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ECOWITT Cellular WH6006E Weather Station, an affordable solution for remote weather station installations
The Ecowitt cellular model WH6006E is one of the few reasonably priced weather stations that has remote connectivity. No Wi-Fi internet? No problem. No power? No problem.
I’ve had a couple of readers who wanted to set up remote internet-connected weather stations. The typical 300′ to 1000′ range wasn’t going to cut it. So I looked into it…
Read on and I think you’ll agree that the Ecowitt WH6006E is the best all around solution for remote weather station operation.
Main Benefits and Features of the Ecowitt Cellular WH6006E
- Ability to get remote weather information in areas with no Wi-Fi or power. An affordable way to monitor remote homes, gardens, and other weather sensitive places. Included is an interior sensor.
- You can see your current and past weather conditions from anywhere on Weather Underground and other networks you send your data to.
- Save money by not buying commercial grade weather station. This is a professional weather station that is made by the same company that makes other Ecowitt weather stations and also the enormously popular Ambient Weather products.
- Be alerted by cell phone for high or low temperature or any other weather parameter you choose. You can stop worrying and wondering and take action if you need to.
- Wide range of uses with 7 sensors in 1 and the option of adding soil moisture and air particulate. And just like other Wi-Fi weather stations, you get an indoor temperature – humidity / barometer sensor.
- Perfect for remote monitoring of farms, cabins, parks, golf courses, and construction sites at 1/3 the price of the competition.
Any Competition?
There are far more expensive products available from Davis and Rainwise. With their products you can daisy-chain multiple weather stations together to cover a large area. Why pay for all that capability if you only want one weather station?
There is a big gap in the market for affordable remote weather stations with a cellular connection. Davis and Rainwise provide excellent cellular weather stations for large agricultural operations, but what about all the rest of us?
This is where the Ecowitt WH6006E comes in. There are a couple of sacrifices. While the accuracy of the WH6006E is excellent, the Davis stations are better. Actually, Davis is always the company to beat for any weather station whatsoever. A little better accuracy however, comes at a much bigger price tag. The other thing you’ll give up is expandability. Davis and Rainwise feature the ability to network a lot of weather stations together to cover a very large area.
Here is the complete Ecowitt WH6006E 7 in 1 solar powered cellular Pro weather station as sold from Amazon.
Pros:
- Easy to assemble and install.
- It’s an affordable solution to a tough problem.
- Detailed instructions.
Cons:
- More complicated to set up than a Wi-Fi weather station due to the cellular system.
- Maximum data transfer rate is every 10 minutes. If you can supply power via USB you can set to every 3 minutes.
- So far only PC software available. Workaround would be a Windows emulator with Linux.
How the Ecowitt WH6006E Works
The Ecowitt cellular weather station uses the regular and popular 7 in 1 Ecowitt outdoor weather sensor. That sensor then transmits the weather data to the receiver/cellphone device.
Normally this station would send a Wi-Fi signal to an indoor display which in turn sends the info on to your router. Instead, the WH6006E sends the Wi-Fi signal to the cellular-enabled receiver/re-transmitter.
Ecowitt WH6006E data path:
Weather sensors >> WiFi receiver/cellular module >> nearby cell tower >> your smartphone & Web
This also works in reverse, you can also query your weather station using SMS any time you wish.
You get a top of the line 7 in 1 weather station coupled to a unique solar powered cellphone receiver and transmitter.
So all you need is an account with a data plan with a local cellular carrier.
Ecowitt says that connecting through these networks work well: AT&T 4G/3G, T-Mobile4G/3G, and Speedtalk Mobile 2G/3G/4G, Cellular One 3G, Consumer Cellular 3G, H2O wireless 3G/4G. Verizon and Sprint SIM card are not supported yet.
Note: this weather station has NO display. Presumably, your operating remotely, so you can’t see a display anyway. With an internet connection to Weather Underground, your cell phone or computer is your display.
A Closer Look Solar Powered Cellular Ecowitt WH6006E
7 in 1 outdoor sensor
The Ecowitt WH6006E has an outdoor sensor array that has 7 weather sensors in a one piece compact design. This design has been a big hit with the public. It includes an indoor sensor for temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. That gives you 10 weather sensors all together. Additional sensors for soil moisture and air particulate count can be purchased separately. That’s a lot of bang for your buck!
All together the sensors will give you this weather data:
- Outdoor temperature
- Outdoor humidity
- Indoor temperature
- Indoor humidity
- Wind speed
- Wind direction
- Rainfall
- Barometric pressure
- Solar intensity
- UV light
Easy to Mount
The 7 in 1 sensor fits on top of a 1.5 inch mast and is secured with u-bolts.
Additional Sensors
Supports WH41 PM2.5 Wi-Fi Sensor which provides you with the concentration of particulate content of the air. It detects particles of 2.5 micrometers and smaller.
The WH51 Wi-Fi Soil Moisture Sensor gives you a soil moisture reading as a percentage. The percentage scale is adjustable for different soil types.
If you want to buy these sensors, double check to make sure you get ones that are using the same frequency as your weather station. These weather stations are sold all over the world and different countries use different frequencies. Buying everything from the same place will eliminate this issue.
