WXforum.net
Weather Station Hardware => Ambient Weather and Ecowitt and other Fine Offset clones => Topic started by: davidsmartin on February 08, 2019, 03:33:54 PM
-
I tried everything in their directions -- upgraded firmware to 4.5.1, double checked WU name and password, plugged directly into router, rebooted everything several times, reset IP module, turned off the firewall briefly, but the blue light for "server" does not come on and both WU and ambient.net say "no data". I see the data on my PC ("LiveData") but nothing on the internet. Is it possibly defective? Or does it just not like my router?
Any ideas?
-
The ObserverIP is a touchy device. I'm not liking 4.5.1 as much as 4.4.9 as I'm noticing more auto-restarts. One thing I learned a few firmware versions back is that the ObserverIP does not well handle getting automatic IP address (DHCP). It is better to put in a static IP on it. This shouldn't be. There technically should not be a reason to need a static IP instead of DHCP or a reserved DHCP. The problem is that the ObserverIP does not handle DHCP renewal the proper way which causes problems.
I recommend you take a look at this thread for more information.
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=34948.0
What router do you have?
What is your network subnet address space that is in use? (192.168.?.? ... What exactly?)
Have you ever gotten it to work or is it brand new and you've never reported to WU and Ambientweather.net yet?
-
Thanks. I will look at the thread you recommend.
Answers to your questions:
It is brand new and has never connected to WU or Ambientweather.net
My router is Actiontec V1000H
The address of the IP Module (automatically assigned) is 192.168.0.74 -- I am trying static, though it seems to always get this address and I can access it through LiveData
-
If I set it to static IP, what port should I use?
-
Server port should be 5000
What is the IP address of the Actiontec router? If it is 192.168.0.254 that could be the problem. I suspect that the ObserverIP is just not properly designed to pull DHCP addresses and it thinks the router is on the more traditional 192.168.0.1.
So the subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway 192.168.0.254 (or whatever the router's IP is)
DNS server 192.168.0.254 (or whatever the router's IP is)
-
The router is 192.168.0.1
Port 5000 seems to be blocked, either by my router, firewall or ISP. When I go to www.portchecktool.com and put in my computer's current IP address and port 5000 it reports that the connection is refused. I don't see anything on the router and the Windows firewall should not matter so I am guessing that perhaps my ISP is blocking the port. They don't work weekends so I may try to get them to answer on Monday.
Does that make sense?
-
Yes it makes sense what you are doing but those are not the right things to be checking or doing.
The ObserverIP has a default a server listening port of 5000. But for this setting to be something the user can change makes no sense. It is stupid of Ambient to have done this in the settings pages. I don't know what Ambient was thinking by putting that port setting as an option because you need not be concerned with it. I suspect it is used to talk to Ambientweather.net as a connection port to them. So this port is for some kind of internal use. This port is not something you can connect to the ObserverIP with. Checking the status of that port via that port checking website would not produce any results because of a few reasons. First because I don't think it is an outward facing port rather it is for use as an outward connection. Secondly because the web checking port website is for testing Internet addresses not your internal network address space and you would have to open that port on your firewall and set up port forwarding on the firewall to point to the ObserverIP, but because of my first listed reason this is pointless. So bottom line is to forget about this port 5000 as you don't need it for anything.
So let's get to some basics to make sure you are on the right path...
The ObserverIP was designed to publish weather data to both Ambientweather.net and Weather Underground. It sends the data to those websites. You view your data by creating accounts on this website services and configuring things on both ends. You do not connect to your ObserverIP remotely. I suppose you could if yiu really wanted to but I would strongly recommend no doing this. It sounds to me like you are trying to remotely connect to the ObserverIP.
So have you register for an account at Ambientweather.net and added the device MAC address for your ObserverIP?
Have you created an account with Weather Underground? And created a PWS ID?
-
My ISP says they do not block any ports.
