Topic: Hardware decided but questions over software

[justinhow]

I used to run a fairly cheap and cheerful Weather Station about 5 years ago but it died. I am now in a position to get a better one which will probably be a Davis VP2. Shopping list is currently: 6152 Wireless, 6510USB Data Logger and 6332 Anemometer Transmitter Kit.
I run my own Web server (Windows Server 2012 R2/IIS) and so would like to host my own website (as I did before). At a later date I may look at uploading data to WU etc but that is very much stage 2.
I have previously used Cumulus which I liked and know there is a good new version (MX), but I am also aware there are other options which I know little about. So my question is whether Cumulus MX is as good as any or should I also look at others (which will run on IIS) and if so what? I am not averse to paying for software!

[Maumelle Weather]

Hi,

I currently use CumulusMX and have been very pleased with its performance. Steve has done an amazing job with this software. I switched from Cumulus 1.94 to CumulusMX 3.0 in November 2015 and have had zero issues.

[justinhow]

Hi sacreyweather and thanks for the speedy response. Good to hear about your experience with MX.

I noticed (http://sacrey.info/meteotemplate/) that you appear to be using something called meteotemplate.com - so where does this fit as it appears to compete with Cumulus MX

[Jáchym]

Hi sacreyweather and thanks for the speedy response. Good to hear about your experience with MX.

I noticed (http://sacrey.info/meteotemplate/) that you appear to be using something called meteotemplate.com - so where does this fit as it appears to compete with Cumulus MX

No, it does not Cumulus is a PC software, Meteotemplate is a web template. Meteotemplate basically gets data from some software and analyzes it, saves it to its own database and does all the stats, web outputs etc.

Meteotemplate currently supports several SW, including Weather Display, Cumulus, Cumulus MX, Meteobridge, WU, NetAtmo API etc. So you would basically use one of those to send data to the template in a raw format (just a string of all the variables) and they are then saved in its own database by Meteotemplate and used for all the rest.

But the point is - Cumulus is a program that you install on a PC, Meteotemplate is a webpage template that you "install" on your server and which uses data from Cumulus or any other data source, you can also use Meteobridge, which does not even have to be installed on a PC, that is a small router that you connect to your station and which directly sends data to the server and you don´t need your PC on 24/7.

[justinhow]

Hi Jachym
Love the clear explanation - thanks, my 1st experience of this forum is most positive.

However - and excuse me if my memory fails me - I seem to remember that Cumulus can also provide web pages as well. I am pretty sure that is what I used to use and reading their website "Ready-made web pages supplied, or build your own using web tags"

If that is the case do you know how they compare? I am guessing you would say that metrotemplate is stronger on the web side?

[Maumelle Weather]

Cumulus does come with some built in web pages by default, but I have never used them.  Meteotemplate is all server based, including the MySQL database(s) it requires. Jachym has done an excellent job with Meteotemplate. I like it a lot.

John

[Jáchym]

OK,
the difference is that Meteotemplate is not a program. It cannot be downloaded and installed on a PC. It is a series of PHP scripts combined with HTML, CSS, My SQL database etc. But it runs on your server as a webpage.
Cumulus is primarily a software. You install it on your PC and it communicates directly with your station. Then it can either save the data locally or send it to "something" - in this case for example meteotemplate. And, in addition, it also contains some webpage templates which basically in the way they work are the same as Meteotemplate, only difference being they only display the data, Meteotemplate also saves it in a database on the server. Cumulus does not do that, but it obviously has the data saved locally in the actual locally accessible program that you have installed on your PC.
To make it absolutely clear, here is a little diagram:

Weather Station -> Software (Cumulus, Weather Display etc.) on a PC or some hardware which can communicate with it (Meteobridge) - in case of software, can be used locally on the PC -> optional upload of data collected from the station by the software/hardware to a server -> analysis of the data by some template - in this case for example the built-in Cumulus templates or Meteotemplate

[Jáchym]

I would say one big difference is that as mentioned previously, in case you use the built-in templates, all that is is basically a display of a few tags that are replaced by your current data (current and a few others - daily max/min etc.).
Meteotemplate only uses the raw data and in regular intervals saves it on the server, in a sense you then have the same history data available as you have locally on your PC, but you have it online and thus can generate all sorts of graphs etc.
If you are interested have a look at the documentation and demos on my site: www.meteotemplate.com

It is really about what you actually need/want.