Like most wireless weather stations, the Wi-Fi range of the outdoor sensor, the indoor sensor, and any other sensors you add have to be within 300 feet of the cellular receiver.
Ecowitt indoor temperature – humidity – pressure sensor
If you are installing the WH6006E in a remote location without any “indoor” around, you can use the indoor sensor as another remote temperature, humidity, air pressure sensor. It is waterproof so you shouldn’t have any problems there.
You should put it somewhere if for nothing else for getting your barometric pressure reading. Try to keep the sensor in an upright position and in the shade, or pick up a radiation shield.
Do you like camping? Put the indoor temperature/humidity sensor in your ” target=”_blank” aria-label=”White Duck Outdoors (opens in a new tab)” rel=”noreferrer noopener” class=”rank-math-link”>White Duck Outdoors.
Solar Power for the 7 in 1 sensor
The solar panel charges a super-capacitor that runs the array. The super-cap is not robust enough to run the station all night, so the 2AA lithium batteries take over until the sun comes up. Buy fresh batteries, you’ll be glad you did. Ecowitt claims the batteries will last a year or two.
Note: the batteries are not recharged by the solar panel. Buy good ones.
Davis Instruments also uses the super capacitor / battery combination to power their weather stations with good results. However, this power system doesn’t do so well at high latitudes or persistent cloudy conditions. The battery power just isn’t enough. Would this apply to you?
Ecowitt WH6006E Cellular Connection
There are two components that make up the cellular system; the cellphone-WiFi receiver, and a cable-connected solar panel that keeps the receiver charged up. If you have power at the installation site, you can use the USB port on the receiver instead. The cellular/Wi-Fi unit receives the data from the 7 in 1 and the indoor sensor by Wi-Fi and re-sends the data to the cell tower, then on to your phone.
As you can see, the Ecowitt 7 in 1 weather station sensor looks pretty much like any other of the Ecowitt and is similar to the Ambient Weather products. Surprise, they’re both manufactured by the same company.
I’m wondering if you already have one of the equivalent weather stations, can you just buy the cellular/ solar unit on its own?
The Ecowitt WH6006E Cellular Weather Station Works with 2g, 3g, and 4g
4g networks are backwards compatible with 3g devices, and 3g networks work with 2g. 5g? Who knows…
You’ll need to get the proper 3g data sim card that will work with the cell service in your area. The way the weather station sends data, and the way you’ll communicate with your weather station is by text data.
You can send SMS data to up to three phones. SMS alerts can be set for any of the weather parameters the weather station collects. If, for instance, you were trying to grow something, you would want to know when the temperature drops below 40F or so.
Ecowitt says, that at 10 minute updates from the weather station, the data should not exceed 100 Mb per month. You should be able to get an inexpensive data plan. If you have AC power at the installation site, using the USB charger, you can send your weather data every 3 minutes.
While the Ecowitt WH6006E is designed for WCDMA 3g, the unit will work on GSM 2g and 4g. Each phone tech generation is backwards compatible with the earlier ones.
>> Remember, Verizon and Sprint Sim cards don’t work with the WH6006E as of this write up. <<
What People Are Saying
People that carefully read and follow the setup procedure are very happy, those the that just ‘wing it’ are disappointed.
Being without a display, the setup for the weather station sensors and the cellular connection is initially done with configuration software you download to a PC computer. It’s easy to do, but some people complain.
There are a lot of steps, go slow, be patient, relax, if you need a cellular weather station, it’s worth it.
Manual for the Ecowitt WH6006E Weather Station
You may want to see the Ecowitt WH6006E manual. Click here for a PDF version from Ecowitt.
To Wrap Up
I think we are lucky to have a weather station company with such a great reputation as Ecowitt step up and fill this void in the market. The Ecowitt WH6006E is an excellent product at a great price, in my opinion.
Be aware that Ecowitt sells weather stations all over the world and legal transmitter frequencies vary. The safest bet is to buy the WH6006E from Amazon where you’ll get the right setup for your location.
Specifications:
- Outdoor sensor
- Transmission distance with no obstructions: 300ft; RF Frequency: 915/1800 MHz
- Temperature range: -40°F – 140°F; Accuracy: +/-2°F
- Humidity range: 10% ~ 99%; Accuracy: 5%
- Rain volume display range: 0–199.99 in; Accuracy: 10%
- Wind speed: 0-100mph
- Solar intensity: 0-300000 lux
- UV index: 0-15 (0-2000 watts/m2)
- Sensor reporting interval: 16 seconds
- Cellular transmissions: 10 minutes on solar and 3 minutes with a/c adapter
- Indoor sensor
- Temperature range: 14°F – 140°F;
- Humidity range: 10% ~ 99%
- Sensor reporting interval: 48 seconds
- Barometer: 8.85-32.5inHg resolution: 0.01inHg
- Power
- Base station: 1x 18650 battery or USB charger (included)
- Solar panel: 6.2V, 500mA
- Indoor sensor: 2 x AA 1.5 Alkaline batteries (not included)
- Outdoor sensor: Solar panel ; 2 x AA 1.5V LR6 Alkaline
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