Author Topic: Pros & Cons of the Different Software  (Read 25258 times)

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Offline DaculaWeather

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #25 on: October 22, 2009, 09:54:46 PM »
Do you ever wonder if we run too many software packages???

I've been using VWS for several years now with pretty good results. I have been using Windows Scheduler to restart the computer every six hours but that's it. It appears that the new version (14.00 p100) is pretty stable.

After getting my Davis I figured I see what WeatherLink would do for me so I install Virtual VP and StartWatch today. But I'm wondering if I'm really going to gain anything. Yea, I'd love to use Weather Display Live but what does it really get me... a very fancy display? It seems for the most part that the data it displays (or WeatherLink for that matter) is just a duplication of what I already have. I'm sure each piece of software has it's own unique thing(s) that it does better than some other software, but at what price? To me, the best bang for the buck are the scripts that the kind and generous people like Ken, Larry and Tom have written for us.

Each piece of software is just something else to go wrong, something else to break, and adds complexity when it's time to trouble shoot.

I've been in the computer business for more than 25 years and worked with hundreds if not thousands of different software packages and the more I think about how I'm planning on managing my site with all of these different pieces of software, the more I question why. I'm beginning to think that the K.I.S.S. principal might be the better solution.

Just thinking out loud and maybe this topic isn't this best place for it... 


Offline Bushman

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #26 on: October 22, 2009, 11:10:11 PM »
I used to run a bunch of stuff on 1-wire and once I got the Davis VP2 I stayed with  WL.  More than enough for me.
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Offline SLOweather

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #27 on: October 23, 2009, 12:44:40 AM »
It's possible to build a computer and run a lot of s/w on it and be stable. Sometimes it takes a little work, and understanding the foibles of different packages. For instance, VWS is known for a cranky FTP utility.

Having said that, my "everything but daily driver" computer runs XP Pro SP3, StartWatch, VVP VWS, WD, WxSim, WxSimate, HomeSeer and several plugins, NexStorm, StrikeLink, and WASP2, the various Tenholder programs for my Brultech energy monitor, WinAmp and the Shoutcast DSP for scanner streaming, Hamachi and VNC for remote access, AVG, WebDrive for FTP to my sites, and an interface program for my water company's control system. It has an 8 port serial card. Updates are turned off. I don't use it for routine web/email/word processing/etc.

And, according to VVP, it's been running for over 45 days without a reboot.

Heh, I probably just jinxed that, eh? ;)

Offline DaculaWeather

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #28 on: October 23, 2009, 06:40:26 AM »
LOL!!! You did!!

I use to have Novell servers that ran non-stop 24/7 and had one that ran 8 years without re-starting. It can be done.

I know it's a matter of finding the right combination. I guess I question the need for tons and tons of software and I know that what you want to present on your site decides what packages to use.

I'd like to hear more about your radio stream setup, I'm considering doing that from my site too.

Offline sflindsey

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #29 on: October 23, 2009, 11:00:56 AM »
SLOweather,
What are the specs of the hardware you are running all of this on??  Do you host your own webiste?  Just trying to plan for the future.

I would be interested in hearing what the specs are for machines that others use.

Thanks!!!

Offline SLOweather

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #30 on: October 23, 2009, 02:47:12 PM »
SLOweather,
What are the specs of the hardware you are running all of this on??  Do you host your own webiste?  Just trying to plan for the future.

I would be interested in hearing what the specs are for machines that others use.

Thanks!!!

Dell Optiplex 755 N Series (no preinstalled OS), Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz quadcore processor, 2 GB RAM, XP Pro SP3, 160 GB HD...

I host my own site, but not on that machine. I have a Colomachine 1U 2 GHz P4, 2GB ram server in my employer's rack in a local colocation facility.

Offline SLOweather

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #31 on: October 23, 2009, 02:51:07 PM »
I'd like to hear more about your radio stream setup, I'm considering doing that from my site too.

I run WinAmp with the ShoutCast DSP plugin on the local machine, and connect the scanners to the audio input on the PC. With the right encoder in the DSP (I use AAC+) you can stream in stereo and put a different scanner on each channel.

Then, I run a ShoutCast server on my Linus server at the colo. The DSP sends audio to the server, listeners connect to it with WinAmp to listen.

Offline Weather Display

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #32 on: October 23, 2009, 03:07:32 PM »
personaly I think if you want to get the most of your data from your weather station, then WD does alot with that data
it slices and dices that data up in alot of different ways
especially now with the latest advanced graph module added
but thats just my opinion
Brian
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Offline lddaly

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #33 on: October 23, 2009, 09:53:43 PM »
Do you ever wonder if we run too many software packages???

I created my current signature as somewhat of a joke... a friend asked what software package I used and my reply was "All of them" :lol:

This wasn't my intent when I first setup my station. It was just too easy to do with tools like Virtual VP. Every application has its pros and cons. I set them all up to begin collecting historical data while I decided which will gain my long term focus and what direction I wanted to take for a website. My opinion is that WD is the leading application, further solidified with the new advanced graphing module. I also like Cumulus for its simplicity and VWS, the application I started with. All of them have been very stable for me.

