Author Topic: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage  (Read 1493 times)

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Offline lightmaster

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Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« on: October 08, 2018, 11:41:07 PM »
I've got a potential CAT 3 hurricane bearing down on me, which has gotten me thinking about ways to keep my station powered if/when my power/internet goes out. I've currently got a UPS that keeps my router, modem, small network switch, and Meteobridge powered during brief outages, but it only lasts for around 2.5-3 hours. How can I keep network and Meteobridge alive for a longer outage? Futhermore, should internet g out during the storm too, is it possible to hook up a phone to the Meteobridge to get internet temporarily?

Meteobridge runs off 5V USB power, so maybe a 26,000 mAh battery pack would last longer than the 3 hours of my UPS? What about a way to connect an Ethernet cable to an adapter or something so it can plug into my USB-C phone? I know I can use my phone's hotspot as a worst case scenario, but I'd like to avoid that since it's a good bit of wasted power then.

Can a Meteobridge be set up to connect to internet over ethernet, and fallback to a WiFi connection should ethernet not be available?

Offline Mattk

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2018, 03:07:16 AM »
The primary factor in this type of situation is maintaining the data, nothing else matters really and be prepared to progressively shut down components that don't serve any purpose in maintaining the data.

With hurricane type conditions then no power, no internet, no comms has to be expected as with today's digital networks the power required to keep alive for any length of time is simply not available outside the more primary network centres with specific backup capacity so it may depend on just where you live in relation to the main network centres.

You don't say what station you have and how this is powered and sounds like you may have a MB as opposed to a MBPro which has more data capture/storage options.

Separate battery power would be my preference and how long you want it to run will be dependent on how much battery capacity you feel you really need, the more the better but at some point depending on the severity of the storm no amount of power will keep you alive for ever without some secondary charging capacity, generator, solar etc

I think you need to forget the internet type stuff as you have no control over that and concentrate on maintaining data recording and local storage with a minimal of hardware to do that.     

Offline lightmaster

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2018, 04:12:17 AM »
I have a Davis Vantage Pro2 and a Meteobridge that sends the data to various sites and an off-site mysql database. The console is connected to the non-battery side of the UPS since it has its own batteries. I've got the minimum amount of equipment connected to the battery side of the UPS to let it stay alive as long as possible, which is still a dismal 3 hours max.

My understanding is that when the Meteobridge loses internet connection, there's no storage of any data that it receives while the internet is out, and it's not able to pull the stored data from the consoles USB logger. Considering that, how can one save the data without internet?

Offline Mattk

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2018, 05:00:12 AM »
Without internet, standard MB and no where to push the data internally or externally then you would shut it down and save a little bit of power, no point running it for no real purpose if it was to mean wasting power and causing the entire system to power down sooner then later. Put all your power resources into maintaining the console, USB logger and data there-in.

If you have your logger running and depending on data archive then you could maintain a data record for quite some time as long as you have a means to download the logger when you get power back etc 

Offline lightmaster

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2018, 05:32:20 AM »
I've got the logger set to 10 min intervals, so roughly 17 days IIRC, can't see it taking more than 2.5 weeks to restore power, assuming we lose it at all.

About getting the archived data from the logger/console, is there anyway to get MB to pull that saved data, or is WL2 the only way? I don't normally upload to WL2 since it requires a computer running 24/7. MB uploads to CWOP, WU, etc so unless MB is able to pull that archived data, then there's little I can do with that data.

Offline galfert

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2018, 07:11:58 AM »
You need a Raspberry Pi running SQL and and then a generator. Forget the Internet. All local.
After the storm you can repopulate WU with data saved locally.
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Offline lightmaster

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2018, 06:48:28 PM »
Attempting to switch the MySQL database to a local Raspberry Pi, and somehow the Buffer Usage in the system page is now climbing. Was at 100% and I rebooted the MB to see if that would fix it. After a few minutes it's now up to 15%. I assumed that meant it wasn't sending data somewhere, but it still climbs even after disabling all services and networks. Any idea what Buffer actually is and if it's an issue?

To be honest though, idk if it was already climbing up and I just now noticed it, or if it's caused by something I just accidentally did.

Offline galfert

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2018, 07:36:06 PM »
I've never looked at my Meteobridge Buffer so I don't know what is normal.

Right now my Buffer is 1 item 0%.
RAM:   29364 kB total, 3320 kB free (88% used)

My Meteobridge is uploading to like 7 services including WU camera upload. Plus it is sending to my local SQL every 5 minutes.

