Thanks, guys, this is exactly the kind of discussion we’re looking to stimulate! We have a lot of brilliant weather experts working here, but your input is huge to this process!
@niko: Regarding use without a smartphone, you only need one for the initial configuration step. Once connected to your WiFi network, you can view the data on our web app, through Weather Underground, or within Weather Display. Borrow your friend’s phone or tablet for 2 minutes and you’re all set!
Regarding Netatmo, they’ve done a lot right. Most importantly, they’ve started to change the paradigm of what a weather station can be. Before Netatmo, weather station tech was stuck in the '80s. Netatmo have blazed a trail, taking the first step toward bringing the industry up to speed. But there’s plenty of room for competition. And without going into specifics… we think there’s plenty of room for improvement.
Jachym is partly right: we’d love to sell weather stations to the same group Netatmo targets: people who want weather data from their home without spending a ton of money and without the hassle of setting up and maintaining a traditional weather station. But we want to sell weather stations to a more discriminating customer as well, a group we think Netatmo has largely neglected: weather people like us and like you.
At WeatherFlow, we are weather people. Weather is all we do. Accurate data is crucial to us. In addition to adding some things you won’t find in Netatmo (outdoor air pressure, sunlight, lightning), we’ve also sourced the best sensors we can find within our price target. And make no mistake, thanks to cellphones and ubiquitous electronics in general, the quality of surface-mount sensor tech has gone WAY UP, while the price has come WAY DOWN, since Davis spec’d their sensor suite 25 years ago. We’ve looked at every existing sensor we can get our hands on and made selections based on extensive tests and evaluation.
And, because not all sensor tech has benefited from cellphone proliferation, we’ve spent two years developing the haptic rain and sonic wind sensors in SKY. We’ve gone through dozens of design iterations on the physical device and the electronics. And we’re putting tons of effort into the software - including our back-end enterprise (cloud) systems, the firmware embedded in the devices, as well as the user-facing apps. As weather people, we also have lots of experience with siting and meta-data collection - and we’re trying to infuse that expertise into the user experience. Our goal is something as good or better than the Davis Vantage Vue (speaking of competition!) in terms of hardware quality, but at a half the cost and at least five times the simplicity of installation and maintenance. Our goal is BETTER DATA.
And now we’re asking for critical feedback from you, before we go to production. We are inviting you to point out where we could we do better in our sensor selection or overall design. Thanks!
David