My weather computer hardware specs are similar to SLOweather: Core2 Quad 2.4, 4GB RAM. I built the system in a Shuttle bare-bones chassis bought from Newegg for under $500. It has been VERY stable (knock on wood) and its CPU usage rarely hits 10%. The system performs non-weather related tasks for the household too. I plan to add more to my setup as well... WXSIM and a Boltek with accompanying software.

My 2 cents.

Offline ncpilot

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #34 on: October 24, 2009, 02:56:03 PM »
Another point of reference...

I've got an Athlon 64 3000+ I built many years ago (maybe back in 2004?), 1GB RAM, XP SP3.

I'm running:

Dimension 4 clock synch
DynDNS updateer
Fling
TeamViewer
Oddcast
Remote Capture (Canon camera control software)
i-Catcher (surveillance type software)
WeatherLink
ImageMagick (well, this is called on-demand by a .bat file run every 15 min.)
powerchute UPS monitoring (you might argue that a few of these are more like services than programs)

I also use it as my DVR for OTA tv, with an MDP-130 card, so processing is in hardware on card.

And, use it for web browsing...

It's been 99% solid all this time...
Marc
Wilmington, NC
"Monkey Junction Weather"
Davis VP2 wireless, WeatherLink

Offline DaculaWeather

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #35 on: October 24, 2009, 03:16:27 PM »
I like Dimension 4, I've used it for years on all my computers.

Offline Bushman

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #36 on: October 24, 2009, 05:28:03 PM »
Marc, what do you do with ImageMagick?

My data pt:  Assu eeePC 701SD.  :)
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Offline ncpilot

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #37 on: October 24, 2009, 11:22:12 PM »
Oh man..... I've got a post somewhere in this forum on my kluge... but basically I get an image from a Canon S30 every 15 minutes, then using Windows scheduler, 3 minutes after each picture, I run a batch file that calls ImageMagick to add a banner at the bottom of the image with some weather stats... saves the file in a folder that Fling watches to upload to my site... also use it to create a thumbnail as an anchor link...

This is the contents of my .htx file that WeatherLink processes so I can grab the weather stats, and it saves the file as a .bat--I had some problems with line length I guess in the batch file, so I just put everything on a separate line, and used variables--had problems trying to plug in the WeatherLink tags directly into the ImageMagick command.

========================================
set stationdate=<!--stationDate-->
set stationtime=<!--stationTime-->
set outsidetemp=<!--outsideTemp-->
set hioutsidetemp=<!--hiOutsideTemp-->
set hioutsidetemptime=<!--hiOutsideTempTime-->
set lowoutsidetemp=<!--lowOutsideTemp-->
set lowoutsidetemptime=<!--lowOutsideTempTime-->
set humidity=<!--outsideHumidity-->
set heatindex=<!--outsideHeatIndex-->
set windchill=<!--windChill-->

IF EXIST capture_1.jpg convert capture_1.jpg -size 1x25 xc:Yellow -background Yellow -append -gravity South -pointsize 16 -draw "text 0,0 '%stationdate% %stationtime% Currently %outsidetemp%F %humidity%%% Humidity  Heat Index %heatindex%F Hi %hioutsidetemp%F at %hioutsidetemptime%  Lo %lowoutsidetemp%F at %lowoutsidetemptime%'" tagged\newimage.jpg

IF EXIST capture_1.jpg convert capture_1.jpg -thumbnail 180% tagged\thumb.jpg

IF EXIST capture_1.jpg move *.jpg movies
========================================
Marc
Wilmington, NC
"Monkey Junction Weather"
Davis VP2 wireless, WeatherLink

Offline Arthurhh

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #38 on: October 25, 2009, 07:30:47 AM »
Well this one is going all over the palce so add my two cents.

How I run my site and several others http://tokoroa.dyndns.org/wxstatus.php scroll down the page to see

Offline port1

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #39 on: October 25, 2009, 01:28:21 PM »
I like Dimension 4, I've used it for years on all my computers.

Dimension 4 is nice...you hardly know it's there.
I like it, too.
 8-)

Henry
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Offline Bushman

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #40 on: October 25, 2009, 01:29:02 PM »
That's pretty cool!  Thanks for the  code - exactly what I want to do for my iPhone app.  :)
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Offline serowe

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #41 on: August 08, 2010, 08:33:22 PM »
Recent changes in both Wx software and OS's meant a re-evaluation of what I was using.

FreeWx had been doing the job for me more than adequately, but a change in the machine running it meant it would no longer run. It used to run on a Windows Server 2003 machine - this was recently upgraded to a Win 2008R2 64 bit server - and FreeWx simply can't run on this without being rebuilt, and Andy has stated this won't happen.

So - I went back to look at VWS and WD. VWS dI eventually discarded  (again) but this time becauyse it simply couldn;t run for more than 5 minutes on the server without crashing. This despite Ambient statikng it can run on 64 bit software. Even if I ran in compatibility mode, it kept crashing - so, no longer considered.

