AcuRite PWS Installation

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We were all set to head down to NYC for Pepcom’s preview of hot gadgets for the upcoming Holidays. However, the crazy torrential rain on Wednesday morning plus the uncertain forecast of a hurricane heading up from the South made us think twice about our travel plans. After consulting with the weather folks, we decided not to risk a 200-mile trip in the Boxster in challenging circumstances and instead to set up up the Acu-Rite Personal Weather Station (PWS).

We wanted to get the Acu-Rite PWS up and running just in case Hurricane Joaquin made a turn inland and/or headed up the coast. What better way to christen our new weather station than with tracking a major storm!

To get the PWS ready for installation, the following prep were required:

• Remove the Rain Gauge Stablizer
• Attach the mounting bracket
• Install 4 AA batteries
• Set the broadcast channel

To get the Acu-Rite Color LCD ready to receive and display the PWS data:

• Attach AC power
• Set receiver channel
• install optional backup batteries

We considered attaching the PWS onto the side of the building, but decided instead to mount it on a pole (for now). It was quicker and easier to set up (hey, it was raining…hard). And, with it in the middle of the yard, we could see it from inside. We will see how the location works out and reconsider its position if needed.

The one piece to the system we did not set up was the AcuLink. We will attach it to our WiFi network once we confirm that the data from the PWS is properly calibrated and makes sense. There is no point in putting up bad data on the Internet.

With the PWS securely mounted, we powered up the LCD display. Within a few seconds, we were seeing data from the sensor outside! Well THAT was easy!!!

Configuring the various readouts took a little tinkering, but it wasn’t too difficult to figure out (pretty similar to setting any other electronic clock/timer). The only odd UI bit was the “mode indicator.” It is always in a “setting state” for some mode. In the image below, it is currently in “On/Off RAIN alarm” mode and will show that until something else is selected. As far as we can tell, that lower section has no other display function but that. This seems like a lot of wasted real estate. Perhaps a future update will take advantage of this space.

It took all of thirty minutes to get this system up and running. If we didn’t stop to take photos, we probably could have completed it in five minutes! Of course, now that it is up, we are going to be wasting a good bit of the day everyday from here on out looking at it 🙂 We are sure we’ll have more to say about the Acu-Rite once we have logged some time with PWS. Look for our FirstUse and InTheWild updates at the end of Fall.