Connect Froggit WH3000SE weatherstation to weewx

[Wolfgang Knauer]

Hi, is it possible to connect my Froggit WH3000SE weatherstation to weewx. This weatherstation has only a WLAN interface (no USB) where data is uploaded to different weather platforms like wunderground.com. I would like to transmit the data also to my private weewx server. Is there anybody who has some hints how to do this. Up to now I found no information in web for this topic.

[Bernd Mohr]

Hello Wolfgang,

for now, my Froggit WH3000se Wifi Weather Station is up and running with weewx :-)

I spent a lot of time to read a lot of Google Groups and other Forums. It seems like that there must be a solution for this kind of Wifi PWS.

By the way, our PWS is sold under different brands like this:

Froggit WH3000SE

Fine Offset WH2909

Ventus 830

Ambient Weather WS2902 a

i think all these brands and models are the equal Station type ;-) 

if you are just interested using weewx with your PWS, give me a sign here. 

Spoiler: You have to use the interceptor Driver and you have to reroute your iptables to weewx server. This is the only existing solution for my understanding. 

if you prefer, we can go on in german language ;-) 

Kind regards,

Bernd 

[RonaldM]

Hi Bernd, 

I have a Froggit WH4000SE wifi weather station and would be very interested in how you got Weewx working with your Froggit WS. Would you mind sharing some more details of your setup and configuration here? 

Best regards, 

Ronald

Op dinsdag 9 oktober 2018 08:55:26 UTC-7 schreef Bernd Mohr:

[Bernd Mohr]

Hey Ronald,

sorry, I was on vacation the past two weeks :-) 

Ok, I´ll give it a try to explain you my method in English. (I´m from Germany, so please have indulgence if one or the other sentence sounds funny for you) :-)

Let´s try with the Basics: Your Froggit WH4000 is up and running and connected to your router, correct? And you are running weewx somewhere in your network.

For the installation of weewx I do not go into detail now, because there are enough instructions on the internet ;-)

if so, you have to "catch" the Wifi Packages between your console and your router. In my case I had to buy another router (Asus rt-66u) because my actual router can´t handle ip tables.

Your console send´s the data packages via port 80 to your router. After I know that, I installed wrt Merlin Firmware to my Asus router. 

After that, logon to your router and enable under administration --> system --> JFFS custom scripts or in case of another router, the ability to handle iptables. 

now you have to send the weather data packages to your weewx server. (In my case Raspberry Pi 3+).

it is important to send both kinds of packages like this:

iptables -t mangle -A PREROUTING  -s 192.168.1.33 -j ROUTE --tee --gw 192.168.1.76

iptables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -d 192.168.1.33 -j ROUTE --tee --gw 192.168.1.76

In this case the first ip is my WH3000 Console, and the second one is my weewx server. Please replace it to your ip adresses ;-) 

Of course, at this point it is very useful if you give your router in your router and the weewx server a fixed ip address.

To be able to parse this weather packages on your weewx server, you habe to install and enable the interceptor driver. 

I hope you are familiar with Linux console? If so, it is easy for you to install the interceptor driver. In my case I used the following manual:

https://github.com/matthewwall/weewx-interceptor

Little hint: At point 2, as I remember, the name of the package was wrong. Maybe you have to delete the last word -master to install the driver. 

Please, give it a try ;-) 

Now you have to configure the weewx interceptor driver in your weewx.conf You have to change station_type like this:

 station_type = Interceptor

and at the end of weewx.conf copy and paste this part here: (Replace the ip adress of your console)

[Interceptor]

    # This section is for the network traffic interceptor driver.

    

    # The driver to use:

    driver = user.interceptor

    

    # Specify the hardware device to capture.  Options include:

    #   acurite-bridge - acurite internet bridge

    #   observer - fine offset WH2600/HP1000/HP1003, aka 'observer'

    #   lw30x - oregon scientific LW301/LW302

    #   lacrosse-bridge - lacrosse GW1000U/C84612 internet bridge

    device_type = observer

    mode = sniff

    iface = eth0

    pcap_filter = src 192.168.1.33 and dst port 80

To check if everything is working fine, you can set the parameter: debug = 1 in your weewx.conf

In best case, when you have a look at your syslog, you can see a lot of weather data packages ;-)

To have a look at syslog --> tail -f /var/log/syslog 

Please remember you have to restart weewx after changing the weewx.conf to take effect.

i think, this is the most important part for the beginning. I optimized other little things for a durable running. 

Please do not hesitate to ask further questions, I´ll try to help you if I can :-)

Cheers,

Bernd 

22/5000

[METEO SANTA SUSANNA]

Hallo

ich habe eine Froggit WH3000 und leider ständig Probleme mit WU. Wie kann ich meine Wetterdaten zb. per Weewx selbst auf eine eigene Website spielen. Mein Router ist eine FRITZBOX. Wie macht man da das mit dem weiterleiten der ip Adresse?

mfg

Otmar Schuster

[Jochen Weiss]

Hi

I have also plans to buy the Froggit WH 4000 and I wonder if there is no easier way, than using iptabels, since comes also with a PC software for downloading the data.

