[Brett]

Has anyone started looking into direct posting from an RX unit, connected to the network via an ESP8266 (the lowest cost commercial wifi module in years). I don't mind the idea of having other devices attached (like the Pi attached version above) but if you can eliminate another device that consumes more power than necessary, why wouldn't you try?

Werk_AG, have you thought about this kind of scenario much?

[Shred]

I've done quite a bit of playing around with the ESP8266 boards - but not related to the WeatherDuino. I've had one in a modified solar garden light about 30m from the house, reporting in its battery voltage every 5 minutes. It's been running reliably for six months now, so not bad as a "proof of concept".

I can see two obvious potential applications for them in the WeatherDuino system:

1. Replace the crusty 433MHz radios with ESP8266 boards - the range of those things is amazing. The downside is that the extra current drain may be an issue for solar powered Tx units. (There are sophisticated power saving modes for the ESP, so this is not an insurmountable problem).

2. Add an ESP8266 to the Tx board (or the Rx - but it has very little spare RAM to handle the extra code) to directly output weather data to an MQTT (Mosquitto) server so that the information is available to other systems - e.g. for controlling an air conditioner or closing curtains when the sun sets.

I already take data from the WeatherDuino and publish it to an MQTT server, but I'm using Cumulus MX to write the data to a MySQL database, then scraping it from MySQL into MQTT. This approach has proven to be surprisingly reliable, but has too many moving parts to potentially go wrong and/or delay updates.

[Brett]

1. Replace the crusty 433MHz radios with ESP8266 boards
2. Add an ESP8266 to the Tx board (or the Rx)

Here's my thoughts. Anything you can do to reduce the number of moving parts is good. I was hoping to remove Cumulus MX or any other intermediary from the chain. I certainly don't want to run a PC or even a Pi 24x7 if I can avoid it (Pi is obviously better, though!). I probably don't want full-blown Cumulus level creations, although that might be nice. More likely, pushing data to WeatherUnderground would suffice. And while using a USB connection to the RX unit is the model employed in commercial units, where we have access to the firmware and hardware directly it should open up the option to not step through those intermediate parts.

I didn't really think your option 1 is something that could be warranted; the benefits don't seem too large. Power consumption and probably complexity goes up as well, and signal strength is also more likely to be an issue given wifi's coverage pattern vs the good old reliable 433MHz.

As for adding it to the TX/RX unit, this would be my thought - whether you use MQTT or similar is somewhat tangential, but by adding the ESP to the "inside house" unit you get the benefit of an endless power supply, you don't change the TX unit at all so any/all other WD units can still use the same data as always, and you're closer to your wifi access point.... an all-round win, in my view.

If there's not enough memory in an RX unit, perhaps we need a slightly different firmware option for that? If you're not doing too much with the USB to look like a standard interface for Cumulus to read, perhaps that frees up memory? Alternatively, it might need stepping to a new processor? (I am not an Arduino guy at all, and have no idea how much code is used by what in the RX unit firmware).

[werk_ag]

Has anyone started looking into direct posting from an RX unit, connected to the network via an ESP8266 (the lowest cost commercial wifi module in years). I don't mind the idea of having other devices attached (like the Pi attached version above) but if you can eliminate another device that consumes more power than necessary, why wouldn't you try?

Werk_AG, have you thought about this kind of scenario much?

Hi,

Regarding a direct internet posting, yes I already thought about that.
Regarding using Wi-Fi to send data from the TX units (from sensors) to the RX unit, I think that it brings more problems than vantages.

[Brett]

Regarding a direct internet posting, yes I already thought about that.

Cool. Care to share more, or even lay out a potential roadmap ? Anything we can help with?

[werk_ag]

Hi Brett

I can't give any roadmap, because there is no plans to add this feature to the WeatherDuino Pro2 system. In fact it hardly can be done, keeping all the existing features. The Davis emulation is greatly appreciated, and easily allows users to keep a record of their data, using Cumulus or other similar software.

I agree that a direct upload to systems like Wunderground may be also an appealing feature, but we all have to make choices.
Maybe someday, a system equipped with a microcontroller with more SRAM could come out, but for now there is no plans.
The WeatherDuino Pro2 has proven able to perform as well as other comparable systems, even those that cost a lot more, and it have a flexibility that I think is unique.

Thank you for offering help. Always I take in account every suggestion or idea given by the users. Help is always needed

[Brett]

thanks for sharing. I guess I take from this that you're unlikely to explore that further, that's ok by me. Questions like this can be good inspiration for thinking of additions or alternate approaches, so I'll keep asking if I think of stuff.

[werk_ag]

Often I have difficulties in express myself in English language, and sometimes surely I may seem rude or closed-minded.
I'm always opened to suggestions. Over the time, the WeatherDuino Pro2 system was benefited a lot from users suggestions.
I'm not refusing to explore anything, I just tried to say, that what you have suggested hardly can be done, unless, as you said too, a different firmware will be write. There is no RAM to accommodate the required code for the ES8266, and I'm not prepared to leave the Davis emulation (and the data logger function). I'm sure that the majority of users prefer a system with the USB connection. For most users, Cumulus is certainly the easier way to rapidly have a basic web page. Having a PI running 24h a day, costs no more than 5$ of energy per year, and the most important in my point of view, is that it allows you to store in your house your the weather data, which value increases as more years of data you have stored.
If you manage to write a different firmware to use with an ES8266 module, please feel free to share it with us.

[Brett]

Don't get me wrong, I didn't think you came across as blunt or anything. My comment was just that its ok to say you've considered it and at the moment don't see a way forward with it - again, that's fine. I don't see that as closed minded at all, you've done more than consider it in passing and have valid reasons not to move it forward at this time. It's like all project, you have to prioritise the things you take on and when you've identified that something else needs to change before it'd be possible, it makes sense to move it to the bottom of the list.