Topic: Meteo-Pi - connecting device for Raspberry Pi™ and Davis® consoles

[WiFiLogger]

Fine, then Meteohubs on RPI should be able to use it. The User just has to type in "/dev/ttyS1" (is it enumerated that way?) on the device entry field on station tab and it should work.

About serial on Raspberry there is no simple answer.
Unfortunately I have to redirect you to nice article RPi UART

/dev/serial0 is just link to /dev/sttyS0 both are correct.

RPi has two serials, both are occupied.
/dev/sttyS0 - linux console (disabled as default)
/dev/sttyS1 - Bluetooth if installed on RPi.

For Meteo-Pi best choice is to enable /dev/sttyS0 and release it from Linux console function.

[DA270]

What is the memory capacity of the data logger?
Also, anyone with RPI experience, any recommendations on a quality SD card with a reliable service life?

Always wanted to play with a RPI. It looks like now I have a good reason. I'd love to retire my old PC from MX duty. It's total overkill.

[pfletch101]

What is the memory capacity of the data logger?

It's the same as the Davis USB logger and all its other clones and variants - i.e. (from my memory) something like 2500 records. While enough memory to store tens of thousands of records could now be cheaply and (physically speaking) easily incorporated on one of these plug-in cards, I believe that there are technical reasons related to the Davis firmware that would make it exceedingly difficult to use more working memory. Wojtek may want to comment on this.

Also, anyone with RPI experience, any recommendations on a quality SD card with a reliable service life?

I and others have had good results using SanDisk Ultra cards, purchased from a reliable source (i.e. not a no-name cheap seller on EBay!). I get mine from Amazon. The issue about the source is that low quality but convincing fakes are to be found in the retail stream. There are test programs available which will identify at least the worst of these.

[WiFiLogger]

What is the memory capacity of the data logger?
Also, anyone with RPI experience, any recommendations on a quality SD card with a reliable service life?

Console has to recognize one particular memory chip it is 1 Mbit - 128KB memory (discontinued for several years). When it find it, then bootloader (part of firmware) will enable logger ability, but also communication with PC/RPi.
Capacity is 2560 records. There is no way to put bigger capacity.

About SD card. I am always using SanDisk (Western Digital Corporation (WD)). I had no problem with them, but SD card is not perfect solution for hard drive.
Embedded systems like RPi should work on RAM memory mostly. Saving to SD card should be rare. This is working schemat from routers etc.
So live cycle of SD card depends on your configuration.

[johnd]

Also, anyone with RPI experience, any recommendations on a quality SD card with a reliable service life?

All SD cards (like USB sticks, and indeed most other storage devices) have a finite service life. So backing up data remains important.

SD cards can be fitted with one of three types of memory chip SLC (single bit per cell); MLC (2 bpc); and TLC (3bpc and more). SLC has by far the longest life, with TLC the shortest life and MLC intermediate. Most of the cheaper SD cards you see will all be TLC, though it still pays to use a reputable make because of better error correction, quality control etc.

Bottom line is that SLC is too expensive to contemplate, but there is a subclass of MLC that seems to be referred to as 'industrial MLC' that does strike a decent balance between cost and service life. This can be found in the so-called 'Long endurance' or 'High endurance' SD cards. (High speed is really not important for applications like Raspberry Pi - super speed cards offer no real benefit at all AFAIK, but endurance IS a key parameter.) One I personally quite like (because it explicitly mentions 'selected MLC' in the products specs**) is from Transcend:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01BDKTQY6

But there are other comparable cards from other reputable makers.

** Some makers are very coy about which type of memory they use - Sandisk being one the main culprits. That doesn't make them bad products of course, but simply less easy to establish technical credentials.

[WiFiLogger]

What I meant was if the (mains adapter) power supply feeds one of the easily available mobile devices battery back-up / charger units which in turn the Pi is connected to.

Would this not give several hours UPS ?

