Author Topic: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)  (Read 10078 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline webcams.travel

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 63
    • webcams.travel
Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« on: November 27, 2017, 10:20:28 AM »
If you currently use Weather Underground for your webcam upload, you probably know already that this service will be shut down on December 15th:
http://help.wunderground.com/knowledgebase/articles/1821811-wu-says-goodbye-to-webcams

This is why webcams.travel is openly thinking about providing its own free webcam FTP upload service. If you are interested in free webcam hosting, just fill out this survey:
https://goo.gl/qYecdc

If there will be enough responses/interest, webcams.travel will most likely launch this new service.


Offline VaJim

  • Virginia Beach Backyard Weather
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 760
    • Virginia Beach Backyard Weather
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2017, 11:09:10 AM »
If you currently use Weather Underground for your webcam upload, you probably know already that this service will be shut down on December 15th:
http://help.wunderground.com/knowledgebase/articles/1821811-wu-says-goodbye-to-webcams

This is why webcams.travel is openly thinking about providing its own free webcam FTP upload service. If you are interested in free webcam hosting, just fill out this survey:
https://goo.gl/qYecdc

If there will be enough responses/interest, webcams.travel will most likely launch this new service.

will your webcam site link or show our weather data?

Offline ValentineWeather

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6364
    • Valentine Nebraska's Real-Time Weather
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2017, 11:47:19 AM »
I'm wondering also... is this just about webcam images? Even if you overlayed image with WX data who would find site unless linked with weather data/forecast as WU has. Maybe people are just interested in webcam images but for most part being weather enthusiast I'm only interested if weather related.
Randy

Offline webcams.travel

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 63
    • webcams.travel
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2017, 11:49:27 AM »
will your webcam site link or show our weather data?

This is a good question! We sure will focus on the webcam, but since we would create this free upload service primarily for weather stations it makes sense to do so.
What would you prefer: a link to the weather data or the weather data itself?

We assume that you still will upload all your weather info to your current weather site, e.g. wunderground.com (which we could link to - and vice vera for the webcam)?

Offline tbrasel

  • Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 141
    • Northwest Arkansas Weather.com
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2017, 11:57:32 AM »
Hardly any down-time. Also, I love my panoramic view of northwest Arkansas.
Best Regards
tbrasel

Bentonville Arkansas, USA
Hardware: Davis 6153 - Wireless Vantage Pro2 with FARS
Software: VWS V15.00
Website: https://www.nwarwx.com

Offline VaJim

  • Virginia Beach Backyard Weather
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 760
    • Virginia Beach Backyard Weather
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2017, 12:01:16 PM »
will your webcam site link or show our weather data?

This is a good question! We sure will focus on the webcam, but since we would create this free upload service primarily for weather stations it makes sense to do so.
What would you prefer: a link to the weather data or the weather data itself?

We assume that you still will upload all your weather info to your current weather site, e.g. wunderground.com (which we could link to - and vice vera for the webcam)?


I would suspect from your end, it would be easier to provide a link to where ever the site is or continues to send their data to.  When they visit your sight they see the webcam and if they want, they can click on the link provided to view the actual data.  Please keep in mind that many of the stations here are using different types of webcams and means of transmission.  For me, when you say FTP, it would need to be fully automated (timed) before I would consider using it.  Also take a look at Bloomsky.  Several stations have figured out a way to send their Bloomsky pic to WU.  The actual pic is coming from the Bloomsky server and WU pulls it from there.  I wouldn't think that to be FTP as you see it.  Thanks

Offline webcams.travel

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 63
    • webcams.travel
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2017, 12:25:38 PM »
I would suspect from your end, it would be easier to provide a link to where ever the site is or continues to send their data to.  When they visit your sight they see the webcam and if they want, they can click on the link provided to view the actual data.  Please keep in mind that many of the stations here are using different types of webcams and means of transmission.  For me, when you say FTP, it would need to be fully automated (timed) before I would consider using it.  Also take a look at Bloomsky.  Several stations have figured out a way to send their Bloomsky pic to WU.  The actual pic is coming from the Bloomsky server and WU pulls it from there.  I wouldn't think that to be FTP as you see it.  Thanks

Yes, we are probably going for a link, that makes sense the most at the time. We want to be an extension of your weather station, not a replacement.
We for sure will automate the FTP upload, we currently have one running as a test where the webcam uploads a new image every 10 seconds.

Interesting, how does it work with Bloomsky - does anyone now? If you buy their weather station, do you have a free webcam upload forever as well?

