart weather station.
Alternately you could use #RTL433 and an #RTLSDR dongle to receive the data (or data from your neighbors weather stations).

My station is from LaCrosse, but there are other supported brands.