Net Work
Alan Winstanley
This month, our Net Work columnist tries an Internet-enabled weather station, reveals some
‘dark patterns’ in PC software and flags up more online services that have been unceremoniously
shelved by their providers.
A
s the 18th Century saying
goes, ‘When two Englishmen
meet, their first talk is of the
weather’. Our magazine has published
a number of projects that appealed to
anyone interested in observing weather
patterns, such as the December 1995
issue which carried the late John
Becker’s Met Office (Meteorological
Office) weather station. At the time,
it was a highly popular design that
could upload data to a PC.
Then, in June 1999, came his ingenious Musical Sundial. John described
it to me as something that played a
tune at the top of every hour, triggered
when the passing sun cast a shadow
onto an opto-electronic ‘sundial’ (a
ring of light-dependent resistors). Only
John could throw in the term ‘garden
gnomon’ – the part of a sundial that
casts a shadow onto the dial (nothing
to do with garden gnomes, another
British obsession). His PIC-powered
circuit played the ditty ‘You are my
sunshine, my only sunshine’ every
hour, weather permitting, and I recall
a lot of effort went into transcribing
the musical notes into machine code.
(Incidentally, source code files for
those 1990s+ EPE projects are still
available from the writer on request.)
Meteorology can be a fascinating
hobby in itself, and today a large
range of amateur weather stations is
available that monitor and log all the
common weather parameters. This
month’s Net Work starts with news of
my own trials with a modern weather
station to illustrate what’s now typically available, and how the world-wide
web can bring comprehensive weather monitoring to everyone.
An Ecowitty answer
There are many identical-looking units
on sale, and Chinese brand Ecowitt’s
products include weather stations
to fit most budgets, some of them
being Wi-Fi and Internet-enabled. A
number of these are clearly aimed at
professional users, but I chose the
mid-priced Ecowitt HP2551, which
has an outdoor array transmitting data
at 868MHz for the UK, over a distance
of 100m. It monitors rainfall, wind
speed and direction, temperature,
humidity, UV index and solar radiation levels. Indoors, a console with a
good quality TFT screen displays data,
and an indoor sensor checks temperature, humidity and pressure. Data
is logged and maximum/minimum
data is stored, and alarms can be set.
After entering my geographical co-ordinates (found using Google Maps or
a compass app), the moon phase was
also displayed accurately, along with
sunrise and sunset times relative to
my corner of England.
The system can be enlarged as your
interest grows. This model supports
The Ecowitt HP2551 is a mid-priced WiFi-enabled weather station with crisp TFT
display. Target price of £180 or so.
up to eight wireless detectors including a wire-probe type of sensor that
could check, for example, a fridge
freezer or attic. There are optional
accessories for some models that can
monitor soil temperature (for farming or horticulture) or which float on
ponds to alert fishpond keepers of ice
formation. A separate ‘leaf wetness’
sensor may help gardeners or greenhouse keepers. Ecowitt’s separate air
quality sensor is harder to source, but
offers PM2.5 (fine particulate matter
<2.5 microns) monitoring and integration into some weather stations.
If that aspect is of interest, you can
also build your own MOS Air Quality
Sensor – see p.36 of this month’s PE.
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Practical Electronics | July | 2023
A selection of online graphs drawn from the Ecowitt sensor readings.
The weather sensor array mounted onto a
concrete post in the author’s garden. Mastmounting hardware is available online.
Graphic content
I found the high-contrast TFT display
to be particularly crisp and clear. Data
captured over the past 72 hours can be
scoped and displayed in graphs, and
it was interesting to see how the wind
speed and direction changed over the
course of a few days. I could also tell
how much rain had fallen overnight, and
when. Other factors such as dew point
and what wind chill ‘feels like’ are also
available on this model, and some data
can be saved to an optional microSD
card. I found the instruction manual
to be comprehensive and exceptionally
clear; it had obviously been written by
a knowledgeable English author.
Turning to the practical bits, the display is mains powered and the outdoor
array is both solar and battery powered.
