Topic: new firmware 1.04 for WeatherLink IP ?

[jmyg]

Hi folks,

I've just read in a local forum that new buyers of WeatherLink IP get firmware 1.04 in their device.
The Davis' support web page still only provides with firmware 1.03. The 1.04 was expected by early July according to FAQ.
Can anyone confirm ?  Have the issues with WU uploads (rain rate and wind gust missing) been fixed ?

Thanks.

[Sigdigit]

I have been following the Weatherlink IP shortcomings you speak of since forum members that bought it initially discussed them.  I want to buy it myself, as it is the most cost effective way to put your PWS online without leaving a computer on 24/7.  I addressed Davis tech support, and received the following information back in May 2008:

Presently we do 15 minute updates and do not send gust or 1 hour and 24 hour rain.

Our WeatherLink Server administrator says we are going to later have a WLIP firmware update with the ability to send 1 hour and 24 hour rain, but it's probably not going to be in the release that will be built into the next set of units (perhaps a couple of months away still). 

We have yet to figure out how to reliably collect gust info while maintaining all the other features of WeatherLinkIP, so it is not going to have gust info for some time. (This takes continuous collection of loop packets every 2.5 seconds, which would prevent things like the uploading of archive records to the server). Until we change the architecture of the WLIP firmware, Rapid Fire Updates won't be possible. We're basicly tied to 15 minute updates at this point, but he'll put it on the feature list to look at having a settable update interval.

I recently followed up on this and received the following reply:

Unfortunately there hasn't been any changes in this regard. I also don't think this feature is something we can do in a short period of time. With the all the other issues our administrator is tackling, a few months he quoted before may now be too optimistic. Not sure when this will happen.

I guess I'll be waiting a bit longer, who knows how long.  I refuse to fork out a couple hundred dollars for a product which has such serious data reporting issues.

[ncpilot]

Or, instead of waiting for the release you want of the IP solution, you could go to a dedicated mini-itx solution. These little computers can draw as little as 10W, or get more into the 20-40W range, depending on the hard drive and CPU itself... You're talking way less power consumption than forgetting to turn off your 100W light when you leave the house for the day...

I think it's tinplate that offers a few ready-built solutions, or you can build it yourself...

Although I think there might be other advantages to the IP WeatherLink besides uploading to Davis' servers, if 24/7 computer power consumption is your holdup, consider the min-itx route...

http://www.mini-box.com/site/index.html

[Garth Bock]

Very cool. I was looking at getting a used Dell GX620 USFF (ultra small form factor) from eBay to be the weather computer because it is the size of a small book. Dell just brought out the new Studio series....the Hybrid is the smallest. I was at their Austin, Tx plants the past 2 days on a tour. They got some neat new stuff coming out.

[ncpilot]

Those Dell's will still be more power hungry than a mini-itx board solution... but not too bad for off the shelf...

[tinplate]

Yeah, my dedicated weather computer (running winXP) draws 4 or 5 watts. It's been running non-stop (no interruptions, no reboots, no software crashes) for about 6 months now. Very solid, completely silent, and generates very little heat. It's not a powerful computer, but it runs the software I need just fine.

I have it, the VP console, router and DSL modem on a battery backup UPS. Since those devices all draw little power, the UPS can run them for a pretty long time. Although I've had a few power outages, none have come even close to long enough duration to exhaust the UPS.

[George Richardson]

Steve,
What do you run 24/7 on that machine?
George

[tinplate]

It's not a lot right now, because I wanted to leave space to put webcam processing on it in the future. Currently it runs:
StartWatch, VirtualVP, VPLive, WeatherLink, Dimension4 (time sync), TightVNC Server (so I don't need a monitor)

The box has 256MB of memory. With windows and the above programs running, I still have almost half the memory free for programs I'll add in the future. And that free memory is actual memory, because I have virtual memory turned off since I'm using flash memory for a hard drive. The screenshot below shows that the CPU is not working hard at all most of the time, except for the spikes when I was connected via TightVNC. The memory use also bumps up a little when TightVNC is active.

[George Richardson]

Steve,
Could you add VWS and/or WD.
George

[tinplate]

I don't know about VWS because I haven't tried it. I have successfully run WD on it, though using just the basic WD features. WD has a fairly big footprint. Basic WD just fit. If I were using a lot of its features, it wouldn't fit. The little pc I'm running my weather software on is only 256MB though. I have another little PC that has 512MB or 1GB of memory, and I think WD would fit on that better. 256 is pushing it for WD.

[tinplate]

here's the screenshot I made back when I was testing running WD. It's connected to my test console, which is why some sensor data is missing. This was on that same PC before I connected it up to my main VP console and set it up as it is now. We probably should make a different thread for this if you have more questions though, as   this doesn't really answer the original post's question.

[jmyg]

I have been following the Weatherlink IP shortcomings you speak of since forum members that bought it initially discussed them.  I want to buy it myself, as it is the most cost effective way to put your PWS online without leaving a computer on 24/7.  I addressed Davis tech support, and received the following information back in May 2008:

thanks a lot for this feedback. Actually, I've coded my own software that fetches data from the logger then pushes to WU every minute (my server is located in another place and runs linux, so no weatherlink). As you can see at the link in my signature, there is no real problem getting wind gusts...

[Weather Display]

that gust thing is refering to CWOP data uploads from the IP data logger I think you will find