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Davis VP2 Relay Device

For discussion of DIY weather equipment - sensors, accessories, improvements to existing kit etc
iandrews
Posts: 139
Joined: Sun 03 Jan 2010 10:57 am
Weather Station: Davis Pro2
Operating System: Windows 2012R2
Location: London

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by iandrews »

Herbaldew wrote: Sat 04 Jul 2020 12:15 am I quit using my Moteino due to phantom wind gusts (and how much of a hassle it was to edit them out).

IIRC I was receiving all data on the console via the Moteino set as tx3 and had the solar and UV sensors plugged in to the anemometer transmitter. If I were to fire up my Moteino again and connect it as tx3 like before and set the anemometer transmitter as tx4, would this solve my phantom gust problem and still get the solar and UV data from the anemometer transmitter?
Yes, from what Mark said, if you set the console up to receive wind on the actual channel number of the transmitter that the anemometer is plugged into it will get the wind directly, and then the other info can come via the relay.
iandrews
Posts: 139
Joined: Sun 03 Jan 2010 10:57 am
Weather Station: Davis Pro2
Operating System: Windows 2012R2
Location: London

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by iandrews »

iandrews wrote: Fri 03 Jul 2020 8:02 pm Also, looking at the serial output a bit more, most of the "value"s on the Transmit packets are just - not sure if any of the following code needs to be amended.

Code: Select all

// station id associated with each payload
// Zero relative = Davis ID -1
static PayloadStation payloadStations = {
  1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1   // wind, uv, rain, solar, temp, hum
};

// Stations to receive from
// id, type, active
static Station stations[NUM_RX_STATIONS] = {
  {0, STYPE_ISS, true},   // Anemometer txmr in my case
  {1, STYPE_ISS, true}    // The 'real' ISS
};
My setup currently has the following:

TX1 - Rain, Temp, Hum, UV, Solar
TX2 - Wind

So, I have amended my code to to the following.

Code: Select all

// station id associated with each payload
// Zero relative = Davis ID -1
static PayloadStation payloadStations = {
  1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0   // wind, uv, rain, solar, temp, hum
};
And now in the transmit packets the "value"s seem to contain data (apart from r_secs, but it isn't currently raining).

Code: Select all

325219260	T	82-06-A2-29-69-00-3C-1E-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	0	-	-	2687748	ok	6	228	temp	66.2 (19.0)	
327907012	T	E2-06-A2-62-01-00-0C-D9-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	1	-	-	2687752	ok	6	228	rain	98	
330594768	T	52-04-A6-FF-73-00-2D-54-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	2	-	-	2687756	ok	4	234	r_secs	-	
333282512	T	42-04-A6-06-83-00-59-D2-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	3	-	-	2687744	ok	4	234	uv	0.5	
335970284	T	82-04-A6-29-6B-00-D4-0E-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	4	-	-	2687772	ok	4	234	temp	66.2 (19.0)	
338658040	T	E2-05-AD-62-01-00-36-E5-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	0	-	-	2687756	ok	5	244	rain	98	
341345792	T	52-05-AD-FF-71-00-FF-78-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	1	-	-	2687752	ok	5	244	r_secs	-	
344033548	T	92-05-AD-0B-01-3A-E1-9A-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	2	-	-	2687756	ok	5	244	gust	11	gustref:10
346721296	T	82-05-AD-29-69-00-06-22-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	3	-	-	2687748	ok	5	244	temp	66.2 (19.0)	
349409044	T	E2-05-97-62-03-00-14-C5-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	4	-	-	2687748	ok	5	213	rain	98	
352096796	T	52-06-49-FF-73-00-39-D3-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	0	-	-	2687752	ok	6	103	r_secs	-	
354784556	T	62-06-49-08-C3-00-6E-90-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	1	-	-	2687760	ok	6	103	solar	62	
357472304	T	82-05-6C-29-69-00-C3-32-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	2	-	-	2687748	ok	5	152	temp	66.2 (19.0)	
360160048	T	E2-04-7F-62-01-00-D9-DF-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	3	-	-	2687744	ok	4	179	rain	98	
362847828	T	52-03-99-FF-73-00-B2-87-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	4	-	-	2687780	ok	3	215	r_secs	-	
365535612	T	A2-04-A9-4D-3B-00-7C-FC-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	0	-	-	2687784	ok	4	238	hum	84.5	
368223360	T	82-07-AA-29-6B-00-75-EE-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	1	-	-	2687748	ok	7	239	temp	66.2 (19.0)	
370911108	T	E2-07-B3-62-03-00-AD-F9-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	2	-	-	2687748	ok	7	252	rain	98	
373598860	T	52-06-AF-FF-73-00-9A-A0-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	3	-	-	2687752	ok	6	246	r_secs	-	
376286620	T	62-04-AF-08-C3-00-89-60-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	4	-	-	2687760	ok	4	246	solar	62	
378974368	T	82-04-AF-29-6B-00-27-79-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	0	-	-	2687748	ok	4	246	temp	66.2 (19.0)	
381662116	T	E2-04-AF-62-03-00-17-BE-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	1	-	-	2687748	ok	4	246	rain	98	
384349868	T	52-04-AF-FF-73-00-DE-23-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	2	-	-	2687752	ok	4	246	r_secs	-	
387037620	T	42-03-94-05-C3-00-AB-1B-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	3	-	-	2687752	ok	3	208	uv	0.5	
389725368	T	82-03-94-29-6B-00-72-5B-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	4	-	-	2687748	ok	3	208	temp	66.2 (19.0)	
392413116	T	E2-03-94-62-03-00-42-9C-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	0	-	-	2687748	ok	3	208	rain	98	
395100868	T	52-03-94-FF-73-00-8B-01-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	1	-	-	2687752	ok	3	208	r_secs	-	
397788620	T	92-03-94-0B-03-3A-95-E3-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	2	-	-	2687752	ok	3	208	gust	11	gustref:10
400476368	T	82-03-94-29-6B-00-72-5B-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	3	-	-	2687748	ok	3	208	temp	66.2 (19.0)	
403164116	T	E2-03-94-62-03-00-42-9C-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	4	-	-	2687748	ok	3	208	rain	98	
405851868	T	52-03-94-FF-73-00-8B-01-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	0	-	-	2687752	ok	3	208	r_secs	-	
408539620	T	62-03-94-07-C3-00-F0-73-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	1	-	-	2687752	ok	3	208	solar	54	
411227380	T	82-03-94-29-6B-00-72-5B-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	2	-	-	2687760	ok	3	208	temp	66.2 (19.0)	
413915124	T	E2-03-94-62-03-00-42-9C-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	3	-	-	2687744	ok	3	208	rain	98	
416602872	T	52-03-94-FF-73-00-8B-01-FF-FF	3	-/---/--/----	4	-	-	2687748	ok	3	208	r_secs	-	
iandrews
Posts: 139
Joined: Sun 03 Jan 2010 10:57 am
Weather Station: Davis Pro2
Operating System: Windows 2012R2
Location: London

