Topic: Acurite 5-In-1 Reporting Same Data for Hours

[jemboogie]

Hello,

My Acurite 5-In-1 has started to report the same temperature, wind speed/direction, and precipitation information for hours at a time. It is usually late at night or when I'm not home. I checked Weather Display, thinking that it was malfunctioning and sending the same data out to WU, but it says that the console was giving it that same data. Pressure seems to be unaffected.

See my WU page: http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KVAROANO51#history.

The last time it happened was January 22.

Does anyone know anything about this?

[nincehelser]

Hello,

My Acurite 5-In-1 has started to report the same temperature, wind speed/direction, and precipitation information for hours at a time. It is usually late at night or when I'm not home. I checked Weather Display, thinking that it was malfunctioning and sending the same data out to WU, but it says that the console was giving it that same data. Pressure seems to be unaffected.

See my WU page: http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KVAROANO51#history.

The last time it happened was January 22.

Does anyone know anything about this?

Sounds like the 5n1 isn't being picked up by the console at times.  I'd investigate possible radio interference.

[Wrog]

Has anyone been experiencing a lot of disruptions with their data not updating to MBW and thus to weatherunderground?  For days I've been getting numerous alerts about my data not reporting for more than 2 hours and then it comes back online.
And perhaps on a related topic, I'm not able to access MBW online and on the mobile app.  I've tried with IE, Firefox and Chrome and none is able to connect to the site.  I didn't see a notice about maintenance taking the service offline. 

[jemboogie]

Has anyone been experiencing a lot of disruptions with their data not updating to MBW and thus to weatherunderground?  For days I've been getting numerous alerts about my data not reporting for more than 2 hours and then it comes back online.
And perhaps on a related topic, I'm not able to access MBW online and on the mobile app.  I've tried with IE, Firefox and Chrome and none is able to connect to the site.  I didn't see a notice about maintenance taking the service offline. 

When I initially set up my 5-in-1, I tried using MBW. But, I was disappointed with it because it would stop connecting to WU. Also, it reported data very slowly, much slower than I would have liked.

So, now I'm running it on Weather Display in trial mode. It's the only program for Windows XP that I can get to work with the 5-in-1. If you know of any programs that will work with the 5-in-1 in XP, please let me know. My trial period is ending soon. Although, I have heard that Weather Display is the best, and I have been exploring it and I am fairly impressed with Weather Display.

Hello,

My Acurite 5-In-1 has started to report the same temperature, wind speed/direction, and precipitation information for hours at a time. It is usually late at night or when I'm not home. I checked Weather Display, thinking that it was malfunctioning and sending the same data out to WU, but it says that the console was giving it that same data. Pressure seems to be unaffected.

See my WU page: http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KVAROANO51#history.

The last time it happened was January 22.

Does anyone know anything about this?

Sounds like the 5n1 isn't being picked up by the console at times.  I'd investigate possible radio interference.

Back to the radio interference, when I get home I'll check about that. Is there anything that you know of that would likely cause that interference?

[DoctorKnow]

I am using meteobridge, and even with that last night, I could not get anything to work for over an hour. I don't know if my bridge is to blame, aculink, or the meteobridge, but the meteobridge could not read the acurite bridge. I kept reseting my router, modem, and bridges until finally it started working again. It is very annoying.

[vreihen]

There were some strange gaps in my WU data last night:

http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KNYMONTG4#history/s20150123/e20150123/mdaily

I'm running MeteoBidge packet-sniffing the Acu-Rite network bridge traffic.  The odd thing is that the gaps don't match between sensors.  I'm going to rule out radio interference, since the barometer (directly in the bridge) had the most gaps.  My understanding is that if MBW is down then MeteoBridge won't have packets to sniff.

I don't know if it is coincidence or me going crazy, but it seems like I have noticed a correlation with Nor'Easter coming up the coast and MBW melting down for a year now.  Anyone else notice this?????

