Weather Display Software

[ArjanH]

Hi Guys.

Yes I know I am still off line ... the problem is I bought the wrong station. 
I have been looking into ways of fixing the problem but keep running into solid brick walls at every turn.
I was just looking at the weather display software. Am I right in the understanding that this software can scrape the information of WU and re-transmit it as realtime.txt?

The other thing that might be worth trying would be to connect a second IP module to the array. It has been suggested that the IP modules on the weather sleuth ... ambient ws-1200 etc are either arduino or raspberry based ... in which case they could be hacked unless you guys can now receive php, jsp or asp style transmissions? That would be my ultimate choice ... I hate having to run a whole PC just for the weather station.

Alternatively, I might just bite the bullet and get a Davis. Or a weatherhawk. Anyone want to buy a weather sleuth? LOL
BTW
Check this out.
http://api.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=IBAYOFPL26&format=XML
Someone with a few smarts could scrape that easily.

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[davidrg]

Would be fairly easy to throw together something that builds a realtime.txt-format file from WU data but it wouldn't be anywhere near realtime - that XML has a rather poor signal to noise ratio so downloading it every few minutes would add up to quite a lot of data. CSV should waste less bandwidth and be easier to parse but still a bit inefficient if you're downloading the file multiple times an hour: Awahou Weather | Personal Weather Station: IBAYOFPL26 by Wunderground.com | Weather Underground (I've no idea if format=CSV is actually the 'correct' parameter - seems format=FOO also gives you CSV).

If you go down the Davis path I can answer questions about that. The USB version at least works nicely with the Raspberry Pi so whether you need a full PC running just comes down to the software you're using.

[Wolfie33]

Hi Arjan
I saw a post somewhere recently that Brian's WD software can work with one flavour of the direct to web type stations, but not sure which stations.
I understand the many station varieties all use slightly different methods/protocols or something.

I was going to email you last night, but "stuff" got in the way. Parsing WU xml is a easy peezy, also csv, I have various scripts that do that.

Meantime you may want to check out something of mine . . .
      Classic Style WU History

Cheers

[TokWW]

Wolfie - looking at your data, it may appear your anemometer is still on  broomstick outside?  There is a lot of variation in the wind direction which indicates a lot of swirl or the windvane placed to low compared to other large elements in the vicinity eg trees, buildings etc...  generally best at least 2m above a roofline for example.  That is often not easy to achieve - I always have trouble getting my old TV hockey stick mast down to effect a battery change or whatever!!  Good to have all the data from all over NZ though   Graeme

[Wolfie33]

Oh darn!! I've been found out. Thanks TokWW LoL.
Yes, my sensors are still on a broomstick, the . . er . . temporary setup has lasted 3 & a bit years.
There's a bit of a story behind that, but in short, something always got in the way of my plans to to do something better.
Sure, the readings are sometimes a little "out there", but in general I've been happy with what it gives out.
One thing I appreciate is it has provided an idea of "real" conditions on where people I live, not 2 & a bit stories up.

The broomstick was damaged by the storms earlier this year, Cook etc, it now has a broken fishing rod tied with rafia propping it up. 
Good news is I acquired a 1.5 mtr hockey stick 2/3 weeks ago, but some ratbag has "borrowed" my ladder.

The prime use of that script is to check our stations that are down or showing data spikes etc.