Startwatch - Great program

[WXMoab]

I wanted to say how great StatWatch is. I already really liked how it gets everything running on auto pilot and in order but today VWS crashed for some unknown reason while I was at work. I came back to a Microsoft message asking if I wanted to send an error report. Scared me as I figured my site would be down but StartWatch had restarted VWS and it never missed a beat. This is the first time anything like this has happened since starting this station 3.5 months ago. Thanks to this forum I leaned of these great VP programs.

[W3DRM]

Yup, it's a GREAT program. It keeps my VWS clicking along 24/7. Couldn't do without it.

[offroadjosh]

Same here! An amazing program!!!

[Mark / Ohio]

I wanted to say how great StatWatch is. I already really liked how it gets everything running on auto pilot and in order but today VWS crashed for some unknown reason while I was at work. I came back to a Microsoft message asking if I wanted to send an error report. ....

Ditto!  I've been running it 24/7 since 2007.  You can also turn off the error reporting to MS if you want.  Or at least I was able to do it in Win XP.

[tomcj2]

Most of the time, StartWatch is showing the "state" of VWS as "starting" when I look at view>status.  Once in awhile it it does show "running".  VWS is operating as normal.  Any ideas to fix this?

[ocala]

Question about Startwatch.
Running GR3 I have it set to a certain zoom level and that image is FTP.
After a restart could this program zoom it back to the same   zoom level?

[Bushman]

I doubt SW will do that automagically, but it would not be hard to write macro code to do so (Autohotkey, AutoIt etc.)

[Mark / Ohio]

Most of the time, StartWatch is showing the "state" of VWS as "starting" when I look at view>status.  Once in awhile it it does show "running".  VWS is operating as normal.  Any ideas to fix this?

I haven't noticed that but it does show "Confirming no response" on occasion then goes back to showing running.   But I'm running an old 466 Mhz computer at 50-100% cpu average.  I've always figured it was just the slow cpu lagging behind in the processing when VWS was performing a more processor intensive operation.

Do you have the option "Don't start another copy if already running" check marked?

I doubt SW will do that automagically, but it would not be hard to write macro code to do so (Autohotkey, AutoIt etc.)

Anole did some work several years ago using AutoIt and scripts.

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=453.0

I tried it myself once briefly a couple years ago but there was something that I could not get to work.  Also I've always had some intermittent ftp issues with GRL requiring a restart about once a week.  So I put it on the back burner and have yet to take the time to sort it out.

[mackbig]

I will have to check this out.  Its the single biggest fault on the GR3 program.  And since the developer has publicly stated he would not include ftp web upload feature if he had to do it again, I doubt it will ever be solved at the software level.

I dont need it as much now, as I solved my issue with ftp/download a while back.  Seems a bad placefile url was causing gr3 to stop downloading new images every few days, and hence the ftp stopped working.   Running weeks at a time since.  But it would be nice if it all came up after an occasional MS unattended boot.

My only issue now, was on day 7 of vacation my gr3 went "white"  Which according to owners board means graphics card maxed, but pc was not being used and was fresh booted before I went away. so my more than ample graphics cards should not even have been phased.  Perhaps a heating issue, since the unexpected heat wave I left the house un-a/c'd and it was 36C in that room the day it went white.  My antivirus also had a err'd identification of a virus while I was away, so maybe have that pop-up on the screen may have tweaked something.

Andrew

Anole did some work several years ago using AutoIt and scripts.

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=453.0

I tried it myself once briefly a couple years ago but there was something that I could not get to work.  Also I've always had some intermittent ftp issues with GRL requiring a restart about once a week.  So I put it on the back burner and have yet to take the time to sort it out.

[Mark / Ohio]

....Seems a bad placefile url was causing gr3 to stop downloading new images every few days, and hence the ftp stopped working.   Running weeks at a time since.  ....

Mines doing better then it was regarding the ftp when I tried to keep it running on the front page a couple of years ago.  But it still seems like if my DSL connection drops it will mess it up on occasion.  Lightning is the only placefile I have loaded on the weather computer.  I've been running it on a back page for several weeks testing it again. 

http://fairfieldcountyweather.com/GRradars.php

I have startwatch set to restart my weather software if my connection drops.  So it would be very useful to be able to do the same with GRL.  If there was some way to monitor when the images stop uploading would be good too.

[mackbig]

Mark,
I have all my key weather files monitored by a php script that runs on a cron twice an hour.  It sends me an email if one of them is older than a prescribed amount.  I use 15 minutes for GR3, which is just over two cycles.  If one is missed I dont mind, if two are missed I know there is an issue.   When I had the place file issue I was making a call to wifey tech support every 3-4 days from work to close and restart/zoom/position/start upload.........

I can post the code if you want.    I also have it monitor wd clientraw (60 seconds), vws normal uploads (20.5 minutes), vws flash (60 seconds) and my nexstorm trac report (10.25 minutes).  Pretty much the same as this page, but hidden and sends email rather than providing a web view.
http://www.mackweather.com/wxstatuswd.php

Andrew

I have startwatch set to restart my weather software if my connection drops.  So it would be very useful to be able to do the same with GRL.  If there was some way to monitor when the images stop uploading would be good too.

[Dal]

Mark,
I have all my key weather files monitored by a php script that runs on a cron twice an hour.  It sends me an email if one of them is older than a prescribed amount.  I use 15 minutes for GR3, which is just over two cycles.  If one is missed I dont mind, if two are missed I know there is an issue.   When I had the place file issue I was making a call to wifey tech support every 3-4 days from work to close and restart/zoom/position/start upload.........

I can post the code if you want.

Andrew, I wouldn't say no to the code

[Mark / Ohio]

Mark,
I have all my key weather files monitored by a php script that runs on a cron twice an hour.  It sends me an email if one of them is older than a prescribed amount.  I use 15 minutes for GR3, which is just over two cycles.  If one is missed I dont mind, if two are missed I know there is an issue.   When I had the place file issue I was making a call to wifey tech support every 3-4 days from work to close and restart/zoom/position/start upload.........

I can post the code if you want.

Andrew, I wouldn't say no to the code

Ditto!     Question though, does the cron job runs server side?  I'm with E-rice and off hand don't know if they allow that.  I do have php running already for data updates.