Raspberry PI and Davis Vantage Pro2 question

[Ken]

I have a question for the group. I have a Raspberry PI and a Davis Vantage Pro2 station with uploads to CWOP, Wunderground and NOAA. I'm currently using a Windows comp dedicated to this purpose. I want to dedicate the RPI to this so yhe package will be smaller and more efficient. I however, am Linux challenged and need a little help. Are there any of you Linux gurus willing to program the memory card or my RPI for this purpose? I will supply the memory card and whatever the reasonable cost is to do the programming. (If it's within my budget, otherwise I'll need to bag the project)
Thanks for any help
Ken

[Meegeek]

Ken - Not sure if this helps, but I was in pretty much the same situation and just completed my install. In fact, I tore down the old Dell I was using last night.

You have to take this a step at a time;

- get the RPi and play around with it, you can purchase a RPi with a copy of Debian Wheezy already flashed. Some of these packages come with a pretty good book as well.

- You will want to learn how to flash a new SD card, mount additional drives, set up new users, etc on the RPi

- Learn how to set up RPi to run headless (without a separate monitor, mouse, keyboard). Learning how to do this will help  a lot, but you could just run everything off the RPi, it is capable but a little slow.

- Follow the instructions provided here for the Debian install. They work!! It may seem like greek to you at first and you will probably screw it up the first time (I did) but they work. It also taught me the valuable lesson on capturing errors and trouble shooting with the syslog.

- I went on to set up my own website as well as configure to upload to all the usual suspects. 

- Now I am working on modification of some of the skins so I can include USGS hydro-logic stage data for the river I live on.

Even if someone did all this for you and sent you a card. If you didn't take the time to at least familiarize yourself with the command line or how to navigate you would not be able to get weewx up and running. There is also a number of config files you have to update to your specific station. 

Give it a go, you won't be sorry. 

[Ken Wolfe]

Thanks for the reply! I realize I would need to customize the install for my situation. The initial legwork just needs to get done using generic info.
I have an RPI and a 32gb card ready to go. I'm going to play a while to see how far I get. Sometimes the brain works pretty well, other times....not so much.
Ken

[C Taylor]

Ken - A couple of things I did not mention in the post;

- You can flash the new 32gb card on any Windows or OSX machine. Go here for instructions; http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup. This will get the Debian distro onto the card. The wiki also has instructions for partitioning you storage. 

- This is a great source for setting up the RPi as a headless device, unless you want to mess around with a separate keyboard, mouse, and monitor; http://www.andrewmunsell.com/blog/setting-up-raspberry-pi-as-headless-device/#.UQfucB27N8E

- Read all the weewx docs, but the quick setup will get you up and running. You will have to edit weewx.conf file for your WU, CWOP, PWS settings. This is also where you can set the debug flag and log errors. Having a log of what is going on is helpful for the weewx group to assist you if you run into problems. I did this using the Debian GUI and using the Leafpad text editor. I also had the best luck logging in a root or opening folders in the file manager as root.

There is a dearth of resources on the web for Linux and RPi. Out of the box, weewx is good to go, without having to know Python or a scripting.

Good luck

Ken

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[winda...@gmail.com]

Would someone mind sharing how they made the physical connection between the Davis console and the Pi?

I recently purchased a Vantage Vue, and have been playing around with my new Rasberry Pi (can access it headless, etc), but have yet to see anyone provide specifics on how the physical connection between the two devices has been made.  I have a homegrown (non-Davis) serial cable on its way to me in the mail, and was wondering if this could be connected to the Pi either by a serial to USB adapter of via the GPIO port.  I've seen many posts about the USB port/drivers being problematic, and have seen reference to stability issues.

Thanks!

[Meegeek]

For what it is worth I used the standard Davis USB logger direct to the RPi usb port. I know it is a bit expensive, but it works great. I read a lot about a recent firmware change by Davis that is reportedly not allowing 3rd party serial interface to their consoles. It is still worth a try though, but you might want to check this out....

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=27035&p=246173&hilit=davis+vantage#p246173

Granted, they are not using weewx, but I thought the discussion on Davis not allowing 3rd party serial interfaces interesting.

[winda...@gmail.com]

Thanks very much, great news that you are using the USB port with success.  I have seen that thread about the newer version of firmware on the consoles, and specifically purchased from an on-line vendor that still has a supply with the older firmware release. 

 

I'll now start looking at the Debian install in more detail and will see about a serial to USB converter.

 

Thanks again!

[winda...@gmail.com]

A follow-up to my last reply.