This is my SQL query upload line:
INSERT INTO `mystation` (`ID`, `DateTime`, `TempOutCur`, `HumOutCur`, `PressCur`, `DewCur`, `HeatIdxCur`, `WindChillCur`, `TempInCur`, `HumInCur`, `WindSpeedCur`, `WindAvgSpeedCur`, `WindDirCur`, `WindDirCurEng`, `WindGust10`, `WindDirAvg10`, `WindDirAvg10Eng`, `RainRateCur`, `RainDay`, `RainYest`, `RainMonth`, `RainYear`, `UV`, `Solar`) VALUES (NULL, '[YYYY]-[MM]-[DD] [hh]:[mm]:[ss]', '[th0temp-act=F]', '[th0hum-act]', '[thb0seapress-act=inHg.2]', '[th0dew-act=F]', '[th0heatindex-act=F]', '[wind0chill-act=F]', '[thb0temp-act=F]', '[thb0hum-act]', '[wind0wind-act=mph]', '[wind0avgwind-act=mph]', '[wind0dir-act]', '[wind0dir-act=endir]', '[wind0wind-max10=mph]', '[wind0dir-avg10]', '[wind0dir-avg10=endir]', '[rain0rate-act=in.2]', '[rain0total-daysum=in.2]', '[rain0total-ydaysum=in.2]', '[rain0total-monthsum=in.2]', '[rain0total-yearsum=in.2]', '[uv0index-act]', '[sol0rad-act]')
« Last Edit: October 09, 2018, 07:44:53 PM by galfert »
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
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CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
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Offline lightmaster

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #8 on: October 10, 2018, 01:14:28 AM »
Was having problems with remote accessing my weather camera, and ended up restarting everything network/weather station-wise. Came back up and all seems to be fine. I think the buffer is the amount of data that has been collected and is waiting/trying to go out to some service/network. Now its sitting at 2-3 and all the sites are updating properly again.

Back to power outage, I got the Raspberry Pi running a MySQL server now and its locally collecting all the information, while my remote server is now backing up the data daily (opposite of what I had been doing). Too late to grab a generator, and really wishing I had bought one back when Irma came through since we were under a Presidential State of Emergency, and FEMA was reimbursing people for buying generators. Definitely on my shopping list now though. I do have 2 cell phone battery packs, 20k and 26k mAh which should keep it going for a while with just the MB and RPi powered with ethernet cable between them. Also got a nice little stockpile of C batteries that my work gave me free for Irma last year. Anyone know how long a Vantage Pro2 Console lasts on fresh batteries? Still should be good to go now, though afterwards I'll need to figure out how to upload past information to CWOP and WU...

Offline galfert

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #9 on: October 10, 2018, 01:40:16 AM »
CWOP only takes live data. Only WU can be back filled. Good luck through the storm.
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
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CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
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Offline Mattk

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #10 on: October 10, 2018, 05:47:36 AM »
....Anyone know how long a Vantage Pro2 Console lasts on fresh batteries?

They say 9 months (wireless) but wouldn't push things to that limit. Effectively you shouldn't have any need to change batteries but if you do and with no power then you really need to provide a temporary primary power source but change them now while you have power and shouldn't have to worry about power for quite a few months.

Offline lightmaster

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2018, 06:12:39 AM »
 :shock: Jeez, I was thinking a matter of days, not more than 6 months. Batteries were fresh as of 2 months ago when I got this station, and it's always been on wall power, so should still be fresh then.

Offline lightmaster

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #12 on: October 13, 2018, 06:53:59 AM »
We weathered the storm rather nicely, only losing one 200 year old oak tree that thankfully didn't damage the house. 51 mph gust took it down quickly. No one in my family or nearby hurt though, thankfully.

Lost power for 36 hours. UPS lasted all of 3 hours, but during that time I was able to get the RPi and MB connected to my wife's phone's hotspot ( RPi wasn't wanting to talk to MB over ethernet and I didn't have time to figure out why). 26k mAh battery pack powered MB and RPi, 20k mAh battery kept my wife's phone topped off with power. Both packs had about half charge when we got power back, and not only did the MB continuously record to my local MySQL, but also kept neighbors up to date with the local weather too. So, I'd say for last minute scrambling, turned out better than expected, plus I learned a bit about keeping the MB alive and recording during an outage. I'll be keeping the MB and RPi on the battery pack from now on with the battery being constantly charged by the UPS. And definitely buying a decent generator when my newly purchased Kill-A-Watt gets here so I can figure out how big of a generator I'll need.

Thanks everyone for all the advice, wouldn't have kept recording the weather during the storm without it.

Offline galfert

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Re: Keep Meteobridge going during power outage
« Reply #13 on: October 13, 2018, 07:47:57 AM »
Great feedback. Thanks for the update. Glad you came out okay.

I love my Kill-a-watt. I was think of upgrading to Curb. Not really an upgrade because the Kill-a-watt is still the best way to test individual devices. But Curb lets you get the bigger picture if you wanted a whole home generator.
https://energycurb.com
Ecowitt GW1000 | Meteobridge on Raspberry Pi
WU: KFLWINTE111  |  PWSweather: KFLWINTE111
CWOP: FW3708  |  AWEKAS: 14814
Windy: pws-f075acbe
Weather Underground Issue Tracking
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