Topic: Options for accessing data on my new Vantage Pro 2?

[wrybread]

See, this is the part that keeps confusing me, do you work with preschoolers? Seriously, there's nothing for them to break or interfere with. Lock it up if you want.

I'm installing this in an office slash retail environment at a beachside resort. Some of the people who work there are extremely techy, others are lucky to be able to send an email. Sure I could lock this up and tell them all to keep their monkey paws off the thing, or I could just share it with the more techy folks, but I'd rather empower all of them to use the gizmo to their heart's content with the knowledge that even if they do something stupid (including not changing the batteries or unplugging it) it won't disable the readings on the website or the remote display in the store.

As far as the remote display in the store, I wrote a program that customers and employees can easily send pictures to (by emailing them to a specific address or hashtagging them) and they appear in a slideshow. Every 3 minutes that slideshow shows current buoy data (swell size and direction, wind speed and direction, small craft warnings etc) and it displays all this as a slideshow. Soon I hope in the top right of all the pictures they'll see live wind and weather data from the Davis gizmo, as well as incorporating this data on the swell into screen, and showing it all live on their website.

[SLOweather]

This is NOT the case with Davis. Data transmission from the ISS to the console is strictly one-way.

> There's this FM radio station that I listen to in my home (with 3 different receivers) and in both of my cars.  ........

Yeah but wireless data transmission isn't always so simple. Often there's a "handshake" involved, meaning the xmitter broadcasts the data and doesn't keep going unless something says back "yes I received the data". In fact almost all wireless data transmission is like that.

Not saying this certainly is, but its a consideration.

[SLOweather]

Keep in mind that by receiving the data directly from the ISS via RF, you will NOT be receiving barometric pressure. That sensor is in the console.

You might be able to use an Adafruit Feather M0 RFM69HCW 915MHz with one the DavisRFM69 libraries to receive data directly from the ISS without needing the console or datalogger.  It also has a LIPO charger for battery backup.

Thank you! Ordered! For $30 shipped, have to at least give it a try. I wonder if I can use it simultaneously with the console. Would be nice to have the console as a sort of remote display, but one that's not critical for the ultimate operation (i.e. posting the data to the net).

[dalecoy]

VP2 with WeatherLinkIP.  Display in the lobby from your station on WeatherLink.com, done however you choose (probably best with a simple, reliable PC set to never update).  The whole setup (less the lobby display) powered through a UPS.

That's as un-complicated (for the folks on-site) as it can get.

[mcrossley]

Re the timeout after power up, from firmware version 3.0 ...

Console timesout of the "Receiving From" setup screen after 15 min using batteries and 30 min using AC power.

[CW2274]

See, this is the part that keeps confusing me, do you work with preschoolers? Seriously, there's nothing for them to break or interfere with. Lock it up if you want.

but I'd rather empower all of them to use the gizmo to their heart's content with the knowledge that even if they do something stupid (including not changing the batteries or unplugging it) it won't disable the readings on the website or the remote display in the store.

 

Clear yet?

No. Why does ANYBODY need to monkey with it. If it's hooked up to a computer with some kind of software, ie Cumulus, Weatherlink, whatever, ALL the data is available, and then some, on a screen somewhere. The console never needs touching. Batteries won't need changing with a/c power. Even if you do run batteries alone, you'll get ~8 months out of them. Plan accordingly.

[dalecoy]

OK, I'm really confused about your objectives.  First you said:

I'd like to pull data from my Vantage Pro 2 to a Python script so we can display it on a big screen in the lobby (I'm installing this in a business).

And emphasized that it needs to be "foolproof" in operation - just keep working regardless of what else happens.

And then:

.....empower all of them to use the gizmo to their heart's content with the knowledge that even if they do something stupid (including not changing the batteries or unplugging it) it won't disable the readings on the website or the remote display in the store.

Website?  When was that mentioned?

Keep working even if they unplug it?  (What's it?)

Messing with or unplugging whatever processor you have programmed to drive the display? 

No, your "requirements" are not clear (to me).  Sorry I tried to help.

