[Mldxcc] La Crosse 5-in-1 Professional Wireless Weather Station Review

Sun Jan 21 01:27:24 EST 2018

I had a Oregon Scientific for years while in Oregon and Arizona. Some of the other hams I knew in Arizona had the La Cross. They said they pretty much buy them yearly due to the summer and winter temps, in the high central desert killing them. When I moved to Sacramento my wife bought me the Davis system. After have it up for a few months we had a good wind storm come thru. Got a 40 mph gust thru the backyard. It knocked the station over and broke the wind vane.  I called Davis and was excepting to pay for the parts but they sent it for free. Didn't ask for the serial number or when I bought it. Also I don't use their software. I use a free software and upload it to Weather Underground. However I think I like the Oregon scientific was better since you can add more sensors and cheaper, plus its easier to put on the web. However I think I get better true readings from the Davis.

73 Mike K7QDX
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From: Mldxcc <mldxcc-bounces at contesting.com> on behalf of Alan Maenchen <ad6e at arrl.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2018 11:57 AM
To: MLDXCC Lode
Subject: Re: [Mldxcc] La Crosse 5-in-1 Professional Wireless Weather Station Review

FWIW:

I had a La Cross WX station for a while but it died. It had been attacked by ants who thought the rain gauge cup was a great place to build a nest .. but I think the real problem was corrosion on the battery leads. It lasted a few months, then I replaced it with a Davis (Vantage VUE?) which has been working flawlessly for about a year now. I did like the La Crosse PC interface but never did get the web based function to work. That said, I haven't been able to get the Davis system to work with anything but their own display. But I haven't really tried very hard either (shouldn't have to).

73, Alan  AD6E / KH6TU

On Sat, Jan 20, 2018 at 8:19 AM, Dave Sanders <eprd2016 at pacbell.net<mailto:eprd2016 at pacbell.net>> wrote:

Sounds like it’s working for you and at about the 1/4 of the price for a Davis Vantage Vue for example. I have the Vantage Vue with 2 wireless consoles and a data logger connected to the Internet to share my station data with Wundergroud.com (KCAFOLO16). I have a Smartphone app too...to see my station data.

My setup is probably overkill at my QTH. Being in a typical residential neighborhood at 283 feet elevation with common Sacramento Valley weather there isn’t much to monitor, except how hot it is outside or how much rain we got.

It’s important where you mount your receiver (station) so that it’s able to collect data without any wind obstructions, etc.  Many weather station owners may not have the ideal spot for their receiver so it’s a compromise; the accuracy of the data.

My Davis Vantage Vue is 7 years old and has failed twice. Under warranty, Davis replaced the ISS PCBA with a newer version and updated internal modules. The second time, they exchanged my unit with a refurbished unit; the newer 6357 model. I was charged, I think $112.00.  So far, so good.

I am somewhat surprised by these failures because my receiver hasn’t been subjected to extreme harsh weather and has never been damaged by birds or other means.

Dave Sanders K6KNS

Folsom, CA

----- Original Message -----
From: Dennis Moore <dennis at mail4life.net<mailto:dennis at mail4life.net>>
To: MLDXCC Lode <mldxcc at contesting.com<mailto:mldxcc at contesting.com>>
Sent: 1/19/2018 3:32:13 PM
Subject: [Mldxcc] La Crosse 5-in-1 Professional Wireless Weather Station Review
________________________________

Here's my review of a weather station I received at Christmas.

I had seen this in Costco before Christmas but didn’t pay much attention to it. All of the weather stations I’ve used in the past were a hassle, requiring you to stand on your head and tapping buttons in a certain sequence while whistling Danny Boy until the inside display and outside sensor connected. When the batteries in one or the other died you had to repeat the whole process. Needless to say, when I did receive this as a gift at Christmas I had my doubts.

After it sat on the table for a week I finally got around to setting it up. There are three outdoor sensors and one main indoor display. The three outdoor sensors are wind speed, rain gauge, and temp/humidity. The indoor display shows the data from the three outdoor sensors plus internal temp and humidity, real feel temperature, daily forecast, and a user customizable scroll message that I currently have set to NWS wind information that alternates with date/time. Date and time are set from the internet. There is also a smaller indoor display that shows the outdoor temp/humidity.

Surprisingly, there were no magical steps to go through to connect all the devices together. Put in the sensor batteries in any sequence at all and the indoor units automatically connected to the outdoor sensors. The main display uses a wall wart.
Before you run out to install the sensors there is an important step to take care of, and it isn’t covered in ANY of the documentation. The Lacrosse View app for iOS/Android allows you to monitor your weather info from anywhere you have a data signal, whether it’s at home or on the road. The main unit connects to your home wifi, and once you have an account set up that information is available online through the app. Each of the outdoor sensors and the main display have a barcode, and each of those barcodes has to be scanned by the app in order for the information from that sensor to be available on the app. Many poor reviews of the app have been posted online because most people (myself included) thought that only the main unit needed to be added as a device, and in doing so the only information available was indoor temp/humidity. Understandably, many people were upset that all it reported was the inside temp. Correctly adding the devices allows everything to be seen on the app. I found this out after I had mounted all of the outdoor sensors, so I had to take them all down to access their barcodes.

A nice feature with the phone app is that you can set an alert, so say if the wind gets above a certain speed you’ll receive an alert on your phone. Nice to have if you’re in the habit of lowering a tower in high winds or have other things you need to secure. The phone app could use some improvement, for example it only shows data from one sensor at a time. You need to tap a menu then select which sensor you want to read.  The main display in the house shows everything at once, and there is a lot of wasted screen space in the phone app, so I don’t know why they don’t make it all available at once.

Installing is easy. Just find suitable locations outdoors and use the included hardware (screws/wall anchors). I have the wind sensor mounted high on an old barn about 120’ from the house and have no connection problems. The self-draining rain gauge works, accuracy unknown. It reported 1.75” of rain during our last big storm and that seems about right to me.

For about $75.00 at Costco, this is a good package. Easy to set up and configure, plus lets me know if the wind is getting too high. Recommended.

73, Dennis NJ6G

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