ambientweather2mqtt - Convert Ambient Weather data to MQTT messages

This package listens for local data from Ambient Weather stations (such as the WS-2902C) and converts the incoming data to MQTT events. The sensor data is published with auto-discovery so they show up automatically as sensors in Home Assistant.

The following Ambient Weather station models are confirmed to work: WS-2902C.

• Installation and configuration
  • Setting up the Docker image
  • Setting up HomeAssistant Addon (only for non-native Docker installs)
  • Configuring the weather station
• Verifying everything works
• Troubleshooting
• Advanced settings
• Supported sensors
• Calculated sensors

Installation and configuration

Setting up the Docker image

The package is provided as a Docker image for ease of installation. The sampleConfiguration folder contains the two files necessary for setup.

1. Copy the sampleConfiguration/.env and sampleConfiguration/docker-compose.yml file to your local machine.
2. Edit the .env file and specify the required information. At a minimum you must provide the address of your MQTT server, your Ambient Weather station's MAC address, and the timezone your station is located in. The sample .env contains comments explaining the additional options available including username and password for connecting to the MQTT server.
3. Start up the service by running docker-compose up in the same folder as two downloaded configuration files.

If the server starts up successfully you will see log messages like this:

2021-06-30T05:59:56-07:00 [Main] Starting up
2021-06-30T05:59:56-07:00 [MQTT] Connected to MQTT server http://192.168.1.172:1883
2021-06-30T05:59:56-07:00 [Web server] Listening at http://localhost:8080

Setting up HomeAssistant Addon (only for non-native Docker installs)

Add https://github.com/neilenns/ambientweather2mqtt as an add-on repository.

Configuring the weather station

Your Ambient Weather station must be configured to send data to the local service. This configuration is done through the awnet app. It is recommended to use an iOS device, but some have found success using an Android device as well.

1. Run the awnet app and connect to your weather station.
2. Tap next through the configuration screens until you get to the Customized screen.
3. Set the fields to the values in the following table.
4. Tap Save.

Field	Value	Notes
Enable/Disable	Enable	Make sure to set this to Enable otherwise no data will get sent.
Protocol Type Same As	Ambient Weather or Weather Underground	Ambient Weather supports more sensor data and is preferred. Select Weather Underground only if using a weather station that doesn't support Ambient Weather.
Server IP / Hostname	The IP or hostname for the machine running the Docker container
Path	/data/?	It is very important this field is entered exactly as shown. Be very careful to include the ? at the end otherwise nothing will work.
Station ID	Any non-blank value	Only required when the protocol is set to Weather Underground. The actual value provided doesn't matter but something must be in the field.
Station Key	Any non-blank value	Only required when the protocol is set to Weather Underground. The actual value provided doesn't matter but something must be in the field.
Port	The port specified in the .env file	If running in Home Assistant this should be set to 7000. If running the standalone Docker image the sample .env file provided uses 8132 so unless you changed it to something else you should enter 8132 here.
Upload Interval	The frequency to send the data.	30 is a reasonable value to start with.

Here is what a properly configured weather station looks like:

Verifying everything works

To verify everything works connect to your Home Assistant server and go to Configuration > Devices and search for ambientweather2mqtt. You should see a list of all the sensors with current values reported.

Troubleshooting

If you see the list of sensors but they all report Unavailable for the value it means the data from the weather station is not being received by this system. Check the following:

1. The Server IP / Hostname value was set to the correct IP address for the Docker system.
2. The Port value was set to the same value specified in .env.
3. The Path value was set to /data/? with the question mark at the end. If the question mark is missing the system will not work.
4. Your firewall rules aren't blocking communication from your weather station to your Docker server. This can happen if you run virtual LANs to segment NoT/IoT traffic from your primarily LAN.

Advanced settings

If you plan to use this as a Docker deployment but are not using HomeAssistant you may want to change the root used for the topic in all the MQTT messages. By default the messages are under homeassistant to ensure things like auto-discovery work. To change that you can set the TOPIC_ROOT environment variable.

To control the log level set the LOG_LEVEL environment variable to one of error, warn, info, http, or debug. info is the default.

Supported sensors

The following sensors are supported. Note that weather stations will only report the subset of these they support.

