Weather-monitoring firm hangs dark cloud over customers’ heads by forcing new app

Newer AcuRite Now app lacks some features but has a subscription option.

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[sporkinum]

I hate it when you buy hardware, and then years later they decide to jack you with subscriptions.

 

[GenericAnimeBoy]

It’s possible that AcuRite’s shuttering of My AcuRite aims to simplify the company’s technology stack by allowing it to focus on updating and maintaining one app rather than two

And whose fault is it that they have two apps to update and maintain?

 

[LesMilpool____]

I hate it when you buy hardware, and then years later they decide to jack you with subscriptions.

That sure is a nice weather station you got there. Would be a shame if you couldn't access it anymore...

 

[Tactical Finesse]

As a home weather station operator...the NWS is desperate for funding for the MESONET station program. Meanwhile we have all these consumer pigeon-holed proprietary networks of PWSes across the country that--they aren't professionally calibrated and maintained--but the data is there...and groups like AcuRite try to lock it down.

I still run an AmbientWeather setup, my only complaint is that the AmbientWeather website is so spyware ridden (AW is owned by Amazon now) it won't even load in LibreWolf. I have to sideload the data to PWSWeather to view it. But at least CarrotWeather can API the data on my phone so I don't need their app.

 

[packam]

they saw sonos and were like 'hold my beer'

 

[ubercurmudgeon]

"AcuRite Now! AcuRite Now!"​

 

[norton_I]

And whose fault is it that they have two apps to update and maintain?

Who do they think they are, Google?

 

[darlox]

When I was installing my own AmbientWeather weather station, and integrating it with HomeAssistant, I was actually astounded at how little community-supported assets were out there. By providing APIs and public feeds of the weather station data, the manufacturers just made using their service "too easy" compared with any rational DIY approach. Maybe this is the motivation to start one, even though it's a different ecosystem than mine...

Thing is, all of these weather stations communicate by standard low-power wireless signals -- mostly in the 915MHz band. A cheap RTL-SDR USB stick is all that's needed to suck these signals out of the air. The challenge comes in decoding the protocols and acquiring useful data. Which is something that obviously will take a bunch of time and dedication.

If there's one thing more annoying (to me) than having data locked up by a company who decides to change the rules post-purchase, it's knowing that the data I want is zipping around in the air, and I don't have a good way to grab it on my own.

BUT... if there's one thing that will make a hobbyist community go absolutely militant about cutting a company out of the data chain, it's crap decisions like this one.

 

[msawzall]

As part of our continued investment in delivering smarter, more connected solutions quest for more money, the My AcuRite app will be winding down.

Fixed their press statement for them.

 

[toby34a]

I've had an Acurite 5-in-1 in my backyard since they were on sale at BJ's four years ago after I bought my house. Outside of the first day where I linked it to Weather Underground, I don't think I've used their app at all. Power outages, everything else, it's been rock solid for that type of treatment and work.

Really disappointing that that feed will stop.

 

[approximate_pi]

I hate it when you buy hardware, and then years later they decide to jack you with subscriptions.

This why I mostly only buy connected things that can be handled purely locally if I want. All my smart lights etc are zigbee, or in a couple cases lutron with the hub completely blocked from external access. My watering automation for my garden is Eve, which is entirely local and attached to homekit. Doorbell cam aqara, no external access and connected to homekit, thermostat is ecobee, same deal. None of my smart stuff stops working if my internet connection goes down, none of them have subscriptions outside of apple stuff, which I could move purely to home assistant if I wanted to if Apple enshittified everything

And I’d want the same thing for a weather station etc

 

[RobTheRenderer]

Acurite's software has always been crap. I've had one of their stations for decades and use a far superior independent app called "VIS Reader" which will feed not only Weather Underground but also PWS Weather and the Citizen's Weather Observation Program (CWOP).

 

[msawzall]

This why I mostly only buy connected things that can be handled purely locally if I want. All my smart lights etc are zigbee, or in a couple cases lutron with the hub completely blocked from external access. My watering automation for my garden is Eve, which is entirely local and attached to homekit. Doorbell cam aqara, no external access and connected to homekit, thermostat is ecobee, same deal. None of my smart stuff stops working if my internet connection goes down, none of them have subscriptions outside of apple stuff, which I could move purely to home assistant if I wanted to if Apple enshittified everything

And I’d want the same thing for a weather station etc

And typically, devices that can be operated locally are usually cheaper than the always online crud. It amazes me the number of folks that will pay extra for crappier products.

 

[approximate_pi]

And typically, devices that can be operated locally are usually cheaper than the always online crud. It amazes me the number of folks that will pay extra for crappier products.

Yuuuup. Zigbee lights for ex have gotten super cheap. I used to use hue bulbs, but now it’s easy to find much much cheaper ones

It’s also pretty easy these days to build sensors out of ESPs or Pis that can link onto home assistant if you’re even mildly technically inclined. My garage door smarts are homebuilt that way for ex

 

[Fatesrider]

I hate it when you buy hardware, and then years later they decide to jack you with subscriptions.

Agreed.

I can't say that I foresaw this kind of development, since I didn't, but nothing about remote control by an outside server set well with me to begin with. The whole IoT thing, if it wasn't COMPLETELY LOCAL, was never an attraction. I trust companies NOT AT ALL, and wouldn't allow one to be part of any kind of "running the home/devices from a server" to be part of my network.

I called it the idIoT way to run a home.