I use Energizer Ultimate (non-rechargeable) Lithium batteries to power sensors,
which are the best available and will
last for many years, making them nearly
maintenance free. The outdoor array
needs fitting to a pole, mast or wall
in a reasonably open space. I used an
old concrete post to mount a ‘cranked’
aluminium mast, which I fixed after
making some clamping brackets from
20mm aluminium box section and large
Practical Electronics | July | 2023
square U-bolts. The array sat
neatly on top, roughly 10 feet
off the ground. Importantly, it
must point to true North, otherwise the
wind vane reading will be inaccurate,
so a compass app or Google Maps will
help. I discovered a unique range of
mounting hardware, U-bolts, clamps,
aluminium box section and other useful
items sold by ATV in Sheffield, see:
www.aerialsandtv.com – note that tall
aerial masts are not feasible to buy
online due to carriage costs, so you
might have to improvise or try locally.
With all the hardware finally set
up, weather data was soon clocking
up on the display and it has proved
fault-free so far. Inputting a Wi-Fi SSID
means data can be uploaded privately or publicly online, which opens up
more possibilities. Trends can then be
checked on the Ecowitt app, or a PC
browser can log in and view weather
data in a web page hosted by Ecowitt,
which works really well, though it’s
less good at forecasting. The Internet
connection has been totally reliable
to date, and it will optionally upload
to Weather Underground and other
sites (not tested). I’ve uploaded more
screenshots on the Net Work Blog at:
www.electronpublishing.com
The Ecowitt range is available from
Amazon and independent sellers.
Amazon’s prices can vary wildly and
a street price for the HP2551 is about
£180. So far, the early signs have been
encouraging and the system is proving useful. I’ve got into the habit of
checking to see what the weather’s
doing before venturing out, or deciding whether I might need a coat. I hope
this will encourage readers who are
keen on observing weather patterns
to set up their own network-enabled
weather station: I’m sure John would
be nodding furiously with approval!
A dark pattern of behaviour
Last month, I mentioned the design trait
of ‘dark patterns’, techniques used by
websites, apps and software that try to
manipulate users into navigating down
a particular route. Some dark patterns
are easily recognised and dismissed,
while others are cleverly designed to
engineer the user into doing something that they might not ordinarily
want to do.
An example surfaced recently when
I was rebuilding a Windows PC from
scratch. A year or two ago I’d upgraded a legacy Windows 8 PC to Windows
10. All went well until recently, when
I decided to transfer it to a new owner.
My problem was that Microsoft had
tied down the computer’s Windows activation key, OneDrive and App store
13
Zamzar is an invaluable online tool that
converts one filetype to another, and is
well worth bookmarking.
logins to the current user’s Microsoft
account, details which I obviously
could not share with the new owner.
I carried on preparing the PC regardless but, while installing some software
from a USB memory stick, I accidentally nudged the PC’s power button
which was camouflaged by the black
plastic front panel. To my horror the PC
shut itself down at a crucial moment,
leaving my installation of Corel PaintShop Pro dangling half in, half out: it
wouldn’t run, nor would it uninstall
or re-install, and System Restore made
no difference either.
Readers know that sinking feeling as
a Windows PC gradually unravels to
the point where starting from scratch
is the only option left, which is what I
had to do. (A tip for next time: hidden
deeply in Settings is an advanced
power setting option that prevents the
Power button from switching off the
PC if you press it. I now choose the
‘Do nothing’ option!)
The challenge was to rebuild the
Windows PC while skirting round
all the old Microsoft account details.
My first port of call was Microsoft’s
Media Creation Tool, which builds a
convenient Windows installer onto a
dual-layer DVD or USB memory stick.
The Windows 10 installer came from:
https://bit.ly/pe-jul23-ms1
The final build was 22H2 (ie, 2022,
second half of the year). Note that
Windows 11 users can instead visit:
https://bit.ly/pe-jul23-ms2
Back to those dark patterns again.
