Topic: Interesting things with Weatherlink Live

[Aardvark]

I received and install it wirelessly.  It works fine but has some quirks.  Maybe someone can direct me.
1.  When on AC power, the flashing blue light runs about 15 minutes and stops, yet the data is being sent.   In the instruction book it isn't mentioned if this happens.
2.  The soil moisture /temperature station.  I have a fully populated and I am noticed that the soil moisture reading on the VP2 Console is not the same as it is on the  WL Live unit.   The temperatures match, but the moisture sensors don't .   There is no way on either to change them to play nice.  Yeah, I tried the set on the console and no response on doing that. 
3. Rain.  I can set the annual rain totals, but not the monthly. 

the item seems like an Envoy to a point, you can't correct stuff.  Anyway... I still have two IP loggers going and going to wait a while to see what happens.   I would assume that the internal tempertures, humidity, barometer would be an accurate right out of the box before being fiddled with.

And so it goes.

[johnd]

Guess the first point is that WLL is a new generation Davis device and one whose primary (though not only) design goal is to work in harness with weatherlink.com. So it's not automatically going to work the same as older console/logger types. Specific points:

1. Limited LED flashing will be by design. Who knows, but maybe Davis considered that having the LED constantly flashing might be an irritation on the desktop? So it just flashes for a while when some interaction with the user or WL app has been requested and then the LED sleeps.

2. Some examples would be useful. Are the moisture values very different? At first glance sounds like a bug that needs reporting.

3. Don't know but see first sentence. Just speculating but maybe WLL does not track monthly totals but relies on weatherlink.com or local software to do this. Or maybe it's an oversight or simply a detail that's planned but not implemented yet.

[Brientim]

I agree there is a decrepancy between the two and this is reflected in the console, WeatherLink and the WeatherLink app.

[WiFiLogger]

Units were change.
It was water tension CB 0-200. Now it is probably in BAR.
Also when you read JSON output from WLL users. You will find LEAF WETNESS not 0-15, but there is value like 0.1
So probably Leaf now will be 0.0 - 1.0 with decimal.

Consoles VP2/Vue was designed with minimum using of floating point numbers. So now they could repair that.
It was the only moment for doing this, because they have made big changes:
- No PC software compatibility.
- New web.
- New mobile app.
This is new standard for next 15 years.

[WiFiLogger]

Code: [Select]

                "moist_soil_1":13.8,
                "moist_soil_2":32.8,
                "wet_leaf_1":0.6,


[Aardvark]

Guess the first point is that WLL is a new generation Davis device and one whose primary (though not only) design goal is to work in harness with weatherlink.com. So it's not automatically going to work the same as older console/logger types. Specific points:

1. Limited LED flashing will be by design. Who knows, but maybe Davis considered that having the LED constantly flashing might be an irritation on the desktop? So it just flashes for a while when some interaction with the user or WL app has been requested and then the LED sleeps.

2. Some examples would be useful. Are the moisture values very different? At first glance sounds like a bug that needs reporting.

3. Don't know but see first sentence. Just speculating but maybe WLL does not track monthly totals but relies on weatherlink.com or local software to do this. Or maybe it's an oversight or simply a detail that's planned but not implemented yet.

Soil moisture is off by 15cb on the 1st sensor .      The rest of the parameters are fine. 

The Barometer trend shows it being steady on the IOS app but it is increasing,  however on the graph it does show the an increase.  I think the app needs work.     Indoor temperature is going to be different because of where the console and the WL unit is place.

However,   I was out at the airport getting the wife and it was nice being able to see the values at home. 


It should be an interesting ride with the new unit.  Hopefully Davis will revamp its apps (IOS) and maybe put in more calibration in.   

[johnd]

Soil moisture is off by 15cb on the 1st sensor .      The rest of the parameters are fine. 

So do you have more than one soil moisture sensor and it is only the first moisture sensor that is off?

The Barometer trend shows it being steady on the IOS app but it is increasing,  however on the graph it does show the an increase.  I think the app needs work.     

Well, there are thresholds for deciding when pressure should be described as rising etc. The criteria that WL used to (& maybe still does) use are:

The Bar Trend shows the direction of change (higher, lower, steady) of the barometric pressure over the last three hours.

The Bar Trend is updated every 15 minutes.

Rapid rise is indicated if the pressure increases >= 0.06"

Slow rise is indicated if the pressure increases >= 0.02" and < 0.06"

Steady is indicated if the pressure changes < 0.02"

Slow fall is indicated if the pressure decreases >= 0.02" and < 0.06"

Rapid fall is indicated when the pressure decreases >= 0.06"

So it's perfectly possible for the graph to show pressure rising quite slowly  at eg 0.015"/3hr and yet for the trend to show 'steady'.

Not saying this is necessarily the explanation but it needs to be excluded before concluding that there is some real issue.

[havtrail]

Good to see this info! I've been wondering what standard is used to determine a rising, steady, and falling barometer - how much over what timeframe. Does anyone know if this way is fairly standard, or are there other similar criteria?

Rich K.

[CW2274]

Does anyone know if this way is fairly standard, or are there other similar criteria?

From NWS Glossary, the same obviously applies for falling. Slowly is not listed, but 0.02" is the standard also.

Pressure Rising Rapidly
    An increase in station pressure at a rate of 0.06 inch of mercury or more per hour which totals 0.02 inch or more.

[Brientim]

Soil moisture is off by 15cb on the 1st sensor .      The rest of the parameters are fine. 

So do you have more than one soil moisture sensor and it is only the first moisture sensor that is off?
 

The error is persistent for all Soil Moisture sensors and the WLL in my case is reporting approximately 80% higher than the console.

I have had in a ticket with Davis support since I first received the WLL and they have investigate the discrepancy between the console and WLL reporting data, acknowledged the issue repeatable. The stated “It seems that there is a glitch in the code used on the consoles and the WLL has an updated code to correct that.”

I have tested this on two console firmware 3.63 and 3.80 and both reported identically. I enquired could reasonably expect a firmware update and of course this could not be answered currently.

[Aardvark]

There are a lot of glitches in their software program.  For me, I send data to globe.gov.   Presently it won't send from WeatherLink Live, so I have to have it sent from my Weather Envoy instead. Everything else works.

I do notice, however, Since I have the two units and I too have a fully populated soil moisture/Temperature station,  for me I have a difference of six cb for station1; 1 for station2; 3 fine; 4 2 units .;  Temperature is fine for probes 1-3 but 4 is 4F off.

So yes it is something different, not huge but present as well.