Weather Station Discussion

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#2766418 25-Aug-2021 11:01

I checked mine this morning, I had no email telling me the offset was wrong but I was curious.

So I took the tempest inside and used a USB fan to simulate wind coming from a northerly direction

The offset appears correct on mine, and was showing the correct direction, I then went into the app and set the offset to 180 degrees and the wind started reading as if it was coming from the south despite blowing from the “north”

At a guess they have fixed wind sensors in N E S W orientation, and must flip those pre shipping to the Southern Hemisphere. I don’t know if it’s done on a hardware or software level on the tempest itself.

This is purely a guess so don’t take my word as an authority on it..

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#2766465 25-Aug-2021 12:04

@SumnerBoy if you're concerned also there is a serial port on the bottom of the unit - I just tested this myself.

There is nothing on the internet about this serial port however and I didn't have enough hands to hold my test leads as well as press i as soon as I hit the power switch but can verify at 115200 at 3.3v logic there is something:

Reset info: 0x04 (PWR)
Extended reset info: 0x0401 (HV )
Init: 0x00
DeviceID: 48466
Device Name: ST-00048466
Firmware version: 156
Press i to enter interactive mode
Interactive mode disabled

Pinout for this (VCC, TX, RX, GND):

So I don't think adding the offset yourself to the outdoor unit is a lost cause as I would assume they'll do this via the serial port of the unit. I'd say ask them.

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SumnerBoy

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#2766469 25-Aug-2021 12:23

Nice work mate! I will definitely ask the question, thanks for letting me know.

neb

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#2766471 25-Aug-2021 12:27

dfnt: So I took the tempest inside and used a USB fan to simulate wind coming from a northerly direction

The offset appears correct on mine, and was showing the correct direction, I then went into the app and set the offset to 180 degrees and the wind started reading as if it was coming from the south despite blowing from the “north”.

Since you're supposed to orient the solar panels due north or south depending on the hemisphere I assume that's how they get the orientation, no need for any magic sensor on the device itself...

wally22

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#2766472 25-Aug-2021 12:37

Mine arrived today after being told it was delivered yesterday. Rural delivery can be like that, the last leg drops off the tracking. All up and running out on the deck temporarily until I decide on its permanent location and mount.

Technofreak

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#2766488 25-Aug-2021 13:03

neb:
dfnt: So I took the tempest inside and used a USB fan to simulate wind coming from a northerly direction

The offset appears correct on mine, and was showing the correct direction, I then went into the app and set the offset to 180 degrees and the wind started reading as if it was coming from the south despite blowing from the “north”.

Since you're supposed to orient the solar panels due north or south depending on the hemisphere I assume that's how they get the orientation, no need for any magic sensor on the device itself...

So how accurately do you align the unit with north or south and are you using magnetic north/south or true north/south? Remembering magnetic variation changes where ever you are on the earths surface. In New Zealand it varies between 18°E to 26°E. How are you working out where north/south is?

I assume the alignment has to be accurate otherwise the wind direction will be incorrect. Perhaps this is all explained in the install instructions. Just curious.

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wally22

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#2766490 25-Aug-2021 13:08

They suggest using the compass app on your phone and eyeballing an object in the near distance to line up to. True North.

Technofreak

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#2766502 25-Aug-2021 14:06

wally22:

They suggest using the compass app on your phone and eyeballing an object in the near distance to line up to. True North.

Did some digging and see some compass apps (not sure if they all do) have the option to switch between Magnetic and True providing you have GPS coverage for the True option. Very clever. I'd never bothered looking that deep on the compass apps before. I've always worked in magnetic.

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dfnt

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#2766517 25-Aug-2021 14:27

I aligned mine with the iOS compass set to true north

The blue arrow is facing true south, so my test was blowing the fan at the tempest with the solar panels facing me.. therefore the wind direction should read as in north direction which it did

In the northern hemisphere I imagine blowing a fan with the solar panels facing me would read as a south wind direction

neb: Since you're supposed to orient the solar panels due north or south depending on the hemisphere I assume that's how they get the orientation, no need for any magic sensor on the device itself...

Yeah, but that doesn’t explain why weatherflow apply a 180 degree offset on units shipped to the Southern Hemisphere

But I agree it should be smart enough to do that based on its location with no user input

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#2766533 25-Aug-2021 15:08

dfnt:

Yeah, but that doesn’t explain why weatherflow apply a 180 degree offset on units shipped to the Southern Hemisphere

But I agree it should be smart enough to do that based on its location with no user input

I also think this is why they're testing shipments to NZ (and I assume Australia) currently - all these points can be corrected in firmware so I would think they'll be able to push out a firmware patch depending on location in the future. When they reach out to ask questions perhaps raise these points directly with them.

Bewildered

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#2766534 25-Aug-2021 15:09

"Yeah, but that doesn’t explain why weatherflow apply a 180 degree offset on units shipped to the Southern Hemisphere"

That part is simple - in the north hemisphere the solar panels must face south, so the arrow faces north....here it's the other way around as we need the panels to face north (making the arrow face south). That means that the wind direction reading needs to be reversed for the southern hemisphere as technically we're facing backwards.....

neb

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#2766572 25-Aug-2021 16:40

Technofreak:
So how accurately do you align the unit with north or south and are you using magnetic north/south or true north/south? Remembering magnetic variation changes where ever you are on the earths surface. In New Zealand it varies between 18°E to 26°E. How are you working out where north/south is?

It doesn't matter. You're providing a reading saying the current gusts are closer to a norwester than a straight northerly, not measuring something down to 5 MOA. As long as the panels are pointing close enough to north (or south in the northern hemisphere), you're fine.

Technofreak

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#2766625 25-Aug-2021 18:16

neb:
Technofreak:

So how accurately do you align the unit with north or south and are you using magnetic north/south or true north/south? Remembering magnetic variation changes where ever you are on the earths surface. In New Zealand it varies between 18°E to 26°E. How are you working out where north/south is?

It doesn't matter. You're providing a reading saying the current gusts are closer to a norwester than a straight northerly, not measuring something down to 5 MOA. As long as the panels are pointing close enough to north (or south in the northern hemisphere), you're fine.

A 20° or greater variance might not matter to you but I can think of situations where it would matter to someone else. For example if I was setting it up on an airstrip 20° degrees can be the difference between showing a head wind to a tailwind.

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neb

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#2766630 25-Aug-2021 18:25

Technofreak:
A 20° or greater variance might not matter to you but I can think of situations where it would matter to someone else. For example if I was setting it up on an airstrip 20° degrees can be the difference between showing a head wind to a tailwind.

Sure, but in that case I'd be going for a proper METAR source, not a crowdfunded project some geek has slung up on the garage roof :-).

(Mine's actually bolted to the top of the pergola, easier access there).

dfnt

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#2766644 25-Aug-2021 19:16

Bewildered:
"Yeah, but that doesn’t explain why weatherflow apply a 180 degree offset on units shipped to the Southern Hemisphere"

That part is simple - in the north hemisphere the solar panels must face south, so the arrow faces north....here it's the other way around as we need the panels to face north (making the arrow face south). That means that the wind direction reading needs to be reversed for the southern hemisphere as technically we're facing backwards.....

Yeah I know why they do it, I was trying to answer neb’s point that it doesn’t happen automatically, with a poor choice of words 👍🏻

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