Author Topic: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network  (Read 2008 times)

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Offline MBOTTI

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Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« on: February 22, 2022, 05:47:48 PM »
Hi,
we bought two Vantage Pro2 stations, cabled, plus two WeatherLinkIP 6555 data loggers and we managed to instaled both stations, conected to our internet and request their current observations throu the api.weatherlink.com v1.
Now we want to connect both stations directly to OSISOFT PI (https://www.osisoft.com/), but not goint throu api.weatherlink.com. We would like to go strait to the stations, but avoiding the internet.
Can we interrogate the Vantage Pro2 using the weatherlinkIP 6555 IP address as both are connected to our network? My concern is regarding the 6555 data logger and if we have chosen the right device for the task...
Do you have other customers requests similar to mine?
Regards, M.

Offline Mattk

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2022, 08:17:30 PM »
The WeatherLinkIP logger is hardwired to only upload to Davis servers (as such) so one is not able to upload to their own server as WeatherLink.com does. Plugging WeatherLinkIP direct into a router will only ever upload to WeatherLink.com

With software then one could interrogate the console data via the IP logger (much like weatherLinkPC) but would typically require additional hardware to upload the required data to a specific platform. 

Offline johnd

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2022, 03:41:17 AM »
There's no reason in principle why your suggested configuration wouldn't work, but it needs two things:

1. Port forwarding set up on your local router so that requests and data can flow back and forth from a remote server to each individual 6555 logger.

2. Code written for and running on the remote server to request and process data according to the API defined in the Davis Serial Tech Ref document.

You'll probably find that this won't work as robustly as pulling the same archive data from weatherlink.com, perhaps using the v2 API. Not sure why you'd use the v1 API nowadays unless you already have software that available that uses the v1 API, eg Weatherlink for Windows and its Web Download method.
Prodata Weather Systems
Prodata's FAQ/support site for Davis stations
Includes many details on 6313 Weatherlink console.
UK Davis Premier Dealer - All Davis stations, accessories and spares
Cambridge UK

Sorry, but I don't usually have time to help with individual issues by email unless you are a Prodata customer. Please post your issue in the relevant forum section here & I will comment there if I have anything useful to add.

Offline davidmc36

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2022, 05:15:01 AM »


1. Port forwarding set up on your local router.......

I am curious about this. I see occasionally it spoke of but have never attempted to do it. I have WiFi Logger, Ethernet Logger, and Meteobridge. Is the reason for the forwarding because of how MBOTTI wants to access the data? Is the method desired to SEND A REQUEST for the info, hence the need to Port forward so the osisoft can "see" the logger?

Offline johnd

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2022, 05:38:19 AM »
I am curious about this. I see occasionally it spoke of but have never attempted to do it.

To start with, port forwarding (it has other names too on different router makes/models) is only needed if you want to access a device sitting on your local network from a remote device (ie that's external to your local network). It's completely unnecessary simply to talk from one device to another within your local network (or, more strictly, local subnet AIUI).

The only device that an external server/PC can talk to directly if it tries to initiate contact with your network is the Internet router. So there has to be some mechanism by which an external request to the router can be passed on ('forwarded') to the device within your local network that you actually want to talk to, ie the WLIP logger in this example. This is achieved by making a request to the router on a specific port number and then there has to be a rule set up on the router so that it knows that such an incoming request be forwarded to the specific device, ie a logger here. It's unwise in general to set up such rules for eg a PC on your network because that could potentially give an external hacker access to your complete network, but for such a limited device as an IP logger it's unlikely that much damage could be done AIUI.

The exact process of setting up the port forwarding rule in your router settings varies from router to router. so it's difficult to describe in general. Like a lot of things, it's usually quite easy to do once you've got your head around the concepts, but something of a learning curve at the first time of asking. But almost certainly easier than you're imagining!

NB Not pretending to be a network expert here - others might be able to add more detail or qualifications.

Edit: I probably should have added that this process for external access works most easily if your router has a fixed external IP address. (I'm not talking about the IP address on your internal network, but the IP assigned by your ISP to your router.) There may also be ways of enabling external access if you don't have a fixed external IP address but these will likely be more complicated to set up in the absence of a fixed IP address.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2022, 08:12:14 AM by johnd »
Prodata Weather Systems
Prodata's FAQ/support site for Davis stations
Includes many details on 6313 Weatherlink console.
UK Davis Premier Dealer - All Davis stations, accessories and spares
Cambridge UK

Sorry, but I don't usually have time to help with individual issues by email unless you are a Prodata customer. Please post your issue in the relevant forum section here & I will comment there if I have anything useful to add.

Offline davidmc36

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2022, 07:11:54 AM »
... access a device sitting on your local network from a remote device (ie that's external to your local network). ...