Name	Description	Ambient Weather	Weather Underground	Unit
barometricPressureAbsolute	Absolute barometric pressure	Yes	Yes	inHg
barometricPressureRelative	Relative barometric pressure	Yes	Yes	inHg
battery1..10	State of battery, 0 for not ok, 100 for ok	Yes	No	percent
batteryCo2Ok	State of the CO2 device battery, 0 for not ok, 100 for ok	Yes	No	percent
batteryOk	State of the device battery, 0 for not ok, 100 for ok	Yes	No	percent
batteryPM25Ok	State of the PM25 device battery, 0 for not ok, 100 for ok	Yes	No	percent
batteryLightning	State of the lightning device battery, 0 for not ok, 100 for ok	Yes	No	percent
co2	CO2 meter reading	Yes	No	ppm
co2_in	Indoor CO2 meter reading	Yes	No	ppm
co2_in_24h	Indoor CO2 meter 24 hour average	Yes	No	ppm
dewpoint	Outdoor dewpoint temperature	No	Yes	°F
eventDate	Date of the latest measurements	Yes	Yes	date
humidity1..10	Humidity sensors 1 through 10	Yes	No	percent
humidityIndoor	Indoor humidity	Yes	Yes	percent
humidityOutdoor	Outdoor humidity	Yes	Yes	percent
lightningCount	number	Number of lightning strikes per day	Yes	No
lightningTime	date	Date and time of the last recorded lightning strike	Yes	No
lightningDistance	km	Distance of last strike	Yes	No
pm25	PM2.5 air quality	Yes	No	µg/m^3
pm25_24Hour	PM2.5 air quality 24 hour average	Yes	No	µg/m^3
pm25Indoor	PM2.5 indoor air quality	Yes	No	µg/m^3
pm25Indoor_24Hour	PM2.5 indoor air quality 24 hour average	Yes	No	µg/m^3
rain24Hour	24 hour rain	Yes	No	inches
rainDaily	Daily rain	Yes	Yes	inches
rainEvent	Event rain	Yes	No	inches
rainHourly	Hourly rain	Yes	Yes	in/h
rainMonthly	Monthly rain	Yes	Yes	inches
rainTotal	Total rain since last factory reset	Yes	No	inches
rainWeekly	Weekly rain	Yes	Yes	inches
relay1..10	Relays 1 through 10	Yes	No	n/a
soilHumidity1..10	Soil humidity sensors 1 through 10	Yes	No	percent
soilTemperature1..10	Soil temperature sensors 1 through 10	Yes	No	°F
solarRadiation	Solar radiation	Yes	Yes	W/m^2
temperature1..10	Temperature sensors 1 through 10	Yes	No	°F
temperatureIndoor	Indoor temperature	Yes	Yes	°F
temperatureOutdoor	Outdoor temperature	Yes	Yes	°F
uv	UV radiation index	Yes	Yes	integer
windchill	Outdoor windchill temperature	No	Yes	°F
windDirection	Instantaneous wind direction	Yes	Yes	degree
windDirectionTenMinuteAverage	Wind direction ten minute average	Yes	No	degree
windDirectionTwoMinuteAverage	Wind direction two minute average	Yes	No	degree
windGust	Maximum wind speed in the last 10 minutes	Yes	Yes	mph
windMaxDailyGust	Maximum wind speed in last day	Yes	No	mph
windSpeed	Instantaneous wind speed	Yes	Yes	mph
windSpeedTenMinuteAverage	Wind speed ten minute average	Yes	No	mph
windSpeedTwoMinuteAverage	Wind speed two minute average	Yes	No	mph
aqi_pm25_aqin	PM2.5 air quality	Yes	No	µg/m^3
aqi_pm25_24h_aqin	PM2.5 air quality 24 hour average	Yes	No	µg/m^3
pm25_in_aqin	PM2.5 indoor air quality	Yes	No	µg/m^3
pm25_in_24h_aqin	PM2.5 indoor air quality 24 hour average	Yes	No	µg/m^3
pm10_in_aqin	PM1.0 indoor air quality	Yes	No	µg/m^3
pm10_in_24h_aqin	PM1.0 indoor air quality 24 hour average	Yes	No	µg/m^3
pm_in_humidity_aqin	Indoor humidity	Yes	Yes	percent
pm_in_temp_aqin	Indoor temperature	Yes	No	°F
co2_in_aqin	Indoor CO2 meter reading	Yes	No	ppm
co2_in_24h_aqin	Indoor CO2 meter reading 24 hour average	Yes	No	ppm

Calculated sensors

The following sensors are calculated using values from the weather station. Note that these will only be sent if the underlying values used for the calculation are available.

Name	Description	Ambient Weather	Weather Underground	Unit
dewpoint	Outdoor dewpoint temperature	Yes	No	°F
dewpoint1..10	Outdoor dewpoint temperature for sensors 1 through 10	Yes	Yes	°F
feelsLike	Windchill, heat index, or temperature	Yes	Yes	°F
feelsLike1..10	Windchill, heat index, or temperature for sensors 1 through 10	Yes	Yes	°F
lastRain	Last time hourlyRain was > 0	Yes	Yes	timestamp
solarRadiationLux	Solar radiation (in lux)	Yes	Yes	lx