I would like to propose the creation of a PRO HUB that has an ethernet connection, and an external WiFi antenna. Maybe even an SD Card to record data locally when there is an internet outage, and a rechargeable lithium battery for battery backup during a power outage.
if you get any of the may available powerbanks that allow charging while being used (like the one available from weatherflow), you don’t need an sd card or a rechargeable battery. The hub will just continue working and sends the data as soon as the internet is back online.
1 Like
This is an idea for a PRO version that could possibly have the lithium battery built in so you don’t have an external battery backup unit. The PRO could have an ethernet port and an external antenna wifi so we could avoid upload issues.
+1 on this, looking to use these in a corporate environment for use and wind speed monitors for Emergency management, and being able to Hardwire them to our infrastructure cabling would be ideal
I’d like the see the Hub have a POE port and local WS connection.
I’d like to see something other than the UDP as it makes it harder for local integrations to get updates when the systems are in different network segments. Ideally would like to see a local WS connection with an POE port. This allows for easier cross segment communication and eliminates broadcast traffic specially on an IoT network with many low powered devices.
1 Like
My wish would be an PoE (802.3af)/Hub module that connects to the base of Tempest. Instead of using the power booster accessory this PoE/hub module would connect there and do both power and data thus eliminate the need for the indoors hub. Would be a nice option for those of us that both need extra power (during winter) and have the option to extend a network cable to the weather station.
1 Like
POE would be great! You can trust a wire. WiFi I don’t trust nor rely on.
1 Like
The hub does other processing that the Tempest and other sensors do not do, so the hub would still be necessary.
Sorry for beeing a bit of topic. The extended range antenna is a good idea.
But let me explain my idea because I think you missed the part about outdoor hub.
First let’s look at the indoors hub. There is no sensors for measurement so this ‘hub’ can be placed anywhere. What I understand it does basically three things: connectivity (radio and wifi), processing and storage.
If we build an outdoors poe hub (to go where the power accessory goes today) what do we get. First of a steady stream of power and also connectivity if connected to a poe switch and not a poe converter. If we have a steady stream of power, then we can add processing and storage. With processing and storage we have an outdoors hub running practically the same firmware as the indoors hub and makes the indoor hub redundant in this case.
The only part that is missing in the current version of Tempest is a data connectivity interface at it’s base. Today it’s only a power coupling for the power accesory present. That would need to be added to a newer version to be able to turn of radio. Or maybe radio will be used anyway to connect to more equipment.
If all theese criterias are met then the customer could choose either to buy.
- Tempest + indoors hub + optionally power accessory and long range antennas
- Tempest + outdoors hub
Outdoors hub could be made to detect if there is ethernet in the RJ45 poe cable or to use wifi. Radio is still needed for the few centimeters in current revision but could be turned of in future versions where there is a data connection interface between the modules.
2 Likes
Ok, that makes sense. I think this could be done without changing the Tempest and just keep using the radio link to sensors for data. This has the benefit of reducing the number of SKUs to manufacture. The hub could have two RJ45 ports, one for ethernet and PoE and the other for powering the Tempest in place of the PBA. Another option would be to increase the voltage input range for the current PBA to handle 60V and just take some of the power and send it on a 2-conductor wire to the PBA.
1 Like
I agree that to use radio even if it is a small distance it a good choice because it will work with current hardware and do not require so many changes. There is however a few cases where it might be a wish or requirement to keep as little extra radio frequencies as possible in the airspace and radio still require a few mW(?) extra. So to plan for a future that have a data interface and radio turned of while also connected to a data/PoE interface will make the tempest ‘silent’ in the surrounding airspace. This is probably not the best USP since it is very few customers that have these requirements, but still worth to consider when doing a design.
The system does not retain data and forward it to the cloud at a later date.
If either of the RF links break all of that data appears to be lost.
Currently the only way around this appears to be in having your own forwarding software that can pick up the UDP stream on the LAN segment from the WiFi.
The WiFi band is fairly well saturated in much of the areas where I live and work and 2.4GHz can be unstable however, at this stage the only time I have had an issue with the WiFi is when another device has played up and disrupted multiple devices on a given AP.
If haven’t dismantled the IDU but will make the assumption that its a relatively simplistic bridge. I actually remember the ethernet option being spoken about in the kickstarter program and there were drawings of it. Obviously not enough of the consumer base picked up that option at the time. The system is likely based on a ESP series chipset. One of the latest versions of the ESP - ESP32-C6 -which is relatively new includes WiFi6@2.4GHz as well as BLE, Zigbee and protocols now associated with Matter. There would need to be a commercial reality to programming and rolling out these options but, a Pro-Version of the Hub/IDU with enough market opportunity in the current user base could be a start. In reality, the bigger market is to look at what other products on the market are doing and the physical ODU component and current network UDP traffic is leaps and bounds ahead of the hoops you have to jump through on the other competing products in the market.
A pro-hub could be made adaptable and powerful enough with current technology to fill and exceed any market gap, including onboard AI, that would exceed prosumer expectations.
actually the system DOES keep data and forward it to the cloud at a later time. It stores data for up to a week on the hub.
1 Like
Thank you. I wasn’t sure about the battery backup as well but I see that in the store. I remember lots of shared information during the kickstarter period, can’t remember where everything got to.
If you are only worried about Wifi congestion problems, the battery is of course irrelevant. The battery is only useful, if you have power outage, so the hub keeps working and receiving the data from the tempest. It will send that data when power and WiFi are back up again. You’ll need a usb power bank with charge-thru capabilities, so you can power the hub, while it is charging. Many have that capability, many also don’t. The one offered in the shop of Weatherflow does have that.
Hm, of concern would be the manufacturer saying that they won’t warrant a device that isn’t using their addons. They have a solution currently and, as you say, there are many to choose from. There is an option to take an 802.3af source for power and output through a battery backup to the base unit.
WiFi interference is an issue in the 2.4GHz range as while Australia has rolled out the NBN every router dropped into every house has 2.4G and 5GHz wifi on and turned up to max output with 80, and 160MHz bandwidth. There are approx 120 AP’s in my immediate area without hunting down the phones and other devices pushing packets into the ether.
The worst thing that happens in any given week is when one of the google nest mini’s decides to go lala and spews packets out onto wifi DOSing everything within its immediate vacinity. They haven’t done this in the past month (fingers crossed) but often need to be reset and reprogrammed in the hopes the problem is resolved.
Having a wired data interface would help with physical powerfeed and data feed for the base immensely.
I’m not sure where with the current hardware 802.3 comes into play. Any normal powerbank with pass-thru charging would be fine. The hub will transmit it’s data whenever WiFi is available and buffer up to a week.