[wrybread]

Keep in mind that by receiving the data directly from the ISS via RF, you will NOT be receiving barometric pressure.

Thanks for that, good point.

[wrybread]

And @CT, thanks again for the heads up on the Arduino Feather, looks like I bought one of the last ones, its sold out today:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3176

Very excited to play with that gizmo.

There's an interesting thread here that shows some what the wireless data looks like:

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=10739.0

After a bit of processing, the data is, for example:

Temp 18.4 Hum 67 Wind 3 Dir 283 UV 2.2 SolRad 319 Rain 165
Temp 18.4 Hum 67 Wind 4 Dir 283 UV 2.2 SolRad 319 Rain 165
Temp 18.4 Hum 67 Wind 3 Dir 283 UV 2.2 SolRad 328 Rain 165
Temp 18.4 Hum 67 Wind 3 Dir 283 UV 2.2 SolRad 328 Rain 165
Temp 18.4 Hum 67 Wind 4 Dir 283 UV 2.2 SolRad 328 Rain 165
Temp 18.4 Hum 67 Wind 4 Dir 283 UV 2.2 SolRad 328 Rain 165
Temp 18.4 Hum 67 Wind 3 Dir 283 UV 2.2 SolRad 328 Rain 165

[Bushman]

I think you secretly want to make this complicated.    In the time since you first posted you could have had this up and running on a Raspberry Pi or Meteobridge box.  Not that there's anything wrong with scientific discovery and hacking.

[CW2274]

I think you secretly want to make this complicated. 

If so, then he/she should say so, then the rest of us don't literally waste our time doing this trying to help.

[wrybread]

I think you secretly want to make this complicated.

I don't mind things being complicated for me, as long as the results are robust. Most of what I mean by "robust" is that it requires minimal maintenance, ideally running for years on its own, through battery changes, unplugging, blackouts, users changing settings, etc.  I've been setting up computer systems in offices, both installing hardware and writing software, for a long time and have a very good idea of what that entails.

But I ordered the Belfry cable as well, its entirely possible I'll wind up using off the shelf software and/or hardware. And who knows, maybe I'll go the Mateobridge route. Thanks for getting me up to speed with all the options.

[wrybread]

I got a response from Davis about what's new in the 3.63 firmware that as of typing this isn't on their website, but is installed on new units:

"We don’t have a full list, but there are several feature enhancements and should not have included any new designs for a new data logger. The New firmware will now boot past the Receiving From screen, I believe it handles the more precise temp sensors."

[droiddk]

I got a response from Davis about what's new in the 3.63 firmware that as of typing this isn't on their website, but is installed on new units:

"We don’t have a full list, but there are several feature enhancements and should not have included any new designs for a new data logger. The New firmware will now boot past the Receiving From screen, I believe it handles the more precise temp sensors."

Anything about whether it be available for users already operating a Pro2 or not?

Regards

[wrybread]

I assume it will, but that's the complete reply I received.

[droiddk]

I assume it will, but that's the complete reply I received.

Ok. I would love to say goodbye to that stupid "Receiving From" screen.

Regards

[wrybread]

I thought I'd post an update to this project since there were a bunch of balls in the air when I posted last.

First off, thanks hugely to the people here who steered me towards buying the Davis Vantage Pro2 instead of the Vue. It's a few more $$, but I'm really glad to have the ability to replace sensors individually and easily. And I love the unit overall.

One thing I had considered was receiving the data directly from the Davis ISS using an Adafruit Feather, but I couldn't get it working using the excellent work that @DeKay posted here:

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=10739.0

The big factor for me was that the Feather would stop responding when I tried to initialize it without a subchannel (if that's the word, it's been a few weeks since I tried and the specifics are hazy). If anyone wants to go that route, there's a different receiver that he used, and I'm guessing that makes it much easier since his code is written for that. I forgot off hand what that was, but I think its in the above posting.

So I went to Plan B, which was the cable from Belfry. That came quickly given that it shipped from the U.K. to San Francisco, and the build quality and communication was excellent.

