Topic: Getting Help from WU - or - My Station is Down

[Ajax]

I know you guys aren't WU support, but I'm not able to get a hold of anyone there so I thought I'd put this out here.

Last week my weather station "stopped reporting" despite the fact that nothing about my hardware or weather gateway had changed. It's just up and quit just after noon on 28 September. The station is KORNEWBE25.

I've tried sending WU support a message, but as with my last adventure in non-reporting stations I've heard absolutely nothing. I guess this isn't really a surprise, but I'm still disappointed.

Anyway, I went through and checked all the usual suspects.

• Internet connectivity good? - check
• Station ID/Password correct? - check
• Other weather sites getting data? - check

I even performed factory reset the whole gateway (HauteWind) and restored the settings. I might even reset it again and rebuild the settings from scratch. Yet the frustrating thing is that none of this should even be necessary because I didn't change anything.

The only thing I thought could be a culprit was some data I had deleted several days before. I'd been working on the Rain Gauge and it despite my best efforts tipped the buckets a few times. So I deleted those erroneous rainfall rates, but none of the other data on those lines. So I thought that maybe that gap in the data was causing an issue for the database so this morning I went back and deleted the entire line (well all the data for that reporting time at least). Still nothing.

So maybe someone here has some other ideas because I'm a little bummed.

[PaulMy]

How are you sending to WU?

Paul

[Ajax]

It's sending via a HauteWind weather gateway that's connected to the Davis Console via a Davis datalogger. The HauteWind has the account credentials and it automatically uploads to WU.

The HauteWind is a tiny little Linux PC that's sole purpose is to relay the data from a weather station to the internet. They discontinued it some time ago (of course), but up until now it's always managed to do the job. I don't have any reason to suspect it as the problem, but I won't rule it out either.

[PaulMy]

It would seem reasonable to assume it is fine if it is sending to PWS but I am not familiar with that device so can't give any suggestions.  I assume there is no way to track what the device is actually doing/sending, or any error tracking anywhere in your ISP.

WU has had its problems but that seems like a one-of.

Paul

[Ajax]

It may well be, but I'm puzzled why it would happen after many months of normal operation and no changes.

I don't really have a way to track anything through the ISP, but as this device connects through my router I'm able to see some activity there. Do you happen to know the IP address for sending weather data to WUnderground by chance? Because I see some curious entries around the internal IP for the HauteWind.

[nincehelser]

Do you happen to know the IP address for sending weather data to WUnderground by chance? Because I see some curious entries around the internal IP for the HauteWind.

Usually you send to "rtupdate.wunderground.com".

[PaulMy]

WHOIS shows 38.102.136.104 for rtupdate.wunderground.com but that may not be helpful.

Paul

[Ajax]

Strange, that IP doesn't show up at all. I also don't have a way to set it to a URL as that's baked into the firmware on the gateway. I'm sure if I had some knowledge of the system I could figure out how to go in and update it, but I've found precious little technical information to help me with that task.

I wonder if they changed something or disabled some old legacy port that my old system was using. For what it's worth, these are the IPs I'm hitting from the device that does not appear to be related to HAM Weather (the other site for my data). The "TIME_WAIT" entry is on everything outgoing from this device. From what I can read this is normal, but it seems unusual that I'm having issues and all the outgoing data from that device ends up this way.

tcp   192.168.###.###          23.198.172.159:80             TIME_WAIT   (Akamai Technologies, Inc.)
tcp   192.168.###.###          212.11.82.7:14580             TIME_WAIT   (Gradwell Network Operators)
tcp   192.168.###.###          198.137.202.24:14580          TIME_WAIT   (KJ Consulting)
tcp   192.168.###.###          205.233.35.52:14580           TIME_WAIT   (Wiztech Internet)

[neogeek]

I have the same HAUTEWIND box and my service with WUnderground went out at 12:44PM PST 28 September.

Sounds to me like they did something with the server that messed up the settings for our boxes. I put in a ticket with WUnderground as well and referenced this thread to show the problem is wide spread.

HAUTESPOT has long stopped selling this box so we are at WUnderground's mercy to come up with a solution

In the server settings of your HAUTEWIND, are you using your account password or your station key? I hadn't changed my config in 8+ years and it was still showing my account password as the authenticator, so maybe they are enforcing station keys instead of passwords?

[Ajax]

Mine went down around 12:38PM PST on the 28th as well.

So on the one hand that's good to see that I may not be alone. On the other, this doesn't bode well for the little HauteWind box. I'm going to try the station key and see if that does anything. I noticed that for the first time when I was trying to troubleshoot this and wasn't sure what that was about.

I will add; I am still rather uncomfortable not knowing why it's communicating with those other IPs, I'm not seeing the correlation between what it's doing and those destinations.

