WH2950 weather station

Adventures with a PanTech(Fine Offset) weather station.
Last update: 12 August 2018

For decades, I've kept weather records for my property in the hills outside Cessnock, in the Hunter Valley. The records are all on paper. Only rainfall data has ever made it into electronic form. In May, I decided to try to automate the process of collecting and logging data. To that end, I bought a PanTech WH2950 weather station on eBay. History of the purchase and attempts to get the weather station working as intended are detailed in the timeline.

Verdict

Not fit for purpose. Even if it can be made to do what it's apparently designed to do, it would not do what I want.

Reasons

• Reliance on "the cloud", which is unreliable and difficult to set-up.
• Access to the console is solely by mobile (Android/iOS) app. which is limited, unreliable and difficult to use.
• No desktop software (apart from web access to the non-functional "cloud").
• Manufacturer refuses to provide information to help me circumvent design limitations. If they want repeat business, then their attitude will need to change.

The story

The hardware seems to be a re-branded Fine Offset WH2950.

Two features that attracted me to this model were:

• It was described as solar powered, which I took to mean that the solar panel would charge batteries to keep the sensor unit running. The manufacturer's web site mentions rechargeable batteries, but the instructions say: "We recommend lithium batteries for cold weather climates, but alkaline batteries are sufficient for most climates. We do not recommend rechargeable batteries. They have lower voltages, do not operate well at wide temperature ranges, and do not last as long, resulting in poorer reception." (Page 10)
• The mention of WiFi led me to believe that the console would be accessible from any node on my network. That is not the case. It seems the WiFi is intended primarily for the console to upload data to "the cloud".

The outdoor sensor unit is of a type that (as far as I can tell) has a good reputation for accuracy, robustness and reliability. It certainly seems to work well enough. It's a pity the rest of the implementation is so peculiar.

What now?

Common design limitations have spawned projects to intercept transmissions from the outdoor sensor unit, so data can be logged. I might give that a go. My attempts will be documented here.

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