Uploading aws data 24/7 without running pc all the time

[john st harmon weather]

I  have a Vantage Vue weather station which is curently connected to my pc which, in turn is running 'Cumulus' alongside the Davis weatherlink software to upload data to my own website and also to WOW, Weather Underground etc. The drawback I have with this set up is, obviously, that it only uploads when the pc is running, and I have no reason or desire to keep it running all the time. Therefore I have been looking at alternatives, and Meteohub appears to meet all my requirements. Does anybody have experience of this equipment and software, or indeed know of any other solutions?

[Weather Observations Website]

John thank you for your post,

I am writing in response to your final question...."Possible other solutions".... Connect using a Rasperry Pi, the link has instructions which explain how to connect to a Raspberry Pi, that can be used for permanent running. we hope to be working on some more user-friendly instructions in the near future, but please have a read and see if this may be of use to you.

http://trastle.github.io/rpi-weather/

[john st harmon weather]

I'm not familiar with the Raspberry Pi at all. Is this a similar device to the Sheevaplug which is the prefered device for Meteohub? Does it have an ethernet connection to allow me to connect it directly to our network and then to the internet? Indeed, would it run the Meteohub software? Certainly the price I found on the web is very attractive. Likewise whilst I've heard of Python I've never worked with it. The setup as described in the link apears to give a solution to link with WOW, Weather Underground etc 24/7, but does it also have the capacity to upload web pages to our own website?

[Weather Observations Website]

Hi John,

 

Firstly let me apologise for the delay in responding I wanted to check my facts to give you a proper response, The Raspberry Pi is similar to the Sheevaplug in the fact that it is a small Linux Box, the B model does have Ethernet connection. The question of would it run MeteoHub software is one that has been asked of MeteoHub a number of times, at time of posting I believe that it is not supported, but I feel due to the demand it may be something coming soon. Other software is supported. Python is a very versitile programming language and has the capability to upload pages to websites.

 

I hope this has been of good use to you

[john st harmon weather]

Seems interesting and on the face of it pywws will do what I want. The next question is whether I have the know how to be able to set it up properly. I have a basic understanding of the command line, and also a very basic php coding ability. I have no experience at all with Python.
Secondly I wonder whether pywws will run on Sheevaplug? If so I'm thinking this would give me two different software posibilities and if not happy with one I could try the other.

[Paula Taylor]

Hi John,

     Whilst pywws would do your job if you had one of the fine offset wh1080/3080 etc.,Low Cost instruments, It does not support Davis Instruments at present, which includes your Vantage Vue.

wxwws does, but does not have a distributed configuration to send to WOW in the distribution, but noted in the http://www.weewx.com/docs/usersguide.htm

"

5.3.3. [[WOW]]

Weewx can send your current data to the British Weather Observations Website (WOW) service. This section is not included in the version of weewx.conf that comes with the distribution, so you will have to add it by hand. When you're done, it will look similar to the Wunderground or PWSweather sections above, that is, something like this:

[StdRestful] . . . [[WOW]] station = 12345678 # Replace with your station number password = xxxxx # Replace with your password driver = weewx.restful.WOW"

(Formatting is blown in cut and paste)

So this will run on the shevaplug or Raspberry PI or any *inx system, included if you are brave; some routers than can use DD-WRT or OpenWRT .

Paula

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 9:15:01 PM UTC+1, john st harmon weather wrote:

[Dave]

Hi John

I had the same issue some two years ago and being a simple person came up with a simple answer. Brought a Windows Thin Client off ebay with XP embedded. I run Cumulus off a USB memory stick along with VNC attached to it. It boots automatically if I suffer a power outage, only uses 10w and generates little or no heat and  I connect to it using VNC if I need to. Its been running for at least two years and requires minimal maintenance.

Dave 

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 9:15:01 PM UTC+1, john st harmon weather wrote:

[Paula Taylor]

minor opps earlier for wxwws, should read WeeWx.

   I have been running both a modified Router wl-500G running wview inside it for over a year (small cron job to send to WOW), also a Raspberry Pi (RPi) model B using pywws on a 4GB memory card, the program suffers from occasional well known hangs with the WH1080 usb console. But the program is rock solid. I am using the raspberry pi with Pi-Fi so that there is only the 5V power plug and the usb cable to the console. Like Dave, I use VNC to access the RPi .

Kind regards
Paula

 
 

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 9:15:01 PM UTC+1, john st harmon weather wrote:

[R Proudfoot]

Hi John,

Have you considered a netbook? I have used a Samsung NC10 since May 2009 virtually 24/7 apart from maintenance. With the lid closed and screen off it uses very little power and has the advantage over other hardware that it can be used for other purposes.

Ray.

On Thursday, August 8, 2013 9:15:01 PM UTC+1, john st harmon weather wrote:

[john st harmon weather]

I've checked out WeeWx and particularly liked the example station at Hood River West. This is exactly the sort of thing I want to create, and the setup looks manageable too. However, as I'm currently running Cumulus on my desktop Dave's thin client solution is also quite attractive if I can find such a device at an attractive price. But, back to my original question, does anybody actually use Meteohub, and if so does it meet all my requirements?

[john st harmon weather]

Felt it was time for an update. My decision was to try to install weewx onto an old desktop pc as an experiment to see if I could get it working before spending money on hardware specially fo the purpose. At the moment running into dependancy problems when trying to install weewx2.4.0-1.deb onto a system running ubuntu 12.4 with the error 'Dependancy not satisfied:python-usb(>=0.4)'. I have already posted on the weewx group page, but if anybody here has any thoughts they'd be appreciated. Ubuntu and Linux is new to me, coming from a windows background and a Google search causes more confusion than it solves.

On Thursday, 8 August 2013 21:15:01 UTC+1, john st harmon weather wrote: