VWSaprs version 2 has been released

[Mr.Kelso]

Last report from DW2034 received 4 minutes 35 seconds ago
Wind from 217 degrees @ 2.0 MPH Gusts to 16.0 MPH   Temp 39F  Humidity 58%  Dewpoint 25F   Rain last 24 hours 5.93 inches   Pressure 1017.9 mb 

How do i adjust this error with the rain report?

There has been very little rain and my collector is packed with snow yet it reported 5.93 inches of rain for 24 hours????

[Meteorologica]

Take a look through the last 24 hours worth of data from VWS. Once you have corrected it, restart VWSaprs and it will reread the data from VWS.

[RaydarGuy]

The day before yesterday evening the CWOP report page from CW8854 (my PWS) had a message stating that no data had been received for 2 hours.  I trouble shot the issue.  Data was flowing fine to wunderground.  I noticed that the VWSaprs configuration box (I had previously used) was not available and the APRS file Settings box was different from the picture in the manual (and what it was originally).
I reloaded the software from the Ambient Weather website.  Nothing changed.  I checked local stations, they appeared to be updating.  
I restarted using the directions in the pdf file that accompanied the VWSaprs.exe file.  I have been back on line for 12 hours now and it seems to be working.
Questions: (1) I noted that the RAW data (aprs & weather) no longer carry a time stamp.  Is this normal?
(2) There must be another way to let CWOP members know that a change has been made to the basic software, other than requiring their station to hang-up.  Maybe a banner indicating that we should download the new software?  Or... are we duty-bound to read the WXforum?  Just askin'.
Thoughts?

[Meteorologica]

1) Yes

2) Possibly, we have an idea and may implement it in a later release.

[Bob from Kansas]

Let me sort of tag along on this data not showing theme.

First up hardware is VP2, software is VWS 14.0 P35

I had been using the original VWSaprs software and the data it uploaded allowed me to see my station CW1845 on the GRLevel3 radar screen via the outbound CWOP/APRS data feed from www.allisonhouse.com

After switching to the new VWSaprs version my station vanished from the data feed, and after a conversation with Tyler Allison he was able to determine that because there was no longer a date/time stamp on the data upload to CWOP they in turn were not sending the data out with one, and as result information aggregators had no way to know if the data was current, stale or spurious so their parsing programs would delete that stations data before sending it out to their subscribers.  The date/time info also shows up in the information bubble when a user of would hover their cursor over a station site.

Once I went back to previous version of VWSaprs my station reappeared in the data feed and has likewise returned to its rightfull place on the radar screen.

Bob

[Meteorologica]

Then they are not handling the data correctly. When they retrieve the data they should tag it themselves with the date and time and not rely on the embedded date and time which is not guaranteed to be correct. This is an acceptable way to send the data as per the full APRS specification. See also the explanantion at Philip Gladstone's page http://pond1.gladstonefamily.net:8080/aprswxnet.html 

[allisonhouse]

Acceptable? yes.  Best approach? No.

You should allow the user to use the local time if they wish.  If properly configured, the local system will _always_ have the more accurate time.

Not only is it no guarantee that the local machine will have the correct time, but there is no guarantee that the server will receive the data within a few seconds of the report (could be hours later).

By solving for the first condition you ignored the second.

We solved for the second and ignored the first.  We are going to solve both conditions shortly.  I would ask that you do the same.  If for nothing other than allowing customer choice.

[Meteorologica]

We prefer to limit the user's customisation to the minimum since allowing too much freedom has caused far too many problems in the past.

[katlon]

I, like Bob, have been sending info to APRS for quite sometime without any implications. Updated to 2.0 thru 2.10 and problems galore have started. I had my updates times scheduled for every 15 minutes but noticed that 30 to 40 minutes would go by before updates were noticed. Brought the update time down to every 10 minutes but still much the same problem. I have been using Tyler's APRS placefile for a couple of years with almost never any problems. So many problems lately that as of today I stopped using the placefile. Not Tylers fault. The placefile is updating as mandated by the script but no info to update.

Lonnie
CW2583

[Bob from Kansas]

Lonnie,

Just drop back to the VWSaprs program you had been using and your station will reappear on the Allison feed.

Also looked like prior to about Saturday the outbound feed was having some problems as stations kept appearing and disappearing...then whatever the problem was went away and things have stabilized again.   Don't know if it was an Allison problem or something else however there seemed to be little rhyme or reason as to who was showing up on the screen, although it seemed to affect CW data more than NK feeds.

Bob

[katlon]

Bob

Went back to 1.9.6.0. That was the last I had used before the 2.0. Will keep a look at it for a while to see how it does. Thanks for the heads up.

Lonnie

[mmorris]

Anyone using WXSIM Weather Simulator, If I have VWSaprs running this program interferes with the Auto Run feature in WXSIM and will not let WXSIM make an updated forecast at the scheduled time.     

