Author Topic: New Weather Software  (Read 64339 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #150 on: August 02, 2014, 04:41:38 PM »
Ran all night no spikes.
That's great to hear! That's one more thing on my ToDo list that I can check off.
Thanks!

The next thing is going to be handling the data output when the Console losses a connection to the ISS. Speaking of which, If anyone is willing to try forcing a lost connection from the ISS, I would like to hear what happens.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2014, 07:02:40 PM by Josiah »

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #151 on: August 06, 2014, 09:13:53 PM »
Hey guys,

I've been doing some thinking since Beaudog mentioned this:
I caution not to fall into the trap that Weather Display and to some extent Cumulus have in trying to make the program do everything that every possible user might want.
I think a lot of WX software developers fall into the same trap. I can see how adding more features will attract more people to the software, but what inevitably happens is the configuration for them turns into a mess. The other thing that happens is that every user winds up with features they don't use, which wouldn't be a problem if they didn't contribute to the cluttering of the configuration window/windows.

I believe that any program can get to the point of having so many features that it actually becomes unusable, or at the very least difficult to get the most basic of things setup. I think this is especially true for someone who is new to the software.

As a former user of Weather Display and Cumulus I've seen that happen. Its actually one of the contributing factors to what made me move to other software, and I don't want to do the same to mine. I will admit that I've actually caught myself starting to fall into that trap.

So I've gotten the idea to start utilizing addons for features instead of hard coding them in. This would allow people to have just the features they want, resulting in fewer unnecessary configuration settings cluttering up things. I also think that it would really open-up my software by allowing other people to create their own features if they don't already exist.

Now I've never created any addons or programs that use them for that matter, and was wondering if anybody around here has any experience with designing a program to utilize plugins and would be willing to give a few pointers on implementing them?
« Last Edit: August 24, 2014, 09:34:53 AM by Josiah »

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #152 on: August 10, 2014, 10:58:30 AM »
Hey Guys,

Just wanted to let you guys know whats going on.

I've decided to enable Plugin/Addon support to my program. I want to redesign my software around the plugins.
I'm planning on setting them up in a way where the program will be able to dynamically load/unload them while its running. If I do it right, this will open up new ways to expand the capabilities of my software. However, to do this properly is going to require a major overhaul of my program. So don't expect to see an update for awhile.
The overhaul should also allow stations to be added or removed without the program needing to restart.

I'm leaning towards Ad-InWX for a software name. With Addons/Plugin support I think this would be appropriate. However, I'm still open to names so If anyone out there has any ideas, feel free to post them.

I'm also going to start keeping 2 options for downloading my software, one would be a Stable Build, while the other is a Dev Build. The Stable Build will hopefully be bug free, while the Dev Build would have the latest features that I'm working on.

Here's some of the new things you can expect to see in the next release.
Support for Plugins/Addons.
Options to tweak the values for each station. Kind of a set "Calibration" settings.
The *.stn setting files use the same format as the Config.txt setting file. They can now be edited manually with a text editor if need be.
A " < 1 Second ago " to the Update Status Display.

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #153 on: August 24, 2014, 09:43:13 AM »
Hey guys,

Just thought I'd let you know whats going on.

Once again I've been busy getting ready for hamfests, so I've not had much time to program lately. I've been working on my software when I do get the chance though, However I'm not going to have the next update ready for a while yet.

Offline blizzardof78

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 651
    • Ohio Weather
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #154 on: August 26, 2014, 09:28:05 PM »
Can someone post a few screen shots on how tro get this program working? I'm having a heck of a time. Do you need to break communications with the Weather Link program to open the com port to communicate with the program? I can't get anything to communicate. Thanks!

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #155 on: August 26, 2014, 09:45:38 PM »
blizzardof78,

Yes, you do need to close the Weatherlink software to get my software to work.

Serial ports can only be opened and used by one program at a time, so thats why people have made software that allows virtual Serial ports. The idea is that the virtual serial ports can be bridged to the real Serial port thus allowing multiple programs to communicate over the real port.

Offline blizzardof78

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 651
    • Ohio Weather
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #156 on: August 26, 2014, 09:49:59 PM »
Thank you for the quick reply. I'll give it a shot!!

Don in Ohio

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #157 on: August 26, 2014, 09:54:41 PM »
Don,

Let me know how it goes.

Offline blizzardof78

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 651
    • Ohio Weather
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #158 on: August 26, 2014, 09:58:51 PM »
Didn't work. I got an error message it couldn't open the serial port, even after I disconnected the Weather Link from communicating with the weather station. Thanks.

Don

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #159 on: August 26, 2014, 10:02:16 PM »
Don,

It sounds like the serial port is not being closed properly. Did you close the Weatherlink software completely?

Offline blizzardof78

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 651
    • Ohio Weather
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #160 on: August 26, 2014, 10:10:16 PM »
Well I thought I did lol. Maybe I'm forgetting something? LOL I manually changed the com port to 1 so it wouldn't try to go through 4. Hmmm, maybe it's been too long since I've done this lol. Ideas?

Don

Offline dean.martin

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 77
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #161 on: August 26, 2014, 10:15:53 PM »
Hi Jos,

It's been a while. How was the overhauling of your program? I tried your latest program. it still has values on station that has no communication to ISS. but no spikes on other stations that has complete in communication. the >1seconds ago is working.