That worked right away using a Raspberry Pi (actually a Beagle Bone, but same kind of thing). I installed WeeWX on it, which has a bit of a learning curve but once I got the hang of it it's extremely powerful and flexible, and with a fantastic and helpful user community on their Google Group. Incidentally I'd highly recommend installing it using the method described here (http://www.weewx.com/docs/setup.htm), and not using apt-get, since the apt-get method puts the files all over the filesystem. I posted some of my build notes here (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/weewx-user/bennett%7Csort:relevance/weewx-user/aYPoNFH6GcQ/jagCdJSvCwAJ) on their Google Group.

My station is now happily uploading to Weather Underground here:

https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KCAPETAL93

And the output from weeWX is here (still under heavy development):

http://sinkingsensation.com/weather/

Our cam appears to be down at the moment but hopefully that's temporary. I went with a Nest cam and installed it here:

http://sinkingsensation.com/cam

Incidentally, you can email Nest Cam support and have them remove the Nest watermark at the bottom right.

I probably woulndn't recommend weeWX to people who aren't somewhat handy with Linux if they're just looking to get their weather station up and running quickly. But if you're handy with Linux then I couldn't recommend it any higher. And if you're looking to get handy with Linux, I think it would be a great learner project.

[Bra1nsen]

Did someone found a solution to connect directly to the Vantage Pro 2 wihtout using a console?

A direct connection to the weather station to the PC (Linux/Windows) to read out the data.

Using: Davis Integrierte Sensoreinheit ISS 6322C

[johnd]

I'm sure that it's been done with the cabled ISS, probably many times over. But I'm not aware of any detailed write-up in the public domain. The messaging protocol is probably the same as used by the wireless protocol, just over RS485 rather than wireless, see eg:

https://github.com/dekay/DavisRFM69/wiki

The point I'm trying to underline is that implementing this is not trivial. OK, if you're an experienced programmer then probably a straightforward project, but if you're new to coding.....

[wrybread]

Ha this thread is a good blast from the past. I can't help the people looking for a way to directly intercept the wireless data from the Vantage Pro since I never did revisit that, but since the thread just got bumped I thought I'd post a quick 5 year report.

I'm still using the same system as described above: a Belfry data logger (http://belfryboyweatherbits.blogspot.com/p/the-belfryboy-clone-usb-logger.html) outputs the data from the Davis console to a Beagle Bone computer (similar to a Raspberry Pi) that runs the weeWx Linux program. The system is reasonably stable but I have found that we need to reboot the Davis console every 3 or 4 months, which is a bit annoying but about what I expected. When it stops working the console seems to just stop outputting data although the display is still updating and displaying new wind data, and simply rebooting the Beagle Bone doesn't fix it. Oh well, but it's infrequent enough that it's not the biggest deal. Also hard to troubleshoot further when it's that infrequent.

The weeWX program is super flexible and I highly recommend it. I was able to use a modified version of the RTG ("real time gauge") plugin to upload it's wind data once every 2 seconds, which gets displayed on a webpage:

https://www.lawsonslanding.com/webcam.html

The direction indicator turns green every time it gets an update, which sholud be about once every 2 seconds. I posted my modified RTG plugin and the code that's on that site to github if anyone is interested (https://github.com/wrybread). And on a sidenote, that webpage also displays the output from a Davis Airlink air quality sensor (those make their data available via a web interface, which is easy to work with).

The wind data is also displayed at the top right corner of a slideshow that runs in the company's store:

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

And I can easily use the data for a general report of the conditions:

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

WeeWX also makes it pretty easy to make custom charts, like this one showing wind speed and barometric pressure, which makes it easy to see when the front passes:

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

As far as the Vantage Pro itself, it's been great even here on the beach with all the salt air and storms coming through. As expected I've had to replace the anemometer about once a year, although I finally found that I can just buy the bearings from Davis, so the last couple of years I've done that (that's $20 versus I think $120 for a new anemometer). Davis has been awesome, always there when I've had questions. I'd buy the unit again for sure, though I do wish they'd make it easier to get the data from the unit. Just a simple web interface like the Airlink and maybe the same optional premium package that posts the data to their cloud service would do it.