[DoctorKnow]

There were some strange gaps in my WU data last night:

http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KNYMONTG4#history/s20150123/e20150123/mdaily

I'm running MeteoBidge packet-sniffing the Acu-Rite network bridge traffic.  The odd thing is that the gaps don't match between sensors.  I'm going to rule out radio interference, since the barometer (directly in the bridge) had the most gaps.  My understanding is that if MBW is down then MeteoBridge won't have packets to sniff.

I don't know if it is coincidence or me going crazy, but it seems like I have noticed a correlation with Nor'Easter coming up the coast and MBW melting down for a year now.  Anyone else notice this?????

The times you were having troubles are a match to mine. I have seen aculink down before and Meteobridge still worked just fine, so I can't understand what happened last night. The meteobridge just takes the data directly from the bridge, and does not have to read MBW from what I understand anyway. Aculink was also down last night during my issues which seemed odd.

I also seem to find MBW goes down whenever I have a significant storm event.

[haroldashe]

I was down at the same time as VREIHEN, too.  I power cycled the Netgear router, AcuLink bridge and Meteobridge and all has been good since.  Dunno....

[vreihen]

I didn't touch anything during those outages.  Whatever caused it was remote and fixed itself.

It is worth mentioning that Long Island and Southern Connecticut have a Blizzard Watch up for Monday afternoon through Tuesday evening for another Nor'Easter, so I'm going to make a non-weather forecast and predict that MBW will have some more hiccups in the next 72 hours..... 

[vreihen]

FWIW, my MeteoBridge hasn't been rebooted in 122 days:

Code: [Select]

Platform: D-Link DIR-505 rev. A1
RAM: 61556 kB total, 25264 kB free (58% used)
Software Version: Linux 3.10.9 mips (BE), FW 1.3, MeteoBridge 2.3 (4891)
Version Control: on next reboot
Uptime: 122 days, 5 hours, 26 minutes    Buffer Usage: 0 items (0%)


[DoctorKnow]

Wow. I just realized that now I can use my tower sensor as a primary for the temp/Humidity/Dew or any combination and not have to use the 5 in 1. I still can use the 5 in 1 for wind and rain though! You click the pink colored label on the Live data table such as "Outdoor #5"

[jemboogie]

I didn't touch anything during those outages.  Whatever caused it was remote and fixed itself.

It is worth mentioning that Long Island and Southern Connecticut have a Blizzard Watch up for Monday afternoon through Tuesday evening for another Nor'Easter, so I'm going to make a non-weather forecast and predict that MBW will have some more hiccups in the next 72 hours..... 

Another reason I decided to use Weather Display instead of MBW. I had problems during the setup process, so I suspected there would be other problems later down the road.

I moved the console as close to my 5-In-2 as I could get it (with my setup and all) and I have not had any problems with bad data since.

You guys that are using the MeteoBridge, do you have to use MBW? Or can you use some of the other available weather station software?

[nincehelser]

I didn't touch anything during those outages.  Whatever caused it was remote and fixed itself.

It is worth mentioning that Long Island and Southern Connecticut have a Blizzard Watch up for Monday afternoon through Tuesday evening for another Nor'Easter, so I'm going to make a non-weather forecast and predict that MBW will have some more hiccups in the next 72 hours..... 

Another reason I decided to use Weather Display instead of MBW. I had problems during the setup process, so I suspected there would be other problems later down the road.

I moved the console as close to my 5-In-2 as I could get it (with my setup and all) and I have not had any problems with bad data since.

You guys that are using the MeteoBridge, do you have to use MBW? Or can you use some of the other available weather station software?

It's not an either/or proposition.  You can use MBW, your own software, or both.

[jemboogie]

I didn't touch anything during those outages.  Whatever caused it was remote and fixed itself.

It is worth mentioning that Long Island and Southern Connecticut have a Blizzard Watch up for Monday afternoon through Tuesday evening for another Nor'Easter, so I'm going to make a non-weather forecast and predict that MBW will have some more hiccups in the next 72 hours..... 

