Weewx connectivity restored - a success/appreciation post

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Brent Wilder

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Aug 12, 2022, 10:26:56 AM8/12/22
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Hello fellow weather enthusiasts,

This summer me and another grad student were brought into a national park to install 4 fog monitoring stations. Each station required leaf wetness sensors and a meteorological instrument to parse out rainfall from fog. Two of the instruments had Campbell Sci ClimaVUE50's , which go for about $3,000 a pop. We did not have a lot of budget left after these, but we were able to find Weewx software coupled with Davis Vantage Pro 2 to be a viable solution! We installed two stations with the RPI Zero W + MeteoPi Hat connected to the Davis Reciever. Note: for those that also have the MeteoPi Hat with the built in RTC (Real Time Clock) coin, it's a good idea to check the datetime and possibly reset it / sync it to the network time if needed.


fieldpi.jpg


For the longest time we were not receiving proper communication between the two devices (FAILED TO WAKE VANTAGE, etc..). It turns out it was due to faulty soldering on our end! Once the soldering was fixed, Weewx established the database instantly and we now have all of our stations running smoothly. It is now been running for about a month now with no errors so far.

itworks.jpg
*Notice in the above picture we are connected without internet.. this is because we are using the RPI as a local access point.*

We have used quality industrial microSDs, but being in a coastal ecosystem with lots of moisture (hence the fog investigation), we fully expect the microSDs to fail in 3-4 years. Therefore, we also busted out 5 copies of Debian Buster with Weewx pre-installed to make for easier swaps in the future. Thank you so much for quality software and we look forward to collecting data for (hopefully) many many years!

shirtfront.jpg

Tom Keffer

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Aug 12, 2022, 10:36:17 AM8/12/22
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LOL! You made a T-shirt?!

Glad to hear that you are putting weewx to good use. Congratulations on your successful installation!

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Brent Wilder

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Aug 12, 2022, 11:17:07 AM8/12/22
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lol yep :D I kind of fat fingered the T-shirt design and added some random stars but yep, wearing it proudly! Thank you for all the great documentation!

Brent Wilder

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Aug 12, 2022, 11:20:54 AM8/12/22
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also, here is the back!

shirtback2.jpg

vince

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Aug 12, 2022, 12:48:03 PM8/12/22
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ok the back makes it beyond good.

Tom Keffer

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Aug 12, 2022, 4:46:44 PM8/12/22
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That's awesome! 

I'll bet you could go into any bar in the world wearing that and get a free drink. :-)

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Doug Jenkins

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Aug 12, 2022, 4:58:25 PM8/12/22
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Wow! At first I thought it was just a super-imposed image, but it is the real deal! 

If I see someone walk in a bar with that shirt, I would tell the bartender to pour them a drink as they know about the weather!

:)
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