It’s common knowledge that, when
installing Windows from scratch,
the setup routine steers you towards
using a Microsoft outlook.com account,
thereby dedicating that machine and
capturing the user, as if there is no
other option. That’s what happened
the first time round, but this time I
wanted a clean installation using a
so-called ‘local account’ instead. Deep
in a Microsoft forum I found in-depth
14
guidance for a clean re-install, see:
https://tinyurl.com/2cefc55w
There was just a single line of advice
about using local accounts to overcome that nagging Microsoft account
problem: during installation and activation, simply choose the option ‘I do
not have Internet’. So, I didn’t connect
the PC to Wi-Fi to begin with, just to
make sure, and this worked perfectly
for me. The PC rebuild went ahead and
was problem-free.
Nowhere was it clear that a Microsoft
account is not needed during Windows
setup, but I successfully configured
the new user’s details with a Gmail
address instead, and no reference to
a Microsoft account at all. The PC is
now hard at work again with no trace
of the previous Microsoft account,
achieved simply by disconnecting it
from the Internet during setup! On existing systems, you can go to Settings /
Accounts / Your Info and choose ‘Sign
in with a local account instead’.
Getting converted
Another task was to import the new
owner’s documents into the rebuilt PC.
Some files used filetypes that our new
software did not recognise. The solution
was to use the excellent online converter zamzar.com which converted some
data into Excel format. Zamzar also converts eBooks, multimedia, CAD, PDFs
and many other filetypes online, and
is a website well worth bookmarking.
Free and paid-for plans are available.
Another handy tool is Ninite, which
can be configured to fetch and install
your favourite choice of apps en masse,
see: https://ninite.com
Last, on this topic, at about the same
time, my Window 10 laptop almost
ground to a halt – this is often a sign
of large updates downloading and
thrashing in the background, and sure
enough I was prompted to restart and
install updates. As the laptop was
Windows 11 compatible, I finally decided to take the plunge and allow it
to update to Windows 11. I can report
that the update process was completely
flawless, albeit slow, with no problems
being noted with any existing software
running under the refreshed OS. On a
Windows PC you can check the status
of updates simply by typing ‘Updates’
after hitting the Win key.
Not so smart car parks
In the last issue, I flagged up the problem of how the demand for cashless
payments can discriminate against
those who do not, or cannot, use a
smartphone. This gulf only ever seems
to get wider; one example being the
move towards paying with car parking
apps on a smartphone as coin-operated
ticket machines are withdrawn. This
will affect millions of motorists. Customers also need to install the correct
app as used by their destination car
park. Eventually, a single common
app – the National Parking Platform –
could be introduced that would work
across the country, but I’ll believe
it when I see it. Early details are at:
https://npp-uk.org
Vodafone UK recently announced
that 3G will gradually be switched off
– starting this month – to make way
for 4G and 5G services. Other network operators are doing the same, so
car park ticket machines and myriad
POS (point of sale) devices that use
3G will either have to be upgraded
or scrapped anyway. As reported in
mainstream media last month, Councillor Nicholas Bennett JP, the Transport
portfolio holder at the London Borough of Bromley, said: ‘As a pensioner
myself, I appreciate that some people
have a problem with modern technology. However, we are talking about
people who drive a ton and a half of
steel, which requires more skill than
downloading an app.’
I disagree with this comparison. In
many cases, reduced fingertip dexterity
or hand-eye co-ordination, working a
touchscreen or trying to read the tiny
print on a glowing screen means that
smartphones are not an option for some
people. This does not compare with the
skills needed to drive a car. I asked the
councillor how non-smartphone owners
would use a London car park without
coin-operated ticket machines. He replied that residents can register [for
car parking access] via the Internet, a
home phone or a mobile (cellphone)
instead. This only goes to emphasise
the relentless march towards a cashless society which will leave behind
all those who still depend on cash or
can’t use smartphones for a variety of
reasons. Younger people today, who
rely on smartphones, will eventually find themselves in the same boat.
