Comment by firesteelrain 17 hours ago
The 3D-PAWS project is interesting, but I don’t see the cost advantage. Commercial stations like the Ambient Weather WS-2902 are cheaper, last just as long, and already integrate with Weather Underground. What makes this design worth the extra expense?
It’s a bit like having a compiled executable. Yes, you can technically modify an STL, but you’d be much better off if you can edit the source that the STL was generated from.
Right, my Ambient Weather Station lasted 7 years through severe weather. I understand the self-repair angle, but 7 years seems like solid longevity to me.
Some of my personal anecdata on this. I had an Ambient weather station that lasted only a couple years. First the wind speed sensor failed, and they replaced it under warranty. Then it failed again outside the warranty period. Next I believe the temperature sensor failed, and then finally the indoor console completely stopped working (the display no longer showed anything). Even when it worked, it had intermittent connectivity outages despite being <100 ft from the sensor array (and more-or-less line of sight through a window).
After that experience, I replaced it with a Davis Instruments Vantage Vue, which has been running for 10 years without a single issue. Just needs periodic cleaning and battery replacements. Someone also made a device that goes inside the console to provide local access to the weather station (for Home Assistant integration, for example). It's called WifiLogger2. Pricy, but recommended if you want to pull the data from the console easily. I've also set up two more of these weather stations for family, and they've been similarly stable. So my experience with Ambient Weather left a bad taste. I'd rather pay the higher cost for Davis Instruments hardware that I know will work for a long time, than roll the dice with Ambient Weather ever again.
It's also telling that a search for "davis instruments weather station" on Amazon suggests the WS-2902, followed by actual Davis Instruments products. I imagine Ambient Weather is spending a lot of money for that search placement.
This Davis unit?
https://www.davisinstruments.com/products/vantage-vue-wirele...
Looks really nice! Thank you for the suggestion
It started with the temperature then rain gauge then wind. And went altogether
> What makes this design worth the extra expense?
3d printable means that parts are never out of stock and upgrades are relatively straight-forward to implement (assuming you have the cad/STEP files. modifying STL/Mesh files is a pain in the ass)
Agree, though; for not that much $, you can get a pretty nice kit from Ali Express that'll spit out measurements over a serial port for use with APRS / LoRA or even just an arduino / raspbery pi ... etc.