Ambient Weather WS-2000/ fineoffset HP2550

[Mandrake]

On 15/09/2019 at 15:24, Dean E said:

Update for you, I've had my vantage vue on for the past week. No issues to report with the anemometer, temperature and pollution sensor.

However, my moisture sensor is now having intermittent breaks in data collection. Now I don't use the GW1000 for the connection, as mine is just connected straight to the console (had an update sent over to allow it to work in that way). So my theory may be that either there's a conflict somewhere with the moisture sensor signal or the sensor itself has a weaker antenna?

Very odd. 

Excellent work. I would surmise that given the size of the moisture sensor and the fact that it is powered by a single AA cell that it 'must' be lower power in terms of TX strength.

Also given that they tend to be in the ground at lower level is also likely to further reduce the efficiency of transmission.

However given your research it shows that these sensors in particular seem to be problematic if used in proximity of a Davis station.

[Dean E]

13 hours ago, Mandrake said:

Excellent work. I would surmise that given the size of the moisture sensor and the fact that it is powered by a single AA cell that it 'must' be lower power in terms of TX strength.

Also given that they tend to be in the ground at lower level is also likely to further reduce the efficiency of transmission.

However given your research it shows that these sensors in particular seem to be problematic if used in proximity of a Davis station.

Indeed, my thoughts do stem from the fact that the sensor is lower powered as you mentioned. Good thinking about the low to the ground positioning, that wasn't something I had thought of!

Maybe a good idea to speak to Lucy and the Ecowitt team about this issue? 

[Mapantz]

The nail in the coffin arrived this morning.. the fedex bill! It is over £50. I have essentially paid just shy of £60 for a set of bird spikes that went in the bin, and a temp/humidity sensor. Bargain!

[trebor]

3 hours ago, Mapantz said:

The nail in the coffin arrived this morning.. the fedex bill! It is over £50. I have essentially paid just shy of £60 for a set of bird spikes that went in the bin, and a temp/humidity sensor. Bargain!

that sounds wrong the import duties and vat are usually about 25% of the order total, but this was always the problem of importing.

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

[Mapantz]

6 hours ago, trebor said:

that sounds wrong the import duties and vat are usually about 25% of the order total, but this was always the problem of importing.

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

Something is wrong there.. my first order was £300 and the bill was £18.

[trebor]

9 hours ago, Mapantz said:

Something is wrong there.. my first order was £300 and the bill was £18.

That also sounds wrong, the import duty on a £300 order should have been higher, around £60 maybe (I'm no tax expert), I wounder if they have corrected a previous error with your import charges.

[Mandrake]

9 hours ago, trebor said:

That also sounds wrong, the import duty on a £300 order should have been higher, around £60 maybe (I'm no tax expert), I wounder if they have corrected a previous error with your import charges.

I would tend to agree, something sounds very wrong. Do you have the original shipping note which should state the value against which the customs/handling fee is due?

I am thinking perhaps that they have misread the value of the items.

The last bit of kit I had (Ws-80 and the new improved GW-1000) did not attract any customs duty at all.

I would ask to challenge this bill....

[trebor]

After the soil sensor signal problem was reported here I started paying more attention to what mine were doing and sure enough I have the occasional signal drop as well.

Now I have two sensors connected to a gw1000 and what I have found so far is that it is the position or orientation of the sensor that causes the drop. the two sensors are about a meter apart either side of the poly tunnel

it is only one sensor suffering drops so I swapped them around making sure to replace them in the same spot same orientation and the other sensor started dropping so what I have concluded is it's not hardware in my case it is position even only a meter apart is making the difference between working or not.

I intend to test the way they are pointing next. hope this makes sense and maybe helps.