Offline VaJim

  • Virginia Beach Backyard Weather
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 760
    • Virginia Beach Backyard Weather
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #8 on: December 01, 2017, 12:37:59 PM »
I would suspect from your end, it would be easier to provide a link to where ever the site is or continues to send their data to.  When they visit your sight they see the webcam and if they want, they can click on the link provided to view the actual data.  Please keep in mind that many of the stations here are using different types of webcams and means of transmission.  For me, when you say FTP, it would need to be fully automated (timed) before I would consider using it.  Also take a look at Bloomsky.  Several stations have figured out a way to send their Bloomsky pic to WU.  The actual pic is coming from the Bloomsky server and WU pulls it from there.  I wouldn't think that to be FTP as you see it.  Thanks

Yes, we are probably going for a link, that makes sense the most at the time. We want to be an extension of your weather station, not a replacement.
We for sure will automate the FTP upload, we currently have one running as a test where the webcam uploads a new image every 10 seconds.

Interesting, how does it work with Bloomsky - does anyone now? If you buy their weather station, do you have a free webcam upload forever as well?

Yes...several stations are sending/linking their Bloomsky pic to WU.  Bloomsky is basically a webcam with some weather devices/sensors on board.  Since conception they added wind and rain measurement.  The Bloomsky device takes a pic about every 5 mins.  What you would see is an embedded pic of the Bloomsky link on their WU station site.

Here's a link to one of my Bloomsky pics: 

https://map.bloomsky.com/weather-stations/eaB1rJytnZSmmKem

I would suspect that if you could use the Bloomsky pics it would be a case of linking their URL much like WU does now.  The timing of the actual pic is controlled by the Bloomsky server.  You'll notice on my link, it's the actual page to my Bloomsky site.  WU and the users here were able to figure out a way to strip off the data/text and pull just the pic.



Offline webcams.travel

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 63
    • webcams.travel
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #9 on: December 02, 2017, 12:02:47 AM »
Yes...several stations are sending/linking their Bloomsky pic to WU.  Bloomsky is basically a webcam with some weather devices/sensors on board.  Since conception they added wind and rain measurement.  The Bloomsky device takes a pic about every 5 mins.  What you would see is an embedded pic of the Bloomsky link on their WU station site.

Here's a link to one of my Bloomsky pics: 

https://map.bloomsky.com/weather-stations/eaB1rJytnZSmmKem

I would suspect that if you could use the Bloomsky pics it would be a case of linking their URL much like WU does now.  The timing of the actual pic is controlled by the Bloomsky server.  You'll notice on my link, it's the actual page to my Bloomsky site.  WU and the users here were able to figure out a way to strip off the data/text and pull just the pic.

Hi VaJim

Thank you for this interesting info. It really looks like Bloomsky is doing something very similar - except for the hardware, of course.
So you own this station (eaB1rJytnZSmmKem)?
You only payed for the station once and there are no recurring costs? And you have your weather station website for free?
Is there an official pricing for that somewhere?

Offline VaJim

  • Virginia Beach Backyard Weather
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 760
    • Virginia Beach Backyard Weather
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #10 on: December 02, 2017, 07:11:49 AM »
Yes...several stations are sending/linking their Bloomsky pic to WU.  Bloomsky is basically a webcam with some weather devices/sensors on board.  Since conception they added wind and rain measurement.  The Bloomsky device takes a pic about every 5 mins.  What you would see is an embedded pic of the Bloomsky link on their WU station site.

Here's a link to one of my Bloomsky pics: 

https://map.bloomsky.com/weather-stations/eaB1rJytnZSmmKem

I would suspect that if you could use the Bloomsky pics it would be a case of linking their URL much like WU does now.  The timing of the actual pic is controlled by the Bloomsky server.  You'll notice on my link, it's the actual page to my Bloomsky site.  WU and the users here were able to figure out a way to strip off the data/text and pull just the pic.

Hi VaJim

Thank you for this interesting info. It really looks like Bloomsky is doing something very similar - except for the hardware, of course.
So you own this station (eaB1rJytnZSmmKem)?
You only payed for the station once and there are no recurring costs? And you have your weather station website for free?
Is there an official pricing for that somewhere?