Another reason I decided to use Weather Display instead of MBW. I had problems during the setup process, so I suspected there would be other problems later down the road.

I moved the console as close to my 5-In-2 as I could get it (with my setup and all) and I have not had any problems with bad data since.

You guys that are using the MeteoBridge, do you have to use MBW? Or can you use some of the other available weather station software?

It's not an either/or proposition.  You can use MBW, your own software, or both.

That's cool! I'll look into getting one of these.

I didn't touch anything during those outages.  Whatever caused it was remote and fixed itself.

It is worth mentioning that Long Island and Southern Connecticut have a Blizzard Watch up for Monday afternoon through Tuesday evening for another Nor'Easter, so I'm going to make a non-weather forecast and predict that MBW will have some more hiccups in the next 72 hours..... 

Do you use any software besides MBW? If you do, what do you use the weather software for and what do you use MBW for?

[nincehelser]

Do you use any software besides MBW? If you do, what do you use the weather software for and what do you use MBW for?

Just to be clear, I don't use meteobridge, either.  I read the data from the aculink bridge with my own scripts and a $35 Raspberry Pi.

I use Weewx for the heavy lifting of reporting, graph generation, and web-site generation.

I don't use MBW much other than for quick mobile use.  It's just there if I need/want it.

[jemboogie]

I'd like to have my weather console upstairs so that we can see the weather data up there. If I bought meteobridge, could I have it up there and have it wirelessly feed the data to weather display software running on a PC in the basement? If so, that would be great.

To the users of meteobridge, how's your experience been? I am not a programmer, will the meteobridge be user friendly enough for me?

[nincehelser]

I'd like to have my weather console upstairs so that we can see the weather data up there. If I bought meteobridge, could I have it up there and have it wirelessly feed the data to weather display software running on a PC in the basement? If so, that would be great.

To the users of meteobridge, how's your experience been? I am not a programmer, will the meteobridge be user friendly enough for me?

Meteobridge wouldn't feed the PC in the basement.  It's more of a replacement of your PC.

[vreihen]

Another reason I decided to use Weather Display instead of MBW. I had problems during the setup process, so I suspected there would be other problems later down the road.

I thought that WD as a product died in a horrible hard drive crash that wiped the source code?  Upon checking the WD web site, it appears that the developer spent almost a year re-creating the program...and just released the first revision since last winter.

You guys that are using the MeteoBridge, do you have to use MBW? Or can you use some of the other available weather station software?

There are two ways that MeteoBridge gets Acu-Rite data.  If you have a USB console, you can connect it to MB (via a USB hub on some router hardware) and it will upload your data to any of the supported online services.  If you have the Acu-Rite network bridge, you can plug its network cable into the network port on the MB router.  MB will "sniff" the packets being sent to MBW, and then pass them through via wifi to your home router.  It will also pass along that sniffed data to any of the supported online services in real time.  In other words, it updates Weather Underground at least once per minute instead of the MBW 15-minute update logic.

The pitfall to using the network bridge is that MB needs to see the packets flowing to MBW to sniff them.  If packets aren't flowing to MBW for some reason (like a DNS failure), then MB has nothing to sniff.  I suspect that this was the probable cause of the data gaps everyone saw the other night.

MB does not store data for archival purposes, but it will do raw uploads to a SQL or web server and even fill in the popular weather web templates if you have your own site.

The biggest reason for me to use MB is that I don't have to leave a Windows PC running 24/7 to read my USB console data and export it to various online services.  MB runs standalone flashed in a $20 travel router (D-Link DIR-505 recommended for Acu-Rite network bridge sniffing due to extra RAM), and is truly plug and forget.  The router itself is the size of a small wall wart transformer, and plugs directly into an outlet (ie: zero desktop/rack/shelf footprint).  Mine hasn't been rebooted since I installed it 122 days ago.  Since I already had the network bridge, I chose to use that and the packet sniffer code for my MB input.  I also have a USB console, and could have used that if I spent a few more bucks for a USB hub to convert between USB versions.  If MBW continues to have hiccups, I may change over to USB.