I was able to successfully install weewx on my Raspberry Pi and have it communicate with Davis Vantage Vue via a home brew serial cable
DSI-01 Serial Cable and $13 USB to Serial Cable from Amazon

[Ken Wolfe]

Well, my update is a lot slower. I picked up a Motorola Bionic LapDock to use as an interface until the programming/ debugging is completed. After an extended wait for the adapters from China. (Chinese NewYear delay) I'm now back on track to proceed. I have a Davis USB data logger that's been spot-on for ten years+ so I know that won't be a problem. Next project is a simple battery backup/power supply for the whole setup. No, I don't want to use a standard ups. I'm going to design it for dc low voltage outputs with a 7 to 10 day duration. The Linux is going slowly, but eventually it'll get there. Yes, I'll have some questions.

Thanks!

[winda...@gmail.com]

Some details on my install that may be useful to someone:

• Learn how to run/access the Pi headless - log in to the Pi via SSH (I use putty), install tightVNC.  adafruit.com has some nice tutorials, one on setting up tightVNC.  Once installed, you can access the Pi full GUI interface through your Windows (for me) desktop.  I found that trying to control the Pi with a wireless mouse/keyboard plugged in to the Pi's USB connection almost impossible.  
  

• RTFM  You may want to print out and read the installation instructions from top to bottom (I didn't do that and probably wasted some time).

• Once you are able to connect to the Pi through VNC, open the Pi's web browser and download the weewx tar file.  I followed the Debian install on where to get the install file and then followed the instructions. http://www.weewx.com/docs/debian.htm
  

• Install Apache web server - Google for specific syntax.
  

• Once the file has been downloaded, I went back to my SSH session in putty, and extracted tar file.  I then followed the Debian installation instructions.  I did find the following section in the installation instructions somewhat confusing.  Before you can do this verification, you need to install a web server (I installed Apache).
  

  Verify

  After 5 minutes, open the station web page in a web browser. You should see your station information and data.

  file:///var/www/weewx/index.html  I only got my test to work after I installed and tested Apache, and then used the following to access my weewx home page - http://IP Address of PI/var/www/weewx/index.html

• During the install, make sure that you specify serial for "type" and /dev/ttyUSB0 for "port".  http://www.weewx.com/docs/usersguide.htm#[Vantage]
  

• If you plan on uploading your information to the web, there's a section in the weewx.conf file where you can specify a domain, ftp account, etc.  I did this and couldn't get this to work initially.  Then I realized that there was no ftp client installed on the Pi by default, so I had to then install ftp.  Once that was done, my site on the web got updated.

• By default, my Vantage Vue had an archive interval of 1800 seconds, and even though I had set it to 300 in weewx, I could only get my site updated every 30 minutes, rather than every 5 minutes.  There's a utility in weewx that allows you to view and reset some of the internal values on the Vantage Vue.  I could not get the command that allows you to view the current settings to work, but was able to get the command to actually updated the setting to work.  Not sure why.  Also, the listed commands include environment variables, but if these are not set, it won't work.  I just hardcoded the full path rather than use the variables.  In the below command, I replaced $BIN_ROOT and $CONFIG_ROOT with the actual values where those files were located.
  

$BIN_ROOT/wee_config_vantage $CONFIG_ROOT/weewx.conf --set-interval=300

Hope this helps somewhat.

[Thomas Keffer]

These are helpful. It seems that most of the problems you had are related to clarity in the documentation. For example, when the docs say run the command $BIN_ROOT/wee_config_vantage, they don't mean literally type that in. Instead, the symbol $BIN_ROOT is a symbolic representation of the path to your executable, whatever that might be. You're expected to replace it with the full path to your executable, just as you eventually did.

The other problems are similar.

We'll try and fix these little glitches up.

Glad to hear it's up and running!

-tk

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[Ken]

I would be curious what your procedure was to install Apache. I have a WX site I need to also upload to.
It's slow going here for the WeeWX install. Sometimes file structure is tough to follow so some of the procedure points
Need research for me to see where bits go.

Thanks,
Ken

[winda...@gmail.com]

If you are looking to upload from your Pi to a website/server, you need to install an ftp client on the Pi.  The following command should install the ftp client:

$ sudo apt-get install ftp

I believe that Apache webserver install is only required to view your website running on the Pi itself.

Within the Debian instructions, there's a section where it mentions to verify your site with the following instructions:

Verify

After 5 minutes, open the station web page in a web browser. You should see your station information and data.

file:///var/www/weewx/index.html

I could not get this to work, but it "may" work if you are logged on to a browser (Midori) within the Pi itself. 
During my troubleshooting of this issue, I just went ahead and installed Apache and was then able to view my site from my home PC browser.  Again, if you are only looking to upload to a website, I don't think that Apache is necessary.  You just need to install an ftp client, and then within the weewx.con file, specify the remote host you will be ftp'ing the files to along with sign on credentials.