[neogeek]

More info on personal weather station passwords

http://help.wunderground.com/knowledgebase/articles/222896-what-is-the-password-for-my-weather-station

[Ajax]

I had not seen that before, that seems like something they should mail out to PWS contributors.

I'll give that a shot and hope for the best.

[nincehelser]

I had not seen that before, that seems like something they should mail out to PWS contributors.

I'll give that a shot and hope for the best.

I've seen that page before, but I've yet to hear a public announcement about it.

From my experience, both your password or the key will work, but some people swear up-and-down that only keys work now.

Maybe new StationIDs require the key, but I'd think a lot of stations are going to suddenly break when they make keys mandatory.

[Ajax]

Well, I made the change, but I'm not seeing anything. I believe the station status dot turns green if it's receiving data from me, but it's still red. I'll check again in the morning, but this is looking a little hopeless unless WU decides to respond.

I would concur that if the StationID/Key is a required combo and they don't announce it more than just adding an entry to their FAQ, they're going to knock out a lot of users.

Sadly, I think folks running HauteWind's are in the minority. Perhaps it is time I update this bit of kit, but dang, this just seems unnecessary. Even if this little fella is old, it's not like it's doing anything complicated so it's more than suited to the task.

[Ajax]

I think I've at least confirmed that the StationID/Key combo isn't a requirement for WU (yet). Only because my station is still not able to send data to WU.

Quite disappointingly, I've heard absolutely nothing from WU.

I've purchased one of those little TP-Link MR-3020 routers and will see if setting it up as a MeteoBridge will be a better fit. At least development there is active. Maybe I'll find some other use for the little HauteWind as it is a small PC with built-in Wi-fi.

[neogeek]

I sent another email to support. They used to be so fast on the reply... not so much after being bought by TWC.

I also bought the 3020 router and will install Meteobridge, but keep in mind you also have to buy the license.

Too bad because the HauteWind calculated the rain rate more accurately then meteobridge does.

[Ajax]

There has definitely been a change. Their support previously was active and eager to help resolve issues. Now, it's completely non-existent. I wonder if those folks are even still there. There is actually a fair portion of me that just want's to say "stuff it" to WU, but I honestly like their site and the mobile apps aren't bad either.

I wasn't aware there was a difference in rain calculation, can you tell me more about that?

[jfields47]

My station went down on 9/28 at 3:40 EDT also.  I am also using the HauteSpot HR-IXP-WIND.  Something has clearly changed with WU that has caused this problem.  Like the others, no response from support and I've sent 2 request.  I know my hardware is working as I set up the HauteSpot to upload to the HamWeather site and it started working immediately.

[Ajax]

Well I got back online with a TP-Link TL-MR3020/Meteobridge setup.

It's definitely far more sophisticated that the Hautewind, but then again I always liked how it "just worked"*.The array of options available on the Meteobridge software is dizzying. I'll have to figure out what if anything I need to change from the vanilla configuration.

I'm still rather peeved at WU's decision to shut off whatever protocol that allowed the Hautewinds to send their data. You can see from their FAQ's that there's nothing on the Hautwind/Hautespot/HR-IXP-WIND. I'm fairly certain they used to have that information there.

[SailorBill]

Curious if anyone is using firmware more recent than this version on their HAUTEWIND server:

HR-IXPWIND
Version:   v1.1.0 r1854 (04/29/08 04:26:27)
(Config: v1.1.0 r1854)

Mine stopped at 3:42PM EST on 9/28.

https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KVASPOTS4#history/s20160928/e20160928/mdaily

I just ordered the D-Link DIR-505 from Amazon and will try to flash with MeteoBridge when it arrives Wednesday.

[Ajax]

Yes, I was running the 1.2 version that came out in 2010.

Whatever the reason for WU's discontinuation of support for the Hautewind, it's definitely working out in favor of MeteoBridge.

[SailorBill]

Just got a reply a few minutes ago about the 9/28 HR-IXPWIND upload problem from Weather Underground:

We think we have identified the problem with why these devices went offline and are working on a solution.

Cool. It may help some folks. I've already ordered the Davis USB data logger (which arrived today) and the D-Link router to flash with Meteobridge.

[SailorBill]

Working again with the HauteSpot HR-IXP-WIND router:

https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KVASPOTS4

[jfields47]

I suddenly came back online also.  At least they identified the issue.

[Ajax]

  Well heck.

Thanks Weather Underground. 

I do actually like the MeteoBridge software. It does a far better job of letting you know the status of the system, your external connections and the configurability is nice too. Plus, it's being actively supported so that's a bonus. Still, that money could have been better spent elsewhere.