Integration with AREDN mesh network

[Jerry Simonowits]

Hi all,

I'm very very new to whew, so apologies in advance if this has been covered. I've seen some discussion but can't quite find what I want.

I'm part of a team that is building a local AREDN mesh network (www.aredn.org). This network will be related to offering emergency communications to various supported organizations during emergency situations where regular comms might not be available. We'll be offering a host of services (everything from phones to IM). 

One of the items that I thought would be helpful is to be able to supply weather conditions and weewx seems to fit the bill.

I'll be placing the weather sensor (a 5 in 1 or something similar) at the top of a tower (we have a camera there already) and the console in the building below (most of these devices seem to use 433mhz to communicate which is fine). That's the easy part.

What I'm looking to do is have a Pi running attached to the console and serving up the weather information visible to anyone who has access to the mesh network (IOW, it would have to run as a web server so others could see it).

Any suggestions in terms of weather devices (most of the ones that are on the tested list are either unavailable or very expensive) ? Is there a feature in weewx that could continue to send the data to the manufacturer's site as well as consume it ?

Jerry

[mwall]

jerry,

sounds like a lovely project!

consider writing down your requirements first, then see which combination of hardware will satisfy those requirements.  clarifying the requirements now will also help you manage the system as requirements and priorities change (and when you delegate the climbs up to the tower :)

unless you enjoy climbing towers, you probably want a solution that does not require much physical attention.  some of the most common first-person attention that a sensor cluster needs include clearing the rain bucket of debris (how close to trees and birds?), removing spiders from the rain collection mechanism (depends on the location), changing batteries (9-18 months, or never, depending on the hardware), changing/lubricating bearings (every 2 years in a saltwater environment), replacing broken sensors (due to hail, uv damage followed by snow, etc).

you might want an anemometer at the top of the tower, with a wired or wireless connection to the rest of the instruments at or near the ground.

do you have wired or wireless internet access at the tower?

do you have power at the tower, or does the whole thing need to be battery powered?

is there adequate bonding/grounding for lightning strikes?

is there a climate controlled space at the tower, or does everything need to be in its own weathertight container?

there are *many* online services to which you can feed data.  some of those are publicly accessible, others are accessible only to someone with a username and password.  many of the manufacturer's sites tend to be the latter.  weewx can upload to pretty much any of them.  what do you want users of your data to be able do/see?  do you want the weather data integrated into another web site, or in its own set of pages?  if you provide some examples of weather sites that you like, i'm sure there are people reading this who could provide similar templates and/or experience with those sites.

you probably have considered all of these things, but if you make the requirements clear you'll get more focused answers.

m

[Joe Spears]

Jerry,

This is easy to do out of the box.  

In my set up I have a Vantage Vue Weather station in my yard.  The console in my house connects wirelessly to the station.  The console then connects to my Pi running weewx.  The Pi also has an apache web server.  If you connected your Pi to your Arden network through one of the nodes anyone on the network would be able to see the served up pages generated by weewx and apache.    My Pi also serves up the weather to Wunderground (KNCCONOV7) and CWOP so you can see my weather in aprs.fi if you search for my call.  My web pages from the Pi web server are only available on my LAN

Let me know if I can be of more help.

Joe AF1E

[Jerry Simonowits]

Thank you Joe.

I was looking at the Vantage Vue, but the least expensive seems to be about $265, so if you have any ideas about something less expensive that would be helpful.

I presume the console is connected to the Pi via the USB interface ? Any recommendation on model (or add on’s) ? 

What you are describing seems like what I’m looking for, and we can make the web server available as a resource on the mesh.

Thanks again for your help with this.

73’s

Jerry KB2GCG

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Jerry

Gerald (Jerry) Simonowits CISM, CISSP, CRISC

[Joe Spears]

The Vantage Vue Console unfortunately needs the WeatherLink Package to connect.  It is pricey and you don't use the software since you are using weewx.  You just use the board that goes in the console for the USB connectivity.  

Look for the other stations that Weewx supports if you are looking for a less expensive alternative.  It really does not matter since weewx and the pi are doing all the work.  

Look at the Accurite https://www.acurite.com/pro-weather-station-with-pro-plus-5-in-1-sensor-pc-connect-wind-and-rain.html as a possible alternative.

73 Joe

[vince]

On Monday, December 19, 2016 at 9:13:09 AM UTC-8, Joe Spears wrote:

The Vantage Vue Console unfortunately needs the WeatherLink Package to connect.  It is pricey and you don't use the software since you are using weewx.  You just use the board that goes in the console for the USB connectivity.  

Best price I can find in a quick check is $110 for this - https://www.scientificsales.com/Davis-Vantage-Vue-Accessories-s/37.htm making the whole bundle with the Vue around $385 US (plus tax and shipping).  VP2 looks about $140 more for the unit+logger.

(I have no affiliation with the site linked to here, just passing along what seems like a representative link)

Agree it's highway robbery for the logger hardware, but there's little option if you want to stay supported.  There are third-party homegrown loggers out there for much less money if you look around a bit.

[Jerry Simonowits]

Thanks Joe, that’s what I had in mind but had trouble finding one.

Jerry

[Jerry Simonowits]

Hello all again, and for those celebrating the holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, joyous Kwanza and if I missed something, the best of the holiday season to you.

I did get an Acurite weather station with USB.

I hooked up my computer to the USB and was able to download info, showing that the interface was working.

I got a Pi3 setup and running.

