Cant connect to WeatherLink Console.

[Jey Riabchuk]

Hello Team,

We are using your devices for weather monitoring and have a use case where we need to directly retrieve data from the device to a virtual machine using a script. After exploring options, we found the open-source software WeeWX, and we've followed its setup instructions to configure the device for data collection.

I have attempted different drivers to establish communication between the WeatherLink Live console and a virtual machine running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Installation:

We followed the standard installation process as described in these sources:

• WeeWX installation guide
• WeatherLink Live driver installation
• WeatherLink Live UDP driver

Configurations:

Our WeatherLink Live device is connected via Wi-Fi with the following configurations:

Option 1:

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[Station] location = Miami latitude = 25.7617 longitude = -80.1918 station_type = Vantage [Vantage] driver = weewx.drivers.vantage type = ethernet host = 10.100.0.184 # Device's IP address from the Wi-Fi router tcp_port = 22222 # Port that matches the device's configuration

Option 2:

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[Station] station_type = WeatherLinkLiveUDP [WeatherLinkLiveUDP] wll_ip = 10.100.0.184 poll_interval = 30 driver = user.weatherlinkliveudp

Logs:

We encountered connectivity issues where the device’s port seems unavailable, and we are unable to establish a connection. Here are the relevant logs:

Option 1 Logs:

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sudo systemctl status weewx × weewx.service - WeeWX Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/weewx.service; enabled; preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2024-10-16 12:53:00 UTC; 5s ago Duration: 223ms Docs: https://weewx.com/docs Process: 17448 ExecStart=weewxd /etc/weewx/weewx.conf (code=exited, status=4) Main PID: 17448 (code=exited, status=4) CPU: 147ms Oct 16 12:53:00 adminroot weewxd[17448]: CRITICAL weewx.engine: Vantage.__init__(self, **config_dict[DRIVER_NAME]) Oct 16 12:53:00 adminroot weewxd[17448]: CRITICAL weewx.engine: File "/usr/share/weewx/weewx/drivers/vantage.py", line 536, in __init__ Oct 16 12:53:00 adminroot weewxd[17448]: CRITICAL weewx.engine: self.port.openPort() Oct 16 12:53:00 adminroot weewxd[17448]: CRITICAL weewx.engine: raise weewx.WeeWxIOError(ex) Oct 16 12:53:00 adminroot weewxd[17448]: CRITICAL weewx.engine: weewx.WeeWxIOError: [Errno 111] Connection refused Oct 16 12:53:00 adminroot weewxd[17448]: CRITICAL __main__: Unable to load driver: [Errno 111] Connection refused Oct 16 12:53:00 adminroot weewxd[17448]: CRITICAL __main__: Exiting...

Option 2 Logs:

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Oct 22 15:01:47 adminroot weewxd[133541]: INFO user.weatherlinkliveudp: WLL UDP driver version is 0.2.9 Oct 22 15:01:47 adminroot weewxd[133541]: INFO user.weatherlinkliveudp: HTTP polling interval is 30.0 Oct 22 15:01:47 adminroot weewxd[133541]: DEBUG urllib3.connectionpool: Starting new HTTP connection (1): 10.100.0.184:80 Oct 22 15:01:48 adminroot weewxd[133541]: WARNING urllib3.connectionpool: Retrying (Retry(total=2, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None)) after connection broken by 'NewConnectionError' Oct 22 15:01:50 adminroot weewxd[133541]: WARNING urllib3.connectionpool: Retrying (Retry(total=1, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None)) after connection broken by 'NewConnectionError' Oct 22 15:01:50 adminroot weewxd[133541]: DEBUG urllib3.connectionpool: Starting new HTTP connection (3): 10.100.0.184:80

Questions:

• Is there any known issue with connecting to the WeatherLink Live device over Wi-Fi?
• Should the device be connected via Ethernet or USB instead?
• Is there any port configuration or other settings that we need to modify to allow communication via the local network?

Your assistance in diagnosing this issue would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if further details or logs are required.

Thank you!

[Karen K]

Option 1: weewx.drivers.vantage is for the adapters, that are put into the console only (6510SER, 6510USB, 6555IP).

Option2: That should work together with WeatherLink Live 6100. The computer running WeeWX and the WeatherLink Live must be in the same network. That means, their IPs must start with the same numbers.