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #162 on: August 26, 2014, 10:39:34 PM »
Don,

Make sure you have the correct serial port and Serial Port Speed selected. If those are correct, then start looking at other software thats using that serial port.
I think the default serial speed for the Davis Weather Stations is 19200.



dean,

I'm still working on it. Like i said, I really haven't had much time to work on it lately so progress is slow.
What I have been doing is to make my software more dependent on the plugins. The Idea is if someone wants to add support for a weather station thats not currently supported (Maybe they have a home-made Station), then all they have to do is write the code to interface to the station. Or if they want to add other features, they would be able to do that easily as-well.
So basically, what I'm doing is getting my software setup for this. Then what I'm going to do is to start adding features using the going-to-be-new Plugin capabilities of my software.

Its still a work in progress.

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #163 on: August 26, 2014, 10:55:16 PM »
I tried your latest program. it still has values on station that has no communication to ISS.

I'm not clear on what you mean. When the Connection between the ISS and console is lost, does my software start showing random data, or does it keep showing older data (i.e. the last data that was received from the console)?

Thanks for the feedback.

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #164 on: August 27, 2014, 09:17:52 AM »
Don,

Another thought, are you using just the weatherlink software, or are you running multiple programs? If your using multiple programs would you mind sharing how you have them configured? i.e. Which programs are connected to what ports.


Offline Beaudog

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1217
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #165 on: August 27, 2014, 10:27:13 AM »
Mine is pretty complicated vplive running on netbook with all the wx data        and another instance running on a desktop

Offline blizzardof78

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 651
    • Ohio Weather
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #166 on: August 27, 2014, 03:06:47 PM »
Don,

Another thought, are you using just the weatherlink software, or are you running multiple programs? If your using multiple programs would you mind sharing how you have them configured? i.e. Which programs are connected to what ports.

Using WL software on port 4 and also WUHU which also gets the signal from port 4 (which I'm assuming it's pulling it straight from the WL software).

Don

Offline blizzardof78

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 651
    • Ohio Weather
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #167 on: August 27, 2014, 06:24:23 PM »
I'm getting an error log message of "Error opening a Serial Port connection with station (x) At Retrieve Seriasl Data 8/27/2014 6:12:05 PM The port is closed."  ](*,)

Don

Offline dean.martin

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 77
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #168 on: August 27, 2014, 08:27:34 PM »
I tried your latest program. it still has values on station that has no communication to ISS.

I'm not clear on what you mean. When the Connection between the ISS and console is lost, does my software start showing random data, or does it keep showing older data (i.e. the last data that was received from the console)?

Thanks for the feedback.

In the first place, I set it up to no connection between the ISS and console before running your program.

What I mean is, the station is updating but still showing data on temperature and wind speed. I tried to delete the "weather" folder and resetting up the stations to see if that value showing is an old data but still showing the same values on the ISS for temperature and wind speed.

see attached image

Offline dean.martin

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 77
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #169 on: August 27, 2014, 08:57:52 PM »
dean,

I'm still working on it. Like i said, I really haven't had much time to work on it lately so progress is slow.
What I have been doing is to make my software more dependent on the plugins. The Idea is if someone wants to add support for a weather station thats not currently supported (Maybe they have a home-made Station), then all they have to do is write the code to interface to the station. Or if they want to add other features, they would be able to do that easily as-well.
So basically, what I'm doing is getting my software setup for this. Then what I'm going to do is to start adding features using the going-to-be-new Plugin capabilities of my software.

Its still a work in progress.


Yes, I am aware of what you're tying to do. It is more like that on PSP , adding plugins to add support/functionality to the program that is not supported but you may know WeatherLink software already has that. An "expansion module". I tried using one to send data to WUnderground.  You can view this topic for expansion modules that has been made (http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=7723.0). and if I'm not mistaken, I think only 2 modules for WU compatibility and 1 for VP. no other modules has been made even there is an SDK toolkit for that. I'm afraid the same thing could happen to your program you're trying to rebuild but we never know.   
« Last Edit: August 27, 2014, 10:15:26 PM by dean.martin »

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #170 on: August 28, 2014, 11:45:36 AM »
Don,

Can you send me the Error log file as an attachment.

Also, are you using the USB or the Serial version of the Davis Data logger?

You could try shutting down both the WL and WUHU software, then starting my software. This should work, if it doesn't try leaving WL running but close WUHU then try my software like that.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2014, 12:06:09 PM by Josiah »

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #171 on: August 28, 2014, 12:02:22 PM »
Dean,

Thanks for the screenshot.
I have an idea on whats going on, but just to confirm, do the Temp and Wind Speed values change when my software updates, or do they stay the same?

Offline dean.martin

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 77
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #172 on: August 28, 2014, 08:43:19 PM »
Dean,

Thanks for the screenshot.
I have an idea on whats going on, but just to confirm, do the Temp and Wind Speed values change when my software updates, or do they stay the same?

Jos,

Values in Temp and Wind Speed stay the same when your software updates.

Offline Josiah

  • Add-InWx Software Author
  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 449
    • Add-InWx
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #173 on: August 28, 2014, 09:06:13 PM »
Dean,

Thanks for confirming this.

Here's whats going on...
Since the Data String coming from the Davis Console is supposed to be fixed in length (I think it was around 99 bytes) what the console does is to substitute missing data (in this case Outdoor Temp and Wind Speed among others) with a default value. And that is what your seeing.

This answers a question I had earlier about a way to tell if a: (the sensor failed) or b: (the connection was lost between the Console and the ISS). Adding it to my TODO List...

Offline dean.martin

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 77
Re: New Weather Software
« Reply #174 on: August 28, 2014, 09:40:51 PM »
Jos,

I also notice that the UV index and Solar radiation are just displaying N/A.

 

anything