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by iandrews »

Set console to just receive on channel 3 as a ISS and (after a min or so) data started to appear on the console, and another min or so later it had received all expected data :D Had a look at the stats page, and think the field 5 value was -12 (that value when using tx1 and tx2 when a looked a few days ago was 5 and 1), so quite good, but maybe a little frequency tweaking to do.

Then tried to set the console for the following:

tx1 - rain
tx2 - wind
tx3 - iss
tx4 to tx8 - off

however every time a pressed done (and then went back into the tx configure menu) it seemed to set tx1 back to off.

I then tried the following:

tx1 - off
tx2 - wind
tx3 - iss
tx4 to tx8 - off

and (after quite a while) the expected data started appearing on the console.

Not sure why it didn't allow me to have rain / wind / iss set (think that's what you said you had), I checked my firmware and it's 3.15, so not sure if it needs to be upgraded to 3.8.

Need to get the solder iron out to solder the antenna in, and run a bit more testing. Also need to see if I can find a small box to mount it in.

Thanks for all your hard work on this, and your continued support of Cumulus.
iandrews
Posts: 139
Joined: Sun 03 Jan 2010 10:57 am
Weather Station: Davis Pro2
Operating System: Windows 2012R2
Location: London

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by iandrews »

After a little more testing, I'm not quite sure all is totally working.

On the console set tx2 as wind, and tx3 as iss, and after a while all data appeared, I then put the console into diagnostic mode to look at the stats, I noticed that after a few mins (maybe 80 - 100 packets received) that it started to get "bad" packets, and the continues bad packet count went up to 20, and then the console went into Re-sync mode (R) in bottom right, and I waited a while, but I'm not sure it ever recovered.

I had time yesterday to change the ISS channel to 2 and the wind transmitter to 1, and then in the code amended the station id associated with each payload to reflect the changed channel numbers. I also soldered the (supplied with the board) small wire aerial onto the board. On running the code the serial output showed it receiving ok, and transmitting ok.

I set the console for tx1 as wind, and tx3 as iss and all data appeared, but again, after I put the console into diagnostic mode to look at the stats the same thing happened, and the console got a run of bad consecutive packers, and want into re-sync mode, which (for about the 5 mins I waited) it never came out off. I moved the board from downstairs up to the bedroom where the console is, and tried again, but the same thing happened. :( Field 5 was still about -12 (or -13) so not sure if a little frequency tweaking will help, or as I said, I'm on firmware 3.15 so not sure if upgrading to 3.80 will help.

