Ambient Weather WS-2000 Smart WIFI Weather Station Review – Top of the line!
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The Ambient Weather WS-2000 is a mid-priced, full-featured home weather station. If you like Ambient’s model2902, you’ll really like the WS-2000 with its upgraded features and expanded capabilities. Read on and see whether theWS-2000is the right weather station for you.
Main Features of the WS-2000
Being a complete weather station you get indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and rainfall. Two additional sensors built into the weather station are UV and solar radiation. A separate indoor sensor measures temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure.
With 7 weather sensors on the outdoor sensor, the Ambient Weather WS-2000 is ahead of all but the much higher-priced home weather stations.
This is a wireless weather station. The indoor display receives the information from the sensors and then transmits a WiFi signal to your wireless router.
A high-definition color TFT indoor display sets the WS-2000 apart from most other weather stations.
A feature that many people find useful is the ability to add up to 8 more remote temperature/humidity sensors in areas of your choice around your home.
Take a minute and check out the WS-2000 at Amazon, be sure to check out the comments!
A Closer Review of the WS-2000
Other than the power cord to the indoor display, the WS-2000 is wireless. The outside sensor array is solar-powered most of the time but has backup batteries that kick in when the nights are long or the days are cloudy.
Osprey 7 in 1 outdoor sensor:
Here you have the standard weather station instruments with the addition of two more that are usually found only on higher-priced systems. This is the same outdoor sensor array that is the stand-out feature of the extremely popular WS-2902C model.
The sensor includes:
Outdoor thermometer
Outdoor humidity
Wind speed
Wind direction
Rainfall
+ Solar radiation
+ Ultraviolet radiation
This weather station sensor array has proven to be very popular, not only due to the unique design, but people are happy with the accuracy and reliability. Ambient Weather uses a super-capacitor that is charged by a solar cell to run the sensor array. Lithium batteries take up the slack at night. The batteries can last a long time.
The sensor the WS-2000 uses came out in early 2017 so the long-term durability has been proven. If the customer comments are any guide, I think the WS-2000 weather stationwill stand up to almost anything thrown at it.
Some people say that the sensor feels too light or may be weak, however, Ambient Weather company says the sensor is designed to be as light as possible for better temperature accuracy. The radiant heat from the Sun tends to heat everything up. Keeping the surface area small and thermal mass low and placing the thermometer at some distance from the other sensors and being shaded by the rain gauge allows the WS-2000 thermometer to operate accurately without a fan. As for weakness, I doubt it, keep in mind the Osprey weather sensor is rated to handle winds in excess of 100mph.
TFT stands for ‘thin film transistor’. Thin film transistor display screens have much better resolution and are much easier to see at an angle than the more common LCD displays. They also cost more….
Ambient Weather calls the indoor display a “tablet display”. The full-color TFT display unit packs quite a few useful features and capabilities inside.
A lot of people see theWS-2000as an upgradedWS-2902mainly due to the LED display being replaced by a TFT unit. Not only does the new display look better, but it can also receive signals from additional temperature/ humidity sensors. These additional remote sensors can be seen as the display cycles through them one at a time.
The WS-2000 display is very clear at any angle. Well, you DO have to be standing somewhere in front of it…
You can change the display appearance by selecting a light or dark background. A backlight is provided that can be set to turn on when it gets dark.
So how does it know when it’s dark?
During setup, you are asked for your location. Using that info the display automatically connects to the nist.gov timeserver and can then tell your local time and when and where the Sun and Moon appear in your sky. The display has a nice graph of the Sun’s arc through your sky along with the Moon phases.
A lot of information on the WS-2000 display console
A lot of information is packed into the display in a mix of data numbers and graphical representations, all in different colors. This info includes the obvious weather data from the outdoor sensor array and the input from the remote sensors but also calculated information like wind chill and heat index, “feels like” temperature, dew point, and also 10-minute averages for wind speed and direction.
Keep the WS-2000 display console plugged in
All of this receiving and sending data and also lighting up the TFT display takes power. The display uses 500mw (1/2 a watt) which is too much to run continuously with batteries so you must use the wall wart. There is a battery built into the display, but all it does is keep your settings and memory during power failures. The battery cannot power the display or the WiFi.
Place the WS-2000 display almost anywhere
The WS-2000 display is 7.75 inches by 5.75 inches and only .75 inches thick. The TFT display screen itself measures 6.25 X 3.5 inches. Place it on your desk or mount it on the wall, just make sure to keep it within 300 feet of the outdoor sensor array. The closer the better. All of the optional remote sensors and your indoor temp/ humidity/ barometer sensor must be within 80 feet of the display. And again, everything works better closer rather than farther away.
