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Realtime gauges even when logging interval 5 mins?

Discussion specific to Davis weather stations
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oh6hfx
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun 01 Apr 2012 8:08 pm
Weather Station: Davis Vantage Pro2
Operating System: Windows7
Location: Lohtaja, Finland

Realtime gauges even when logging interval 5 mins?

Post by oh6hfx »

First of all thanks for good software - getting to know it and finding it all the time better and better.

However I have one question; Cumulus seems to display the wx info in realtime on the main display, even I have set up the
logging interval 5 minutes.

My setup is VP2 wireless station and Weather Envoy receiver with IP datalogger. Works great, but have I understood something wrong? I have set
the logging interval 5mins for logger also with Weatherlink. I thought that should make VP2 send wx info once in 5 minutes? Still I see
changes in realtime on my PC screen.

Realtime wx is great, no problem with that, I am just concerned how long the battery in VP2 station will last which continuos connection? Though it has solar panel,
there is still many hours of dark time in 24h...

Johannes
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steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26672
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
Operating System: None
Location: Vienne, France
Contact:

Re: Realtime gauges even when logging interval 5 mins?

Post by steve »

Davis stations transmit data every 2 to 3 seconds, and you can't change that; it's not related to the logging interval. Battery usage doesn't appear to be a problem, they can last a long time, even with little sunlight.
Steve
gemini06720
Posts: 1700
Joined: Mon 10 Aug 2009 10:16 pm
Weather Station: No weather station
Operating System: No operating system
Location: World...

Re: Realtime gauges even when logging interval 5 mins?

Post by gemini06720 »

Johannes, with no link to your web site, it is difficult to check any of your pages... :roll:

Johannes, there are two main components in a Vantage (Pro/Vue) weather station, the external ISS (integrated sensor suite) and the internal console (or Envoy).

During the day time, the ISS is powered by the 'SuperCap' (super capacitor) which is continuously re-charged by the solar panel, even with low solar light.

During the night time, the ISS is powered by the 3-volt lithium battery. My 6+ years old Vantage Pro2 Plus weather station is still using the original lithium battery - the battery was last checked in the fall - my station is located at latitude 49°N / longitude 123°W, a bit further south to your location.

Under normal operations, the console (or Envoy) is powered by the external power supply - should the main power be interrupted, the console (or Envoy) will be powered by the internal 3 alkaline C batteries. If the console (or Envoy) is powered only by the batteries, the life expectancy of those batteries will probably be reduced to a few months at best (the documentation suggests up to 9 months).

You might want to reduce the logging interval of your weather station to one minute (better overall resolution):
  • Archive Interval : user-selectable from the following intervals (i n minutes):
    • 1, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60, or 120
  • Archive Storage Capacity (the amount of time before the archive is completely filled):
    • 1 Minute Archive Interval : 42 hours
      5 Minute Archive Interval : 8 days
      10 Minute Archive Interval : 17 days
      15 Minute Archive Interval : 26 days
      30 Minute Archive Interval : 53 days
      60 Minute Archive Interval : 106 days
      120 Minute Archive Interval : 213 days
Unless you have made some modifications to your templates, the gauges page is not updated unless the user refreshes the page. The templates will be processed and updated according to the time you have setup for the 'Web Settings -> Interval' time (in the 'Internet Settings' window).
oh6hfx
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun 01 Apr 2012 8:08 pm
Weather Station: Davis Vantage Pro2
Operating System: Windows7
Location: Lohtaja, Finland

Re: Realtime gauges even when logging interval 5 mins?

Post by oh6hfx »

Thanks for your informative replies! Now I am lot wiser :)

That's what I thought also - that ISS and Envoy exchange info almost constantly and it's
just the logger or Cumulus which saves data on given interval. There is not much info about
this in Davis manuals.

And I was writing about the main page in Cumulus program itself, not a web page.
My station is not installed in the final place yet so my website is running only on my local
server.

Now I am going to change the logging interval to 1 mins, it just fills the logger faster but thats not problem when
Cumulus downloads that to my PC.

By the way how I can display 1 month graphs on web pages?

Johannes
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steve
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Posts: 26672
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
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Location: Vienne, France
Contact:

Re: Realtime gauges even when logging interval 5 mins?

Post by steve »

gemini06720 wrote:During the day time, the ISS is powered by the 'SuperCap' (super capacitor) which is continuously re-charged by the solar panel, even with low solar light.

During the night time, the ISS is powered by the 3-volt lithium battery.
No. During the night, the ISS is powered by the capacitor, which has been charged up during the day. Only in the rare case where the capacitor runs out of charge during the night does the battery come into use.
Steve
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steve
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Re: Realtime gauges even when logging interval 5 mins?

Post by steve »

oh6hfx wrote:By the way how I can display 1 month graphs on web pages?
See the 'display settings' screen and the help for it. Note that the graphs are designed to show only a day or two of data; setting them to a month may cause problems.
Steve
gemini06720
Posts: 1700
Joined: Mon 10 Aug 2009 10:16 pm
Weather Station: No weather station
Operating System: No operating system
Location: World...

Re: Realtime gauges even when logging interval 5 mins?

Post by gemini06720 »

steve wrote:No. During the night, the ISS is powered by the capacitor, which has been charged up during the day. Only in the rare case where the capacitor runs out of charge during the night does the battery come into use.
I stand corrected. :oops:

But, in the northern regions, where the sun barely gets over the horizon during the day time winter months, such as in Northern Canada (and possibly Finland), the 'SuperCap' (super capacitor) does not get fully charged (if charged at all) - thus the 3-volt lithium battery will be used almost continuously - still, Davis Instruments claims a battery life of 8 months without sunlight.
oh6hfx
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun 01 Apr 2012 8:08 pm
Weather Station: Davis Vantage Pro2
Operating System: Windows7
Location: Lohtaja, Finland

Re: Realtime gauges even when logging interval 5 mins?

Post by oh6hfx »

During the dark months (november - january) we still have some sunlight here (64N latitude) but more up in the north
they have period in the year when the sun does not get up horizon at all.

If ISS has to run sometimes with small battery such a long time, the performance is just impressive. To test the
wireless I have installed the station around 220m away from the receiver. Line of sight - it works still perfectly!

About the month graphs, I have daily chart period 31 days. Help says these graphs are plotted once in a day.
But where I can find those graphs?

Johannes
User avatar
steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26672
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
Operating System: None
Location: Vienne, France
Contact:

Re: Realtime gauges even when logging interval 5 mins?

Post by steve »

oh6hfx wrote:About the month graphs, I have daily chart period 31 days. Help says these graphs are plotted once in a day.
But where I can find those graphs?
In the same place as the other graphs - there's a daily rain graph and a temperature min/max/average graph
Steve
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