Ian.
User avatar
mcrossley
Posts: 12689
Joined: Thu 07 Jan 2010 9:44 pm
Weather Station: Davis VP2/WLL
Operating System: Bullseye Lite rPi
Location: Wilmslow, Cheshire, UK
Contact:

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by mcrossley »

Herbaldew wrote: Sat 04 Jul 2020 12:15 am If I were to fire up my Moteino again and connect it as tx3 like before and set the anemometer transmitter as tx4, would this solve my phantom gust problem and still get the solar and UV data from the anemometer transmitter?
Yes.
Herbaldew
Posts: 113
Joined: Sun 12 Mar 2017 8:33 pm
Weather Station: VP2+
Operating System: Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit)
Location: US Mid-Atlantic

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by Herbaldew »

I had problems with the current github files as well.

Originally with the 2017 files I had the console receiving only from the Adruino on rx3 and had the phantom gust problem reported earlier in this thread.

I tried the new files and Arduino v1.8.13 software and had to copy files as iandrews listed and still got some "red" messages. Console setup was:

rx1 - rain
rx2 - wind
rx3 - ext temp (didn't have this in 2017)
rx6 - Adruino

Rain, wind and ext temp worked but the only field from the Adruino that would show up on the console was solar radiation (all fields were in the serial output).

I then went back to the files from 2017 and Adruino v1.0.6 with the same console settings and all has worked fine since yesterday evening when I set it up. The solar & UV sensors are currently still connected to the ISS - they were connected to the anemometer transmitter originally. I will leave it like this for awhile to make sure I don't get any more phantom gusts before climbing up on the roof remount them to the anemometer mast.
iandrews
Posts: 139
Joined: Sun 03 Jan 2010 10:57 am
Weather Station: Davis Pro2
Operating System: Windows 2012R2
Location: London

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by iandrews »

Herbaldew wrote: Mon 06 Jul 2020 3:01 pm Rain, wind and ext temp worked but the only field from the Adruino that would show up on the console was solar radiation (all fields were in the serial output).
Silly question, in the new code did you amend the following to match your transmitters.

Code: Select all

 // station id associated with each payload
// Zero relative = Davis ID -1
static PayloadStation payloadStations = {
  1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1   // wind, uv, rain, solar, temp, hum
};
Ian.
Herbaldew
Posts: 113
Joined: Sun 12 Mar 2017 8:33 pm
Weather Station: VP2+
Operating System: Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit)
Location: US Mid-Atlantic

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by Herbaldew »

Aha - no I didn't. That section isn't in the old file so not in my notes.

I notice that solar is the only "0" in the default settings and that is the only field that populated - probably what my problem was.

I will do some editing and try again later.

Thanks
Herbaldew
Posts: 113
Joined: Sun 12 Mar 2017 8:33 pm
Weather Station: VP2+
Operating System: Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit)
Location: US Mid-Atlantic

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by Herbaldew »

That fixed it. So far stats are excellent - will let it run and keep and eye on them.

Thanks again
iandrews
Posts: 139
Joined: Sun 03 Jan 2010 10:57 am
Weather Station: Davis Pro2
Operating System: Windows 2012R2
Location: London

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by iandrews »

Herbaldew wrote: Mon 06 Jul 2020 6:37 pm That fixed it. So far stats are excellent - will let it run and keep and eye on them.

Thanks again
That's good. Few questions if I may. What country (EU / US etc) frequency are you using. Have you applied any frequency correction, and what's your console firmware version.
Herbaldew
Posts: 113
Joined: Sun 12 Mar 2017 8:33 pm
Weather Station: VP2+
Operating System: Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit)
Location: US Mid-Atlantic

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by Herbaldew »

Upon closer inspection, I see that rain on rx1 is turned to "off" when I go back in to setup. I didn't notice it because the console displays 0.00 until there is some rain whether it's receiving or not. I checked and that happens with the 2017 files as well. I'm not going to go change any dips switches just yet as I don't want to change anything on my other console that I download and archive data from.

Country: US
Frequency correction: -340
Firmware: Rev 3.80 (US) English


Edit: I really don't care about the rain thing. I am a "wind watcher" so having it read directly from the transmitter and seeing the data a couple seconds earlier is great - and if this cures my phatom gusts, it's extra great!
iandrews
Posts: 139
Joined: Sun 03 Jan 2010 10:57 am
Weather Station: Davis Pro2
Operating System: Windows 2012R2
Location: London

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by iandrews »

Herbaldew wrote: Mon 06 Jul 2020 8:13 pm Upon closer inspection, I see that rain on rx1 is turned to "off" when I go back in to setup. I didn't notice it because the console displays 0.00 until there is some rain whether it's receiving or not. I checked and that happens with the 2017 files as well. I'm not going to go change any dips switches just yet as I don't want to change anything on my other console that I download and archive data from.
That's what happened to me also when I tried to set wind / rain / iss, interesting that you get it as well, and you are on the latest firmware. Not sure how Mark has got it to stick.