If i get the documentation right the PC software connects to the WH 4000 via ethernet.

So maybe, if you know how the PC communicates with the Froggit, it should be possible to write a Python script to read data and write it into a data base. 

Is there maybe anything like that aleady available, or does Froggit provide a public API to access ?

[Gábor Szabados]

Hello,

I have one of the Froggit (Fine Offset) clones from Conrad.

I have used a similar setup as it was described before, but the only difference, that I have used a wifi AP a way to pass packet through it.

I've done my whole project with a Raspberry Pi Zero W. There is a way to create a wifi access point with the Raspberry Pi and pass all data to your normal network. Then you set up interceptor in sniffer mode.

It decodes all the packets what is sent from the weather station to WU.

If you use a Raspberry Pi 3 or 3+ you can do the same by combining the wifi and the ethernet port. Wifi as AP and ethernet to your normal network. But an AP and Client combination works too the same way as on the Rpi0w.

In my setup there was no need to define iptables in the router (and change firmware on the router). The Raspberry Pi does everything. It runs WeeWX too.

Best Regards,

Gábor Szabados

[Moose Man]

Dear Gábor,

I own a Froggit WH3000 PWS connected to my Router sending weather data to WU.

Now I would like to connect it to Raspberry Pi 3+ via wifi using weewx.

You mentioned a method to create a wifi access point with the Raspberry Pi and then pass data to the network.

I will try to do the same but I fear I've not enough experience to get this working, i.e. what does it mean to set up interceptor in sniffer mode.  :-)

However, do you know if it is possible to use weewx on raspberry Pi and still passing data to Weather underground at the same time?

Would be nice to hear from you.
Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

Rainer

[Gábor Szabados]

Hello Rainer,

I've used this instruction, as I can remember, to set up the RPi as an AP (repeater).

https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/89803/access-point-as-wifi-router-repeater-optional-with-bridge/89804#89804

There are other instructions too, but none of the others was working for me.

As I used a RPi Zero W, I've set up the device as a repeater, but if you used a RPi 3 or something which has eth connector, it is another story, because you can create and AP with the Wifi, and pass all data packets to the ethernet. With the RPi Zero W, it is an AP/Client setup.

In my setup all the data what passes through the RPi is sniffed by the interceptor, and it is passed to WU without modification. So, what you want that would work. Otherwise, if you set up WeeWX and interceptor, just to intercept/receive, then you can configure WeeWX to send the collected data to WU too, or any other web-service what is listed in the config, please see the wiki for that, if you need it.

Interceptor in sniffer more:

From the interceptor.py (https://github.com/matthewwall/weewx-interceptor/blob/master/bin/user/interceptor.py)

SniffServer vs TCPServer
	The driver can obtain packets by sniffing network traffic using pcap, or by
	listening for TCP/IP requests. The pcap approach requires the python pypcap
	module, which in turn requires libpcap. This means a separate installation
	on most platforms.
	https://github.com/pynetwork/pypcap
	To run a listener, specify an address and port. This is the default mode.
	For example:
	[Interceptor]
	mode = listen
	address = localhost
	port = 9999
	To run a sniffer, specify an interface and filter. For example:
	[Interceptor]

	mode = sniff
	iface = eth0

	pcap_filter = src host 192.168.1.5 && dst port 80
	"""

  

My weewx config looks like this for interceptor:

[Interceptor]

    # This section is for the network traffic interceptor driver.

    # The driver to use:

    driver = user.interceptor

    # Specify the hardware device to capture.  Options include:

    #   acurite-bridge - acurite internet bridge, smarthub, or access

    #   observer - fine offset WH2600/HP1000/HP1003, ambient WS2902

    #   lw30x - oregon scientific LW301/LW302

    #   lacrosse-bridge - lacrosse GW1000U/C84612 internet bridge

    #   wu-client - any hardware that uses the weather underground protocol

    device_type = wu-client

    mode = sniff

    iface = ap0

    pcap_filter = src 192.168.6.5 and dst port 80

In my case ap0 is the name of the network interface, and the weather station's console is 192.168.6.5, defined in the dnsmasq as I remember.

There are two/three issues what I have seen with my setup.

Rain is not logged correctly by weewx, but I think is mostly due to the RPi Zero W's speed capabilities. But I tried to fix for myself the interceptor.py.

Due to my Wifi network, and equipment, I have Wifi dropouts, which causes some issues by the AP (repeater) setup, I have a script added to chron to restart the Wifi connection and the AP, if something goes wrong.

It has happened twice so far, that Interceptor stopped sniffing, probably due to the previous issue and Wifi and AP restart. I might add another chron job later to restart weewx every X days or something. But the good thing, if the interceptor is not sniffing the packets are still passed through and reaches WU. 

I hope this helps! Let me know if you need any other info.

Best Regards,

Gábor Szabados

PS.: There is a device which does a similar thing out of the box, and passes data to your Raspberry Pi or whatever machine you want, http://astrogenic.com/shop/product_info.php?currency=USD&products_id=64