Yes, I own the station.  No recurring cost except to replace the device in the event of failure after warranty.  The Bloomsky web portal is owned by Bloomsky.  Users provide the pics/data which is viewable to anyone who downloads/installs the Bloomsky app.  You can check out all the details at Bloomsky.com 

Other companies I participate in are Rainwise and Davis.  They both have devices which when connected to your purchased station, feeds their portal and you and others can view.   I understand Rainwise is looking into the ability for users to upload the webcam to their already webportal area.  Nothing heard from Davis.   I gave up on personal weather web sites years ago.   After years of dealing with web hosts and keeping things running I said enough.   Between Rainwise, Davis, and WU, my data is out there. 

Offline webcams.travel

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 63
    • webcams.travel
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #11 on: December 04, 2017, 02:42:36 AM »
Yes, I own the station.  No recurring cost except to replace the device in the event of failure after warranty.  The Bloomsky web portal is owned by Bloomsky.  Users provide the pics/data which is viewable to anyone who downloads/installs the Bloomsky app.  You can check out all the details at Bloomsky.com 

Other companies I participate in are Rainwise and Davis.  They both have devices which when connected to your purchased station, feeds their portal and you and others can view.   I understand Rainwise is looking into the ability for users to upload the webcam to their already webportal area.  Nothing heard from Davis.   I gave up on personal weather web sites years ago.   After years of dealing with web hosts and keeping things running I said enough.   Between Rainwise, Davis, and WU, my data is out there.

OK, that's great to hear. It sure makes sense to use existing services, and I can imagine it being very handy if the webcam including upload comes along with the weather station itself.
However, it looks like there are still many other weather stations around without this handy webcam service - and for those we probably will launch a free FTP webcam upload.

PS: We already have some Bloomsky webcam images on Lookr.com - you can add yours too for additional and free 30 days, 12 month and lifetime timelapse slideshows if you want to: Lookr.com/add
« Last Edit: December 04, 2017, 02:45:37 AM by webcams.travel »

Offline VaJim

  • Virginia Beach Backyard Weather
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 760
    • Virginia Beach Backyard Weather
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #12 on: December 11, 2017, 07:05:25 PM »
email from wu

 
To our webcam community members:

We heard from many of you about how much you like and rely on our webcam product. So we will not discontinue the product as we stated in November. We will continue to allow users to add webcams to the Weather Underground network and everyone can view images from connected webcams.

Thank you for your passionate support and apologies for any inconvenience we caused.


The WU Team




Offline chief-david

  • Educational Weather
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 2845
  • Space Academy for Educators
    • Benilde-St. Margaret's Weather
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #13 on: December 11, 2017, 09:29:09 PM »
now take care of the radar issue



You can't phase me-I teach Middle School.
It's not you-It's WU.

Offline mikemm

  • Enthusiast
  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 18
    • Weather Underground PWS
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #14 on: December 11, 2017, 09:37:33 PM »
Well apparently WU changed their mind about eliminating the webcams.  But I am having trouble re-activating the FTP  :?

See their Dec 7th update to their article:
http://help.wunderground.com/knowledgebase/articles/1821811-wu-says-goodbye-to-webcams
CWOP ID: EW8360, WU/PWS: KCASANDI503
Ambient 2902C Sensors | WS2000 Console | Dahua 5MP Low-lux WeatherCam | MeteoBridge & Raspberry Pi | APC UPS
Web sites: WU, Ambient+Cam, PWS, Windy+Cam

Offline webcams.travel

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 63
    • webcams.travel
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #15 on: December 12, 2017, 02:30:17 AM »
Well apparently WU changed their mind about eliminating the webcams.  But I am having trouble re-activating the FTP  :?

See their Dec 7th update to their article:
http://help.wunderground.com/knowledgebase/articles/1821811-wu-says-goodbye-to-webcams

Well, who would have thought... thank you for this info. This, of course, changes a lot now.

Offline ValentineWeather

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6364
    • Valentine Nebraska's Real-Time Weather
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #16 on: December 12, 2017, 07:16:37 AM »
Well apparently WU changed their mind about eliminating the webcams.  But I am having trouble re-activating the FTP  :?

See their Dec 7th update to their article:
http://help.wunderground.com/knowledgebase/articles/1821811-wu-says-goodbye-to-webcams

Well, who would have thought... thank you for this info. This, of course, changes a lot now.