[justinhow]

Thanks you both on your explanations - I am now clear on how they do, and do not overlap. I will investigate both.

I have had a little look around the meteotemplate website and it seem very well laid out and clear. Impressive!

I run a familytree website on my server (www.howfamilytree.com) which also uses MySQL and PHP (v5.5) so I am familiar with these and it should be fairly easy to implement meteotemplate I think.

PS Sorry if either of you can not see my site - I limit the countries that can get to it.

[Jáchym]

Just one last thing to add Justin,

I made a very clear wiki, but still, if you decided you want to give it a try, feel free to let me know. I have helped many people to set this up entirely and it is not as difficult as it might seem if you have never worked with FTP or MySQL. Once you then have it all up and running it all runs automatically. I have also developed a concept of homepage blocks and plugins for the template, which can be added completely as you wish and independently. Installation of most of them is basically just extracting the downloaded ZIP file and uploading it to the server.

[Jáchym]

Thanks you both on your explanations - I am now clear on how they do, and do not overlap. I will investigate both.

I have had a little look around the meteotemplate website and it seem very well laid out and clear. Impressive!

I run a familytree website on my server (www.howfamilytree.com) which also uses MySQL and PHP (v5.5) so I am familiar with these and it should be fairly easy to implement meteotemplate I think.

PS Sorry if either of you can not see my site - I limit the countries that can get to it.

Yes, my country is probably considered as a spammer

[justinhow]

Thanks for the generous offer of help - I am fairly computer literate but I may get stuck..

Again I have been to your website and so far it looks all OK. I assume that the CRON job is specific to Linux so I assume I could use a scheduled job in windows to do the same (https://www.drupal.org/node/31506). I will try this 1st before using the external site you mentioned.

What you appear to have done with your template website is amazing - I can't wait to try it when I get a weather station!

Re SPAM: I use a Sophos UTM firewall (free home license) which has a very cool feature that you can limit the countries that can come through on an IP port or IP address etc. I do believe in reducing the attack profile where possible and I know where my relations live more or less!

[justinhow]

Just an update on this - my website http://www.eastberks-weather.com is live!
Thanks for the help and software 

[DaleReid]

Justin:

I was reading the messages up to the point of your last post announcing your site was up and live.

I was very impressed clicking on your link to see the well laid out page, full of info, and very much like what I'm thinking of updating my site to do (eventually!) so thanks for posting.

Can you recap how your site is finally configured?

I see you're station is a VP2.  What software did you choose to communicate with the station that runs on the local PC?

What do you feed the site?  Did you end up using Jachym's templates for the display?  Or is this something you wrote yourself?

How are you getting your camera feed to the site, is that included in one of the programs you are using, or did you have to arrange to feed that seperately?

Finally, while you have exceptionally interesting tidbits such as how much longer each day is, and the sunrise, set and noon zenith posted, there are things that I would not choose to display, such as the times in different cities about the world.  Is it possible to choose not to display all those or did you have to turn them all on?

Just curious, asking you since you're showing a new site and just went through all the stages of getting it configured.

Nice job!  And thank you for sharing.  Dale


This is very nice.  Thanks for the sharing of your site and options.

[justinhow]

Hi Dale,
Thanks for the positive feedback.

I was very impressed clicking on your link to see the well laid out page, full of info, and very much like what I'm thinking of updating my site to do (eventually!) so thanks for posting.
Can you recap how your site is finally configured?
I see you're station is a VP2.  What software did you choose to communicate with the station that runs on the local PC?
What do you feed the site?  Did you end up using Jachym's templates for the display?  Or is this something you wrote yourself?
How are you getting your camera feed to the site, is that included in one of the programs you are using, or did you have to arrange to feed that seperately?
Finally, while you have exceptionally interesting tidbits such as how much longer each day is, and the sunrise, set and noon zenith posted, there are things that I would not choose to display, such as the times in different cities about the world.  Is it possible to choose not to display all those or did you have to turn them all on?

