OK, so if anyone's been following the latest on the WiFi hygrometer build thread, you may have seen this offering from LaCrosse discussed on page 4. Well, I decided to bite the bullet and pick one up to see how it worked. I've always wanted to be able to track what is going on in my winecool-idor so I could get a feel for how often it was cooling and how long it took things to get back to equilibrium once the cooler kicked on. I have a condenser-style unit (Haier) rather than the more popular thermoelectric units out there so knowing how low the RH dips when the unit kicks on and for how long is important to me, and I was never able to get a real feel for what was going on before.
I picked this up from Amazon for $54 with free shipping. There were some other places offering it slightly cheaper, but the shipping charges pretty much evened things out. However, I've since noticed that Walmart shows this available for $46 with Free Shipping to the store for in-store pickup.
The TX60U-SET is a WiFi enabled Hygrometer/Thermometer that communicates with the WeatherDirect.com website to provide you with the ability to both remotely check the readings from your sensor and to download a spreadsheet with up to 30 days of data. Also included is a year's worth of free Text/Email alerts. After that the charge is $9.95/year or $19.95 for 3 years worth. I only seeing the most paranoid and/or dedicated enthusiasts opting for this extra cost, though I do see the benefit in having the system alert you when the batteries need replaced.
Included are two major items. The TX60U-IT Hygrometer/Thermometer Sensor and Secure Weather WiFi Gateway. Both are pictured below. The Gateway comes with an AC Adapter and LAN Cable for connection to your WiFi router.
The TX60U-IT Sensor requires two AAA batteries that are not included.
Set up is fairly straight forward, but things do need to happen in a particular order. I won't go into detail here as the instructions provided are pretty clear, but I will make note of a few pitfalls that I ran into. First of all, don't break open the package and immediately put batteries in the sensor. You need to hold off on that until a specific time. It will help if you have a laptop for set up (preferably one with a working battery so you can have it with you...unlike what I had to deal with, lol). Once you've broken open the package and gotten all the pieces out and unwrapped, you should log on to www.weatherdirect.com and create an account. This is a necessary step and doing this at the same time as setting up the gateway and sensor makes sense as the website will walk you through step by step on what to do next.
After some false starts, I got the system up and running and had the sensor communicating with the gateway. Fair warning, the gateway makes some noise (at least mine does). It's not loud, but there is a buzz that comes from the unit. Also, the advertisements state that the Sensor will communicate with the gateway up to 200 feet away. However, it is important to read the small print on this. That is 200 feet line-of-sight. Anything that gets in the way like doors, walls, glass, etc. will cut the distance dramatically. I haven't measured the distance from my router to my wine cooler yet (*update* about 55 feet away*update*), but I was able to get my sensor to communicate with the gateway over the distance of what amounts to the length of my house (router in very front room, cooler at the back of the house). That being said, my first attempt of just taking the sensor straight to the cooler and tossing it in didn't work. I ended up having to bring it back to the same room as the gateway and then move it by degrees to see where it would lose communication. Thankfully, the second time it never lost signal. I'll update this later to see if this becomes a problem as I move the sensor around the cooler after calibration.
I picked this up from Amazon for $54 with free shipping. There were some other places offering it slightly cheaper, but the shipping charges pretty much evened things out. However, I've since noticed that Walmart shows this available for $46 with Free Shipping to the store for in-store pickup.
The TX60U-SET is a WiFi enabled Hygrometer/Thermometer that communicates with the WeatherDirect.com website to provide you with the ability to both remotely check the readings from your sensor and to download a spreadsheet with up to 30 days of data. Also included is a year's worth of free Text/Email alerts. After that the charge is $9.95/year or $19.95 for 3 years worth. I only seeing the most paranoid and/or dedicated enthusiasts opting for this extra cost, though I do see the benefit in having the system alert you when the batteries need replaced.
Included are two major items. The TX60U-IT Hygrometer/Thermometer Sensor and Secure Weather WiFi Gateway. Both are pictured below. The Gateway comes with an AC Adapter and LAN Cable for connection to your WiFi router.
The TX60U-IT Sensor requires two AAA batteries that are not included.
Set up is fairly straight forward, but things do need to happen in a particular order. I won't go into detail here as the instructions provided are pretty clear, but I will make note of a few pitfalls that I ran into. First of all, don't break open the package and immediately put batteries in the sensor. You need to hold off on that until a specific time. It will help if you have a laptop for set up (preferably one with a working battery so you can have it with you...unlike what I had to deal with, lol). Once you've broken open the package and gotten all the pieces out and unwrapped, you should log on to www.weatherdirect.com and create an account. This is a necessary step and doing this at the same time as setting up the gateway and sensor makes sense as the website will walk you through step by step on what to do next.
After some false starts, I got the system up and running and had the sensor communicating with the gateway. Fair warning, the gateway makes some noise (at least mine does). It's not loud, but there is a buzz that comes from the unit. Also, the advertisements state that the Sensor will communicate with the gateway up to 200 feet away. However, it is important to read the small print on this. That is 200 feet line-of-sight. Anything that gets in the way like doors, walls, glass, etc. will cut the distance dramatically. I haven't measured the distance from my router to my wine cooler yet (*update* about 55 feet away*update*), but I was able to get my sensor to communicate with the gateway over the distance of what amounts to the length of my house (router in very front room, cooler at the back of the house). That being said, my first attempt of just taking the sensor straight to the cooler and tossing it in didn't work. I ended up having to bring it back to the same room as the gateway and then move it by degrees to see where it would lose communication. Thankfully, the second time it never lost signal. I'll update this later to see if this becomes a problem as I move the sensor around the cooler after calibration.
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