Indoor temp-humidity-barometer (WH32B)
While a lot of weather stations incorporate indoor sensors into the display, the WS-2000 uses a separate unit. This may seem to be an inconvenience having an extra part to deal with, but there is a benefit in being able to place the display and the temp/ humidity/ barometer in places that are most suitable. Often the placement of the display is dependent on its ability to receive the best signal from the outdoor sensor. This may not be the best placement for getting a good indoor temperature reading. This sensor is fairly small at 4.75” x 1.5” x 0.6”.
8 Remote wireless sensors (WH31B)
You can add up to 8 remote temperature/ humidity sensors around your house and property. These sensors are actually called thermo- hygrometers. You can read the temperature and humidity on the sensor display or on the main TFT display. TheWH31B sensorsdo not come included with the weather station and are purchased separately.
Each WH31B sensor can be individually identified so you know what you are looking at on the display. The display can cycle through the different sensor readings. Each sensor has a maximum range of 80 feet.
This range will be considerably shorter if they must transmit through walls or other obstructions. This remote sensor accessory has long proven very lucrative for the Acurite Weather company, so it’s no surprise that Ambient Weather jumped on it. The advantage goes to Ambient in that no separate receiver is needed for the remote sensors.
EachWH31B sensorcan be individually identified so you know what you are looking at on the display. The display can cycle through the different sensor readings. Each sensor has a maximum range of 80 feet. This range will be considerably shorter if they must transmit through walls or other obstructions. This remote sensor accessory has long proven very lucrative for the Acurite Weather company, so it’s no surprise that Ambient Weather jumped on it. The advantage goes to Ambient in that no separate receiver is needed for the remote sensors.
One of the fun and useful things you can do with your weather station is to publish your data on the internet. With the Ambient Weather WS-2000,this is as easy as it can be. You do have to create your accounts with Weather-Underground and Ambient Weather online but the WiFi connection settings to your router are all done from the display. No extra internet bridge or cables are needed.
The only downside I see is that there is no obvious way to upload the weather data to other weather services. Your weather information sent to Weather Underground is public and can be seen by anyone online. Weather Underground does not display the data from your remote sensors. If you want to see the sensor data you would use the password-protected Ambientweather.net website or the Ambient Weather app.
Smart Home and Alerts
Ambient Weather is very up-to-date when it comes to the increasingly popular Smart Home technology. While I find a lot of this smart home stuff to be creepy, if you like to play with this kind of thing you’re in luck.
A couple of smart features I do like are the text or email alerts that can be set for parameters of your choice. For instance, if the rainfall is more then a certain amount, you can be notified. Or if one of your remote sensors in your greenhouse reads less than 40°F, for instance, you can be alerted. In addition to the text and email alerts all of the measured parameters can be set for audible alarms from the display itself.
The Ambient Weather WS-2000 IFTTT feature is interesting
Another interesting smart feature is IFTTT, that is, if this, then that where you can set an action to take place when your weather station record a certain condition. For instance, use it to turn light switches or sprinklers on or off.
Hmmm….
You can also connect to AmazonAlexaand toGoogle Assistantif you would prefer to talk with your weather station instead of looking at your beautiful new TFT display…
SD Memory Card
Having a removable memory card is a great idea in my opinion. It allows for very easy firmware updates and also provides a data logging capability for those who wish to analyze their own weather data. Unfortunately, you have to supply your own card.
Pros
“Best in class” TFT display tablet and expandable with additional remote sensors.
Looks and works great, with no wires, is very easy to set up, and has nice internet features complete with an app.
Handy Sd card for updates and memory storage.
USA customer support, easy-to-follow setup instructions, Read the book, and the installation is a breeze all the way!
And Cons
The obvious thing is that it costs more than the 2902, however, you do get a lot more useful features.
Some people wished the WS-2900 had a bigger display. A larger display would cost even more and would take more power to run.
The display and the WiFi only work when the display is plugged in. Contrary to most WS-2900 reviews, the display actually DOES have an internal backup battery. However, it is used to maintain your settings & memory and the date and time, much like the internal battery in your computer.
Customer comments
By looking at the customer reviews of theAmbient Weather WS-2900, you’ll see that almost everybody is very happy with their purchase.
“This is a top-of-the-line weather home station”
“The software is well thought out and easy to use”
“Customer service is quick and exceptional. Thank you Ambient Weather for setting the standard on this.”
So, if you like the added features, the WS-2000 may be the home weather station for you. If all of these features are not so useful to you, theWS-2902may just fill the bill.
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