After seeing a review online, I became very interested in this. I already have a Davis Vantage Vue, and several Web Camera's, but this is an all in one unit, plus it creates the time lapse automatically. Although I couldn't really justify the price, Bloomsky offered me a community program, which gave me the weather station for just the price of shipping.
TK Bay of XDA Developers posted a nice unboxing video, so I will skip that part and let you watch that on your own. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWuRPZwF8Mo
Essentially the unit itself is a bit larger than a softball. It also comes with a mounting bracket, a set of solar panels, and a long stake so you can just shove it in the ground if you do not feel like mounting it. The initial setup is very easy, if you follow the instructions. It was already dark by the time I got to mess with it, so I decided to just charge it up and stick it in the ground for now without the solar panels. Once charged (which only took a couple hours), I had it connected to my WiFi and outside in less than 5 minutes.
It was in the low 30's outside at the time, and it took about 2 hours for it to get down to that temperature. Once it got there, the readings at night were very accurate, always within 2 degree's of my Davis temperature, and usually within 1 degree. Humidity was about 10% lower, however my Davis is mounted on a 7 foot pole above the grass, where this is only about a foot above the mulch, so that may account for the difference.
The camera seems decent, however with the weather front coming in, all I have to show right now are gray skies. The camera angle is somewhat adjustable, so you can either point to the horizon to strait up into the sky. My hope is to catch some nice sunsets, so I will be pointing more towards the horizon once I have it permanently mounted.
Bloomsky has a map on their website, so you can view all the devices in your area. You can also send your data to wunderground as well. Speaking of wunderground, if you look on their weather map, you see a large variation of temperatures, due to people using crappy weather stations and inconsistent upload times. Because the bloomsky devices are all the same hardware and have similar upload times, the weather map appears more consistent.
Final Thoughts Overall, this appears to be a decent well made product and I am happy with it so far. This is a nice setup if you live in a condo, where space is at a minimum. Since this requires a WiFi connection, you have to give thought as to where you put it, as you need to be close to the house, yet have a clear view of the sky. One thing missing is a wind meter, however it does have a rain gauge and of course the camera. With the upcoming rain event, I am interested to see how the rain collection compares against the Davis. I thought the $229 price was a bit high at first, however it is about half of what it cost me for my Davis setup, plus you can get it online without a computer.
I will post a follow up in a few weeks, hopefully by then I will have it mounted in a better location.
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