I was testing power bank some time a go. Good one, not the cheapest. It was not working. It could be in charging state, or powering your phone.
This mean. When it was charging itself, then it was not put power to the phone.
Power bank is not DC UPS. Ofcourse there is planty of them, or even more than planty, some of them could work as DC UPS I believe, but I don't know unit which could do that.
So I can't recommend power bank.

I am testing now two units of DC UPS, both are working fine:
This one
and this one

First one has only one LiIon cell, but it is very easy to use. Just plug to electrical outlet.
Second has 3 cells, so we could say that it is 3x capacity of 1 one. It comes without AC adapter. You need to have 12v, probably 1A AC adapter to use it.

I am testing them. I will write test results on WXForum. I will also ask Ryan to have it in his shop, to provide best customer service, not like this from China websites.
Ryan has also USB to Davis console cable, which is needed.

[the beteljuice]

@WiFiLogger - Thank's for the clarification. I admit I have never tried charge / discharge at the same time with my cheapo mobile battery bank (I must try it later !), although I note in some of the mini ups ads they say 1A upto 2A in to charge. ie. A 1A supply will run your kit, but not charge the battery.

I looked at those UPS' you posted and oddly for Chinese imports they were much more costly in the UK, but then I found for those who don't mind a little DIY - heck, it's even got a LED display and it's "open to offers" - It's less than a pint of beer !

[DA270]

Thanks for all of the detailed replies from each of you, it's much appreciated. I just ordered a Meteo-Pi!
I'm eager to get started with the RPI. I've had very limited experience with one, so I'll read and google a lot before I nag you guys too much! 

[WiFiLogger]

Thanks for all of the detailed replies from each of you, it's much appreciated. I just ordered a Meteo-Pi!
I'm eager to get started with the RPI. I've had very limited experience with one, so I'll read and google a lot before I nag you guys too much! 

I don't use Linux every day. Only when I have to. I will help as much as I can.

[pfletch101]

What is the memory capacity of the data logger?
Also, anyone with RPI experience, any recommendations on a quality SD card with a reliable service life?

Console has to recognize one particular memory chip it is 1 Mbit - 128KB memory (discontinued for several years). When it find it, then bootloader (part of firmware) will enable logger ability, but also communication with PC/RPi.
Capacity is 2560 records. There is no way to put bigger capacity.

A thought for future development: would it be possible to have two separate blocks of memory on a logger card - the 1 MBit chip that the Davis firmware insists on and a much bigger block for secondary backup. The logger would internally transfer data from the primary block into its secondary store using (as far as the console is concerned) the standard Davis download protocol, but would then serve data from the expanded store externally.

[WiFiLogger]

@WiFiLogger - Thank's for the clarification. I admit I have never tried charge / discharge at the same time with my cheapo mobile battery bank (I must try it later !), although I note in some of the mini ups ads they say 1A upto 2A in to charge. ie. A 1A supply will run your kit, but not charge the battery.

I looked at those UPS' you posted and oddly for Chinese imports they were much more costly in the UK, but then I found for those who don't mind a little DIY - heck, it's even got a LED display and it's "open to offers" - It's less than a pint of beer !

this is not the right solution. Battery charger is not UPS. UPS takes care about battery, but it is not charging when it is already charged etc.
In this solution what you have foound. When you will connect console, then you will have 5v, but it will be generated from battery power, not from AC adapter. So battery will be charging all the time.
UPS is charging battery and cut them off. Power is bypass from AC adapter to console directly.

For DIY please check this: DIY UPS
Please find section with jumper to make bypass to make UPS like device.

I have ordered this DIY UPS, but I still don't have it. I will test it and write little article about 3 devices.
For today for me the best is this
Nice and clean and it is AC adapter already. Other solutions needs separated AC adapter.
To proper serve clients we should provide easy to use, comfortable solution. So I am testing capacity (working time on WiFiLogger), but also is this solution is easy to use.

