Salutations, Earthlings.
Excuse my elementary questions here; after some time over months trying to figure this out I am still confused...
I just finally got my Davis 6153m station (with 6450 Solar Sensor) set up with wifilogger-2 (after a few months sitting in my office in boxes) so had better figure this out now...
I'm most interested in this to monitor my home garden/orchard microclimate & compare (manually/mentally) to the data from the closest NOAA station, which is a few miles away on a different elevation & landscape & so often different conditions from my place.
I think my needs are pretty basic & offline-oriented compared to the much-addressed I-phone this or that, website broadcasting, etc. that seems popular.
I'm a bit confused by what software I ought to try - like cumulus (with its annoying 'wiki' website format that makes - at least to my mind - cohesive general program information impossible -- instead separating everything into yet another 'wiki' page, & and no views of what the program looks like on-screen that I can find on such a website), weather-display, or .. others .. can do.
I use mostly a w7 64 workstation computer, and it's not always on (though wfl and the weatherstation setup - barring catastrophe or electric fault - is).
For now I can see current & very recent data on the wall display & basic wfl web page, but I would like to:
1. record & save wx records long-term (years, decades), permanently, locally (on my computer or data storage, not 'cloud' or other 2nd party) for offline local use,
2. display current & archived records as needed, and
3. would be handy to have a program that can retrieve wx & climate (incl. daily records, etc. of various age) from [some reliable source] to compare with current conditions (this helps decide what needs to happen when, agriculturally).
I have no interest in anything I-phone, storing data on some company's website (like davis), etc. - I just want to keep & use of my records for my own use. I want to use this primarily as local instrumentation - like a thermometer or clock on my wall, which by the way aren't 'smart' (sic) and aren't connected to the web.
Other questions I have include:
1. Is there a standard or most durable data file format that wfl exports (and might be easy to use long-term)?
2. I can imagine a situation where I might not fire the workstation up for a month or three, say if I go on a bicycle tour or to prison, but want the data to remain recorded & stored even if the davis console or wfl buffer fills up (thus: auto-exported to ftp before that happens). Apparently I can periodically set wfl to periodically FTP data to my web space; I assume programs can likewise retrieve them from same or of course local saved files when needed, eh?
3. I still can't figure out if there's any actually useful way to make my local station data useful for anyone else (say NOAA forecasters or some easy for all to view, open access website that doesn't require a logon to view).
If there is/are I suppose the ability to transmit to such would also be good. I even asked a NOAA meteorologist a couple weeks ago and got a vague uncertain answer!
Sorry for the long list of what are probably sub-basic questions but I have been unable to figure it out... Setting up the station & wfl was a snap, comparatively though. I have some understanding of computers, FTP, etc. & training in wx/meterology so not totally lost on the concepts, I hope. But also don't want to make a 'hobby' of needing to fiddle with a program install...
Advice appreciated.
