FineOffsetUSB - update only every 30 minutes

[Ultan McDonagh]

Hi

Firstly let me apologize for my "Newbieness"

I have a Aercus station which is really a Fine Offset 3080 in disguise.

I have it connected to a Pi and on the Pi i have WeeWx running

It is updating to a weather station called IGALWAYK2 on weather underground.

Despite my best efforts - i cannot get it to update any more frequently than 30 minutes.
 
I attach the relevant entries from the weewx.conf.

[Station]
station_type = FineOffsetUSB

[FineOffsetUSB]
model = WH3080
polling_mode = PERIODIC
polling_interval = 120

[StdArchive]
archive_interval = 120
record_generation = software

I have stopped and started the application and rebooted the Pi - but the updates are no more frequent.

I would install the rapidfire package except i would be afraid it would clog my (relatively limited) bandwidth.

Any suggestions would be most welcome - and thanks in advance..!

Ultan

[mwall]

30 minutes is the factory setting for the 'read_period' (i.e., how often the console saves a record) on fine offset stations.

use wee_config_fousb to change this value.  for example, to set it to 5 minutes:

sudo wee_config_fousb --set-interval=5

then set the 'archive_interval' in weewx to match it.  for example, for 5 minutes:

[StdArchive]
    archive_interval = 300

the polling interval tells weewx how often to contact the console for new data.  since fine offset stations update only every 48 seconds (every 60 seconds for uv data in the 3080 series), there is no point to setting polling_interval less than 48.  i recommend polling_interval=60

m

[Ultan McDonagh]

Thanks for that mwall

I have the settings updated.. and am currently testing -

U

[Ultan McDonagh]

Hi - No joy..

Extract from log:

Oct 16 22:57:30 raspberrypi weewx[5044]: wxengine: Terminating weewx version 2.4.0
Oct 16 22:57:38 raspberrypi weewx[5061]: wxengine: Initializing weewx version 2.4.0
Oct 16 22:57:38 raspberrypi weewx[5061]: wxengine: Using Python 2.7.3 (default, Jan 13 2013, 11:20:46) #012[GCC 4.6.3]
Oct 16 22:57:38 raspberrypi weewx[5061]: wxengine: pid file is /var/run/weewx.pid
Oct 16 22:57:39 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: wxengine: Using configuration file /home/weewx/weewx.conf
Oct 16 22:57:39 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: wxengine: Loading station type FineOffsetUSB (weewx.drivers.fousb)
Oct 16 22:57:39 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: fousb: polling mode is PERIODIC
Oct 16 22:57:39 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: fousb: polling interval is 60
Oct 16 22:57:39 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: fousb: altitude is 57.0 meters
Oct 16 22:57:39 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: fousb: pressure offset is -7.0
Oct 16 22:57:39 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: wxengine: StdConvert target unit is 0x1
Oct 16 22:57:40 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: wxengine: The archive interval in the configuration file (60) does not match the station hardware interval (1800).
Oct 16 22:57:40 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: wxengine: Using station hardware archive interval of 1800
Oct 16 22:57:40 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: wxengine: Record generation will be attempted in 'software'
Oct 16 22:57:40 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: wxengine: Using archive database: archive_sqlite
Oct 16 22:57:40 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: stats: stats database up to date.
Oct 16 22:57:40 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: wxengine: Using stats database: stats_sqlite
Oct 16 22:57:40 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: wxengine: Starting up weewx version 2.4.0
Oct 16 22:57:40 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: fousb: synchronising to the weather station (quality=0)
Oct 16 22:58:59 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: fousb: unstable read: blocks differ for ptr 0x002700
Oct 16 22:58:59 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: fousb: invalid data in get_records at 0x26fc, 2013-10-16T21:52:02
Oct 16 22:58:59 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: wxengine: Starting main packet loop.
Oct 16 22:58:59 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: fousb: station status {'unknown': 0, 'lost_connection': 0, 'rain_overflow': 0} (0)
Oct 16 23:01:00 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: Archive: added archive record 2013-10-16 23:00:00 IST (1381960800)
Oct 16 23:01:01 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: restful: Published record 2013-10-16 23:00:00 IST (1381960800) to Wunderground station IGALWAYK2
Oct 16 23:01:05 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: filegenerator: generated 1 'SummaryByMonth' files in 2.80 seconds
Oct 16 23:01:12 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: filegenerator: generated 1 'SummaryByYear' files in 6.31 seconds
Oct 16 23:01:35 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: filegenerator: generated 12 'toDate' files in 23.60 seconds
Oct 16 23:01:52 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: genimages: Generated 22 images in 16.94 seconds


Any ideas..?

U

[John Masters]

Yes Ultan,

My setup is similar to yours in hardware, though i ftp updates to a website every 5 mins.
I changed the fine offset settings as below:

polling mode =ADAPTIVE
polling interval = 60

I left archive interval at 300

I also did as mwall suggested and set wee_config_fousb to 5.

 Regards,
John

[mwall]

On Wednesday, October 16, 2013 6:05:12 PM UTC-4, Ultan McDonagh wrote:

Oct 16 22:57:40 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: wxengine: The archive interval in the configuration file (60) does not match the station hardware interval (1800).
Oct 16 22:57:40 raspberrypi weewx[5063]: wxengine: Using station hardware archive interval of 1800

here is the key: weewx.conf says to use a 60 second hardware interval, but your station archive interval is actually 1800 (30 minutes).  you need to change it using wee_config_fousb:

sudo wee_config_fousb --set-interval=5

and set the archive interval in weewx.conf to 300.

m

[mwall]

On Wednesday, October 16, 2013 6:37:10 PM UTC-4, John Masters wrote:

Yes Ultan,

My setup is similar to yours in hardware, though i ftp updates to a website every 5 mins.
I changed the fine offset settings as below:

polling mode =ADAPTIVE
polling interval = 60

fwiw, the polling_interval does not do anything when the polling_mode is ADAPTIVE.  when polling_mode is ADAPTIVE, weewx tries to synchronize its reads with the console, resulting in a polling interval of approximately 48 seconds.  you should consider the ADAPTIVE mode to be experimental - i have found PERIODIC with a fixed polling_interval to be more reliable.  as soon as i get multi-threading into the fousb driver, the ADAPTIVE mode will be the preferred mode, since it will be more likely to avoid the USB lockups that many fine offset stations have.

m

[John Masters]

Thanks for the explanation mwall,

I shall change polling_mode back to periodic, but as the setup is running so well in adaptive mode presently, i might leave it until i get a hang, or until i try the new weewx beta.
With wfrog & pywws on a qnap server i was getting hangs almost every day. Weewx with fousb on the rpi has not hung yet in almost a month!

regards
JM

[Ultan McDonagh]

Hi -

Just a quick update..

the config change updated (eventually) - many thanks for the kind pointers.

Ultan

On Wednesday, October 16, 2013 10:59:06 PM UTC+1, Ultan McDonagh wrote:

[Joe Dearborn]

To all here: just thanks for this post.  Here I am two years later converting from WMR968 to Ambient WS-2095 (the former started flaking out after five years of no problem service) and needed just a little push in the right direction.  Insight to the FineOffsetUSB and how the hardware behaves is just what I needed.  I now have successfully submitted records to both CWOP and wunderground with the new configuration.

regards