Davis Reception Stats

[stevendt]

Hi,

I have Davis reception stats turned on in setup and can see the stats being read in the Diag log, but where can I see the stats themselves?

(Cumulus MX 3079)

regards
Dave

[freddie]

I believe the stats values are put into web tags. Have a quick look through the web tag section of the Wiki. I think you will need to create a template that includes the appropriate web tags (i.e. it is not part of the "standard" web site or the dashboard).

[stevendt]

Ah, OK, thanks - I'll check out the webtags stuff

regards
Dave

[water01]

Freddie is correct all the Davis specific webtags are here https://cumuluswiki.org/a/Webtags#Davis

[stevendt]

Hi, thanks guys,

OK, I have created a single line Template file in the local \web folder (as statusT.htm).
I created an Extra Web File entry on the configuration page for the local (as web\status.htm) and remote (as status.htm) files, ticked process and FTP

Did an FTP Now and the file seems to be generated OK and the tag is interpreted correctly when the file is displayed in Edge.

Based on what I've just read, the "Process" action takes the template and generates an HTM file for upload to the server. So, the only use for the template would seems to be locally? I have noticed that the standard templates, e.g., indexT.htm are also loaded to the server, but I'm not sure whether that was an error on my part when I did the initial directory tree copy.

Have I understood this right and don't need the templates on the web server?

regards
Dave

[mcrossley]

The template file should just reside on the Cumulus server, it looks like you uploaded the contents of the "web" folder as well as the "webfiles"? Only webfiles needs uploading manually, Cumulus does the rest.

[stevendt]

Hi Mark,

thanks for that - that must be what I did. I used the Simple Website wiki and uploaded the webfiles tree first. Then manually uploaded the web files so that I could see something displayed on my website without understanding what I was doing obviously. (This was when I was having problems getting ftp working). I'll go back and delete the "T"s on the website now just to save confusing myself (again!) in future

regards
Dave

[stevendt]

Mark,

I have been looking at the stats on your site and have a question on your data if you don't mind ? . . . .

I see that your console battery is reported as 6.0V, are you using something out of the usual for battery backup on your VP2? I think that all of the VP2 consoles use 3x"C" type cells, so the voltage with good batteries would normally be around 4.7v?

regards
Dave

[mcrossley]

Currently I am using a WLL device which takes 4x AA batteries as backup. You will notice the other stats are slightly different too, including having access to the RSSI figures. The good/bad packet counts are not cumulative like the VP2 either, they appear to reset every 15 mins.

[stevendt]

Hi Mark,

ah, thanks for the explanation, I think I see. Cumulus is getting its data from WLL, not the VP2 console itself.

Are you happy with your WLL ?

I was a bit pi**ed off when I found out that my previous logger purchase (Weatherlink IP) would not work with my new station and then finding out that you needed a subscription for WLL made me even less inclined to "upgrade" to WLL. I think all that I'm really missing out on with not having WLL is the ability to graph my data? I'm hoping that I can achieve more or less the same thing with CumulusMX.

Another reason that I wanted to stick with my current setup was that I am currently using VPP to get the Davis data to different places. I need the data export capability of Weatherlink and was also using VWS to do website updates. Unfortunately, both of those products are no longer supported. The VPP author is not active any more, which is a real shame as VPP is a great tool, as is StartWatch which I also purchased. He never released the source, so nobody else can easily take on the maintenance of those tools. It was great that the Cumulus author released his code and allow someone like yourself to keep it in development.

VWS is in a similar position, it's not being developed and even worse, won't do the job that I paid for since my ISP went to secure FTP which VWS doesn't support. As I'm sure you know, VWS could generate jpg images of the GUI components which made periodic website updates quite easy without having to get to grips with too much coding so I have a bit of a learning curve to climb to achieve the same thing with Cumulus. Still, Cumulus does look like the way to go - thanks for your work on it !

regards
Dave

[stevendt]

Hi Mark,

do the Webtags for VantagePro2 depend on the console firmware version? I note your comment about the RSSI stats only being available with WLL, but I can't read my console firmware revision or get any data packet stats from my (quite old) Vantage 2 console? (Firmware Rev 1.60)

regards
Dave

An update : some time later, the packet stats started being displayed, so maybe it just takes time?
The Firmware Version is still not being returned though

Another update : it looks like I was just lucky to see them. At the next upload, the counters were back to zero. When I look at the console values, there are counts displayed, but zeros in the web tags. It looks like the Cumulus counters are resetting, perhaps due to an update error when trying to read the console?

And there's more . . .
I have just tried reading the status through Weatherlink PC (I have Cumulus and Weatherlink attached using VPP) and get odd, but apparently repeatable errors with Weatherlink too. the first time that I ask for the stats through Weatherlink, all values are 0 and the version number is "---". When I hit update, the status are populated, but sometimes the Version Number only appears after hiting update again.

With debug turned on, I can see 0s being returned to Cumulus's Status call

[mcrossley]

The WLL I have is on loan - for dev purposes. Yes I like it, primarily as it supports my solar sensor being attached to the win transmitter natively rather than having to mess around with an Ardunino to emulate an ISS. What I don't like is having to have a WeatherLink subscription to access historic data.

Old versions of firmware do not seem to respond to the firmware version request reliably - if at all. Probably the same for the radio stats. I have found that anything below version 1.90 has limitations.

[stevendt]

Hi Mark,

I did a bit more reading on WLL today and I think I like it even less than I did before. Not only do you have to give Davis extra (subscription) payments to be able to trend on the web, that is the only way to get access to the data off the logger. Weatherlink IP was way better - but I guess that Davis didn't make enough money off that so killed it!

As you say, with the few tests that I've done with Weatherlink, it seems that asking for the status data isn't very reliable, but works eventually (2-3 retires). Would it be possible for Cumulus to retry the stats requests? Perhaps if the data was all 0s and/or the Version string was blank, then retry, say up to 3 times? That probably doesn't have to much overhead as the stats seem to be read at around 15 minute intervals.

(I am looking at upgrading the console firmware, but a bit reticent in case it screws up my currently working Weatherlink IP and/or VVP)

regards
Dave

[mcrossley]

Unlikely given it is not core weather data only only affects very old consoles, the firmware version command is already tried twice at start-up.