New Zealand Local Weather Forum
Weather Discussion => Hardware Software and Technology => Weather Stations => Topic started by: cupoteacoast on November 22, 2014, 05:04:18 PM
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Hi all from Paekakariki. After having three weather stations destroyed by high wind or icy conditions, I have purchased a Davis Vantage Vue from USA, complete with USB datalogger with WeatherLink. It is working well on my pc. Can anyone please recommend software or a site where I could bring my station live onto the web. LOL, it has to be easy for this novice, and with good database facilities. The key thing is for the online database to display a minimum or every two minutes and preferably one. That is because we are entirely orographic here and get nothing but the upper winds, normally in several different directions at once, including E V W. For example, we are on the west coast, but as a westerly is passing, it can blow from the N, W, E & S at the same time. That's normal for here. All our wind is pressure driven, meaning that pressure never stands still, it consistently changes, up and down with the gusts. Some winds push it up, while others push it down. Hence looking for something with a database that updates a lot to show the true picture here.
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Good Evening,
There is quite a lot there you are wishing to do. So not an easy short answer.
I will take my lead from the word 'Novice' :)
The most popular software would be:
Easy - Cumulus. (freeware)
http://sandaysoft.com/ (http://sandaysoft.com/)
Harder but more features - Weather Display
http://www.weather-display.com/index.php (http://www.weather-display.com/index.php)
Server.
Weather Underground would be a good place to start. It is free and you are able to upload to it from either Weather Display or Cumulus software.
To go further and have your own web site; you need a server.
Usually costs are $10 per month or there a bouts.
A couple of members on this forum can provide this service for you.
Database. This is held by your server and you would feed that and use weather software plus scripts to display it.
What you could do is look through our members weather sites for ideas on layouts.
http://www.localweather.net.nz/smf/members-websites/members-websites/ (http://www.localweather.net.nz/smf/members-websites/members-websites/)
That is just a brief run down but should give you a starter for 10 :)
Cheers
Jenny
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Hi
Had a big long post for you but ipad crashed. So here's the short version!
What Jenny says, however I took my lead from the requirement to regularly update
There are two things that will dictate how quickly you can update. The Vue itself which takes wind readings every 2.5 seconds , so you can't sensibly go faster than that.
Secondly is your update speed to wherever you are sending it too. I update my site something like every 90 seconds so I only get conditions at 90 second gaps. Everything else while recorded locally is not available publicly.
You can of course update your site to the Internet more regularly, but this will churn through both your ISP bandwidth and your hosting bandwidth. So there is a cost factor her if you are currently topping out on a limited plan. You could set up your site locally to avoid any extra cost but only you will get to see it.
In terms of software weather display will allow you to store data in a database. You can then query it directly or via a php script.
You can also do a rapid fire update to weather underground, which can be a minimum of every three seconds. Once the data is there (keep in mind your ISP costs ) you can then use something like wd-graphs to display the data as a graph on your site. You can also get the data directly from the weather display database if you go that way.
Don't be put off by weather display. there is a lot you can tinker with so its far more flexible than cumulus. There are a lot of people on here that use it and can help.
Have fun wth your Vue. They are a great wee instrument. Mine has lasted well. Yell out if I can help further regarding any questions you might have on the Vue, weather display or hosting
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In addition to Gabba's comments, you need to be careful when choosing a hosting site if you are going to be ftp'ing data almost continually. They can be be fairly snotty and often have data limits so while you may have a large data cap available with your ISP your web host may not play ball. A lot of them say "unlimited data", but the fine print states a "fair use" policy which in fact may be quite restrictive. I dumped my host finally after testy emails and write my data directly from Weather Display to a NAS box which acts as a web sever. That way the only data that affects my ISP cap is when someone connects to my web site to view the pages. My website is actually split over two NAS boxes situated 120kms apart, the weather on one and the rest of the site on the other.
My NAS is Synology brand and can be picked up for a couple of hundred dollars, plus whatever hard disks you may want to install. Very easy to set up as a web server and all you then need is a domain name and if you can't get a fixed ip from your ISP then a DDNS service subscription.
The other advantage of using the Synology NAS box is that in addition, it acts as a video and music server to my smart tv and android devices around the house.
cheers
Tony C.
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There is always the option of using the software you got with the datalogger ;)
Send it to Davis and use the data from there :)
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I would just like to say Thank You to all who replied to me re this. Took me a while to fudge my way through it but I managed to get my station onto Wunderground. My station is at North end Paekakariki, in front of Mt Wainui Weather | Personal Weather Station: IWELLING161 by Wunderground.com | Weather Underground (http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=IWELLING161)
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Hi Chris - you can also use Cumulus or Weather Display etc with your hub to get your obs onto WOW - and therefore onto Your Weather. We would love to see Paekakariki on there :)
Cheers
Jacqui B
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The same will apply to have you added to our Live Map or Data Summary :)
http://www.localweather.net.nz/smf/new-zealand-local-weather-network/ (http://www.localweather.net.nz/smf/new-zealand-local-weather-network/)
Meanwhile, well done so far, looking good :)
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And if you join our map there will be a link back to your page with all your data. 8)