I installed weewx as per the instructions.

I started up weewx as:

sudo weewx weewx.conf

I then get an error message, because the configuration file is in /etc/weewx not in /home/pi

if I do a cd /etc/weewx and try to run it there, it can’t find the program.

OK, it’s been years since I’ve seriously used Unix of any kind directly. Any clues as to tell it how to find the config file ?

Jerry

[mwall]

On Saturday, December 24, 2016 at 5:54:20 PM UTC-5, Jerry Simonowits wrote:

I started up weewx as:

sudo weewx weewx.conf

I then get an error message, because the configuration file is in /etc/weewx not in /home/pi

if I do a cd /etc/weewx and try to run it there, it can’t find the program.

OK, it’s been years since I’ve seriously used Unix of any kind directly. Any clues as to tell it how to find the config file ?

you should be able to do:

sudo weewxd /etc/weewx/weewx.conf

the weewx daemon is called 'weewxd', not 'weewx'

m

[Jerry Simonowits]

Hi all,

For those who may not remember, I’m a ham radio operator and we’re planning on putting up a weather station on a local tower and integrate it with our AREDN Mesh network for use bye emergency services (local/county/state).

Well, I’ve made some progress (Interrupted by a family item, so took a break).

I installed all the other items I needed (such as an Apache Server) and then followed the directions here:

weewx: Installation using setup.py

I had a successful install and have things setup so that both Apache and weewx startup automatically on my Raspberry Pi upon restart.

When I check with : file:///home/weewx/public_html/index.html it looks great, so this is good progress.

I followed these instructions to integrate with Apache:

• If weewx was installed using setup.py, you must tell Apache where to find the weewx reports. One method is to install an Apache configuration snippet:

  sudo cp util/apache/conf.d/weewx.conf /etc/apache2/conf.d

  Be sure that the path in the Apache configuration snippet matches the HTML_ROOT defined in the weewx configuration file. For example, the path for a default setup.py installation would look like this:

  Alias /weewx /home/weewx/public_html
  <Directory /home/weewx/public_html>
      Options FollowSymlinks
      AllowOverride None
  </Directory>

  Restart Apache to make the changes happen:

  sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

The conf.d file was created (it wasn’t there before) and it had the right root and so on in the file. I restarted Apache, and even restarted the Pi, but I’m getting a 404 when I try and access using the URL of http://localhost/weewx

When I try http://localhost/home/weewx/public_html/index.html I also get a 404 with an error message from Apache saying “The requested URL /home/weewx/public)html/index.html was not found on this server

Any suggestions ?

Jerry KB2GCG

[Jerry Simonowits]

Hi all again,

Just wanted to let folks now, that sure enough, an hour after sending my last note I figured it all out. There were definitely a few things incorrect in the doc (glad to share my feedback if someone will point me in the right direction), but it's all working now. Sure did have to knock off a lot of rust from way back when I used to use Unix.

Thanks all,

Jerry KB2GCG

[Glenn McKechnie]

Hi Jerry,

As the root user.
copy that file into /etc/apache2/conf-available, so that you now have it as /etc/apache2/conf-available/weewx.conf

then run the command...
 a2enconf weewx.conf

and you should see a message saying...
Enabling conf weewx.
To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
  service apache2 reload

Do that (reload apache)  and it should hopefully be working for you.

Cheers
 Glenn

rorpi - read only raspberry pi + weewx: now with scripts

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[Jerry Simonowits]

The system could not find the a2ecinf command.

Jerry


- "Defeat lasts one day, giving up lasts a lifetime."

[Glenn McKechnie]

a2enconf - not - a2ecinf

It comes packaged with apache2 and lives at /usr/sbin/a2enconf

Cheers
 Glenn

rorpi - read only raspberry pi + weewx: now with scripts

[Jerry Simonowits]

i found the command in /use/sbin 

But still no luck displaying the pages via Apache

- "Defeat lasts one day, giving up lasts a lifetime."

On Jan 15, 2017, at 5:22 PM, Glenn McKechnie <glenn.m...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Jerry Simonowits]

Thanks Glenn, that was a typo ... I did find it , seemed to work but the Apache server is still not serving the page.

Jerry

- "Defeat lasts one day, giving up lasts a lifetime."

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[Glenn McKechnie]

If it worked, there will be a symlink installed into /etc/apache2/conf-enabled which points to that conf file

weewx.conf -> /etc/apache2/conf-available/weewx.conf

Looking in the tarball ( weewx-3.6.2.tar.gz ), there's an apache weewx.conf file under /weewx-3.6.2/util/apache/conf.d/

Alias /weewx /home/weewx/public_html
<Directory /home/weewx/public_html>
  Options FollowSymlinks
  AllowOverride None

# for apache 2.2
  Order allow,deny
  Allow from all
# for apache 2.4
#  Require all granted
</Directory>

Judging by your original comment, you're probably using that one? If you're on a recent pi then you'd be running apache 2.4 (run apachectl -V  to check ) so adjust the comments in that file accordingly.

After that, I'm out of ideas - except check your logs :-)
  tail -f /var/log/apache2/*.log  (or multitail as an alternative where you can use enter to add a mark)

Cheers
 Glenn

rorpi - read only raspberry pi + weewx: now with scripts

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[Jerry Simonowits]

Thank you, for the help, seems like a clean install of Pi followed by a clean weewx install (and some changes from the doc in how to install) worked.

Thanks for your help.

Jerry KB2GCG