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I'm looking for a weather station that works without a display but allows querying the data via an API instead.

It needs to

  • have a rain sensor
  • measure wind speed
  • have a hygrometer
  • measure temperature
  • power itself via solar energy
  • have an accumulator to measure at night from solar energy collected during daytime
  • operating temperature from -25 °C to +40 °C
  • have connectors for additional sensors for future use, e.g. UV sensor, solar sensor, snow sensor and snow height sensor
  • provide wireless connectivity in a range of ~20 meters. We want to mount it on our roof
  • access to the data must be secure, especially the Wifi connection must not open a hole into our corporate network
  • built-in data logging for at least 14 days incase the data cannot be fetched

Ideally, the software is open source. Commercial software is acceptable, but must be included in the price then.

Also ideally, the firmware is open source (Arduino based?) so that our students could modify it.

My budget is 750 € net.

Optional:

  • weather forecast

Features not needed:

  • webcam
  • scientific data measurement

Non-feature:

  • cloud based stuff. We must own our data.

I have tried:

  • most weather stations are just too cheap (< $200) and for home use / indoor use only.
  • I'm asking froggit for their WH 4000 (German) whether data can be accessed via API and whether operating conditions are within -25 °C to +40 °C. The housing looks a bit cheap and uses lots of plastic material. Also, it seems I pay for the display, which I neither need nor want. All in all I wonder why I have a budget of 750 € if I only need 119 €. (But that may just be due to lack of knowledge by managers)

  • Davis Vantage Pro 2 is the closest I could find until now. With $595 + $175, the price is even suitable. It is advertised as "withstand scorching sun, corrosion, 200 mph (321 kmh) winds, temperature extremes, and more", which sounds great.

    There are resellers that seem to sell the same hardware under their own label.

Maybe I'm just looking for alternatives to the Davis Vantage Pro 2 in order to be able to compare and decide for one.

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  • Please help tagging for a noob like me. The ones I picked are IMHO not suited so well.
    – Thomas Weller
    Commented Jun 6, 2017 at 19:01
  • Can you list a few that you have found and tell us why those are not well suited? That way we don't post answers that are not helpful.
    – Cfinley
    Commented Jun 6, 2017 at 19:11
  • @Cfinley: thanks for asking. I added that information
    – Thomas Weller
    Commented Jun 6, 2017 at 20:26
  • Hello, i know it's an old post but i'm currently looking for a Weather station with an API access... Do you found more? I think more people could be helped by this thread :)
    – Ludovic Feltz
    Commented Sep 26, 2019 at 15:55
  • It looks like the Ambient Weather API is hosted by the company, not by your local hardware. If you have no internet access you get no weather data via API?
    – Jay
    Commented Jul 12, 2023 at 16:58

2 Answers 2

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For those looking for a Weather station with an API i found some (not ordered):

  1. Ambient Weather
  • JSON Formatted Data
  • Connection secured by key
  • Lot of weather stations (from $100 to $1000)
  1. WeatherFlow Smart Home Weather Station
  • REST API and local data access via UDP and BLE
  • Solar powered
  • AI / Machine learning improves forecasts over time (someone has more informations?)
  • $299.95
  1. Acurite
  • Open source API that can be installed on Rasperi PI: acuparse
  • But unavailable in most European countries...
  1. Vantage Pro2
  • Solar powered
  • From $600 to $1300 for the Vantage Pro2 or $240 for the Vantage Vue (weather station only)
  1. Froggit weather stations

A little comparative page between weather stations with API

To be continued... (Feel free to comment if you see more informations to add to this answer)

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5
  • Thanks for posting. We usually don' recommend several different products in one answer, because it makes voting hard (e.g. what if I want to upvote 1 time and downvote 4 times?). Also, we usually don't include the product already mentioned by OP (Vantage Pro 2 in this case).
    – Thomas Weller
    Commented Sep 26, 2019 at 21:06
  • @ThomasWeller Sorry i'm from StackOverflow community, it's my first post here. I wanted to make a list of all product and characteristics as i expected to found it here... (also looking for Weather Station with an API) This list has to be improved. So do you suggest that i post a new question (more broad) and put this answer there?
    – Ludovic Feltz
    Commented Sep 27, 2019 at 7:50
  • 1
    It's the first thread about my needs that i found on google but with no answer... I totally think that list can help future people to find their need. And lot of people don't read question so i included the two products the OP mentionned... I will try to add more informations on this list soon as I have not finished my searches yet
    – Ludovic Feltz
    Commented Sep 27, 2019 at 7:52
  • You can create multiple answers below this existing question. People will then up/downvote based on the individual items. This a) might give you more Internet points and b) gives you feedback on which products are perceived well and which fail.
    – Thomas Weller
    Commented Sep 27, 2019 at 8:17
  • 1
    Great answer, AmbientWeather link is broken (for that specific page) but their site is still available: ambientweather.com
    – Dpeif
    Commented Dec 27, 2022 at 9:27
1

I've used the Crodeon weather station and they offer a Rest API by default. Worked really well for me.

Solar power is optional and your can configure a measurement interval of up to 30 seconds. I don't see the solar energy sensor that you request but maybe you could reach out to them?

They use GSM so no worries about exposing your wifi connection.

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