About Weather Stations - Breezedude/breezedudeWindSensor GitHub Wiki

If you are looking for a weather/wind station suitable for paragliding sites, here is a technology and market overview to help you selecting the right one for you use case. All these station provide open/accessible data. I do not recommend station that submit data only to a input-only ecosystem like weatherunderground, windy or burnair.

But first some basics
A weather station as we require it consists of multiple parts. A wind sensor, a unit processing and transmitting the data, a receiver for the data, a distribution service and a visualization on your end-device. Depending on the technology used some of these parts are skipped or have multiple instances. There is no "one fits all" station for every usecase. Starting from different budget of the installation to power supply and connectivity. Some are designed to be used almost everywhere, like Holfuy, but they also have some drawbacks and alternatives.

Some are "open" solutions where parts can be easily exchanged for different ones if spare parts are no longer available or service providers stop their business. On closed systems you end up with a piece of electronic garbage, even if your station is still functional.

Sensor Type

Cup Sensor (radial)

  • ✅ simple
  • ✅ very low power consumption
  • ❌ vulnerable for freezing and hail
  • ❌ limited bearing lifetime (with accuracy loss at end of life)
  • ❌ minimum wind/inertia on gusts
  • ❌ some costly for being lowest-tech

Commonly used types:

Ultrasonic sensors

  • ✅ robust, no moving parts, no wear
  • ❌ vulnerable for freezing when not heated, but no damage
  • ❌ mostly expensive

Commonly used types:

  • Lufft, Thies, PCE (1000-2000€)
  • Ecowitt

Axial Propeller

  • ✅ more robust than radial propeller
  • ❌ wear
  • ❌ vulnerable for freezing, but less damage
  • ❌ mostly expensive

Commonly used types:

  • Young
  • Windbird

Communication

To transmit collected weather data to the internet, an uplink is required. Available communication methods vary in range, power consumption, cost, and suitability for remote or mountainous terrain. Endpoints can be setup privately (WiFi, LoRa/FANET) or provided as a service by compaies (Cellular, Sigfox, Satellite) Below is a comparison of common options:

Technology Range Power Use Cost/year 💶 Extendability in Mountains Notes
Cellular 3G Moderate (10–20 km from tower) ❌ High 10-100 € ❌ Poor – legacy network Being phased out in many regions. Not ideal for long-term use.
Cellular 4G / LTE-M / NB-IoT Good (LTE-M/NB-IoT reach remote areas) ✅ Medium / Low 10-20 € ⚠️ Moderate – provider dependent LTE-M & NB-IoT are optimized for IoT: better coverage and lower power than 4G.
LoRa (FANET) ✅ Long (5–20+ km line-of-sight) ✅ Very Low free ✅ High – mesh/relay possible Ideal for off-grid, DIY networks in mountainous terrain. Needs own gateway(s).
Sigfox ✅ Long (~10 km urban / 40 km rural) ✅ Very Low ~10-30€ ⚠️ Moderate – provider dependent Requires existing Sigfox network
WiFi ❌ Short (<100 m) ❌ High free ❌ Poor – needs infrastructure Only usable near existing routers or access points.
Satellite ✅ good ❌ High/Medium currently high ✅ not required Not available yet, but could be an option in a few years

Summary

  • ✅ Best for off-grid / DIY: LoRa (FANET) – no fees, excellent for mountainous areas
  • ✅ Best commercial plug-and-play: LTE-M / NB-IoT – low power & low cost if coverage exists
  • ❌ Avoid: 3G (obsolete), WiFi (very limited range)
  • ❌ Cellular and Sigfox networks can not be easily/cost-efficiently extended

What tech to choose?

This depends on your circumstances and the goal you want to archive.

If you prefer using a third party network (Cellular 3G/4G, Sigfox,...), you need to have signal coverage on your location. As these are proprietary, you cannot easily extend their network. For coverage checking, there a usually maps of the service provider, but an actual check at your location is highly recommended.

If you do not have sufficient network coverage or prefer a open solution anyway, you can check for existing (mesh) networks (groundstations) like OGN or LoRaWANs within range. If none exists, you can build your own groundstation if you have a well located (=line of sight) mounting option with internet access (WiFi) and power.

If your are lucky you already have internet/WiFi and/or power at your desired location.

With this basic requirements set, you know your communication technology, what already decimates commonly used solutions.

If you have grid power available, it is possible to use heated sensors. They consume ~200W if temperature is below low single digit degree.

When using FANET you can choose if you require just a weather station or also want a FANET repeater for increasing FANET coverage for live-tracking or relay data of other FANET weather stations.

There are also some LoRa based solutions using the same technology as FANET but with a different protocol (e.g. TTN, Meshtastic). These can be either point-to-point or mesh. If using them you need to take care of submitting the received data to a distributor (e.g. openwindmap) yourself.

more coming soon...

Market Overview

Name Wind Sensor Type Connectivity Power requirement available to buy, country price subsription cost remarks
Holfuy Davis 6410 3G/NB-IoT Solar yes / out of stock, EU ~1800€ IoT Sim Card
Windbird Custom Sigfox 3 year battery yes, FR 402€ 30€ / year
GxAirCom Davis 6410, Ecowitt RF FANET (LoRa) / 3G, 4G Solar/ External power no, DIY only free / cellular SIM ~10€
Breezedude Davis 6410, Ecowitt wired FANET Solar yes, DE ~300€ free
Windline Ultrasonic WiFi/4G external / Solar yes, CH 1680 CHF 10 years incl.

Other Stations

(not in table as there are no details available or not commonly used. Just for completeness)