Topic: VP2 not transmitting to Weatherlink?

[GlynH]

Hi there,

I wonder if some kind soul might help me out here please?

Davis VP2+ wireless been working faultlessly since installed but it appears to have stopped transmitting to the Weatherlink website as of yesterday afternoon?

Came back home today and the console looks to be receiving data from the ISS indicated by the X in the lower right hand corner flashing at roughly 3 secs on/3 secs off intervals or thereabouts. I can also see Temp & Humidity Out readings, the Wind speed & direction is being updated regularly although there is very little wind currently and I can see the LED flickering on the 6555 IP Logger.

I have checked both ends of the RJ45 cable into the logger and switch and have rebooted the router and switch the logger is plugged into.

I didn't want to power cycle the console as I don't want to risk losing data although there is a backup battery in there.

Everything else on the network appears to be working correctly but the Weatherlink iOS app shows my station greyed out and reported as Last Updated: September 9, 2021 which was of course yesterday.

Out of desperation I even put a new battery in the ISS but of course that made no difference and the battery I took out was a new Duracell 123 and is less than 3 months old in any case.

So I just logged on to Weatherlink website using a browser and at first glance I thought it was working correctly as station is showing Last updated: 10 September, 2021 / 19:01 which is literally 1 minute ago as I type this but on a closer look every little window has an exclamation mark against it and when I hover the mouse pointer over it it shows Last updated 9/9/21 13:18 which was yesterday afternoon.

When I go to data it shows the last data received was yesterday 9/9/21 at 12:30

A friend of mine who has my Station as a favourite in the iOS app has checked and he also reports it is greyed out and showing last connected yesterday.

What have I missed and more importantly what else can I do to diagnose and resolve the problem please?

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[Aardvark]

So you are getting data to your console, but not to the Weatherlink?   I have both the IP and the Weatherlink Live  unit.    With the latter, I checked the settings on my iphone to be sure something wasn't wrong, also checked I had the latest version.  Then  I unplugged the unit from the wall outlet and replaced the batteries inside.  Plugged it in and had to fiddle so the blue flashing light would work.   After a while it started sending data.

Now with the IP logger, is the light on the dongle flashing?  if it is flickering that is good.   The next is to actually contact Davis and see if there is some problem with your account with them.   I am guessing that is where your trouble lies.

[GlynH]

Thanks for the reply Aardvark,

I am getting data to the console but the Weatherlink I am referring to is the Weatherlink website...I don't have a WLL I'm afraid.

I depend upon the IP logger in the console to transmit data to the Weatherlink website and as I mentioned in my initial post the LED is flashing.

I can logon to the IP logger and can see that the 'Upload to Weatherlink.com' is still checked and it is running the latest v1.1.5 firmware and the console is on v3.88 as they have been since I installed it @3 months ago.

Interestingly or not it is showing Diagnostic Information:  DNS:0 Status:0 at the bottom of the yellow screen if that might give any clues?

In addition I have checked both ends of the RJ45 cable connections, reset router & switch but no data is being received at the Weatherlink website.

I also feed four Virtual Radar aggregators (FA, FR24, RB24 & ADSBx) and all of my data is still being streamed to those sites which would indicate my network is still working correctly but for some reason although everything seems OK at my end my Weatherlink website/station has not been updated since 13:18 on Thursday and I am now worried about data being overwritten in the logger causing gaps in my historical data.

It could be an account issue I suppose which is ironic as I actually pay for the Weatherlink Pro subscription not utilise their free service.

I have contacted Davis but from experience I usually have to wait for a reply and so I am concerned how big a buffer does the 6555 IP logger maintain and how long it might last before it starts to get overwritten I wonder?

Anyone have any other ideas of what I might check?

Should I powercycle the console and would it even make any difference as it has a backup battery in it? I wouldn't want to lose any data if I can help it.

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[johnd]

Just reboot the console - this shouldn't affect any stored readings. It's possible that something has happened on your network (eg router reboot) and the logger needs to reset its full network configuration. That's always the first step in such circumstances - if it doesn't help then there may be other possibilities to look into. Be aware that after a successful reboot it may take some time (hours) for the logger to clear its backlog of uploads and before real-time data at weatherlink.com is restored. (But if you monitor your Data tab at weatherlink.com for recent data then you should see the archive data backlog slowly catching up before the Bulletin is operational again.)

[GlynH]

Thanks for that John.

I've just removed one battery, unplugged the PSU for 20 seconds or so when the screen data disappeared and then plugged the PSU back in.

The console gave 3 widely spaced beeps then was showing Receiving from Station No. and then after a short delay started to read Station No. 1 and the X started to slowly flash on/off.

No readings were being shown straight away though and I have cycled through the setup menu by pressing the Done button and see it has retained the setup configuration.

I couldn't remember how long it takes for the data to show up on the screen but then remembered to long press the Done button!

The internal data then reappeared and after a short delay the ISS data appeared on the screen.

Interestingly the Diagnostic Information is now showing:  DNS:1 Status:0 which was different to the previous status DNS:0 Status:0

Although the iOS app is still showing my status as grey ghosted looking at my station in a web browser shows the data currently up to date and my historical data going back to Thursday 9th all intact...excellent!

Just out of interest is this a 'common feature' of the console and how many days worth of data is stored on the IP logger in the event of another issue similar to this?

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

PS. iOS App now showing a nice shade of blue!

[davidmc36]

Your length of history depends on how often you log it.

https://support.davisinstruments.com/article/90nhj8pr0t-how-much-data-can-be-stored-on-my-data-logger-usb-serial-wl-ip

[GlynH]

Fantastic! Thanks David.

