Weatherlink IP Discontinued... What are folks using now?

[Russell van vlack]

I operate several Davis Vantage Pro weather stations (cabled versions) for our local skywarn spotter network.  These stations are often located at remote sites and then we've got Weewx running on a server that goes out and polls all of the stations.  The stations are linked to the internet via a Weatherlink IP behind a router and it works beautifully (once we tweaked a few of the network settings in weewx, btw.)

With the Davis Weatherlink IP being discontinued, what are folks using to connect their cabled stations to the internet?  I see a couple of recommendations a while ago for something like this: https://www.gridconnect.com/products/net232-serial-to-ethernet-intelligent-cable-adapter .  Is this a good option?  How about something that does usb via ip instead?  We had RaspPi's running at all the sites sending data back to the central server for a long time, but we really like the elegance of the solution we have currently.

I'd appreciate any comments.  Kinda bummed that Davis moved to the weatherlink live idea.  I'd been able to get some of the IP loggers on ebay for a while but they're dwindling.

Thanks.

[vince]

On Thursday, June 18, 2020 at 11:26:36 AM UTC-7, Russell van vlack wrote:

With the Davis Weatherlink IP being discontinued, what are folks using to connect their cabled stations to the internet?  I see a couple of recommendations a while ago for something like this: https://www.gridconnect.com/products/net232-serial-to-ethernet-intelligent-cable-adapter .  Is this a good option?  How about something that does usb via ip instead?  We had RaspPi's running at all the sites sending data back to the central server for a long time, but we really like the elegance of the solution we have currently.

You could do a pi4 running in ramdisk (to protect the SD card) for less than the half of cost of your serial-to-ethernet adaptor.

[Pat]

I don't think the weatherlink ip will turn off anytime soon. So it should continue to work for a long time. If you're having a hard time buying a new one, I see people are using a clone. 

[Russell van vlack]

Thanks, Pat.

The ProData WiFi Logger seems like maybe the best option at this point.  It looks like it has worked well for folks based on what I see in the forum.  Because these are remote sites, we have appreciated the robustness (is that a word?) of having everything cabled from the weather station right through to the internet, but we may have to break away from that.

And it's not so much a worry about the weatherlink ip turning off as it is just finding them out there to buy when we expand the network like we're doing now.

Thanks.  

[Jeff Rabin]

Get the cheapest Pi you can.     There is a Unix package called ser2net that converts the Serial/USB connection to ethernet.     (sudo apt install ser2net).    I’ve got it running on 22222 so basically emulates the Davis Ethernet dongle.

No real maintenance as the remote Pi is doing nothing related to weewx.    It’s just converting serial to IP.

[Jeff Rabin]

Easy to config.    Add this to /etc/ser2net.conf

22222:raw:0:/dev/ttyUSB0:19200 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT -XONXOFF -RTSCTS

[Dale]

Jeff:

This sounds like a solution to another use I have.


I can understand plugging the serial output from the Davis or whatever
into the Pi, having the Pi plugged into the LAN, and that program you
mention reads the Davis (as example) and sends it in some form over the
ethernet.


But once the destination computer running the program which needs the
serial data, how does the data on the ethernet get converted back into a
form that the program (which is looking for a COM port) able to get
those data from the ethernet?


It seems to me there must be some additional software on the receiving
end which un-does this and makes it appear that it is coming in on a COM.


For instance, Weather Display has some options to receive data from an
IP address, but those conversions are done within Weather Display
station interface.


Am I overthinking this, or is there more I would need to do on the
receiving end to be successful?

Thanks for any clarification    Dale

[Jeff Rabin]

I'll assume you are using weewx as this is the weewx forum.   

In your weewx.conf file:

[Vantage]

  # This section is for the Davis Vantage series of weather stations.

  # Connection type: serial or ethernet 

  #  serial (the classic VantagePro)

  #  ethernet (the WeatherLinkIP or Serial-Ethernet bridge)

  type = ethernet

and set the host to the address of the Pi.

[galfert]

You could also ge the Davis WeatherLink Live and use that with WeeWX.
You need the WLL driver:
https://github.com/jonotaegi/weewx-wll

One nice thing about the WLL is that you can then also run other software simultaneously on the same or different system as WeeWX. In case you also wanted to check out Weather-Display or Cumulus MX for example.

[Maarten van der Hoeven]

But -correct me if wrong- WLL is only supplying current records. There is not an archive available to pull previous records from. In other words, if for some reason WeeWX is not running for a day, and you fire it up again, you cannot retrieve the previous records anymore, as was the case with the IP-logger.

Unless, of course, a driver is available that retrieves the archived records directly from Weathlink.com (CumulusMX has implemented this). As far as I know, no such driver is available for weewx (am I right?).

Op zaterdag 20 juni 2020 15:42:54 UTC+2 schreef galfert:

[Russell van vlack]

galfert,

The only problem with that, as far as I can tell, is that it requires a wireless conosole, correct?  Mine are all cabled.

Thanks.

[Russell van vlack]

Jeff,

Cool!  I hadn't pieced together how this would work.  I have a couple of Pi's from the previous deployments sitting around.  Cheap because they've been sitting in a box.  Ha ha.  I'll have to try it.  This would keep us wired as we have preferred to do.  I did get a WifiLogger2 coming as well to see how they work.

Thanks for the ideas folks.

On Friday, June 19, 2020 at 8:24:11 AM UTC-4, Jeff Rabin wrote:

[galfert]

Yes the WLL requires a wireless ISS (RF). You actually don't need a console at all. If you have a wired console then you don't have a wireless ISS.

Just so that nobody gets confused we are talking about the connection between ISS and a console, as in the RF connection.

The WLL will connect to your network via wired Ethernet or WiFi, but that is not what is being discussed.