[WiFiLogger]

What is the memory capacity of the data logger?
Also, anyone with RPI experience, any recommendations on a quality SD card with a reliable service life?

Console has to recognize one particular memory chip it is 1 Mbit - 128KB memory (discontinued for several years). When it find it, then bootloader (part of firmware) will enable logger ability, but also communication with PC/RPi.
Capacity is 2560 records. There is no way to put bigger capacity.

A thought for future development: would it be possible to have two separate blocks of memory on a logger card - the 1 MBit chip that the Davis firmware insists on and a much bigger block for secondary backup. The logger would internally transfer data from the primary block into its secondary store using (as far as the console is concerned) the standard Davis download protocol, but would then serve data from the expanded store externally.

Extended capacity will be avaible in WiFiLogger2 as SD card, this is also flash memory.

[BigAlT]

To use the Meteo-Pi with an SD card running Meteohub you are limited to those models of The RPi which Meteohub supports. The last model of RPi that Meteohub supports natively is the 3B. There was a mod which allowed use on a 3B+ with some limitations ( the 3B Frankenkernal Mod ) but the mod required a hack to the Wheezy kernal and isn’t available any longer since Wheezy is no longer supported.
 So Meteohub use is restricted to the 3B or earlier which may be a factor in deciding whether to purchase the Meteo-Pi or the WFL2 or another logger.

[the beteljuice]

@WiFiLogger ...

Sorry to go on about this, perhaps should be new thread ?

I agree with your description of an ideal UPS, however all my historic dealings with such things was the 'float' principle - although this was lead-acid batteries.

Talking of battery technology ... don't Li-Ion need a charge / discharge cycle to function correctly ? - thus a requirement to run from battery for a couple of hours every month ?

Please find section with jumper to make bypass to make UPS like device.

Reading carefully and looking at similar kits, the 'switch' seems to be no more than a handy load switch.

Footnote: Just tried my 4 year 'battery bank' half discharged, together with my mobile and connected to 'mains'. Both concurrently charged up fully in a couple of hours.

I will hi-jack this thread no more 
.. but I will keep an eye out for your UPS findings 

[davidmc36]

One of my Banks does not IN/OUT concurrently. It's a crapshoot.

LiIo needs no cycling nor would it help. Held near full is not great.

[DA270]

The Meteo-Pi arrived promptlty from Scaled Instruments yesterday (thanks Ryan!), so I got to work getting it set up today. I had an old Envoy in my "junk" box, so I put it to good use for this initial test system. I had an old RPI 3 B+ in the same junk bin and I dug it out a few days ago and got it setup headless, using my MacBook Pro as a VNC terminal to manage the RPI. I just copied the entire CumulusMX folder from my woking "online" setup, and installed it on the RPI. The only changes needed was to set the proper serial port, and turn off the web uploads. That's it! It works great!

I plan on updating everything while it's offline. My online system has been in operation for many years, so I'm using an older version of MX and the RPI has not been updated to the latest Raspbian release as it hasn't been used in awhile.

Once I feel it's stable, I'll go online with it and shut down the Surface Pro(definitely overkill) that's at the heart of my current setup.

Great product, great dealer, and of course great support from this group. I'll have some updates as I get more experience.

 

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[WiFiLogger]

I'll have some updates as I get more experience.

If you use 6 wire cable and you will turn on red switch on Logger, then you will not have to use second AC adapter for your Envoy. Try it.

[DA270]

If you use 6 wire cable and you will turn on red switch on Logger, then you will not have to use second AC adapter for your Envoy. Try it.

I definitely will. That's one of the features that makes the Meteo-Pi such an elegant solution for a Pi interface! Great design! 

