Connecting your Ecowitt station to Weather Underground is one of the first things most owners want to do — and one of the most frustrating, because the process changed in 2023 when Ecowitt updated WSView Plus and the underlying firmware on its GW-series gateways. Instructions from 2021 or 2022 frequently no longer apply. This guide reflects the current state as of mid-2025.
What You'll Need
- Your Ecowitt gateway (GW1100, GW2000, WittBoy, HP2560, or similar) on your Wi-Fi
- WSView Plus app (free — iOS or Android)
- A Weather Underground account with a registered Personal Weather Station
- Your WU Station ID (format: KSTCITY123) and Station Key (not your WU account password)
Step 1 — Register Your Station on Weather Underground
If you haven't already registered your station on WU, do that first. Go to wunderground.com, sign in (or create a free account), and navigate to My Profile → My Devices → Add New Device. Select "Personal Weather Station," fill in your station's location details, and you'll receive a Station ID and auto-generated Station Key. Copy both — you'll need them in Step 4.
The Station Key is a random alphanumeric string like ab3Kf9mZp2. It is not your Weather Underground login password. Many people paste the wrong credential here and can't figure out why uploads fail. Keep them separate.
Step 2 — Open WSView Plus and Find Your Gateway
Open WSView Plus on your phone. Your gateway should appear on the home screen within a few seconds. If it doesn't appear, make sure your phone and the gateway are on the same Wi-Fi network — the app uses local network discovery. If you're on a phone with a VPN active, disable it; VPNs frequently break local device discovery.
Tap your device (it'll be labeled with its model number, like "GW2000-A" or "WittBoy"). This takes you to the device detail screen showing live sensor readings.
Step 3 — Navigate to Weather Services
From the device detail screen, tap the settings gear icon (top right on iOS, or the three-dot menu on Android). In the settings menu, look for "Upload to Weather Services" or simply "Weather Services." The label varies slightly by firmware version.
Step 4 — Enter Your Weather Underground Credentials
In the Weather Services screen, you'll see toggles for multiple platforms. Find Weather Underground and toggle it on. Two fields will appear:
- Station ID: Your WU station ID (e.g., KKYEDGE42)
- Station Key: The auto-generated key from your WU device page (not your password)
Set the upload interval. Weather Underground accepts data every 16 seconds minimum. Most owners use 16 or 60 seconds. Shorter intervals give WU a smoother history graph; 60 seconds is fine for casual users and is easier on your router.
Tap Save. The app will confirm with a brief success message. Wait 2–3 minutes before checking WU — there's a propagation delay before new data appears on your station's public page.
Step 5 — Verify Data Is Arriving
Open Weather Underground in a browser and navigate to your station page (wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/YOURSTATIONID). You should see a live reading and a history graph populating. If the graph shows "No Data" or the "Last Updated" timestamp is more than 5 minutes old, something went wrong — see the troubleshooting section below.
The Custom Server Method (If Direct WU Fails)
Some firmware versions, particularly older GW1100 units that haven't been updated since 2022, have a known bug in the direct Weather Underground integration where credentials save correctly but uploads never actually occur. Ecowitt's own support forums documented this issue. The workaround is to use the Custom Server (also called "Customized") upload pathway instead.
Here's how it works: Weather Underground provides a legacy API endpoint that accepts data in standard Ambient Weather / WU format. You can point Ecowitt's "Custom Server" upload directly at this endpoint with your credentials embedded in the URL path.
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In WSView Plus, go to Weather Services → Customized
Toggle "Customized" on instead of (or in addition to) the Weather Underground toggle.
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Enter the WU upload server address
Server:
rtupdate.wunderground.com— Port:80 -
Enter the upload path
Path:
/weatherstation/updateweatherstation.php?ID=YOURSTATIONID&PASSWORD=YOURSTATIONKEY&action=updateraw&realtime=1&rtfreq=16— Replace YOURSTATIONID and YOURSTATIONKEY with your actual values. -
Save and verify
The gateway will now push data directly to the WU API, bypassing the buggy native integration. This method is more reliable on older firmware.
Common Error Messages and What They Mean
| What You See | What It Means | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "No Data" on WU station page | Uploads not reaching WU servers | Check Station Key vs. password confusion; try Custom Server method |
| Last Updated: 1+ hours ago | Upload stopped — often Wi-Fi drop or gateway reboot | Power cycle gateway; check router DHCP lease renewal settings |
| WSView Plus won't save credentials | App version or firmware too old | Update WSView Plus; update gateway firmware via app → Device Info → Firmware Update |
| Data uploading but temperature/rain wrong | Calibration offset needed or sensor placement issue | Check calibration offsets in WSView Plus → Sensor Calibration; see placement guide |
| "401 Unauthorized" in gateway logs | Wrong Station Key | Regenerate the Station Key on WU device page and re-enter |
Uploading to Multiple Services Simultaneously
Ecowitt's WSView Plus lets you enable multiple upload services at the same time — Weather Underground, Weather Cloud, Ambient Weather Network, and a custom server can all run in parallel. There is no performance penalty for enabling multiple services; the gateway sends data to each endpoint independently.
Most experienced station owners recommend also registering with CWOP (see our CWOP registration guide) since it feeds directly into National Weather Service data models. It takes about 15 minutes to set up and your data contributes to real forecasts.
Maintaining Your Connection Long-Term
Once set up, the Ecowitt → WU connection typically runs reliably with no maintenance. The two most common causes of periodic disconnection are:
- Router IP address changes: If your router reassigns a different local IP to the gateway, the app loses its connection. Fix: assign a static IP to the gateway's MAC address in your router's DHCP settings.
- Firmware updates resetting settings: Occasionally a major firmware update wipes upload credentials. After any firmware update, verify your WU connection is still active.
Frequently Asked Questions
The WittBoy (released late 2022) uses the same GW2000-class gateway firmware and WSView Plus interface as the HP2560 series. The setup steps are identical. The WittBoy's all-in-one design means all sensors connect to a single gateway unit rather than requiring a separate console, which actually makes the configuration slightly simpler. Follow the steps above exactly — they apply to the WittBoy without modification.
Yes. If you're running WeeWX on a Raspberry Pi or similar, you can configure the WeeWX Weather Underground extension to upload from WeeWX rather than from the gateway. This gives you more control over upload frequency and data formatting. See our WeeWX setup guide. The gateway-to-WU direct method (using WSView Plus) is simpler for most users and doesn't require any additional hardware.
Weather Underground's minimum upload interval is 16 seconds for stations using the real-time update API. Most home observers use 16 or 60 seconds. For severe weather monitoring purposes, 16 seconds gives better temporal resolution and helps WU's algorithms detect rapid pressure changes. For casual observation, 60 seconds is indistinguishable in practice and puts slightly less load on your home network.
This is usually a WU server-side delay or a Station Key mismatch. WU marks a station "offline" if it hasn't received valid data for 30 minutes. Check: (1) Is the Station Key in WSView Plus the key from your WU Device page, not your WU account password? (2) Is the Station ID an exact match including capitalization? (3) Try the Custom Server method described above as a workaround. If it still shows offline after 2 hours with the Custom Server method working, contact WU support — sometimes station records get locked server-side.
No. Registering a personal weather station on Weather Underground is completely free. WU's revenue comes from advertising on the public-facing pages that display your data. There is no paid tier required for data upload, no limit on how many stations you can register, and no storage fee for historical data.