Topic: Alternative Software for Davis WeatherLink

[m.c.crockett]

I received my Davis WeatherLink hardware and software yesterday.  I had no problems installing either the hardware or the software.  The software, however, leaves a lot to be desired.

The WeatherLink software documentation is oriented toward users running Windows-based systems although the version that I have is for Mac OS X.  Assuming that Davis didn't introduce a new version numbering scheme for Mac OS X, it appears that the software has not kept pace with developments in the Windows version of the software.

I had planned to participate in the CWOP but have discovered that the Mac OS X version of the software does not support this.

What alternatives are there for systems running Mac OS X?

[weatherforyou]

Weather Display - http://www.weather-display.com

wview - http://www.wviewweather.com/

These are the two I know of.

[bcrawfo2]

Hi,
This is a cut/paste of a post I made on another forum.  If I remember right, Stan wrote this for a Mac.


I found this perl code that interfaces to a Davis console and uploads to Weather underground and CWOP.   It was TONS easier to get working than the other Linux packages that I found.   I didn't want to emulate VWS...I just wanted to get the data into my Linux machine.
http://backpan.perl.org/authors/id/S/ST/STSANDER/
This program can store "almanac" info in a SQL DB and makes the current readings available via a flat file.  The newest version (not out yet) also logs data to an RRD database.    From here, you can generate whatever graphs you want and put them on your web page.

The other programs that I found for Linux that support Davis are Wview and Weatherdisplay.   I never got either of them fully working (library problems).

[m.c.crockett]

Weather Display - http://www.weather-display.com

wview - http://www.wviewweather.com/

These are the two I know of.

Have you used either of these or are they just known to have Mac OS X support?

I find it somewhat interesting that one of the groups that I support at work has developed meteorological software used by the Department of Defense, the Ministry of Defense (UK and Sweden), and the UK Met Office that runs under Unix and Linux.  However, once you move away from government agencies, all of the software seems to be developed exclusively for the Windows marketplace.

I'm one of those rare individuals who has never owned a Windows-based system.  I've only owned home systems running Unix (BSD/OS) and Linux (SuSE).  I got tired of engineering my own systems and bought an Apple PowerMac G5 several years ago because the hardware was similar to what I would have selected and the operating system was based on BSD Unix.

I will be buying another Intel-based system once Steve Jobs makes his "One more thing..." announcement of 15 January.   

[wmiler]

The other programs that I found for Linux that support Davis are Wview and Weatherdisplay.   I never got either of them fully working (library problems).

Since I've run wview for awhile, and I'm currently evaluating WeatherDisplay, some insights:

First, wview is now available as a fink package (v3.4.0). So that should take care of all of your library/dependency problems.
Also, wview is run completely from the Terminal, including setup and configuration. If you are not reasonably comfortable with Terminal, or don't know/want to know how to install fink or other packages, you might as well stop here

WeatherDisplay is completely GUI'd although I've had problems with the menus not fitting within their dialog boxes which is a problem if you are not familiar with the program on windows. Also, it appears to 'lockup' at times, and then later unfreeze, haven't really poked around to get a good test case for the author yet.
On the plus side, WD does have support for getting data to almost every conceivable data repository, and is capable of doing wunderground's rapid update. WD also has a bunch of nifty features (too many to list here, see the website). The author is also responsive and an active member of this forum.

[windy]

bcrawfo2, to get WD for linux working, yes, there are some library depency upgrades needed, but lots of people have it working...see the WD forum., linux section
Wmiler, thanks for good feedback on WD for OSX (which is still maturing)
(also note that the internet functions in WD for linux or OSX are blocking functions (i.e the program becomes temporary un responsive)
but I am going to make it a separate exectable program to do the internet updates
or is it locking up during going through menu stuff, etc?

[wmiler]

(also note that the internet functions in WD for linux or OSX are blocking functions (i.e the program becomes temporary un responsive)
but I am going to make it a separate exectable program to do the internet updates
or is it locking up during going through menu stuff, etc?

Actually I think I was getting unresponsiveness in both the network and the menu stuffs. Having blocking calls on network I can understand that causing the appearance of lockups.

I prolly should just email you with the relevant menu-related problems (my log files are spammy with WD content, so I can't always tell where the problems are occurring).

[weatherforyou]

I found this perl code that interfaces to a Davis console and uploads to Weather underground and CWOP.   It was TONS easier to get working than the other Linux packages that I found.   I didn't want to emulate VWS...I just wanted to get the data into my Linux machine.
http://backpan.perl.org/authors/id/S/ST/STSANDER/

Apparently doesn't support sending data to weatherforyou.com/HAMweather... Weather Display and wview do. 

[m.c.crockett]

The other programs that I found for Linux that support Davis are Wview and Weatherdisplay.   I never got either of them fully working (library problems).