I have registered for accounts at WU and Ambientweather.net . I have a WU ID and password. I carefully entered those on the "weather network" page. I can see the data on the Live Data page. But the blue light for "server" does not come on (all the other lights are on). At WU it says "not reporting" while Ambientweather.net says "There's no real-time data yet. Give us a sec.."
-
There is a doc on the Ambient Weather Facebook page that has the following info. It simulates the ObserverIP sending data to WU.
To figure out if WU is having problems, or if the problem is with your network/console/device, look at this page ‐ http://wiki.wunderground.com/index.php/PWS_‐_Upload_Protocol, scroll down to the example URL, copy it to a text file, change the station id and key to yours, change the date to today or “now” and then paste it into a browser window. WU should return a response that shows that their back end is working, or not. If you can reach the server, the post will succeed, or fail with an error message. If you can’t reach the server, your problem is with your internal network, try rebooting your router. Make sure you go back and delete the data you sent, because it is just test data, not valid, and can mess up your averages, high/low temps, etc.
-
The link doesn't work for me and the site seems to have no help pages.
-
Change your ObserverIP to use DHCP
Log into your router and change its IP address to 192.168.1.1
Restart router
Wait till Internet is up by testing on a computer
Power cycle restart the ObserverIP
Find the new IP address of the ObserverIP on new network... It should now be 192.168.1.X where is is some new number.
Connect to your ObserverIP using your computer browser.
Reconfigure ObserverIP settings
Set ObserverIP to static IP (optional step but I recommend it)
My thinking is that 192.168.0.X subnet is reserved internally on the ObserverIP and it doesn't like your network using that.
-
One other simple thing to try..... Power cycle the ObserverIP after you configure the Weather Network page. For some reason sometimes I've seen it not take the changes after you Aply and then restart. Then wait a minute... Then the blue server light turns on.
-
My thinking is that 192.168.0.X subnet is reserved internally on the ObserverIP and it doesn't like your network using that.
I'm using 192.168.0.X and it's working OK. No problems observed.
-
The link doesn't work for me and the site seems to have no help pages.
Oops. I should have tested it before posting. Here's the updated link
https://feedback.weather.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2924682-pws-upload-protocol?b_id=17298
-
When I click on this link I get "bad request"
But it means I'm getting something to WU and back. What do you get?
https://weatherstation.wunderground.com/weatherstation/updateweatherstation.php
-
My thinking is that 192.168.0.X subnet is reserved internally on the ObserverIP and it doesn't like your network using that.
I'm using 192.168.0.X and it's working OK. No problems observed.
Good to know thanks. It always baffled me why when it is set to DHCP you see those network settings with 192.168.0.X for the static section... It should be hidden until you select static. But whatever... poor UI.
-
Thanks WA4OPQ. I did that and got "success". But the blue "server" light on the IP Module does not come on and it cannot connect. Now what?
galfert, I tried changing the router to 192.168.1.1 but it did not help. I changed it back because there are other devices that stopped working.
Perhaps the IP module is malfunctioning?
-
Thanks WA4OPQ. I did that and got "success". But the blue "server" light on the IP Module does not come on and it cannot connect. Now what?
Perhaps the IP module is malfunctioning?
OK, if you saw "success" then everything IP related and through your router is OK. It's down to two problems: incorrect password (which you've already checked) or a defective ObserverIp. And since it's also having problems with ambientweather.net I'd say you have a bad device. Give Ed Edelman a call on Monday and let him know what you've troubleshot.
-
I wonder if it is being rejected because the time zone is incorrect. Check ObserverIP Station Settings page and look at Time Zone.
-
Success! My ISP suggested using a fixed IP address and then putting it in the router's DMZ. I have no idea what that means, but it works!
KVTMOUNT16 on WU.
Thanks for your help.
Dave
-
WA4OPQ -- How do I delete the test data I sent to WU yesterday from my computer?
-
WU no longer has a way to delete bad/test data.
If you put your ObserverIP on a DMZ that is not good. That means that the device is hanging out not protected by your firewall. The ObserverIP is not a device that belongs on the DMZ network. DMZ stands for DeMiliterized Zone.
