Virtual VP

[steve]

Having bought this, I think I'm only going to be able to use it for occasional testing, and not day-to-day. This is my problem, maybe I'm missing something:

I have Cumulus automatically run when the PC boots. With Virtual VP, I can't see how this would work. If I auto-start Virtual VP, even if I arrange to start it before Cumulus, it will still be downloading data from the station when Cumulus connects, so Cumulus won't get all the data it needs to catch up. This is all theory, I haven't actually tried it, so as I said, maybe I'm missing something?

[gemini06720]

Steve.

You are right. VirtualVP must download all the data saved in the Vantage Pro weather station before that downloaded data is available to any weather software connected to VirtualVP.

VirtualVP can easily take a couple of minutes to complete the download ... and no information is available to the ports until the download is terminated.

So, unless you can delay the start of Cumulus by a few minutes, then Cumulus with display an error message.

But then, I might have a solution for you...

The 'StartWatch' software from SoftWx Inc. (of VirtualVP and VPLive):

"...StartWatch helps people who want to run multiple applications in a 24x7 environment, and do so in a manner that requires as little human intervention as possible. StartWatch performs two related functions. The first is to start a number of applications in a coordinated manner. The second is to monitor the applications that were started, and optionally, correct problems such as hung or crashed programs, or programs whose memory leaks are consuming too much memory..."

I am using 'StartWatch' on my 'weather' (dedicated) computer to start the weather programs after a delay of a few minutes to give VirtualVP time to start and download its weather data. Although I should also be using the TCP/IP option, I am not.

Here is the link to the 'StartWatch' software: http://www.softwx.com/windows/startwatch.html

Am I presuming correctly ... that you do not have a PC running Cumulus on a 24 hours basis...

[steve]

The 'StartWatch' software from SoftWx Inc. (of VirtualVP and VPLive):

I spotted StartWatch, and was a first a bit unimpressed that I would have to buy more software to make the original purchase work in the way I wanted. But on closer examination, it appears that the freeware version would do what I need? It's not that I begrudge Steve the money, and it's not a lot extra for Virtual VP users, but it was the sort of thing that you might expect to be built in to Virtual VP in the first place. But if the freeware version does solve the problem, then of course it's not an issue.

Am I presuming correctly ... that you do not have a PC running Cumulus on a 24 hours basis...

Yes, that's right. I used to run 24/7, but now powering off at night is part of my effort to save the planet and my electricity bill.

[broadstairs]

I must admit I use Startwatch (the full version) because it not only solves the VirtualVP problem but I find it useful for organising the startup of my weather PC which needs to be sequenced for other things as well. The full version also allows monitoring for failure, excessive memory or CPU and then close the offending appl or just restart it after a crash. Doing it this way I can be sure for example that my weather PC comes up cleanly unattended if we get a power outage etc.

There are other programs which will do some of this for free I believe.

Stuart

[steve]

Once I get the server that I use for running Cumulus back up after the system drive failed today I'll give StartWatch a go; I've read up a bit more about it and it does look like the free version does all I want.

[gemini06720]

Steve.

...but it was the sort of thing that you might expect to be built in to Virtual VP in the first place...

I do not know which came first, VirtualVP or StartWatch ... but I have a feeling that StartWatch came second as a complement to VirtualVP...

I cannot remember with whom I had a similar conversation before ... that such and such function should be part of (included into the code of) a program when that function would not (could not) be used by most users of the program ... and adding such a function would only add complexity (and risk of problems) to the original code...

From my recent communications with Steve (of SoftWx Inc) it appears that a new and quite different version of VirtualVP might be on the 'drawing board', where one part of VirtualVP would operate simply as a TCP/IP service and where the other part would be a graphic interface to communicate with the service (for setting up procedures).

I have tried other startup programs (I probably have 2-3 different registered startup programs) but StartWatch is the only one that I have found that will not only delay the start of a program, but will also wait for a certain port to be available before starting another program and that will shut down and restart a program if it stop running.

As Stuart indicated, it is a great utility...