Cumulus Support

Hi all,
So after 7 years my Maplin / FineOffset weather station has finally given up the ghost and of course there are no spares to be had easily so I have been looking for a reasonably cheap alternative and came across Ecowitt, which I believe is now supported in Cumulus MX.

There seems to be a GW1002 weather station which has all the bits I think I need, including the GW1000 gateway and I also think I can buy other individual sensors and can conect these through the GW1000. Is that correct?

My question is how does it connect with CumulusMX. I am currently running MX on a Pi but I am struggling to find information on how it all fits together. I see the GW1000 has a USB port but is that just for power and does Cumulus read the data via IP / wireless.

Any comments or thoughts would be warmly welcome.

Andy

The GW1000 is a WiFi device and CumulusMX reads the data from the GW1000 IP address. The USB is only for powering the GW1000.
In Settings, Station settings, Station type select Ecowitt GW1000 and for Ecowitt GW1000 settings enter the IP address and the interval.
That should be all there is to it.
Yes, GW1000 picks up the various Ecowitt sensors, the extra sensors and data logs are viewable from the dashboard menu.

Also need to mention that the GW1000 is not a data logger so if there is a Cumulus shut down or lost connection the data is not available. The GW1000 will also send the data to www.ecowitt.net

Enjoy,
Paul

Hi Paul,
Thanks for the quick reply. Seems like this is a good option, I just wasnt sure how MX communicated with the GW1000 and didnt want to upset my current install by switching station types to find out as I am still getting some info from my Maplin station, albeit that the station display is blank and the wind direction and speed is very intermittent.

Just one additional quetion. I am right in assuming that I could buy an Ecowitt station with display and add a GW1000 to get the data in to Cumulus. I do like my internal display rather than having to refer to my website all the time.

I understood the piece about data-logging from what I had read but as I currently use a PI which is powered on 24x7 and costs peanuts to run then unless there is a power failure it should be ok. Will have to take that chance.

Many Thanks
Andy

Late reply, but don't forget that you can always use a USB power bankbetween the power supply and Raspberry Pi to act as a kind of UPS. How long it will last depends on the capacity of the power bank. Whether it's worth it depends how often you get mains power failures.
This would also help protect against data loss from sudden power loss - Raspberry Pi and their SD cards are not good when power is removed without a proper shutdown.

Hi,
Yes I looked in to this but the power banks I have tried dont have passthrough, so its either plugged in and charging or running the Pi. They are quite old power banks so might try and get my hands on a newer one to try.

Odd .. when I suggested powerbank possibility in another place some time ago, they all complained about the passthru problem, but my (very) old one had no problem !

Big Daddy wrote: ↑Fri 14 Feb 2020 10:06 am Hi Paul,
Thanks for the quick reply. Seems like this is a good option, I just wasnt sure how MX communicated with the GW1000 and didnt want to upset my current install by switching station types to find out as I am still getting some info from my Maplin station, albeit that the station display is blank and the wind direction and speed is very intermittent.

Just one additional quetion. I am right in assuming that I could buy an Ecowitt station with display and add a GW1000 to get the data in to Cumulus. I do like my internal display rather than having to refer to my website all the time.

I understood the piece about data-logging from what I had read but as I currently use a PI which is powered on 24x7 and costs peanuts to run then unless there is a power failure it should be ok. Will have to take that chance.

Many Thanks
Andy

Hi Andy,
you are right. That's how it is.
If you are interested in some more detail, check https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=40730.0
It's the most comprehensive place for Fine Offset clone (Ecowitt etc.) related info.
It's application software like CumulusMX independent. For Cumulus specific info this forum here is the right one (even though there's also helpful information in the WXforum).
People like Paul and myself surf in both forums. They complement each other.

As far as power loss goes, I have my GW1000 plugged directly into a 1500VA/900W UPS backup battery. This UPS also powers the system that I run my CumuluxMX system on as well as some network equipment. It can run for 1.5-2 hours. If you were only powering a Pi and a GW1000 of it, it could last MUCH longer than that with such light a load. Many hours.