Five Parameter Compact Weather Station with RS485 Modbus RTU

The JW-XF500(YN21) is a five-parameter weather station designed for projects that need continuous measurement of the most commonly used outdoor meteorological variables without adding rainfall, solar radiation or air-quality sensing.

It measures:

• Air temperature
• Relative humidity
• Wind speed
• Wind direction
• Barometric pressure

The station provides RS485 Modbus RTU as the standard output and supports optional SDI-12, NMEA, ASCII and CAN interfaces.

With a measurement configuration focused on essential weather conditions, the JW-XF500 is suitable for agriculture, greenhouse reference monitoring, solar PV sites, wind farms, roads, urban microclimate networks, campuses, rooftops and remote monitoring projects.

For other parameter combinations, visit the Integrated Weather Station category.

When Is a Five-Parameter Weather Station the Right Choice?

The JW-XF500 is intended for projects where the main question is:

What are the local temperature, humidity, wind and pressure conditions at this monitoring point?

A five-parameter configuration can be appropriate when rainfall, solar radiation, particulate matter or other environmental variables are not required.

This makes the product particularly useful for projects that need a practical meteorological node rather than a full multi-parameter environmental monitoring station.

Typical examples include agricultural fields, solar plant ambient weather points, roadside installations and distributed urban weather networks.

Technical Specifications

What Information Does the JW-XF500 Provide?

Air Temperature

The sensor measures air temperature from:

-40°C to 85°C

with an accuracy of:

±0.3°C at 25°C

Temperature is one of the first variables required when describing local weather or microclimate conditions.

In agricultural and environmental projects, it provides a direct indication of thermal conditions at the monitoring point.

Relative Humidity

The humidity measurement range is:

0 to 100%RH

with a specified accuracy of:

±3%RH from 10% to 90%RH under non-condensing conditions

Humidity data is commonly evaluated together with air temperature because the two parameters describe different aspects of the local atmospheric environment.

Wind Speed

The wind-speed range is:

0 to 60 m/s

Wind-speed data can help project operators understand airflow conditions around agricultural fields, roads, renewable-energy sites, buildings and other outdoor monitoring locations.

Wind Direction

The wind-direction range is:

0 to 359.9°

Wind direction adds spatial context to wind-speed measurements and allows monitoring systems to identify the direction from which airflow is arriving.

Barometric Pressure

The pressure measurement range is:

500 to 1100 hPa

with a specified accuracy of:

±0.5 hPa at 25°C from 950 to 1100 hPa

Pressure data supplements the other four variables and helps provide a more complete record of local meteorological conditions.

Smart Agriculture Weather Monitoring

Agricultural production is highly dependent on local weather, but conditions measured at a distant public weather station may not always represent the microclimate of an individual field, orchard or greenhouse area.

The JW-XF500 can be installed closer to the agricultural site to provide localized measurements of:

temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction and atmospheric pressure.

Potential applications include:

• Open-field crop monitoring
• Orchard microclimate monitoring
• Greenhouse outdoor reference stations
• Farm weather networks
• Agricultural IoT systems
• Irrigation project weather monitoring

The JW-XF500 measures atmospheric conditions only.

If the project also requires soil moisture, soil temperature, soil EC or other below-ground measurements, dedicated soil sensors should be added separately.

Greenhouse Outdoor Reference Monitoring

In greenhouse projects, outdoor weather conditions can provide useful reference data alongside measurements collected inside the growing environment.

For example, the JW-XF500 can be installed outside the greenhouse to record:

ambient temperature, humidity, wind and pressure conditions.

These outdoor measurements can then be compared with indoor environmental data collected by the greenhouse monitoring system.

The weather station itself does not measure crop conditions or soil conditions.

Its role is to provide an external meteorological reference.

Solar PV Site Ambient Weather Monitoring

The JW-XF500 can be used at photovoltaic sites when the requirement is to monitor the general ambient weather environment.

It can provide:

• Ambient air temperature
• Relative humidity
• Wind speed
• Wind direction
• Barometric pressure

These data describe the meteorological conditions around the PV site.

However, the JW-XF500 is not a complete PV performance monitoring station.

The five-parameter configuration does not include:

• Solar irradiance
• Plane-of-array irradiance
• PV module temperature

If the monitoring objective includes performance ratio analysis or irradiance-based PV performance evaluation, a dedicated PV weather monitoring configuration should be selected.

This distinction is important because ambient weather monitoring and PV performance monitoring are not the same task.

Wind Farm Meteorological Monitoring

The JW-XF500 can also be used as a compact meteorological observation point at wind-energy sites.

The combination of:

wind speed + wind direction + temperature + humidity + pressure

provides a basic record of local weather conditions.

For applications requiring specialized wind-resource assessment or turbine-specific measurements, project requirements should be evaluated separately before selecting the sensor configuration.

Road and Traffic Weather Monitoring

Road-weather projects often require meteorological information at locations where conditions may differ from nearby weather stations.