[stuart.fae.snowland]

Hi, hope you don’t mind slightly off topic, but after reading several pages of posts I decided to contact Lucy at ecowitt and communication has been fast, I ordered the ecowitt 2551, they received my payment and said would contact back once dispatched, after full week I contacted back to see if it had been dispatched, got a prompt reply this morning saying ‘we still need some time to prepare your order, we may ship after 2-3 weeks due to national holiday’ they did offer to refund if this was not suitable. 
from what I have seen on this forum they seem to ship pretty quickly, just frustrated as it was just over £250 and want to play with it now! Anyone else experienced a delay like this? should I stick with my order or is there any other alternatives within this price range?

[Mandrake]

43 minutes ago, stuart.fae.snowland said:

Hi, hope you don’t mind slightly off topic, but after reading several pages of posts I decided to contact Lucy at ecowitt and communication has been fast, I ordered the ecowitt 2551, they received my payment and said would contact back once dispatched, after full week I contacted back to see if it had been dispatched, got a prompt reply this morning saying ‘we still need some time to prepare your order, we may ship after 2-3 weeks due to national holiday’ they did offer to refund if this was not suitable. 
from what I have seen on this forum they seem to ship pretty quickly, just frustrated as it was just over £250 and want to play with it now! Anyone else experienced a delay like this? should I stick with my order or is there any other alternatives within this price range?

I would say that actually this kind of delay is fairly normal. You are in effect buying direct from the factory and they don't have a fast turn around of shipping that we kind of expect with Amazon etc. As I have mentioned before I also believe that they don't hold big stocks of 868Mhz kit and this means sometimes manufacturing it first before shipping. The big markets for Ecowitt are the USA/Canada and Auz.

However that said. The HP2551 is the best out there at the moment at a sensible price and the options in terms of extra sensors is great. If you were USA based you could go via Amazon or Ambient, however if you are UK based then the only option currently is via Ecowitt direct and waiting a bit for delivery. I should also note that they are just going off for 2 weeks holidays in the region which probably accounts for much of the suggested delay from Lucy.

Edited September 24, 2019 by Mandrake

[Mapantz]

Just to add; My first order took 3 weeks to arrive and the second was 6 1/2 weeks. No holidays over there during those times either.

[trebor]

I will add if you don't mind the using the wrong frequency (915mhz) the order process from amazon.com is very simple and quick, I have used it. But shipping and vat and import duty still hurts.

[trebor]

21 hours ago, trebor said:

After the soil sensor signal problem was reported here I started paying more attention to what mine were doing and sure enough I have the occasional signal drop as well.

Now I have two sensors connected to a gw1000 and what I have found so far is that it is the position or orientation of the sensor that causes the drop. the two sensors are about a meter apart either side of the poly tunnel

it is only one sensor suffering drops so I swapped them around making sure to replace them in the same spot same orientation and the other sensor started dropping so what I have concluded is it's not hardware in my case it is position even only a meter apart is making the difference between working or not.

I intend to test the way they are pointing next. hope this makes sense and maybe helps.

A further day of messing about with the soil sensors appears to suggest that with both sensors pointing in the same direction I get one sensor wiped out by the other, no signal at all.

This doesn't make a lot of sense to my head so I will investigate further.

A second point to note is that the eccowitt website shows holes in the data that a reboot of the gw1000 and a page refresh fixes, the missing data appears. whether that is a website or hardware issue is unclear. 

[Mapantz]

It looks like I have a faulty outdoor temp/humidity sensor now.

I'm not even going to bother accepting a replacement as I am not willing to pay for import fees any more.

My advice for anyone reading this thread, don't buy directly from Ecowitt.

[trebor]

7 hours ago, Mapantz said:

It looks like I have a faulty outdoor temp/humidity sensor now.

I'm not even going to bother accepting a replacement as I am not willing to pay for import fees any more.

My advice for anyone reading this thread, don't buy directly from Ecowitt.

I can appreciate your point of view you do seem to have had more than your fair share of issues and I agree the import fees can make this stuff expensive but I am still happy with the quality.

Until somebody starts stocking uk spec kit we are stuck with importing and all the problems that brings.

I have not had anymore problems with ecowitt than I have had with davis but time will tell if that stays true and ecowitts console display at least looks like it was made in this century.

