Weatherflow weathermeter is hot trash.

[Zeneffect]

So did my research, went on Amazon and ordered a weatherflow weathermeter (the blue one) as it is strelock compatible and appeared to have everything I wanted.

Turns out.... nope. This thing is a piece of crap.

1st issue - the model indicated on Amazon is stated to have an internal compass. The model they shipped (c model) does not. False advertising...

2nd issue - with no internal compass it relies on your phone's compass. Also a stupid idea. Who wants to out their phone on a vane to tell wind direction? It needs a compass of some sort to determine the device heading and if it's tied to the phone... dumb dumb dumb.

3rd issue - no readily available vanes to mount it to a tripod for field or competition use.

4th issue - wind registerability. Without a vane, etc finding the "headwind" is just dumb. Sensitivity of.5mph claim is optimistic at best. In the back yard, it was gusty but the darn thing barely registered anything of worth

5th issue - they offer a "ballistic" version as well. Still no internal compass and feature set.... seems identical to the blue one that is $10 cheaper. Same piece of garbage, different silicone case color.

6th issue - it can't differentiate head from tail wind based on rotor rotational direction.

So what to do? Do I learn a lesson, bite the bullet and fork out for a proper kestrel? Hell no. I returned the blue one and am waiting on the "agriculture" version (yellow) with internal compass and a vane for a kestrel that I will modify. Learning lessons the easy way has never been a strength of mine, even when I know trying the AG version I more than likely repeating the same stupidity. If this no works, I'll have a vane already for a kestrel elite which is what I will go to if this also (probably) fails.

[mtnlvr]

At least you're honest with yourself.

I'm interested to see how this works out. How far away can you position the AG unit and still get input to Strelok?

[lazyengineer]

I once asked one of the best HighPower rifle and PRS shooters I've met, what does he do for wind? His answer - he pulls up his phone and calls up Weather Underground and GPS centered on his location. He uses the windspeed and direction as his baseline, and then just adjusts some from there based on eye-ball observation of wind behavior within his firing lane. He prefers this route as more accurate than just looking at local mirage and windflags alone, as those indicators can often be misleading micro-data points, not indicative of the actual bullet flight path behavior.

To each their own and settings differ, but that stuck with me as a very easy and pragmatic approach.

[Zeneffect]

At least you're honest with yourself.

I'm interested to see how this works out. How far away can you position the AG unit and still get input to Strelok?

100ft supposedly for all of them, but it makes me wonder how useful it is when it's using the phone's internal compass. The 2 need to be run in tandem and separating by 100 feet makes it useless.

Using weather underground involves having some form of cell signal which there is not at the range I go to. I like the idea of gadgets I can get pissed off at then destroy with a well placed shot.

[Zeneffect]

Vane arrived today. Interesting...
Many very trivial ways to make this work well. I can think of 2 that don't involve any physical modifications or cutting.






I'm thinking threaded rod or bolt and a rubber stopper will be my first go at making a mount. These are things I just have in the garage and such. Not spending money on it

[Zeneffect]

Well... went into the garage to see if I could find a bolt or some threaded rod and ran across a post looking thing in my toolbox. Not sure what it is or what it goes to but the threads are right and the diameter is pretty close. Slap some orings on it to take up the space and add a little compression...



Zero effort, no mess.

*edit*

Just realized the bottom of the post is threaded also... I could washer + small bolt to make it more permanent.

[Sinclair]

Well... went into the garage to see if I could find a bolt or some threaded rod and ran across a post looking thing in my toolbox. Not sure what it is or what it goes to but the threads are right and the diameter is pretty close. Slap some orings on it to take up the space and add a little compression...





Zero effort, no mess.

*edit*

Just realized the bottom of the post is threaded also... I could washer + small bolt to make it more permanent.

I cannot tell for certain, but they appear to be extension nuts that can be purchased at any hardware/farm store, and maybe a well versed lumber yard.

[grayfox]

Sort of like that adjustment barrel-nut thing between 2 threaded rods, tightening it brings them together?

[Zeneffect]

Maybe? No idea. Random parts. A bolt, nut, washers and 2 o rings would do the exact same job.

The AG version they "updated" to but didn't list the model of does NOT have a compass. The new model ends with a c, and their website does not reflect this. The user manual clearly states which versions are compatible so its very misleading.

Yelled at support, supposedly the ballistic does and they are swapping it out so 2 more days... After the ballistic, I will have tried them all, so far its on strike 2. Strike 3 is me setting it on fire and ordering a kestrel.

On a related note, i took the liberty of disassembling the meter to see what components were missing. Pcb has a 2015 silk screen and there is a resistor and I'm assuming a magnetometer missing (2 unpopulated spots). One of them is 2 pads for a resistor (silk screen R16), the other is 10 pads for some sort of IC. I bet I can find it on digikey based on the size, pin count, and where the ground and vcc pins are but instead ill take the ballistic apart also to see what .45 worth of components are needed to "upgrade" the every other neutered version and post pictures, instructions, etc online out of spite.

Willing to bet this is a mag3110 and a 4.7k resistor... its the only 10 pin magnetometer.

[Zeneffect]

Got the ballistic today. First impressions... made in a different factory.

The screws holding it together are chrome plated vs black on the others.
The fans spin more freely
The plastic housing is slightly different
The PCB is different
The sensors are different
It actually works

Internals to the AG (yellow) / Weatherflow (blue) are identical.





Internals to the "Precision Shooting" (with internal compass for once)

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