WS90 / GW2001 initial thoughts

[philpugh]

A few weeks into running this device and here are some thoughts.

PRO:
Simple to set up.
Nice web interface on the GW2000
Temp/Wind in agreement with my other stations most of the time! (The other two are vane driven anemometers)
Sun / Solar power measurement seems much better than with my WH65 and WS68

CON
Rain measure is under reading light rain and over reading very heavy rain - but there is a new firmware that has changed this behaviour - just need some rain now!

Attached is the solar power /UVI for the last three days - that last two are under clear - but humid - skies.

All in all not too bad a performance so far.

[Mapantz]

Ditched mine.

Registered rainfall during dew conditions. Didn't read rain at all during some showers. The GW2001 packed up on me - it kept turning off. Sent it all back.

[HansR]

Thanks, I was already following the result

I don't see why the dashboard solar does not show radiation.
Wrt rain: before you decide on too low/high I assume you need a calibrated rain measurement?
Differences are up to 25% then you really need to decide what is truth and what isn't

[philpugh]

Hans
I have a physical rain gauge situated within 5 metres of my stations - The WH65 and WH40 (on my WS68) agree with each other and are within 2% of this. Comparing the daily rain from the GW2001 with the WH45 / WS68-WH40 show the discrepancies. I am hopeful they can get this to works correctly.. I have one of the original Weatherflow devices and this was really bad at rainfall in the early days - but now it's not too bad - within 5% of the rain gauge over this year.

There is also one more CON!

Doing the firmware upgrade is a big PITA! The instructions that come with it are wrong - the USB drivers are stored elsewhere and the only way I could get them to load was to launch device manager and scan entire system disk for the drivers. Subsequent updates will be much easier hopefully.

Mapantz : Shame about your experience. Heavy dew is a problem with the tipping bucket sensors also - it's just that it is hidden as when it starts to rain the first tip happens "early".

[mcrossley]

But dew is valid precipitation and should be measured. It is included in standard meteo measurements.

[freddie]

But dew is valid precipitation and should be measured. It is included in standard meteo measurements.

This is very true, and not something people are often aware of.

[Mapantz]

But dew is valid precipitation and should be measured. It is included in standard meteo measurements.

Yes, absolutely. The trouble I had, was it was registering 2mm of it. And, Ecowitt claim that they designed it so that dew wouldn't cause erroneous measurements.