This post summarizes steps inovled in integrating Ecowitt 7-in-1 Solar-powered weather station with WeeWx for full weather monitoring

Ecowitt Wittboy

Ecowitt GW2001 Wittboy Weather Station is a Wi-Fi Hub with 7-in-1 Outdoor Solar Powered Anti-vibration Haptic Rainfall Sensor. Its features include,

• Sensor:Piezoelectric rain gauge;
• Ultrasonic anemometer（start wind speed 0.3m/s);
• Temperature;Humidity;Solar light intensity and UV index;
• Waterproof IPX5;

It comes with an indoor hub that coordinates the outdoor sensors and acts WLAN or LAN Wi-Fi gateway. It also includes a Barometric Pressure, Temperature, and Humidity sensors for indoor measurements.

WeeWx

WeeWx is an open source weather station program that collects data from weather stations and produces graphs, reports and html pages.

Wittboy Installation

Usual method in an isolated LAN. Once successfully installed the web page for Wittboy can be accessed at its ip address from the local network.

We need to configure it to send data to WeeWx. To do this go to Weather Services from the sidebar. Go all the way down to the Customized section. Do the following settings

Customized = Enabled
Protocol Type = Ecowitt
Server IP/Hostname = (same as the Whitboy ip address)
Path = /data/report/
Port = 2324
Upload Interval = 60 Sec

Save this settings.

Virtual Server

A new Debian 12 virtual server was installed under the TrueNAS Core. Run the usual apt update to complete installation.

Weewx Installation

The most current version of WeeWx is 5.0. There are several changes from version 4.x, most notably in the Utilities Commands.

This is a guide to installing WeeWX from a DEB package on systems based on Debian, including Ubuntu, Mint, and Raspberry Pi OS.

Configure apt

The first time you install WeeWX, you must configure apt so that it will trust weewx.com, and know where to find the WeeWX releases.

Trust weewx.com.

sudo apt install -y wget gnupg
wget -qO - https://weewx.com/keys.html | \
    sudo gpg --dearmor --output /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/weewx.gpg

Tell apt where to find the WeeWX repository.

echo "deb [arch=all] https://weewx.com/apt/python3 buster main" | \
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/weewx.list

Installation

Use apt to install WeeWX. The installer will prompt for a location, latitude/longitude, altitude, station type, and parameters specific to your station hardware. When you are done, WeeWX will be running in the background.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install weewx

After about 5 minutes (the exact length of time depends on your archive interval), copy the following and paste into a web browser. You should see your station information and data.

/var/www/html/weewx/index.html

If things are not working as you think they should, check the status:

sudo systemctl status weewx

and check the system log:

sudo journalctl -u weewx

sudo systemctl restart weewx

At this point WeeWx is running in the simulator mode.

Install Nginx

Use sudo apt install ngnix to install a web server. This installs with document root at var/www/html

The WeeWx simulator web page can now be accessed at

http://server_ip/weewx/index.html

Move Webroot

grep "root" -R /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

venkat@weather:~$ grep -R "root" /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default:	root /var/www/html;
/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default:	# deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default:#	root /var/www/example.com;

sudo nginx -t

Outputnginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

sudo systemctl restart nginx

http://server_ip/index.html

Install Ecowitt Driver for WeeWx

This follows the GW100 driver

Make sure that the WeeWx is successfully installed and using simulator mode and the web page is accessible.

Install the latest version of the Ecowitt Gateway driver using the weectl utility. (This is new in WeeWx 5.x)

weectl extension install https://github.com/gjr80/weewx-gw1000/releases/latest/download/gw1000.zip

Test the Ecowitt Gateway driver by running the driver file directly using the –test-driver command line option.

PYTHONPATH=/usr/share/weewx python3 /etc/weewx/bin/user/gw1000.py --test-driver --ip-address=192.168.x.x

You should observe loop packets being emitted on a regular basis. Once finished press ctrl-c to exit.

Now configure WeeWx to use the GW1000 driver.

For WeeWX package installs use:

weectl station reconfigure --driver=user.gw1000

This will write the weewx.conf file with the new driver information.

[GW1000]
    # This section is for the Ecowitt Gateway driver.
    # How often to poll the API, default is every 20 seconds:
    poll_interval = 20
    # The driver to use:
    driver = user.gw1000
    ip_address = 192.168.20.227
    port = 45000

Finally, restart WeeWx

sudo systemctl restart weewx

Using weewx-wdc Skin

Follow the instructions at weewx-wdc

Forecasting - OpenWeather (not working)

Obtain API Key from OpenWeather

Install WeeWx Forecast Extension

root@weather:/etc/nginx/sites-enabled# weectl extension install weewx-forecast-3.4.0b12.zip
Using configuration file /etc/weewx/weewx.conf
Install extension 'weewx-forecast-3.4.0b12.zip' (y/n)? y
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/weewx/weectl.py", line 74, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/share/weewx/weectl.py", line 66, in main
    namespace.func(namespace)
  File "/usr/share/weewx/weectllib/__init__.py", line 121, in dispatch
    namespace.action_func(config_dict, namespace)
  File "/usr/share/weewx/weectllib/extension_cmd.py", line 116, in install_extension
    ext.install_extension(namespace.source, no_confirm=namespace.yes)
  File "/usr/share/weewx/weecfg/extension.py", line 143, in install_extension
    raise InstallError(f"Unrecognized type for {extension_path}")
weecfg.extension.InstallError: Unrecognized type for weewx-forecast-3.4.0b12.zip

Todo

1. Configure MQTT
2. Embed weather station in Home Assistant
3. Complete Weather Forecasting.