[DA270]

An update on my experience over the past week. I've encountered one issue and it is a RPI issue not a Meteo Pi issue. I had the RPI attached to my network via WiFi and it seems that the Pi WiFi receiver goes to sleep after a certain timeout period. The RPI will continue to FTP data outbound, but I am unable to SSH, VNC or ping the Pi on my network. The work around was to login to the DHCP list on my router, terminate the Pi connection which would force a lease renewal then allowing a remote login.

A permanent solution, and probably a more stable long term choice is that I switched to a wired ethernet connection. I've not had that issue again.

This weekend I plan on setting up Deja Dup to handle automatic backups of the MX data to Goggle Cloud.

[BigAlT]

I have an RPi 3B+ running  weewx ( with the data coming from my Vantage Vue iss through an Envoy with a Davis USB Logger )  connecting to my router via WiFi and it’s been running flawlessly for over 3 months.

[pfletch101]

An update on my experience over the past week. I've encountered one issue and it is a RPI issue not a Meteo Pi issue. I had the RPI attached to my network via WiFi and it seems that the Pi WiFi receiver goes to sleep after a certain timeout period. The RPI will continue to FTP data outbound, but I am unable to SSH, VNC or ping the Pi on my network. The work around was to login to the DHCP list on my router, terminate the Pi connection which would force a lease renewal then allowing a remote login.

A permanent solution, and probably a more stable long term choice is that I switched to a wired ethernet connection. I've not had that issue again.

This weekend I plan on setting up Deja Dup to handle automatic backups of the MX data to Goggle Cloud.

Like BigAlt, I have had my Pi (3B) running weewx and also some of my own environmental monitoring 24/7, and connecting to my network via WiFi for months, and have not had any recurrent problems, though I did have a single episode a couple of days ago when the Pi appeared to go incommunicado (including, in my case, outbound FTP communication) and I had to power cycle it to get it to behave. It appeared to be working and not to have crashed (appropriately flickering activity light), but hooking up an ethernet cable and/or a monitor and keyboard would have been more trouble than taking the small risk of power cycling it without shutting it down.
How is your Pi configured to get its IP address from your router? I would strongly recommend configuring the router to give it a 'fixed' address (recognizing it by its MAC address). Your issue, with outbound FTP maintained, sounds more like an unexpected IP address change than a WiFi problem.

[DA270]

I would strongly recommend configuring the router to give it a 'fixed' address (recognizing it by its MAC address). Your issue, with outbound FTP maintained, sounds more like an unexpected IP address change than a WiFi problem.

Good suggestion, but I have it setup with a reserved IP, although I've tried using dynamic DHCP assignment too. I have several other devices (the current online MX dedicated Surface Pro PC, for example) setup on the same network using wifi that have not experienced this issue and some are using dynamic DHCP assignment others are reserved. The signal is strong, the Pi is a foot from the router, so RF issues seem unlikely and nothing else is affected by this problem.  I'm not sure what the culprit would be, but it doesn't happen with an ethernet connection, only wifi.

[BigAlT]

Are you using the 4 wire or 6 wire cable ?.If the 6 wire cable does the power supply connected to your RPi  have sufficient output to supply both the RPi and the envoy ?. It is possible that the supply is at it’s limits and on occasion may dip below the minimum required to keep the RPi’s WiFi operating and it drops out. Just a thought.

[DA270]

Are you using the 4 wire or 6 wire cable ?.If the 6 wire cable does the power supply connected to your RPi  have sufficient output to supply both the RPi and the envoy ?. It is possible that the supply is at it’s limits and on occasion may dip below the minimum required to keep the RPi’s WiFi operating and it drops out. Just a thought.

Another good suggestion, but I have it setup with the 4 wire cable. I think the wireless Envoy only draws about 1-2mA@4.5v. I've run one on the 3 AA batteries for several months, but it's something to keep in mind when I try that feature.  Maybe I'll set a reserved IP way out of my usual cluster of devices (it's amazing how many connected devices we now have around the house) where it's easy to see the RPI isolated from everything else to make sure I'm not overlooking something and try the wifi again.