The more things change, the more
they stay the same. 1980s fax machines
had ‘speed dial’ buttons that, with
just a single button press, sent documents to a stored fax number. This
was great until junior staff sent confidential faxes using the wrong speed
dial button. There are parallels with
today’s technology: I’ve got several
namesakes dotted around and occasionally I’ve received their emails in
my own Gmail account. This is because
we share similar email addresses and
service providers sometimes input contact details wrongly. It does become
uncomfortable when I receive details
Practical Electronics | July | 2023
of private dental appointments, long
Christmas messages, holiday bookings,
building quotations or car insurance
policies. These are deleted, of course,
but they reveal names, addresses, phone
numbers, family details, dentists, insurance brokers and car registration
numbers, and I worry a bit about the
recipient not receiving important information as well. A young customer
assistant at one service provider whom
I contacted saw no problem and just
shrugged it off. She didn’t understand
why I was bothering at all, and told me
just to, oh, delete everything; a casual
attitude to breaches of privacy and data
protection that I found quite shocking.
Android for autos
The author has been grappling with
Android Auto, the Google app that
mirrors Android smartphone functions onto a car’s ‘head’ unit (the
LCD entertainment and info screen).
I hoped to try mobile apps such as
Waze or Google Maps in-car, although
some users say their smartphones
get very hot after continued use this
way. After many hours of fruitless
fiddling, I discovered that, first, my
own Honda dashboard no longer connected to Honda’s ‘Connect’ server
at all. The digital services supplier
whose URL appeared on-screen didn’t
reply when I quizzed them about the
outage, but it turned out that Honda
had silently abandoned the Honda
Connect service altogether. As the
under-developed Honda App centre
was mostly useless anyway, I hoped
to give the system a new lease of life
with Android Auto instead.
It should be a simple case of opening the app and plugging it into the
car’s USB socket. Things didn’t go
well there either: although my car’s
model and year were listed as being
compatible with Android Auto, in practice it wasn’t, and it was impossible
to connect my phone
to the car display this
way. I learned that my
car is now stuck with
an Android 4.04 head
unit with no chance of
running Android Auto
on it. As far as online
apps go, I’m left with
a clunky web browser on the LCD screen
(don’t worry – it only
works when parked)
and not much else, as
upgrading the head unit
or side-loading Android
installers is not for the
faint hearted. More de- The author’s Google Home Hub desktop screen was
tails of Android Auto crippled following an update and had to be thrown away.
for UK users are at:
https://bit.ly/pe-jul23-auto – noting
by my own website, which has aided
the compatibility list failed my own
many scores of PURE users to refurchecks. It is also strongly recommendbish their radios). PURE is trying to
ed that a top-quality USB lead is used.
soften the blow by offering £30/€30
Android Auto is now being built into
discounts off new radios.
the latest generation of cars, so using
Regular Net Work readers will recall
it should not be a problem: just install
how the author’s Home Hub LCD was
the app on your phone and connect
‘bricked’ following an update, believed
it to the dash. Apple users can check
to be due to Google’s new Fuchsia OS
for Apple Car Play compatibility at:
not playing nicely with older kit (unhttps://bit.ly/pe-jul23-ios
confirmed). Google was silent on the
Still on the topic of tech makers
matter and the perfectly good screen
ditching long-established services that
had to be scrapped. Some owners of
their products (and customers) depend
Google-compatible smart devices are
on, owners of the PURE Flow series
now starting to rue the day they investof DAB/Internet radios (Evoke Flow,
ed in this ecosystem, as one disgruntled
Avanti Flow, Sirocco…) which have
user airing his views on Android Aubuilt-in Wi-Fi and Internet radio conthority makes clear. His article certainly
nectivity have received the bad news
makes one think twice about investing
that PURE had suddenly dropped the
in a technology that may be abandoned
Flow platform altogether after more
at a moment’s notice, leaving owners
than 15 years of service. None of these
with nothing but burnt fingers! See:
radios can now receive Internet radio
https://bit.ly/pe-jul23-dumb
broadcasts as they were designed for
That’s all for this month’s Net Work.
the Flow platform only. Many PURE
Don’t forget that the hyperlinks above
Flow users cherish these otherwise
are ready-made for you to click on
excellent radios, so much so that they
in my Net Work blog summary at:
go to enormous lengths to replace decwww.electronpublishing.com
ade-old fading OLED displays (helped
See you next month!
Terrington
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Practical Electronics | July | 2023
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