Since there seems to be some strange compatibility with your router and the ObserverIP I would recommend replacing it with your own WiFi router/firewall. You still keep that DSL modem/router but it gets put into bridge mode and then your router gets inserted.
I always recommend your own router anyway even for people without problems. The router device you get from the ISP companies are terrible.
-
What is the risk of having someone access my ObserverIP? What is the worst that someone could do?
-
There is no password to get on an ObserverIP. It needs to be protected and it needs to reside on an internal network. So the entire device is exposed to anything. So you can have all your settings changed, calibration messed with, yearly rain totals erased or changed, you then can stop reporting to WU if those credentials get changed. Your WU credentials compromised and bad data uploaded to your station ID.
-
I was also having trouble connecting my Observer to Ambient.net. It connected just fine to WU but when I went to Ambientweather.net all I got was "not reporting". After many hours of troubleshooting with Ambient customer service, the problem turned out to be with my mesh network.
The issue was I had two Eero routers at different locations connected to two different ISP but both networks had the same SSID and were on the same Eero network (why this matters is beyond me since the networks were over a 1000 miles apart). The solution was separating the two locations into two separate Eero networks. Once that was done, the Observer was able to send data to the AmbientWeather.net server.
-
Two different locations with the same SSID are not the same network.
More than likely the solution was resetting your network and ObserverIP....just because the ObserverIP is flaky...sometimes.
-
I agree reseting the device at the location with the Observer would have forced it to re-establish the connections fixing the problem. The Eero rep logged into my account and could see all routers at both locations and separated them into two separate "networks" from their perspective. It may have something to do with the DHCP and NAT addressing but I'm sure you understand those details better than me.
I also agree the Observer is pretty flaky. Do you recommend a different console to connect my sensor array (Ambient Weather 1400-IP) to the Ambientweather.net server and WU?
-
Well sure your managing account can or could see both locations...and so they are likely connected from a management perspective if they use some cloud management solution. But that doesn't mean that the two networks were connected. These are two different things...the networks....and the account to mange them.
Three other ways to have your station upload to Ambientweather.net...
*****************
The first option is to get the best console that Ambient currently has is the WS-2000 display console. You can get the display console alone and use your existing sensors. But if you have a WS-1400-IP then you likely have a WH24 sensor array....and welll...eh...that array is of a previous generation that has been surpassed by the new stuff.
This display console is part # WS-2000-CONSOLE for $147
https://ambientweather.com/amwewscoonco2.html
*****************
The second way you could upload to Ambientweather.net, that also gets you a ton of more features is to get the following parts together. You'll need basically two components.
- Ecowitt GW1000 ($36)
- Meteobridge RPI (about $100 for the Pi and accessories, $77 for the Meteobridge software, plus additional $100 Ambientweather.net license)
https://www.meteobridge.com/wiki/index.php/Preparing_Hardware#Copying_the_Meteobridge_disk_image_onto_a_Raspberry_Pi_microSD_card
https://ambientweather.com/amwevwamweac.html (yes it says that it is for the WeatherBridge...same thing as a Meteobridge)
This second solution with all software licensing and hardware will total to about $313. But you'll be able to do a lot more with your station. Look into the Meteobridge and what all it can do.
If you are considering some day buying a Davis Vantage Pro 2...then the investment in the Raspberry Pi with the Meteobridge software will work on that station too.
If you like the Ambient WS-2000 display console another optional add on to this configuration is to instead get the Ecowitt HP2551 display console. This HP2551 will not upload to Ambientweather.net. But it might be something to consider if you are uploading to Ambientweather.net via the Meteobridge and you just want to add the display and then possibly benefit from being able to use Ecowitt sensors.
*****************
A third option is to run FOSHKplugin (Linux software) and then add the Ambient $100 license.
https://www.loxwiki.eu/display/LOXBERRY/FOSHKplugin+-+generic+version
https://ambientweather.com/amwewscoonco2.html
*****************
You asked if there was another way to get data uploaded to Ambientweather.net....those are the 3 other ways that are possible.