Upgrade PWS- WLL or WiFiLogger2?

[gary....@gmail.com]

I am thinking of upgrading my PWS to a Davis 6163.

To get the data into WeeWX, I am looking at two devices.

The Davis 6100 (WLL) or the WiFiLogger2

I can find no real information about the WLL an local LAN.

I see a couple of user created drivers for the WLL and WeeWX, but they seem to have issues.

The WiFiLogger2 has the ability to be used as a data logger via WiFi or it can provide a MQTT feed.

Why the WLL or WiFiLogger? I don't wish to have my console located with my WeeWX server.

Any feedback on either device?

I'd like to move forward, but if I can't get my data into WeeWX, then it's a non-starter.

[jerry...@gmail.com]

I recently switched from a 3 hop retransmit across 1000 ft by multiple Davis Vantage Pro2 links to WiFiLogger2 across an AirMax backhaul and the weewx server has been running well for several months.  I had one problem with the WiFiLogger2.  It seemed to disconnect from its vLAN network every 4 days or so, which caused weewx to going into a waiting mode and not reconnect.  WiFiLogger2 eventually reconnects after about 2 hours, but weewx needs to be restarted after that.  I fixed this problem by running a short shell script as a cron job once a day to restart WiFiLogger2.  WifiLogger2 has been stable if restarted once a day.  

WifiLogger2 replaced a Davis Weather Envoy 6316 with a USB interface.  I found the 6316 would freeze every 8 days (running 5 minute update intervals). This was the case under WeatherLink for Windows, WeatherLink for Mac, and Weewx.  Must be the USB driver.  Again, a cron job to restart weewx (or the other programs) every 7 days fixed the problem.

Wojtek at WiFiLogger2 has been very responsive in helping to trouble shoot the disconnect issues.  I am happy with WiFiLogger2.

[mh081...@gmail.com]

Hi,

can you provide me this shell script to restart  WifiLogger2  by cron? How did you connect to WifiLogger2 remotely? I have the same problem that WifiLogger2 disconnects from wlan after several days.

[jerry...@gmail.com]

WifiLogger2 doesn't have an ssh port open, but it does respond on port 80 to a restart command from http.  Under macOS I use the shell script command to open the Safair browser to the restart javascript command.

#!/bin/sh

# Shell script to restart the weatherLogger wifi device in the Davis Vantage Pro 2 in the Harbormaster Building

# The weather logger tends to disconnect from network every 4 days causing weewx to crash in a waiting state

# Currently set to run by rycweather as a cron job once a day at 8:07 am.

# check to see if weatherLogger is connected on Harbormaster vlan

/sbin/ping -c 1 192.168.145.106

if [[ "$?" == "0" ]]; then

    weatherLoggerStatus="weatherLogger is online"

#   Using Safari browser

    open -a Safari http://192.168.145.106/admin/restart

#   wait for Safari to launch and load javascript function of URL

    sleep 60

#   close Safari

    killall Safari

else

    weatherLoggerStatus="weatherLogger is OFFLINE"

fi

# Check weatherLogger is connected again

/sbin/ping -c 1 192.168.145.106

if [[ "$?" == "0" ]]; then

    newWeatherLoggerStatus="weatherlogger is back online"

else

    newWeatherLoggerStatus="weatherLogger is OFFLINE after restart"

fi

echo "$weatherLoggerStatus and after restart $newWeatherLoggerStatus" | mail -s "weatherLogger restart" xxx

exit

[mh081...@gmail.com]

Thanks for the script. I changed it to be runnable from raspberry pi (Debian 10.4)

#!/bin/sh

# Shell script to restart the weatherLogger wifi device in the Davis Vantage Pro 2 in the Harbormaster Building

# The weather logger tends to disconnect from network every 4 days causing weewx to crash in a waiting state

# Currently set to run by rycweather as a cron job once a day at 8:07 am.

# check to see if weatherLogger is connected on Harbormaster vlan

/bin/ping -c 1 WiFiLogger.fritz.box

if [ "$?" = "0" ]; then

    weatherLoggerStatus="weatherLogger is online"

#   Using curl

    curl --connect-timeout 5 --fail http://WiFiLogger.fritz.box/admin/restart

#   wait to launch and load javascript function of URL

    sleep 30

else

    weatherLoggerStatus="weatherLogger is OFFLINE"

fi

# Check weatherLogger is connected again

/bin/ping -c 1 WiFiLogger.fritz.box

if [ "$?" = "0" ]; then

    newWeatherLoggerStatus="weatherlogger is back online"

else

    newWeatherLoggerStatus="weatherLogger is OFFLINE after restart"

fi

echo "$weatherLoggerStatus and after restart $newWeatherLoggerStatus" | sendemail -f mailadr...@mail.com -t mailad...@mail.com -u "WifiLogger Restart" -s mailserver.mail.com -xu "username" -xp "password" -o tls=yes -o message-content-type=auto

exit

[gary....@gmail.com]

That is the information I was looking for.

I plan to run it with Rich's MQTTSubscribe. Then the WiFiLogger2 will simply write to my mosquitto server every 3 seconds allowing it to talk with the console at will. WeeWX will handle all other reporting.

Wojtek is a great resource, I have been exchanging email with him and he is very clear on exactly what the device can/can't/shouldn't do.

Ryan at Scaled Instruments has been great as well.

WeeWX-MQTTSubscribe

[gary....@gmail.com]

Thanks for the Linux version of the script.

[jerry...@gmail.com]

I'm curious if the curl command works to restart WiFiLogger2.  I first tried using the lynx command line browser and it did not resolve the page correctly and didn't restart.  I assumed that was because the restart page contains some javascript and lynx doesn't support javascript.  I then switched to Safari, which has the downside of needing a GUI.  

So does curl work in the terminal script?  That's a better solution if it works.

[mh081...@gmail.com]

Yes, works with the script from my above reply with curl.... on raspberry pi4 debian 10 

[jerry...@gmail.com]

Doh!  Didn't work on macOS because I forgot the -u username:password argument.  Safari used the login keychain so didn't need it.  Much better solution for a shell script.