Since I've run wview for awhile, and I'm currently evaluating WeatherDisplay, some insights:

First, wview is now available as a fink package (v3.4.0). So that should take care of all of your library/dependency problems.
Also, wview is run completely from the Terminal, including setup and configuration. If you are not reasonably comfortable with Terminal, or don't know/want to know how to install fink or other packages, you might as well stop here

WeatherDisplay is completely GUI'd although I've had problems with the menus not fitting within their dialog boxes which is a problem if you are not familiar with the program on windows. Also, it appears to 'lockup' at times, and then later unfreeze, haven't really poked around to get a good test case for the author yet.
On the plus side, WD does have support for getting data to almost every conceivable data repository, and is capable of doing wunderground's rapid update. WD also has a bunch of nifty features (too many to list here, see the website). The author is also responsive and an active member of this forum.

Actually, after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.5[.0/.1], I've started using Terminal instead of X.  I never got into Fink.  I'm from the MacOS Forge camp (formerly DarwinPorts).  It just seemed a little closer to my BSD roots.

It would be nice if someone has already done the "heavy lifting" on MacOS Forge; otherwise, I might have to do it.  Given Apple's cock-ups with X and Xcode in Leopard, I'm not sure that I want to experiment with another package manager.

[wmiler]

It would be nice if someone has already done the "heavy lifting" on MacOS Forge; otherwise, I might have to do it.  Given Apple's cock-ups with X and Xcode in Leopard, I'm not sure that I want to experiment with another package manager.

Well, fink isn't an Apple 'product' so...?

Unfortunately, I have no experience with creating the package related files, so no idea on that.
You can of course, install all the relevant packages yourself or by hand. Most of the packages should be available from darwinports already (gd and the like) and you'll need the two packages from the wview site, radlib and wview itself. It's not particularly hard to get it going by hand, I just didn't know your experience level. Besides, the fink'd package doesn't enable the mysql db, so if you want that, you'd need to compile by hand anyway.

[mbclark]

I've been using wview on Mac OS X for a little over 6 months now (recently upgraded to Leopard and wview v3.4.1). There's a fairly good Macintosh Quickstart document available from the web site. I've also put together some fairly detailed instructions for getting wview compiled and archiving data to a mySQL database (installed via MacPorts). The instructions assume familiarity with a text editor, but are otherwise fairly step-by-step. Don't hesitate to contact me if you find any bugs in the instructions.

http://web.mac.com/mbrooksclark/Mac_OS_X_Home_Automation_Pages/wview_%28Leopard%29.html

[Thedentaltourist]

I'm not sure if this will run on a Mac but I would guess it would. It's worth a try 

http://sandaysoft.com/software/cumulus.html

[windy]

I am going to be adding MYsql support to the WD for Mac if anyone is interested 

[m.c.crockett]

I've been using wview on Mac OS X for a little over 6 months now (recently upgraded to Leopard and wview v3.4.1). There's a fairly good Macintosh Quickstart document available from the web site. I've also put together some fairly detailed instructions for getting wview compiled and archiving data to a mySQL database (installed via MacPorts). The instructions assume familiarity with a text editor, but are otherwise fairly step-by-step. Don't hesitate to contact me if you find any bugs in the instructions.

http://web.mac.com/mbrooksclark/Mac_OS_X_Home_Automation_Pages/wview_%28Leopard%29.html

Nice web page.  Even an old fart such as I could follow the instructions. 

[m.c.crockett]

I am going to be adding MYsql support to the WD for Mac if anyone is interested 

The Weather Display download page indicates that it is only available for the Intel-base Macintosh.  Will the software run on a PowerMac G5?  Should I wait until I get my new Mac Pro?

[m.c.crockett]

I'm not sure if this will run on a Mac but I would guess it would. It's worth a try 

http://sandaysoft.com/software/cumulus.html

The screen shots indicates that this software is for a Windows-based system.  Given that I have a PowerMac G5, I can't use VMWare's Fusion or SWSoft's Parallels to provide a virtual Windows system.  I do need to open the checkbook to buy the new Mac Pro.  I won't be as lucky as a friend in Austria who ordered a Mac Pro to replace his PowerMac G5 at the beginning of the year.  Apple sent him a message saying that they would honor his order by shipping him a new Mac Pro for the price of the old Mac Pro.

[m.c.crockett]

I've been using wview on Mac OS X for a little over 6 months now (recently upgraded to Leopard and wview v3.4.1). There's a fairly good Macintosh Quickstart document available from the web site. I've also put together some fairly detailed instructions for getting wview compiled and archiving data to a mySQL database (installed via MacPorts). The instructions assume familiarity with a text editor, but are otherwise fairly step-by-step. Don't hesitate to contact me if you find any bugs in the instructions.

http://web.mac.com/mbrooksclark/Mac_OS_X_Home_Automation_Pages/wview_%28Leopard%29.html

Nice web page.  Even an old fart such as I could follow the instructions. 

Well, perhaps, not!  After going through the installation process, I'm generating CWOP reports but am unable to generate a local web page.  I am getting fopen errors in the htmlgend htmlGenPngDialInit module; however, I haven't been able to identify which file is missing.

I would like to hear from mbclark or anyone that is using wview in a Mac OS X 10.5.1 environment.

[m.c.crockett]

Reason for wview failing to generate web pages found!  You do need to be able to spell Users correctly.