HTH

[Bill]

The webserver on the PI is only required if you are going to http directly to
the PI. Normally you send the pages to another server via FTP. Weewx takes
care of the FTP, you should n't need an FTP client installed.

The file:// syntax is only if you are browsing on the local machine, so you
would need a browser on the PI to use this. Alternately, you could copy the
files (ftp, scp, rsync) to another machine if you are just testing them.

Bill

[jss...@talktalk.net]

hi, i am on the same track as you with this, want to use the davis serial logger with rpi to upload data to the net, but have got bogged down. im a newbie to rpi, so any help would be really useful. i gather i need to download weewx and vantagepro.py, but not sure how or where to do this. thanks for pointing me in the right direction. what cables and plugs will i need to buy?

[Gerardo Doro]

Hi, I know that this thread is quite old but I need help with a Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus and Raspberry Pi 2 hardware configuration for a school project.

I have the "stock" datalink with the serial cable (RS-232 i think) and i need to connect it to the rPi2 to collect all the data from the station. Can I use a simple serial to USB adapter or do i need something more? The Vantage Pro2 Plus of my school has the very first firmware installed and it is not possible to update without the updater that costs too much for me, is that mandatory or maybe weeWX works also with this firmware?

Thank yo very much!

[Dave Webb KB1PVH]

This is the one I use.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00425S1H8

Dave-KB1PVH


Sent from my Galaxy S7

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[Gerardo Doro]

Seriously? Do I need only this cable?

[Dave Webb KB1PVH]

If you already have the Davis serial logger all you need is a serial to USB adapter to plug into the Pi. 

Dave-KB1PVH


Sent from my Galaxy S7

On Nov 3, 2017 9:49 AM, "Gerardo Doro" <gerry...@gmail.com> wrote:

Seriously? Do I need only this cable?

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[Dave Webb KB1PVH]

See attached.

Dave-KB1PVH


Sent from my Galaxy S7

[Gerardo Doro]

Wow! That's fantastic! Thank you very much! I was thinking that the original datalogger was encrypted or something... I'm so happy to know that is not true! Thank you again!

Maybe this weekend I can work on this project. If I have any news, i will post them in a new thread.

Thanks again and sorry for my bad English!

[Dave Webb KB1PVH]

Glad to help. Don't worry about your English, it's better than some I've seen with English as their first language. Have fun. 

Dave-KB1PVH


Sent from my Galaxy S7

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[Gerardo Doro]

Yes! That's the same datalogger that I have got! Today I will buy the serial to USB and tomorrow I will work on it! 

[Joush]

Hello,

Can we import weewx into another script (for example pyqt) to create a GUI for showing data? If yes, please tell me how to do that!

Thanks!

[Andrew Milner]

the database created by weewx is just a standard database which can be accessed by anything I guess.

the drivers rely to some extent on the weewx manager to get the data from the stations

the reports (html pages) can be created by a standalone utility that could be called by anything I guess

Maybe you could / should be more specific.  Weewx is composed of several parts - manager, drivers, report generation, restful services but its outputs are standard entities - database tables. files, html pages etc which can be used/accessed by anything

[Adnan Mumtaz]

Whats the difference if one buys the USB data logger instead of serial, will it also work? I am considering to purchase a Davis Vantage Pro2, reading different posts here on how to connect it with weewx , still lost

On Friday, 3 November 2017 16:52:52 UTC+3, Dave Webb KB1PVH wrote:

See attached.

Dave-KB1PVH


Sent from my Galaxy S7

On Nov 3, 2017 9:51 AM, "Dave Webb KB1PVH" <kb1...@gmail.com> wrote:

If you already have the Davis serial logger all you need is a serial to USB adapter to plug into the Pi. 

Dave-KB1PVH


Sent from my Galaxy S7

On Nov 3, 2017 9:49 AM, "Gerardo Doro" <gerry...@gmail.com> wrote:

Seriously? Do I need only this cable?

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[Dave Webb KB1PVH]

The USB logger would lose connection sometimes and the serial was more reliable from what I had heard. 

Dave-KB1PVH


Sent from my Galaxy S9

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[Thomas Keffer]

The serial logger used to be more reliable, but over the last couple of years, I have not noticed any difference.

Also, because most computers these days do not come with a serial port, you are likely to need a serial-to-usb converter, which can be unreliable.

Today, I would get the USB version.

-tk

[tomn...@frontier.com]

Same setup here, I ended up getting a serial port for the RPi from here:
https://www.abelectronics.co.uk/p/51/serial-pi-plus

Minimal effort to solder the connector and have had zero issues once it was set up.

There's a trick or to with reconfiguring how the RPi boots (disable bluetooth so the serial port

gets the better UART, but that's maybe only RPi 3's).

Chris