I have a nice LAN, and it has some toys on it. But I control the toys. They don't phone home, or rely on a remote server. In all cases, they're IP blocked from the WAN anyhow, and incoming can't be connected without something phoning them up in the first place.

It does suck when companies do this to people, though. It's just we live in a reality that seems to scream, "you can't have nice things without paying more for less!". And simply rolling your own network can avoid this kind of shit. It's not as CONVENIENT, but I've long observed that convenience is always more costly, and usually comes with far less privacy and control.

Does that make me a neurotic control freak? Probably. But I'm good with that.

 

[A Man A Plan A Canal Panama]

I've had several different WX stations, sensor suites; software they're all terrible.

Davis in the 1990s was the best hardware but no software then some terrible software. Eventually they connected to Kenwood ham HTs and could send WX info by APRS, that was pretty cool.

I bought several Radio Shack stations (Oregon Scientific) on closeout when they went silent. The display head is a nifty 433MHz receiver for the instruments, with a 60kHz WWVB atomic clock and a USB interface. No provided software available, except crummy windows USB serial drivers

That was great for years with an RPi 3 hosting the python weather DB system. Stalled on the name of that, sorry. Eventually most of the sensors died and I ran out of spares.

Last year Santa Claus brought mom an integrated wx station by LaCrosse . It has WiFi. Running on an Esp32. Which doesn't work. No range and unreliable and doesn't upload to wunderground or any common crowd sites. they force you to install and use their crummy app and make a goddamn online account just to configure the unit, make it connect to your local wifi. It didn't work. They offer no real help. American company.

Overall the 900MHz outdoor sensors work well and have good range to get in the house to the display.

We'll see what the battery life actually is, replacing the anemometer and rain gauge batteries is a chore. Because I put them at the top of a mast 30 foot tall, clear of buildings and trees, NIST standard.

The wifi is supposed to upload data and download forecasts. Somehow it makes its own forecasts. Don't know how because apparently this unit lacks a barometer!! Or at least, there's no display for it.

Their stupid phone app doesn't show current conditions. And it doesn't work except on the local network.

Verdict, do not buy. Crummy software.

 

[J4yDubs]

I've had an AcuRite Iris for a long time and it still functions fine, but is starting to show age. The wind measurements have never been good, but everything else is fine. I don't use the My AcuRite site much, but I don't see any warning when I just looked.

The Iris transmits all it's data via RF, so I just grab the data using Home Assistant and rtl_433. It's all local and I upload the data to Wunderground.

I'll probably be replacing it soon anyways since it has a grinding noise coming from it. Was thinking of getting a ECOWITT.

 

[Truscifer]

they saw sonos and were like 'hold my beer'

At least my Sonos gear continues to work without subbing. The app on the other hand...

 

[ai_fodder]

as a software developer, and a consumer I can feel for both parties here...
10 years is a long time to maintain a mobile app, languages, frameworks, layout idioms all get stale, and it was probably just not great to maintain the old app...

and as a consumer, you know whatever thing you really liked will be the last thing to make it into the new app, if it makes it at all... looking at you QuickTime Player (née X)...

 

[MilesArcher]

Go get https://weewx.com/ and host your own data. You don't need this app.

I started with a Acurite weather station 10+ years ago. When they ended their support for their PC software in the distant past, I found Weewx and implemented that on a Raspberry Pi 2. As sensors failed, I added my own. Then about 6 months ago, there was an update to Ubuntu that made the Weewx USB interface non-functional. Nearest I could tell, the Weewx hardware was using USB in a nonstandard way and prior to the update Ubuntu was permissive. Since I replaced the few remaining sensors with my own and switched over to using just MQTT and junked the Acurite entirely.

 

[bthest]

Another piece of server-dependent hardware that mostly does the same job as the temp/barometer/pressure wall-hanger in your grandpa's house that he got for a quarter at a thrift store in 1998.

 

[idspispopd]

And whose fault is it that they have two apps to update and maintain?

I find this interesting now that AI coding is entering the scene.

At the company I work for engineering has spent decades conditioning management to let then constantly rewrite everything in the latest framework. Claiming the old code is unmaintainable because it was written in outdated frameworks.

Now they are pushing back on a lot of AI coding tools because they "produce unmaintainable code". Which management is calling them out on like "History has show you are not able to maintain the code anyways. All you are talking about is changing the timeline for when the code becomes unmaintainable".

 

[kb99]

I own an Acurite weather station with two displays that are several years old. Acurite bricked the ability to connect my devices to the internet a few years back and offered no solution other than buying new equipment. I decided to go without internet access. I would not buy from Acurite again given a choice.

This is a common problem with many connected devices. Perhaps California can expand the Protect Our Games Act into a new Protect Our Devices Act. Require companies to open-source the devices they sunset rather than allowing companies to brick the devices. It is patently unfair that a company can sell a device with certain features for cash, turn off some or all of the features on a whim, and offer no cash refund.

 

[cyberfunk]

Unless you can use them offline in home assistant/zigbee or something Tuya devices are like the low cost plauge: stay away. Everything about that crappy ecosystem is tied to their cloud and horrible API and often apps (often cloud is in china, but depends).

 

[EternalStudent07]

Any chance someone could agentic AI duplicate the old app's functionality "clean room" style too? Then open source the new Frankenstein version.

 

[DJ Farkus]

I'm not a big advocate of AI "coding", but it seems to me that AI is well designed to help parse the proprietary communication protocols these devices use.

The big barrier to some hobbyist essentially open-sourcing devices like this is usually decoding the comms. "This stream of comm packets results in these numbers in their API. Figure out the comm protocols."