Author Topic: What's the best software in 2018?  (Read 3072 times)

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Offline alex114

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What's the best software in 2018?
« on: December 05, 2018, 04:12:50 PM »
After an 8 year gap, I've invested in a weather station again. A VP2 plus to be exact. I have weatherlink and installed a trial version of weather display.
Many moons ago I used weather display, but it has changed a bit since then, and I'm not sure for the better..
It still has features I always enjoyed, such as the current weather icon and how to tinker with it's settings, the FWI, solid internet features for website uploads etc.
But it can be a pain in the butt when entering historic data, for records, averages etc. Or importing old data from weatherlink. Rain databases often have a mind of their own.

Anyway, I've never really dabbled with any other software.
Can anyone recommend trialing another software, with similar traits, but less dated?
thanks in advance for suggestions.


Offline ConligWX

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Re: What's the best software in 2018?
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2018, 06:55:22 PM »
I've used Weewx and CumulusMX in the past, both are great , however I just moved to a Meteobridge Nano SD, which I just love because of it simplicity and size. just pop it into your Davis Console and hook it up via wifi and thats it! tons of features without the overhead of setting up software, ftp server etc. its all built in.

Boris is developing new features and and squashing any bugs found on a daily basis.

check it out here: https://www.meteobridge.com/wiki/index.php/Meteobridge_NANO

of course there is a overhead of price compaired too say a rasbpi and your own software but less hassle in setting up.

https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/

http://www.weewx.com/
« Last Edit: December 05, 2018, 06:57:29 PM by Toxic »
Regards Simon
Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus (6162UK) • Daytime FARS • WeatherLink Live • AirLink • PurpleAir PA-II-SD • CumulusMX •


Offline alex114

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Re: What's the best software in 2018?
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2018, 04:15:11 PM »
thanks for your reply.

A quick glance at meteobridge is intruiging, I may invest after further investigation. I presume the probe/card would replace the weatherlink data logger? And act as a memory at times of wifi loss?
If the process is stable with less or no chance of data loss, it'll do the job for me.

Offline Mattk

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Re: What's the best software in 2018?
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2018, 01:31:10 AM »
thanks for your reply.

A quick glance at meteobridge is intruiging, I may invest after further investigation. I presume the probe/card would replace the weatherlink data logger? And act as a memory at times of wifi loss?
If the process is stable with less or no chance of data loss, it'll do the job for me.

Most data loss is due to power management regardless of the device. In the case of a nanoSD as long as you maintain power to system and sensors then any WiFi or Ethernet outage will not affect station data. The card doesn't actually replace the weatherlink data logger (as such) but does provide an whole range of options that WLIP does not.   

Offline weather34

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Re: What's the best software in 2018?
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2018, 04:58:59 AM »
thanks for your reply.

A quick glance at meteobridge is intruiging, I may invest after further investigation. I presume the probe/card would replace the weatherlink data logger? And act as a memory at times of wifi loss?
If the process is stable with less or no chance of data loss, it'll do the job for me.

used with a nano/sd
no concerns about power failure option , living here in istanbul power outages are weekly however having a small computer 1000va UPS in line prevents loss of data and continues to power weather station and record as normal for upto 48 hours aprox tested upto 46 hours and also leaving the batteries in the console prevents loss of data and recording of data.. meteobridge nanosd is a win win situation for the davis console range and throw in the 20 years of data storage capabilities using nanosd is more than enough .once fitted , installed just  does what it is supposed too..throw in all the features of the meteobridge software and its continuous development you have the perfect non computer powered solution .. bias i may be but the meteobridge range of products has made my weather station hardware a pleasant experience over the last two years i can go away for weeks or days knowing it will just do its thing without any intervention needed.. trusting a product is a big thing especially unattended scenarios.. brian

Offline Bushman

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Re: What's the best software in 2018?
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2018, 11:25:41 AM »
I will just add that BACK UP your card periodically.  I lost two Lexar SD cards in the last couple of months.
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Offline ConligWX

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Re: What's the best software in 2018?
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2018, 11:56:00 AM »
I will just add that BACK UP your card periodically.  I lost two Lexar SD cards in the last couple of months.
Hense why the nano SD supports industrial grade sdcards only.

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Regards Simon
Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus (6162UK) • Daytime FARS • WeatherLink Live • AirLink • PurpleAir PA-II-SD • CumulusMX •


Offline Bushman

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Re: What's the best software in 2018?
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2018, 10:58:34 PM »
Industrial or not, back them up.   BTW Lexar is used by professional  photographers all the time.  But I ain't using them any more!
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Offline weather34

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Re: What's the best software in 2018?
« Reply #8 on: December 08, 2018, 04:43:52 AM »
true as with all digital storage a backup should be a common routine practice my OSX time machine runs daily at 23:59 as for weather data stored at mysql  EVERY 10 MINUTES but nothing is bombproof best practice be safe than sorry and use whatever means you have..FWIW the NANOSD if the card fails the product runs in a normal NANO state so it doesn't entirely prevent all functionality .Boris recommendation of using a specific type of card is there for that sole reason of less chance of card failure .if you go out and buy a low cost specification type card it wont accept it..brian

Offline Mattk

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Re: What's the best software in 2018?
« Reply #9 on: December 08, 2018, 06:52:36 AM »
.... BTW Lexar is used by professional  photographers all the time....
Professional or not then they could be using something better?

Offline johnd

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Re: What's the best software in 2018?
« Reply #10 on: December 08, 2018, 07:07:16 AM »
.... BTW Lexar is used by professional  photographers all the time....
Professional or not then they could be using something better?

It's not only better but just different. Many SD cards are sold on speed which is important in some applications, including photography, but almost irrelevant for use in a weather recording device.

What is vital though is reliability and robustness, which most fast but cheaper cards won't be good at. Full industrial cards use SLC memory with excellent reliability but very high cost - most users won't want to buy more than a 1-2GB card at this spec, eg https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/sd-cards/1448088/. There are also some semi-industrial cards (sometimes called 'high endurance') that use selected MLC memory combined with good error detection routines - still pretty good, but substantially cheaper. However, most readily available SD cards use TLC which can be fast and cheap, but certainly not reliable long-term.

But agreed, whatever you use then backing up is still important.
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