It may be just more lip service because of the negative feedback from what I'm seeing because nothing has changed.
It was a crap shoot before if you could send images and when it did work was sporadic at best with only a few images getting through.  The WU FTP server yesterday was full all day with only 50 users allowed and toward evening just killed accounts with login not authorized. FTP: 530 Login authentication failed

From what I can tell they are allowing a couple hundred cameras but have killed camera accounts for the rest.
Randy

Offline webcams.travel

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 63
    • webcams.travel
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #17 on: December 12, 2017, 07:43:30 AM »
It may be just more lip service because of the negative feedback from what I'm seeing because nothing has changed.
It was a crap shoot before if you could send images and when it did work was sporadic at best with only a few images getting through.  The WU FTP server yesterday was full all day with only 50 users allowed and toward evening just killed accounts with login not authorized. FTP: 530 Login authentication failed

From what I can tell they are allowing a couple hundred cameras but have killed camera accounts for the rest.

It is a very interesting situation, right now. I guess it all depends on whether the weather stations trust WU to improve their webcam service to the better in time - or not. What would you say: if we setup a free FTP webcam upload right now, would the users of WU switch - or stay at WU and give WU another chance?

Offline ValentineWeather

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6364
    • Valentine Nebraska's Real-Time Weather
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #18 on: December 12, 2017, 08:09:29 AM »
I don't see any improvement at WU. They were on the doorstep of pulling plug completely and have went years   allowing sporadic image uploads and didn't seem to care while allowing more cameras making situation worse with time.   
I don't know how popular just an image site only would be because members here are also into personal weather stations and sending data. 

Randy

Offline webcams.travel

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 63
    • webcams.travel
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #19 on: December 12, 2017, 08:19:31 AM »
I don't see any improvement at WU. They were on the doorstep of pulling plug completely and have went years   allowing sporadic image uploads and didn't seem to care while allowing more cameras making situation worse with time.   
I don't know how popular just an image site only would be because members here are also into personal weather stations and sending data.

The idea would be that current WU users still upload their weather data to WU, but would use our service for their webcam only. They (probably?) could link our site for the webcam view. Do you think this would be attractive for weather stations?

Offline ValentineWeather

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 6364
    • Valentine Nebraska's Real-Time Weather
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #20 on: December 12, 2017, 08:33:56 AM »
I don't see any improvement at WU. They were on the doorstep of pulling plug completely and have went years   allowing sporadic image uploads and didn't seem to care while allowing more cameras making situation worse with time.   
I don't know how popular just an image site only would be because members here are also into personal weather stations and sending data.

The idea would be that current WU users still upload their weather data to WU, but would use our service for their webcam only. They (probably?) could link our site for the webcam view. Do you think this would be attractive for weather stations?

That may work, I do the same for my WU data add website link under STATUS if they look at it. https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KNEVALEN2
Randy

Offline webcams.travel

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 63
    • webcams.travel
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #21 on: December 12, 2017, 08:43:00 AM »
That may work, I do the same for my WU data add website link under STATUS if they look at it. https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KNEVALEN2

I see, it's a bit of a hack - and people need to copy/paste the link into the browser as well. And I assume most weather stations don't have a (primary) website themselves, where they could link to both WU and the webcam page?

Offline captgadget

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 359
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #22 on: December 12, 2017, 08:43:41 AM »
I know Randy and I have discussed this before but a lot of us are not savvy enough to do all this stuff so that's what makes WU so attractive to many of us. We upload the weather and the bonus is to upload a photo. I don't mean to throw water on things but first you have acquire a website and then be able to upload all the weather data to the website. Randy and many others have beautiful websites while I don't have a clue how to get there. Oh sure you google how to but then to actually do it is a whole another thing. Once again that's what makes WU so nice.

Offline webcams.travel

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 63
    • webcams.travel
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #23 on: December 12, 2017, 08:49:03 AM »
I know Randy and I have discussed this before but a lot of us are not savvy enough to do all this stuff so that's what makes WU so attractive to many of us. We upload the weather and the bonus is to upload a photo. I don't mean to throw water on things but first you have acquire a website and then be able to upload all the weather data to the website. Randy and many others have beautiful websites while I don't have a clue how to get there. Oh sure you google how to but then to actually do it is a whole another thing. Once again that's what makes WU so nice.

OK, so the natural way would be to not only provide the webcam page, but also to include the up-to-date weather info as well on the page for it to be complete and useful for weather stations?
Since we don't have any experience on that - would it be enough to just have a (minimal) subset of the most important weather data to start with?

And I assume just linking to WU from our (future) webcam page would not be enough, since most people would land on the WU page since it is already established well by now?

Offline captgadget

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 359
Re: Free Webcam FTP Upload (after WeatherUnderground shuts down)
« Reply #24 on: December 12, 2017, 08:50:16 AM »
I would think that would be a good start. But if wu continues their program as stated why would you want to offer this service? There has to be a cost associated with this service.


 

anything