Thanks for your settings, I'm in the UK, so using EU frequency.

I have applied q100 and the "fei" values are now 1 or 0 (with an odd -1), and value 5 on the console was also down at 1 or 2. However it lost sync still after a few mins of receiving packets.

I see there is also a timer value to apply, however I can't make sense of it. The hints say:
Check the timing, field 1 on the VP2 console shows the last eight bits of the interval timer. The sequential jumps for each transmitter number should be approximately...

1=192, 2=128, 3=64, 4=1, (untested values: 5=60, 6=132, 7=71, 8=8)
However I have looked at field 1 for the true iss and also (wind) transmitter but I don't understand. e.g one time I watched it for a while and it went something like 132 - 10 - 132 - 10 - 132 - 10 and then to something like 224. Anyone able to provide more insight / guidance.
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mcrossley
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Weather Station: Davis VP2/WLL
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Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by mcrossley »

Timer correction made the biggest difference to my reception reliability.

The value displayed by the console is the last 8 bits of its internal timer. So the value wraps from 255 to 0.

If you had a value 132 followed by 10, then the difference is 256 - 132 + 10 = 134

Your experience with the VP2 Console not accepting the Rain transmitter made me go back and check mine. And you are right, on both my consoles (v1.90, v3.15) the Rain setting had not stuck, it only had 1=Wind, 2=Off, 3=ISS. But because the relay was relaying everything anyway (why not? It still has to send the packets) the consoles were picking up rain data from the relay so I hadn't noticed.
iandrews
Posts: 139
Joined: Sun 03 Jan 2010 10:57 am
Weather Station: Davis Pro2
Operating System: Windows 2012R2
Location: London

Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by iandrews »

mcrossley wrote: Tue 07 Jul 2020 9:42 am Timer correction made the biggest difference to my reception reliability.

The value displayed by the console is the last 8 bits of its internal timer. So the value wraps from 255 to 0.

If you had a value 132 followed by 10, then the difference is 256 - 132 + 10 = 134

Your experience with the VP2 Console not accepting the Rain transmitter made me go back and check mine. And you are right, on both my consoles (v1.90, v3.15) the Rain setting had not stuck, it only had 1=Wind, 2=Off, 3=ISS. But because the relay was relaying everything anyway (why not? It still has to send the packets) the consoles were picking up rain data from the relay so I hadn't noticed.
OK, so with just my iss and wind transmitter connected I see the following.

wind transmitter - tx1 - 64 jump each time
iss - tx2 - 128 jump each time

So sort of makes sense now, apart from your notes says it should be 192 for tx1 and I get 64?!.

When I have time later I will connect up the relay and see what I get for tx3. So, if I change the timer correction on the relay board, does that directly affect the value displayed on the console, and if so, I assume I play around with the timer value until I get it doing the correct jump each time on the console.
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mcrossley
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Joined: Thu 07 Jan 2010 9:44 pm
Weather Station: Davis VP2/WLL
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Re: Davis VP2 Relay Device

Post by mcrossley »

iandrews wrote: Tue 07 Jul 2020 11:08 am OK, so with just my iss and wind transmitter connected I see the following.

wind transmitter - tx1 - 64 jump each time
iss - tx2 - 128 jump each time

So sort of makes sense now, apart from your notes says it should be 192 for tx1 and I get 64?!.

When I have time later I will connect up the relay and see what I get for tx3. So, if I change the timer correction on the relay board, does that directly affect the value displayed on the console, and if so, I assume I play around with the timer value until I get it doing the correct jump each time on the console.
Your values make more sense, going up in steps of 64, since the time between transmissions increases with transmitter ID. I'd have to check again, maybe I just wrote them down in reverse order - or I am seeing something different on my console. I'll cross check both consoles against each other as well.

The perceived wisdom is that the transmission interval goes up by 1/16 sec for each id. 1/16s = 62.5ms.
The VPtools I based my relay code uses that value.

The Davis documentation says that transmitter 1 will transmit every 2.5625 seconds, which bears out the 1/16 sec increment - 2.5 +(id * 1/16).

We have no idea what that timer value on the stats screen represents, but you may take guess that it was last 8 bits of the next (or last) transmission reception time in milliseconds.

But if you are seeing 64 as the increment there, then...
You may think the people that wrote the VP2 code would have used 64ms as a nice round binary number? But who knows, the USA likes its fractions!
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