The drivers referenced in the links are alternatives. You cannot use both of them.

If you want people provide more detailed information, please refer Help! Posting to weewx user and provide the information mentioned there.

[Jey Riabchuk]

We're using this one:  6242 Davis Vantage Vue Wireless Weather Station w/WeatherLink Console. What would be the right way to connect and driver to install here?

[vince]

I'm not aware of any way to get data from the new tablet-looking Davis console. No programming API to it.   No hardware interfaces to it.

You could get your 'outside' data wirelessly from the sensors with a RTL-SDR dongle and antenna and run the rtl-davis driver and weewx, but you would not have any inside t+h+p data because that comes from the (unreachable) console.

[Jey Riabchuk]

Thanks for the answer, Vince!
Any suggestion which hardware has been proven with easy-to-connect programming API connection to it? We're still evaluating options...

[Brent Musat]

Jey,

I do not have a WeatherLink Console, I have the smaller (no screen) device WeatherLink Live (WLL: https://www.davisinstruments.com/pages/weatherlink-live) so take everything below with a big grain of salt..  ymmv.

I'm not sure how the Console works but I assume it's using the same protocols and the WLL.   I gather data from the WLL on my network on port 22222 into weewx over UDP.   I'm using a Docker container to run weewx, but you running a VM with Ubuntu is basically the same thing. 

One thing that sticks out to me is that your VM might be blocking the data.  Ensure that your VM running weewx does NOT have a firewall running..  Try disabling the Ubuntu Firewall first (or opening port 22222, or both) and see if it can connect to your WeatherLink Console (10.100.0.184:22222).  If port 22222 is blocked from the VM/weewx then the data can not get thru.

Davis has API documentation here (https://weatherlink.github.io/weatherlink-live-local-api/) and there are some python programs at the end of that post which should help you debug (if you are a Python person)..  running the "real-time UDP Broadcast Request" Python programs (edited to the IP address of your WeatherLink Console) from the Ubuntu VM should yield some streaming data.  If you still don't see data then one of these things is wrong:

  1) your VM is not on the same network (i.e. same IP subnet) as the WeatherLink Console, which is required for the UDP packets

  2) Port 22222 is still blocked, which is what the UDP packets stream over, so port 22222 needs to be open and accessible (debug using the API guide above using curl and the standalone python program which should be able to see the streaming data)

  3) the WeatherLink driver you are using in weewx is not configured properly or broken.  Note: there are different WeatherLink Live drivers and each of them seem to work but require different configurations as far as I can remember..  try a different one... I made a post about it a couple years ago:  https://groups.google.com/g/weewx-user/c/MN96wXLlYNo

  4) the WeatherLink Console works differently than the WeatherLink Live device (which I think probably is not the case, but you never know)

that's a lot of info, but give those things a shot.   If I had a WeatherLink Console I could debug it on my home system to see if it works.  I would be surprised if Console works much differently than the WLL device.  

good luck,

brent...

[vince]

I think it is (4) - there is no Davis API to get any data from the new tablet-style console directly.

See https://weatherlink.github.io/v2-api/ for the gory details for how to get the data from Davis servers, assuming you send your data there first.  A quick read says you can get your current conditions for free but need to subscribe (pay) for querying historical data.

There are many (many!) complaints about this new console being crippled relative to the old ones if you do some google and wxforum.net searches.  It's also pretty crippled re: how long it will stay running off battery if you have a power outage and seems to have many other misfeatures vs. the old consoles.

Re: options, Karen already answered that.   Longer discussion with more details is at https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=47548.0

[Jey Riabchuk]

Thank you, guys, for all your responses. Based on overall discussion we will buy the following and give it a shot:

1. WeatherLink Live (6100):
   • A viable alternative that offers local API access over your network.
   • Supports live data retrieval via TCP/IP or UDP and can be easily integrated with WeeWX.

[Brent Musat]

Wow.  @vince, I stand corrected, apparently Davis really wants you to pay for their data and is doing everything possible to keep users from easily accessing it with the Console.  That’s a shame, and if they continue to that my next weather station will NOT be a Davis.

@jey, I hope the WeatherLink Live works for you.  At least we know it does work with weewx.  Good luck.