Oh 10-4. Understood. I do remember playing around a bit a while back attempting to access an RPi.

@MBOTTI: Generally speaking, What sort of requirements are there to use the osisoft products? Intriguing at a quick glance.

Offline Mattk

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2022, 03:10:38 PM »
Port forwarding works fine but typically requires a public facing IP and DNS which will allow say a remote computer running say WeatherLinkPC to access and talk to the console/logger as if it was on a local network. However it still won't allow the WLIP to upload directly (no PC in the middle) to any other server except Davis Weatherlink.com   

Offline johnd

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2022, 03:42:08 PM »
Port forwarding works fine but typically requires a public facing IP and DNS which will allow say a remote computer running say WeatherLinkPC to access and talk to the console/logger as if it was on a local network. However it still won't allow the WLIP to upload directly (no PC in the middle) to any other server except Davis Weatherlink.com

Correct. So, there's no way (short of hacking the WLIP firmware) of configuring a WLIP to push data to a server other than weatherlink.com. But port forwarding will allow a remote server to request data from the WLIP logger, ie to pull data from it. But, as noted, pulling the data from weatherlink.com via API v1 or v2 rather than from the logger is typically a more robust process, though the OP apparently doesn't want to pursue that option (I'm not sure why given that whatever they do is going to require some code writing for their server, but maybe there are technical reasons).
Prodata Weather Systems
Prodata's FAQ/support site for Davis stations
Includes many details on 6313 Weatherlink console.
UK Davis Premier Dealer - All Davis stations, accessories and spares
Cambridge UK

Sorry, but I don't usually have time to help with individual issues by email unless you are a Prodata customer. Please post your issue in the relevant forum section here & I will comment there if I have anything useful to add.

Offline davidefa

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2022, 04:02:56 PM »
@MBOTTI
I think you could use a router with openwrt ( or something like that ) to redirect  the calls to the davis server ( you should know the url of this server ) to a local machine ( the local machine should act as the davis server does )

Offline MBOTTI

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #9 on: February 23, 2022, 07:09:03 PM »
Many thanks to every and each of you! Just give me a minute and I'll answer your questions...

Offline MBOTTI

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #10 on: February 23, 2022, 07:17:19 PM »
@Mattk I think you are right. The DL we have bought is only useful to upload data direct to weatherlink.com
I'm not sure if I can suggest to use another interface or software to interrogate de station, but thanks for your idea...

Offline MBOTTI

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #11 on: February 23, 2022, 07:28:38 PM »
@johnd thanks for your solution. Unfortunately, and as you pointed out, we can't trust on weak data requests. Regarding API v1, I needed to start somewhere and v1 was fine. But I agree that v2 has a lot of improvements...

Offline MBOTTI

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #12 on: February 23, 2022, 07:34:32 PM »
@davidmc36 and @johnd, port forwarding sounds good as concept, unfortunately is not allowed (even on dreams) inside my company... Regards, M.

Offline MBOTTI

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #13 on: February 23, 2022, 07:51:16 PM »
@davidmc36 as you can see at www.osisoft.com, the Plant Information a.k.a PI is a pice of software to analize processes. Think of it as an excel (or Power BI) on steroids, that let you connect strait to a full of equipments using OT/IoT technology to manage real time data and perform analytics. One of the "benefits" of PI (in addition to transforming your work entirely into digital) is the wide range of protocols and interfaces included in tha package that let you connect to almost anything. Regarding the Davis stations, we want to analize how weather conditions impact on the one of our plants and react accordingly.

Offline MBOTTI

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #14 on: February 23, 2022, 07:58:27 PM »
Wrapping up, I'm going to the weatherlink.com v2 solution, as is the only I can suggest to my boss without more investment nor delay. Many thanks for the time you all spent on mi and my problem. If I have more questions (and I pretty sure I will) you'll be the first to know! Regards, and be safe... M.

Offline Mattk

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #15 on: February 23, 2022, 08:21:10 PM »
The propriety nature of the WeatherLinkIP logger has always been a negative on what is otherwise a very convenient logger as long as one is prepared to send to Davis or send to Davis or network to something like WeatherLinkPC etc.

It's also surprising you were still able to purchase 6555 loggers due to Davis's "business model" for these? How long ago were these purchased?

In hindsight maybe something like the MB NanoSD installed in the VP2 console could provide the data upload required but via a WiFi link? Being a cabled VP2 an MBPro (Black) in conjunction with the IP logger would have the same capabilities as the NanoSD but all comms would be ethernet.

Offline Randall Kayfes

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Re: Vantage Pro2, Cabled + WeatherLinkIP 6555 over a network
« Reply #16 on: February 26, 2022, 12:07:24 PM »
and what about the local HOST file for redirecting the feed to whatever device he wants to...