StationDeck Support
Questions, bugs, or feature requests:
faneufsoftware@gmail.com
Getting started
- I don't own a weather station.
- Tap Use Nearest Station on first launch. StationDeck will find official
National Weather Service stations near any place you name and show live
observations — no account, no keys. Bear in mind these are usually at
airports, so the nearest may be 10–30 miles away.
- I have an Ecowitt station.
- At ecowitt.net, open My Devices → API Key and generate an
Application Key and an API Key. Paste both into Settings, then tap
Look Up My Devices and choose your station.
- I have an Ambient Weather station.
- Both keys are at ambientweather.net under My Account. Enter them in
Settings → Ambient Weather Setup, then pick your station.
- I use Home Assistant.
- Settings → Home Assistant Setup. You need your instance address and a
long-lived access token from your HA profile's Security page. StationDeck will
match your entities to each reading automatically; anything it gets wrong
you can correct by hand.
Common questions
- Why is "Feels Like Corrected" higher than my station's feels-like?
- Because it accounts for sunshine. The standard heat index is a shade
figure; the National Weather Service notes that direct sun can add up to
15 °F. StationDeck uses your station's solar sensor to apply that, which
Ecowitt's own figure does not.
- Some dashboard cards are missing.
- Cards are hidden when the current data source can't produce them. An
official airport station has no rain gauge, solar sensor or batteries, so
those cards disappear rather than showing dashes. Switch back to your own
station and they return.
- Which radar source should I use?
- Radar Options offers two, and they fail in opposite directions.
RainViewer is the default: worldwide, smoothed, and the
only one with forecast frames showing where rain is heading. It stops
adding detail past about county level, so zooming right in looks soft —
that is the source's limit, not the app's. NOAA is the
National Weather Service's own NEXRAD mosaic: it stays sharp however far
you zoom, but it covers the US only, shows observed scans with no
forecast, and its frames are further apart, so the loop steps rather than
glides. Switch between them any time; nothing else changes.
- The radar is empty where I am.
- If you're outside the US, switch the radar source to RainViewer — NOAA
covers the US and its territories only. Forecasts, alerts and official
station observations come from the NWS and have that same limit
regardless.
- On an official station, trends only offer 24H and 7D.
- The National Weather Service keeps roughly a week of observations per
station. A longer request comes back successfully with only that week in
it, so StationDeck offers the two ranges it can honestly fill rather than
drawing seven days and labelling it a month. Your own station keeps a much
deeper archive, and the 30-day and yearly ranges return with it.
- Records are unavailable on an official station.
- Records sweep about 90 days. An official station holds roughly seven, so
an "all-time high" from it would really mean "highest this week". Add your
own station in Settings to track them properly.
- Records only cover a few months.
- They deepen with use. Ecowitt limits how much history one request may
cover, so StationDeck starts with 90 days and extends a little each time it
refreshes rather than making dozens of calls at once.
- An alert didn't arrive on time.
- Alerts are checked whenever the app refreshes, plus in the background
roughly every 15 minutes — but iOS decides when background work actually
runs. Slow-moving alerts like freezing or a flat battery are reliable; a
sudden gust may arrive late.
- Forecasts and alerts show nothing.
- Forecasts, alerts and official station observations come from the US
National Weather Service, which only covers the United States and its
territories. Radar, models and your own station work anywhere.