Wd - I like(d) the ability to import my historic FreeWx data - that is, until I tried to use it! Firstly, the funciton simply didn't work properly - it would import all data to the curent year and month, regardless of what date I told it to import. To Brian's credit, he did look at it - well, eventually! He fixed this issue but then another issue got introduced - this time it randomly repeated/created data out of sequence within each month. The usual problem then reared its head with WD - the problem was reported and I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited and then got asked for sample data (which had already been sent to demonstrate the problem). Basically the problem was blamed on 'old code' (duh!) but I haven't seen the issue resolved (and not sure if I will as I obviously upset Brian by stating my feelings on the other problem with WD - that of a totally ridiculous and confusing configuration system.  Too many config screen with many options being able to be set in  2 or more screens (Internet is a good example as is the range settings for graphs - I dare ANYONE to find this latter config item quickly!).

The other issue was the problem I had getting it to transfer files to a local hardrive (as I run my own server I didn't need to FTP files) - this worked (eventually) but would only update for a few hours and then keep stopping.
So - WD was also discarded and I continued looking....

Until I found Cumulus.

What a breath of fresh air.

Basic. Simple. Easy to configure. Sure, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles (which don;t normally get used anyway). It runs on 64 bit machines. No, as yet it doesn't run as a service (but then, neither did FreeWxd and I overcam e that easily enough).

Steve (Cumulus author) is currently working - at his own pace - Cumulus 2. He isn;t rushing it (and why should he when V1 works adequately?) but, most importantly, it is stable.

3rd party add ons give it the ability to add the data to a SQL database (I re-wrote one of them to import my old FreeWx data so I now have access to it as well).

Give it a look if/when you are looking for a replacement or simply want a simple setup.
« Last Edit: August 08, 2010, 11:11:22 PM by serowe »

Offline DaculaWeather

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #42 on: August 08, 2010, 08:38:25 PM »
I agree with the confusing setup in WD, I think before I added any features I'd clean up the interface.

Offline Bob Jones

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #43 on: August 09, 2010, 01:34:49 AM »
Having used both Cumulus & WD, I have found that Steve(Cumulus) & Brian (WD), are both passionate about their product, & will help you as much as possible. In my opinion the best starter package is Cumulus, which is  ideal for a Newbie. Once you have got your head around how everything works & what you finally decide to do with your station, will then quantify if you need to step up to a different programme ( such as WD).
Cumulus & WD will do all that your intro asks for !!

 =D&gt; =D&gt;

Offline BigOkie

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #44 on: August 09, 2010, 02:19:15 AM »
Having used both Cumulus & WD, I have found that Steve(Cumulus) & Brian (WD), are both passionate about their product, & will help you as much as possible. In my opinion the best starter package is Cumulus, which is  ideal for a Newbie. Once you have got your head around how everything works & what you finally decide to do with your station, will then quantify if you need to step up to a different programme ( such as WD).
Cumulus & WD will do all that your intro asks for !!

 =D&gt; =D&gt;


My beef with Cumulus is that it doesn't support the Honeywell/Irox/Mebus stations, otherwise I'd love to try it.  I will admit WD has a steep learning curve, but Brian is just as devoted to his users/customers as anyone I've ever seen.  Maybe TOO devoted sometimes.
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Offline serowe

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #45 on: August 09, 2010, 02:41:21 AM »
At the risk of possibly offending some people - I think this is one of the problems both WD and VWS have - they try to accomodate TOO many different stations. There were periods, around 2002/3 where almost a daily update of WD would come out to fix a bug introduced because a new type of station had been incorporated into the program.

Offline Weather Display

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #46 on: August 09, 2010, 02:48:19 AM »
the  freewx import is working now in the latest .zip update, check the history.txt update for WD

Brian
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Offline Bob Jones

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #47 on: August 09, 2010, 02:54:28 AM »
@ BigOkie - Steve(Cumulus ) is at present slowing any work on V1, & is working more on V2 - perhaps now would be a good time to approach him to see if the stations you mention (Honeywell/Irox/Mebus) can be accommodated in the new build !!

 \:D/ \:D/

Offline serowe

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #48 on: August 09, 2010, 03:56:08 AM »
the  freewx import is working now in the latest .zip update, check the history.txt update for WD
Problem is its now 'once bitten, twice shy' - I spent hours trying to figure out WTH was going wrong with the import (when Brian had told me it was OK...) only to find that it was all totally stuft (Brian's own admission that WD logs by the minute and if the FreeWx data logs at anything greater than that it actually invents data to cover the 'missing minutes'. Maybe I am being naive, but you DON'T copy or invent data just because it was never reorded in the first place..

Offline BigOkie

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Re: Pros & Cons of the Different Software
« Reply #49 on: August 09, 2010, 10:05:18 AM »
@ BigOkie - Steve(Cumulus ) is at present slowing any work on V1, & is working more on V2 - perhaps now would be a good time to approach him to see if the stations you mention (Honeywell/Irox/Mebus) can be accommodated in the new build !!

 \:D/ \:D/


Doesn't look too promising by Steve's own admission...

http://sandaysoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2372&p=19591&hilit=honeywell#p19591
Current setup: Davis Vantage Pro 2 Plus Wireless
Weather radios:
Reecom R-1650
Sangean CL-100
Uniden Home Patrol I