[Mapantz]

Yet more problems with data not matching up. It's becoming a joke now.

I've just added up how much I have spent including import fees on this and it's only £20 away from buying a brand new VP2 Pro.

[Ukwoody]

 As Mandrake commented, the delay to the UK is apparently due to them being caught a bit off guard by the volume of UK and EU orders. They are basically having to make them to order at the factory currently due the the Frequency issue.  They are aware of this and I gather are putting things in place to improve shipping times in the near future.

As Lucy has said, they are however on a weeks shutdown now due to the national holidays celebrating the 70th anniversary of the start of communism in China, which just exacerbates the delays at the moment. 

[Mapantz]

Just been having a look at this fedex bill again.. Item value 19.95 USD

Freight charges:  128.35 GBP

Looking at this, it's as if Ecowitt have declared/tried to hide a false amount but HMRC have seen through it,

Edited October 1, 2019 by Mapantz

[Mandrake]

2 hours ago, Mapantz said:

Just been having a look at this fedex bill again.. Item value 19.95 USD

Freight charges:  128.35 GBP

Looking at this, it's as if Ecowitt have declared/tried to hide a false amount but HMRC have seen through it,

That's not unusual to have a low item value. I really think someone has made a mistake on the Fedex side of things. 

If the item is a replacement/non chargeable item the its value would be genuinely low since its at cost value and not retail. This would be the same for test samples which I have been party to.

In my case item values of 19.95 attracted zero customs. You need to appeal!

[Mandrake]

On 02/10/2019 at 15:46, Krojan said:

This is my first post in this forum, so welcome to everyone.
German Froggit already has GW1000 and GW1001 on sale:

https://www.froggit.de/product_info.php?language=en&info=p410_dp1500-wi-fi-wetterserver-usb-dongle.html

https://www.froggit.de/product_info.php?info=p420_dp1500-wi-fi-wetterserver-usb-dongle-inkl--1-x-dp50---wh3000se-all-in-one-aussensensor.html

Welcome Krojan to the Netweather forum!

We will watch with interest what rebadged ecowitt/Fine Offset products that froggit choose to sell from the latest ranges. Certainly a useful alternative source for 868Mhz kit and spares!

[Matt Pitts]

 I came across this thread with everyones  DIY radiation screen, I was just wondering where you got hold of the plant saucers for it, assumuing you are in the UK. cheers Matt.  

[Mapantz]

14 hours ago, Matt Pitts said:

 I came across this thread with everyones  DIY radiation screen, I was just wondering where you got hold of the plant saucers for it, assumuing you are in the UK. cheers Matt.  

Hi Matt

I bought the 17cm ones: 

Elho Loft Urban Saucer Round 17 - Jade Green - Outdoor - Ø 17.4 x H 2.4 cm: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors

WWW.AMAZON.CO.UK

---

Great prices on your favourite Gardening brands, and free delivery on eligible orders.

I've just noticed that they do white ones now. They weren't available when I got mine, so I had to spray them white.

Edited October 31, 2019 by Mapantz

[Matt Pitts]

19 hours ago, Mapantz said:

Hi Matt

I bought the 17cm ones: 

Elho Loft Urban Saucer Round 17 - Jade Green - Outdoor - Ø 17.4 x H 2.4 cm: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors

WWW.AMAZON.CO.UK

---

Great prices on your favourite Gardening brands, and free delivery on eligible orders.

I've just noticed that they do white ones now. They weren't available when I got mine, so I had to spray them white.

@Mapantz Cheers thanks for letting me know.  Just one last questions, what sort of spacing do you have between the dishes?

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by Matt Pitts

[Mapantz]

On 01/11/2019 at 17:19, Matt Pitts said:

@Mapantz Cheers thanks for letting me know.  Just one last questions, what sort of spacing do you have between the dishes?

 

Sorry for the late reply. I think I used M5 nylon spacers (20mm length) as I bought M5 threaded bar.

[Mapantz]

I'm currently testing Cumulus MX with the GW-1000.