Well at my current upload rate of 30mins (I can't seem to change it to 5 minutes despite being a Weatherlink Pro subscriber but I've just posted another thread for that) I had 53 days in total so needn't have worried about it being overwritten nor did I have to worry about it being erased when resetting the console it appears.

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[PaulMy]

Well at my current upload rate of 30mins (I can't seem to change it to 5 minutes despite being a Weatherlink Pro subscriber but I've just posted another thread for that) I had 53 days in total so needn't have worried about it being overwritten

The WeatherlinkIP logger interval http://www.meteo-system.com/davis/6555_spec_WeatherLinkIP.pdf  is separate and independent of the Weatherlink.com interval.  This can be set in the WeatherlinkPC software.

The Weatherlink.com interval is set in the WL.com settings and will depend on your subscription plan.  The WL.com Pro permits 5 minute interval.

Enjoy,
Paul

[GlynH]

Aah thanks Paul...as I don't use the Weatherlink PC software does that mean I can't adjust the interval down from 30 minutes to 5 minutes?

And I can't seem to find the settings on Weatherlink.com website to alter the upload interval directly but if I look at Share/Upload I have the option to set 5 minute intervals to upload to CWOP & WU which seems a bit daft as I only upload to WeatherLink.com at 30 minute intervals!

I posted another thread regarding this a little while earlier;

https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=42690.0

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[PaulMy]

Hi,

as I don't use the Weatherlink PC software does that mean I can't adjust the interval down from 30 minutes to 5 minutes?

I use WeatherlinkPC for my USB datalogger, and also the WiFiLogger for my IP logger and as David mentioned it has a function to set the logging.  I am sure it must be somewhere in the WeatherlinkIP setup somewhere.

And I can't seem to find the settings on Weatherlink.com website to alter the upload interval directly

In the Weatherlink.com select the settings (wrench icon) => Device Configuration = Edit Settings = Archive Rate.
I have it set at 5 minutes, and it displays "Estimated 1980 hours on board storage space in the event of an internet outage."
However this is only for my WL.com account associated with my WLL.Bulletin: KomokaWeather Live (weatherlink.com) which is on the Pro subscription

For my WL.com account for my IP station there is no settings available and only displays Device Info.Bulletin: KomokaWeather (weatherlink.com) which is on the Free plan

Enjoy,
Paul

[GlynH]

Thanks for taking the time to reply again Paul but that's just it...if I click the wrench I don't see any option to Edit Settings or change Archive rate?

All I see is this;

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Hmmm...seems like I am not allowed to view my own attachments in preview which is weird as I have looked at many in the past...oh well I'll leave it there.

Thanks anyway.

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

PS. Ah it has uploaded the attachment after all...

[PaulMy]

Hi Glyn,
This may be one for JohnD to answer.
Like you, my IP uploaded WL.com account (which is Basic) has no way to change the settings just like your attachment
However my WLL uploaded WL.com account (which is Pro) has the settings.



Sorry can't be any help on this one.


Enjoy,
Paul

[johnd]

AIUI weatherlink.com has no way to talk back to legacy loggers like WLIP or the USB logger. (Actually, it couldn't talk back to a USB logger in any event since that's not a network-connected device - it would need to talk back to the software such as WLfW that was doing the uploading from a USB logger, but that mechanism was never implemented either.) So weatherlink.com cannot have any option to set the archive interval on a legacy logger. Changing the archive interval has to be done via local software talking to the logger, whether USB or IP (or third-party equivalent eg WFL or Meteo-Pi Ethernet).

WLL is a different animal. WLL can receive changes of settings from weatherlink.com back across the Internet and so it's possible to have a setting on the weatherlink.com interface to change the WLL archive interval.

Bottom line is that this is just another example of the fact that the detail of what you see on the weatherlink.com browser app depends significantly on the upload device. eg EM stations are different again.

[GlynH]

Yeah no worries Paul...thanks for taking the time in trying to help me out.

I guess it could be a Davis account or even a browser cache issue maybe?

I'm sure it will get sorted at some point.

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[davidmc36]

...as I don't use the Weatherlink PC software......

So download the program and on a PC connected to your ethernet, configure up to connect your station for a few minutes. Do the adjustment to the console through the software and flush it out.

Be aware, any change in interval will erase whatever is in there. So make sure down line is up to the minute and do the change promptly to preserve history.

[GlynH]

Thanks for the input guys but it appears my station went offline again @07:38 this morning. 

Wonder why that is? It’s been up 24/7 since June until it stopped transmitting last Thursday.

I reset the console yesterday afternoon and it failed again this morning…

Well at least I know I won’t lose any data but it’s still a PITA having to reset the damn thing…especially as I haven't made any changes to my network and everything else seems to be working correctly.

Interestingly the Diagnostic Information on the 6555 IP Logger has reverted back to DNS:0 Status:0 and so I shall take a guess that could be why it cannot resolve the WeatherLink.com website to upload data to? 

I'm tempted to change the WLIP from a dynamic IP to static IP but there is conflicting information out there about whether this is 'safe' to do? 

I was also wary of installing the Weatherlink PC software on my nice, shiny Win10 laptop especially as the first step of the install wanted to install 8-year old Visual C++ 2013 Runtime Libraries (x86) and the installer itself reminded me of a bygone era! 

I'm going to give it a pass as rather than the straightforward option to install it gave me 3 choices; Repair, Uninstall & Close.

Don't think there's anything wrong (and often if its working leave well alone) so repair didn't seem right, obviously I don't want to uninstall it as its required for WeatherLink PC to run so I chose close...

-=Glyn=-