The JW-XF500 can provide basic atmospheric measurements at:

• Highways
• Bridges
• Roadside monitoring points
• Traffic infrastructure
• Remote road sections

Temperature, humidity and wind information can be incorporated into a broader road-weather monitoring system.

If the project also requires road-surface temperature, visibility, precipitation type, snow depth or pavement-condition measurements, those functions require additional dedicated sensors.

Urban Microclimate and Distributed Weather Monitoring

Weather conditions within a city are not always uniform.

Buildings, roads, vegetation and surrounding infrastructure can create local differences between neighborhoods and monitoring points.

The JW-XF500 can therefore be used as a meteorological node in distributed monitoring networks covering locations such as:

• Parks
• Campuses
• Rooftops
• Residential areas
• Public facilities
• Roads
• Industrial zones

Instead of relying on one weather station to represent an entire urban area, multiple monitoring points can provide more localized weather information.

Campus and Rooftop Weather Stations

Universities, research facilities and buildings may require local weather data for environmental research, facility monitoring or IoT projects.

The JW-XF500 can be installed on suitable outdoor structures or rooftops to provide continuous measurements of the five standard meteorological variables.

Because all five parameters are collected from one sensing unit, it can also be used where available installation space is limited.

How Does the JW-XF500 Connect to a Monitoring System?

The standard communication output is:

RS485 Modbus RTU

A typical project can therefore use the following architecture:

JW-XF500 → RS485 Modbus RTU → RTU / Data Logger / PLC / IoT Gateway → Communication Network → Local or Cloud Platform

The JW-XF500 performs the meteorological measurement.

Other system components are responsible for:

• Data acquisition
• Protocol conversion
• Remote communication
• Data storage
• Visualization

This distinction helps system integrators design each layer of the monitoring system independently.

For additional communication equipment, visit the Communication Devices category.

Standard RS485 and Optional Communication Outputs

RS485 Modbus RTU is the standard interface for the JW-XF500.

Optional interfaces listed for the product include:

SDI-12, NMEA, ASCII and CAN.

The appropriate interface should be confirmed before ordering because the required protocol depends on the receiving controller or data acquisition system.

For example, a project using an industrial RTU may have different interface requirements from a project using a dedicated weather data logger.

Five Parameters vs More Parameters: How to Choose

The number of parameters should be determined by the monitoring objective rather than by choosing the model with the largest sensor count.

Choose the JW-XF500 when the five meteorological variables above are sufficient.

Choose another configuration when additional measurements are essential to the project.

This avoids unnecessary sensors while also preventing critical parameters from being omitted.

What the JW-XF500 Does Not Measure

Defining product limitations clearly helps avoid incorrect system selection.

The JW-XF500 does not include the following parameters in its standard five-parameter configuration:

• Rainfall
• Solar radiation
• UV radiation
• PM2.5
• PM10
• Environmental noise
• Illumination
• Soil moisture
• Road-surface temperature

These parameters can be monitored using other dedicated sensors or alternative weather-station configurations where required.

Installation and Mounting Options

The standard installation method is:

Sleeve mounting

Optional mounting methods include:

flange mounting and bent plate mounting.

Optional mounting stands are available in:

1.5 m and 1.8 m versions.

The standard cable length is:

3 m

and an optional:

10 m communication cable

is available.

The final mounting method should be selected according to the installation structure, monitoring location and project layout.

Installation Considerations

For reliable monitoring, sensor location should reflect the environment the project intends to measure.

Large buildings, walls, trees and nearby equipment can affect local airflow.

When wind measurements are important, avoid locations where surrounding obstacles may create strongly unrepresentative turbulence or shielding.

Before deployment, confirm:

• Installation structure
• Mounting method
• Power supply
• Cable length
• RS485 wiring
• Communication settings
• Data acquisition equipment

Planning these items before field installation can reduce commissioning work.

How to Select the JW-XF500 for a Project

The JW-XF500 is a suitable starting point when all of the following are true:

1. The project requires temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction and pressure.
2. Rainfall or solar radiation is not required from the same sensor.
3. RS485 Modbus RTU is compatible with the planned data acquisition system.
4. The installation requires a compact outdoor weather sensor.
5. The project operates within the specified measurement and power-supply ranges.

If any required variable falls outside this configuration, another model or an additional sensor should be selected.

Related Weather Monitoring Products

For other integrated parameter combinations, visit:

Integrated Weather Station

For the broader meteorological product range, visit:

Weather Station

For communication and remote data transmission equipment, visit:

Communication Devices

Need Help Selecting a Compact Weather Station?

Before choosing a configuration, send JW-IoT the following project information:

Application + required parameters + installation environment + number of monitoring points + communication interface + data acquisition method + mounting requirements

JW-IoT can then help determine whether the JW-XF500 five-parameter compact weather station is sufficient or whether the project requires additional meteorological or environmental measurements.

Contact JW-IoT for a project-specific weather monitoring configuration.