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868MHz weather station support

I would like to receive the weather station data (868MHz) from my existing Electo WS5000. This can't be done with HomeWizard which only supports 433MHz weather stations, so it would be great if Homey can do this. Just periodically logging the sensor data in a database entry or file on a remote server (NAS) would be great. Other (web) applications can than access the latest data there.

I missed the 868MHz in the original spec, but seen it mentioned in the latest design in the email, so it is looking promising.

Comments

  • EmileEmile Administrator, Athom
    We don't have experience with that specific weather station, but it'll hopefully work without much hassle!
  • Does anybody know if 868mhz devices are as easy tot talk to as 433 devices or do they have more complicated protocols?

    I'm particularly interested if my HeatLink will be of any use.
  • EmileEmile Administrator, Athom
    It depends on the device, basically. It's like talking English or Dutch, it's both easy if you know the grammar.
  • Hi, PaulJanson!

    Sorry to send this so late (half a year late, in fact) - but I'm a new member of this forum and happen to be on the R&D team at Alecto.

    We found out about Homey around December, and are currently working to gather more information about the protocols of our various models so we can offer support. In some cases we have much influence on the way devices talk to each other - and in other cases our suppliers have more influence on this and sometimes refuse to share full info.

    I am actually pretty anxious to offer homey support on both our 868 MHz and 433MHz products, as well as our WiFi cameras and all their features, our bluetooth speakers, our connected smoke detectors and our alarm systems - and predict much sacrificed weekends to be able to offer this if my managers don't agree with spending office time on it.

    It might take some time, though - I'm an amateur programmer at best (I'm more of a project developer here) - so WILL need to learn a lot. Know that we at Alecto are on the case, but please don't expect an overnight result.

    That said, I'm very anxious for the SDK to be released and am looking forward to the sending of the pre-orders.
  • EmileEmile Administrator, Athom
    Hi Niels, great to see you here!

    If you have access to the wireless protocols Alecto uses for their products, it should be a breeze to integrate them with Homey :)
  • @MatjaLipu
    Very interesting - it's cool to see how many people have reverse engineered our products already!

    Not all our business partners are cooperative, but we are managing to get various bits of information both from our co-developers & factories and people who reverse engineered our models.

    The WS-3500 and WS-4500 work with 433.92 MHz using OOK (on/off keying).

    The WS-3000, WS-4000 and WS-5000 - however - have been using FSK @ 868MHz since 2012 - so work a bit differently. I'm not sure - but WS-5000 should use the same tranmissions as WS-4000 (WS-3000 lacks wind direction measurement and outputs a shorter data package.

    For the WS-4000, and likely the WS-5000 - I found the following raw data online. Various sources and I didn't really mind who wrote who when I copied & pasted in our data files, so I'm ashamed to say I'm not really able to pay credit where credit's due. We're slowly reaching out to our partners in the far-east who we just let run when it comes to communication as we tend to focus on usability and safety.

    Anyway, I found out the following about the sent code:

    Package definition:
    [
    preample 3 bytes 0xAA synchron word payload 10 bytes postample 11bits zero
    0xAA 0xAA 0xAA 0x2D 0xD4 nnnnn---nnnnnnnnn 0x00 0x0
    101010101010101010101010 0010110111010100 101.............. 00000000 000
    ]
    repeated six times (identical packages) per transmission every 48 seconds
    There is no spacing between the packages.

    I didn't find how an end-of transmission is detected.


    Payload definition:
    Weather sensor reading Message Format:
    AAAABBBBBBBBCCCCCCCCCCCCDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEFFFFFFFFGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIJJJJKKKKKKKK
    0xA4 0xF0 0x27 0x47 0x00 0x00 0x03 0xC6 0x0C 0xFE
    10100100111100000010011101000111000000000000000000000011110001100000110011111110

    with:
    AAAA = 1010 Message type: 0xA: sensor readings
    BBBBBBBB Station ID / rolling code: Changes with battery insertion.
    CCCCCCCCCCCC Temperature*10 in celsius. Binary format MSB is sign
    DDDDDDDD Humidity in %. Binary format 0-100. MSB (bit 7) unused.
    EEEEEEEE Windspeed
    FFFFFFFF Wind gust
    GGGG Unknown
    HHHHHHHHHHHH Rainfall cumulative. Binary format, max = 0x3FF,
    IIII Status bits: MSB b3=low batt indicator.
    JJJJ Wind direction
    KKKKKKKK CRC8 - reverse Dallas One-wire CRC



    DCF code is transmitted five times with 48 second intervals between 3-6 minutes past a new hour. The sensor data transmission stops in the 59th minute. Then there are no transmissions for three minutes.

    DCF Time Format:
    AAAABBBBBBBBCCCCDDEEEEEEFFFFFFFFGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHIIIJJJJJKKKKKKKKLMMMMMMMNNNNNNNN
    Hours Minutes Seconds Year MonthDay ? Checksum
    0xB4 0xFA 0x59 0x06 0x42 0x13 0x43 0x02 0x45 0x74

    with:
    AAAA = 1011 Message type: 0xB: DCF77 time stamp
    BBBBBBBB Station ID / rolling code: Changes with battery insertion.
    CCCC Unknown
    DD Unknown
    EEEEEE Hours, BCD
    FFFFFFFF Minutes, BCD
    GGGGGGGG Seconds, BCD
    HHHHHHHH Year, last two digits, BCD
    III Unknown
    JJJJJ Month number, BCD
    KKKKKKKK Day in month, BCD
    L Unknown status bit
    MMMMMMM Unknown
    NNNNNNNN CRC8 - reverse Dallas One-wire CRC

    Loads of unknown stuff in the raw code! I'm excited!
  • Hi all,

    I wonder if this got along any further. The Buienradar BR1000 weatherstation is affordable (found it on offer in the Gamma for example) and appears to be in fact an Alecto weatherstation. 
    Would be very nice if this could be used together with my Homey :)

    Thx,
    eJoJo
  • phbphb Member
    Are there any develoments to expect . I want to use  a 868MHz weatherstation
  • For the peeps with a Homewizard running, check this post!
  • TijnTijn Member
    Yep I am also waiting for a working weatherstation 868MHz
  • thekingjuniorthekingjunior Unconfirmed, Member
    Jup me too! @Niels @Emile do you guys have a status update?
    I got the WS-3900, that runs on 868Mhz :)

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