[mmorris]

Anyone using WXSIM Weather Simulator, If I have VWSaprs running this program interferes with the Auto Run feature in WXSIM and will not let WXSIM make an updated forecast at the scheduled time.     

So I moved back to the older ver. of VWSaprs V 1.9.8.0 and WXSIM is now working again. That's to bad   

[mmorris]

Anyone using WXSIM Weather Simulator, If I have VWSaprs running this program interferes with the Auto Run feature in WXSIM and will not let WXSIM make an updated forecast at the scheduled time.     

So I moved back to the older ver. of VWSaprs V 1.9.8.0 and WXSIM is now working again. That's to bad   

I have moved back to the newer Ver of VWSaprs this morning. A few day ago I discovered that the Email program in VWS was bringing VWS or the whole computer to it knees, it seem that Road Runner has in my area finely is requiring authorizing. So I turned off the scheduler in the email part of VWS. What I think is when the email program was having problem sending that the rest of VWS was having problems writing to the data folder what was needed by WXSIM and WXSIMATE, which caused WXSIMATE to not get the updated weather data and time from VWS.
 We'll see what happens as the rest of the day progresses.   

[mmorris]

Anyone using WXSIM Weather Simulator, If I have VWSaprs running this program interferes with the Auto Run feature in WXSIM and will not let WXSIM make an updated forecast at the scheduled time.     

So I moved back to the older ver. of VWSaprs V 1.9.8.0 and WXSIM is now working again. That's to bad   

I have moved back to the newer Ver of VWSaprs this morning. A few day ago I discovered that the Email program in VWS was bringing VWS or the whole computer to it knees, it seem that Road Runner has in my area finely is requiring authorizing. So I turned off the scheduler in the email part of VWS. What I think is when the email program was having problem sending that the rest of VWS was having problems writing to the data folder what was needed by WXSIM and WXSIMATE, which caused WXSIMATE to not get the updated weather data and time from VWS.
 We'll see what happens as the rest of the day progresses.   

Guess everything is back to normal and running the latest Version of weather Software. VWS as nice as the software is is the only software that loses functionality. Tho I probably won't miss the email function of VWS... 

[Andy Thompson]

I can't get my email to work anymore.

[Whuffo]

The latest version is working well here - but I've been noticing that it consumes a lot of system resources when it's doing a CWOP update.

I'm running VWS on a 3.2 GHz P4 system; 1 gig of RAM and XP SP3. Normally it hums right along but when VWSaprs starts it's CWOP update the system bogs down; task manager says that VWSaprs.exe is using 78% of the CPU.

That seems excessive (to say the least). What can be done to cut that down to a more reasonable level?

[freckldnred]

I'm having a huge problem, had been running the previous version just fine, no problems, now, after a computer replacement, I can't get the new VWAprs to work, I'm running a Windows 7, 64bit computer, with VWS Internet edition. I have a Oregon Scientific 968. When I start the new VWAprs, i get an immediate box from windows with a large red circle with an X in the middle, and a message that says, "2:00PM,,,,,,"in not a valid integer value. I am not broadcasting, and the VWAprs box keeps saying, Acquiring new data. can anyone give me any pointers? thanks

[Meteorologica]

You are pointing VWSaprs at the wrong data file, it must point to the dbase.csv file only.

[freckldnred]

ok, i just changed it so it reads the csv file only, will let you know what happens, thanks

[AL Estep]

I just updated to the latest version of VWSPARS posted on the web site from version 1.98 and it seems to be much better for me that the older version. My reason for saying that is I had been getting CWOP QC that told me my barometer was totally out of spec. with this new version it seems to be more inline with what CWOP was telling me.

My thanks to the programmer.

[slantt]

I'm running VWS 14.01 p46 on Windows 7 home premium, desk top PC, using a Davis Vantage Vue monitor.  I have the latest version of VWSaprs.
My problem is my info isn't getting downloaded to CWOP DBs.  I've got my VWS DB timer set at 5 min. update intervals and the feed from VWSaprs set to feed down stream at 10 min.  The VWSaprs data base 'found' indication is green and the VWS data base file is being updated on 5 min. intervals.  I have the 'Auto Server Select' and 'Feed On' boxes checked, but no down load seems to be happening.  If I place my mouse pointer over the  VWSaprs icon in my task bar I get a small pop up message stating 'VWSaprs waiting'

Any ideas as to what might be going on?

Jim

[KC2GYU]

Just tried updating to V2.0.1.0, running VWS V14.01 P43 on Windows XP Pro. 

Entered all of the settings, set it to update every 5 minutes.  It hasn't updated to APRS in 51 minutes now.  Tried resetting VWS, restarting the computer, unticking minimize at startup, nothing seems to be working. 

Anyone where I can find the "old" version of VWSAPRS? 

[AL Estep]

What is the largest database size that VWSaprs will use to gather data from VWS?