One thing to note is that I don't know if MB supports the latest batch of Acu-Rite USB consoles (the xxx6 models).  My 1035 worked fine with MeteoHUB on a Raspberry Pi, and I have no reason to believe that it wouldn't work on MB.....

[DoctorKnow]

To the users of meteobridge, how's your experience been? I am not a programmer, will the meteobridge be user friendly enough for me?

My experience has been great overall. It is so nice to not have the computer running, and I update to all the sites I want at the time I choose. Wunder I update at 10 to 20 second intervals. I was skeptical at first to whether or not I could flash the D-Link, but I had no trouble at all. I am not a programmer either, and feel if I could do it, then anyone should be able to download the file and push it to the device with little complications. Docbee continues to add features and make the experience worth the price of the license fee.

[jemboogie]

It's not an either/or proposition.  You can use MBW, your own software, or both.

This may be getting off topic, but how would you get the meteobridge data over to a weather program?

[Wrog]

I think I found the issue I'm having - seems that my bridge has given up the ghost.  I was having issues with data not being sent to MBW for several days.  I power cycled the bridge on Saturday and it seemed to be okay for a day or so then it started dropping again.  Yesterday, I changed the batteries in my 5-1 sensor to see if that was the issue.  It reported for a couple hours and then it completely dropped off, along with another sensor I have.  It's now been about 14 hours since anything has shown up on MBW; one sensor last reported at 5:17pm and the other at 5:18pm yesterday.  I know the sensors are working because the displays are registering current data.  Anyone have any ideas how to test if the bridge is actually kaput?  The lights are flashing and all seems normal in the regard.  I looked at the troubleshooting guide in the user manual but didn't see anything applicable to my situation.  It says to only push the register button at startup.  Should I try pushing that to see if it will re-register?

[nincehelser]

I think I found the issue I'm having - seems that my bridge has given up the ghost.  I was having issues with data not being sent to MBW for several days.  I power cycled the bridge on Saturday and it seemed to be okay for a day or so then it started dropping again.  Yesterday, I changed the batteries in my 5-1 sensor to see if that was the issue.  It reported for a couple hours and then it completely dropped off, along with another sensor I have.  It's now been about 14 hours since anything has shown up on MBW; one sensor last reported at 5:17pm and the other at 5:18pm yesterday.  I know the sensors are working because the displays are registering current data.  Anyone have any ideas how to test if the bridge is actually kaput?  The lights are flashing and all seems normal in the regard.  I looked at the troubleshooting guide in the user manual but didn't see anything applicable to my situation.  It says to only push the register button at startup.  Should I try pushing that to see if it will re-register?

Find the IP address assigned to the bridge and open a web browser to that address.  You should see a red and white screen that will tell you what the bridge is hearing and how strong the signal seems to be.

A year or so ago I had problems with random drops.  I had two bridges so I could easily see one drop while another would keep going.  I complained often to Acurite about it with no clear resolution.  However, the problem seems to have vanished (knock wood).  It's possible that Acurite may have implemented a firmware fix at some point, but it's hard to say.  The bridges do seem to get updated occasionally in the background.

[Wrog]

I figured if the thing was dead it wouldn't matter to re-register it by pressing the button so I did that last night.  Of course, that messed up the sensors it was detecting so I deleted what was already there and added them back on.  Since then everything has been working as it should - about 12 hours so far.  Maybe it was a firmware update that it didn't like but all seems well now and I hope it stays that way, I don't want to need to buy a new one.
I'll open up the IP in a browser when I get home later and see what it has to show me.  I've never done that before so I hope I can figure out how to do it.

[Wrog]

After two full days I've had no issues with network drops after re-registering my internet bridge.  Glad I was able to fix it and didn't need to buy another unit.