• I run a Davis Wireless VP2 connected via USB to a Windows Server 2012 R2 PC running IIS, PHP and MySQL etc. So I host the site entirely myself although everything I do could be done with a hosted site as well.
• I run Cumulus MX (latest version) to communicate with and download from the Davis VP2 and then upload the realtime.txt file to the website every 5 seconds (on the same PC). I do not however use the Cumulus website although I have integrated the steelseries gauges that comes with it into the website
• The main website is based on Jachym's excellent meteotemplate 4.1 php template.
• I have just purchased a Amcrest ProHD 1080P webcam (IP2M-841B) which connects to my WiFi and is able to upload via ftp images (very flexible upload frequency) to the website (running ftp server). Note this is not weatherproof webcam and it runs at a window upstairs in the house. This webcam is pretty good but has the one hassle that when it uploads the images it creates a deep folder structure which I have to use a script (PowerShell) to sort out for the website - the script also downsizes the 1080 res image to 640 for the homepage although I use the 1080 for the dedicated webcam page. I use a slightly modified meteotemplate webcam block to deal with this - the main difference is that it autoupdates on the website every minute without having to refresh it.
• Meteotemplate is very flexible and the front page is made up of a set of 'blocks' - you can choose how many columns and which blocks you want to display and most are fairly easy to modify if required. Jachym made it very flexible. A bit of html and php knowledge is quite helpful but not essential unless you want to make mods.

It took me about 2 weeks to get it up and running although I had the IIS server already configured with PHP and MySQL for other sites I run. You would probably host it all I guess The worse bit was mounting the anemometer on the roof as I hate heights!
Hope that gives some insight into my setup.
Cheers
Justin

[DaleReid]

Thanks.

I appreciate you taking the time to state the details, and some of the obvious I might have figured out but just being more thorough with some searches (research to some!), but you lead me through many of the details.

I have a purchased web provider and run a simple page that Weather Display nicely generates and updates without too much of a load on my internet connection.

I have never done an on-site web server, so I don't think that I need to add that to my workload, but knowing it can be done is nice, and while I used to delve into every nook and cranny, haven't kept up with the more advanced php, java, etc. for a decade, and would need to do a lot of work to produce a whole web site myself, but the offering by Jachym looks very close to what I'd like to see.

Thanks again. 
I just want to throw out one more question.  Jim at Mauston, Wi, USA has a very stable and great web site at
http://jcweather.us/

On the left he has a link to GRAPHS, http://jcweather.us/graphs.php

The hover function produces a choice for Trend Graphs, which brings up a display that I have longed for for quite awhile, but didn't have anything to display it, and some attempts to run it locally ran into conflicts with other stuff on my local PC.

The software is GraphWeather that generates the upper most graph, and for some reason it looks so great I would like to incorporate that at some time.  That software is actually sort of fun to play with the parameters and was easy for me to set up, but cannot get it to run stand alone.

From what you've stated you were able to pull in some things for display that Jachym doesn't have in his choices, so it seems he's written Meteo to be very flexible and friendly.  Can you comment on how difficult (nothing is hard for those who know how, I guess) to link to other things from within Meteo?  Perhaps he can answer this better but may be looking at this thread and can comment on that.

Dale

[Jáchym]

Dale I just sent you email about a minute ago.

[justinhow]

Re your last part of how diificult to bring in new bits to meteotemplate - thats a bit all depends on what you are trying to do.
Generally it is not very difficult if you have basic html knowledge, but you may require some assistance and guidance - the good news is that its a friendly community so that should not be too tough.

Links to other sites are pretty easy - incorprating things like the graphs you show within meteotemplate would be a little tougher but quite possible I would think.

Setting up new meteotemplate pages and linking to them from the menu is again straightforward.

PS Those are indeed nice graphics.