Anyone compared The WS with Netatmo?
If yes what were the results?
With respect to what parameters ?
- weight/size/power/accuracy/cost ?
- open or closed or non-existent APIs ?
- other things ?
wxforum.net might be the forums to ask that kind of question in, but be forewarned they have quite a few rather nasty (vs. WF especially) folks who are likely going to answer there…
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The most important comparison for true weather geeks is frequency of observation (every 3 seconds for wind on a Sky) and ease of accessing/intercepting data locally (WF transmits UDP broadcasts for every device on the local network segment to ingest).
From my failing memory, the Netatmo has an update frequency of over a minute, and no way to intercept the data locally since they use SSL encryption when returning packets to their mothership.
My $0.02 is that the Netatmo is intended more for home automation and smartphone/gadget folks, whereas the WF system is a better fit for weather geeks/hobbyists.
Please do verify my stats above on the Netatmo specs pages, since it has been a while since I ruled that product out…
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Aust wait a few month… the WF system has al features for being integrated into home automation. Hence, we will see the WF system might be the most flexible system in this comparison.
I think what matters would be accuracy, amount and diversity of parameters, downtime, … support,…
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I would never use Netarmo in Home Automation. I know several use it to assist in Home Control, but it just does not fit in true automation. Plus, it is cloud based and that just adds extra layers of failure.
The reason I jumped on board with WeatherFlow is the UDP output. One of the features of WFArchive is it integrates into my Home Automation / Home Control system.
Home Control is the SmartThings crowd. Home Automation is OpenHAB, UDI and a handful of others.
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Yep the update frequency is every 5 minutes. I was very close to buying one before I came across the SWS. I’m so glad I did!
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Hello!
I’m running both Netatmo and WF stations for more than 4 months now, in the same place, with same “conditions” (location of the sky, rain gauge and wind gauge, radiation shield for air and external modules, etc.). My main goal is to verify, at different weather conditions, the difference between the 2 stations (absolutes values, standard deviation, measurement inertia, etc.).
When all measurements will be done, I will write a blog post on this. But you can wait another 1 or 2 months before you have something concrete.
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Pierre, are you able to share a first tendency ? … an intermediat result ?
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I have no conclusion yet (because what I’ve measured so far is for summer only - and what summer!) but I managed to identify some trends.
First observation: except for rain (but again, I had very little rain this summer) the values are very consistent between the 2 stations.
Pressure/temperatures are almost always equivalent.
Relative humidity seems more precise (a better “granularity”) with WF in the 88% - 98% range (the Netatmo seems to proceed “stepwise” values on this range and that sucks for psychrometry computation).
Wind strengths seems more precise with WF (and a little higher than Netatmo). But, I must investigate more on this topic. Note the manual “calibration” for wind angle are as bad for one station as for the other (when will these wind gauges will embark an automatic positioning system?)
Rain are not fully ok for now, but I’m waiting more rain for the last weeks/months and I will be able to refine my judgment.
Regarding pressure, temperature and humidity I can see a true difference between the 2 brands: WF is by far more “reactive” to variations. The “inertia” of the Netatmo seems strong in comparison (and that’s not a good point for Netatmo).
Regarding “external” thing to measurements, there is a incredible difference in term of radio signal. That’s absolutely huge… WF can communicate over distances at least 4 times greater than Netatmo.
Here it is. Again, that’s not conclusion, just raw observations…
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Ah ! And of course it’s only for comparable measurements. For other measurements (strikes, uv, etc…) I have an other method to test it 
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Thanks a lot for your intermediate report.
I’m looking forward to further results as well as your
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Hello!
I hope you doing well.
I know that your post was made years ago, but is there any change to provide us your review about these two stations?
Thanks
I can attest to that! I well remember when I made the suggestion that the Davis Vantage Pro display was getting rather old in appearance. You would have thought I called their children ugly. Yikes! Not a fun crowd there.
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I have both Netatmo and WeatherFlow stations. My experience is similar to Pierre’s. My frustration with the Netatmo was the reporting lag time. It updates it data base every 10 minutes but records 5 minute intervals. Netatmo’s tipping rain gauge appears to be pretty accurate.
Any additional info on your testing of strikes, UV etc.?