Vantage Pro 2 Data Logger

[gibsonmb]

I really wish that Meteohub could make use of the logged data in the Vantage Pro 2. If the power fails for some reason then Meteohub on the Alix.1d does not log data for the period it's off. It would be great if when the Alix.1D was powered back up,Meteohub checked what it had missed whilst off, from the Davis logger, collected it and then carried on.... just like Weather Display or Weatherlink does when the PC they reside on is started back up. The potential is there with Meteohub to lose chunks of data but not so with Weatherdisplay or Weatherlink. Just seems such a waste of reliability to not have the ability to make use of the data logged on the Davis.

[bsparks]

Agreed, agreed, agreed. Especially since the Vantage2 logger/console can work off of batteries for weeks. I live in Louisiana, and during hurricane season, it's always a gamble as to whether I can run the Meteohub to log the data or lose it when the power and the UPS it is on fails.

It's a paradox: bad weather knocks out the power, but bad weather is when you need power the most to log data!

[bubulino]

I agree with you.

I'm not a programmer, but my Idea is, that meteoHub checks after start, which is the last timestamp of the data in the meteoHub-Database. After this: verifying the timestamps with the data in Davis-Datalogger. If there is a difference: Load the not received datas.

This would be a very very great feature for meteohub !

Markus

[HeinrichH]

I fully agree with the idea but lets not forget Meteohub is originally designed for use with the LinkSys NSLU2 router which is very limited in CPU power and memory.
I'm using Meteohub no for one year on two systems, running under VMware virtual machines which are less limited in CPU power so no problem with extra functions.
If I see all the new functions added the last year the only thing I can think of is to congratulate Boris with all the work he have done to make the program how it is today, special the ability to add more weather stations to the program was a big step in the design.

I know there is a threat somewhere at this forum or another weather about this topic where somebody explained that it costs a lot of CPU power to do the recalculation and extract the missed data but I cannot find it anymore so maybe thats the reason it's not implemented (yet)

[Rainman32]

The ability to pull data from the logger of not only Vantage but also others such as Fine Offset has been brought to my attention as a major shortcoming. overall it defeats the purpose of having a dedicated weather server in many cases.

Not complaining Boris, but this would be a huge improvement in functionality!

[MeteoSevilla]

I fully agree. I was login at forum to write exactly the same wish.

Davis Vantage Pro2 console can works with batteries for months. It would be fantastic to recover weather data from data logger when hardware lock up, when missing current at home for hours (normaly when the worst weather conditions are present), etc.

If meteohub could have this funtionality it would be really fantastic. I will use meteohub alone; to avoid data missing I have a second davis console connected to my main PC with weatherlink, but I can not do anything to include this data in meteohub, so gaps in data are still there.

I am using this hardware with meteohub: ebox3300 and Alix1D

[meteoquim]

This update is a must have, and for Davis users it's a real problem that meteohub can't use the dataloger correctly

[wfpost]

Just one thought:
How would you ensure that the VP2 clock gets synchronized with meteohub´s time?
I guess, that is not possible. So the values from VP´s data logger aren´t very accurate, because the time stamp is for sure ahead or back in time.

Or does anyone manually correct VP2 time settings at least once per day?
Meteohub´s clock on the other hand is absolutely accurate, because of NTP.

That´s btw a very bad design from Davis. With the price category Davis is selling its weather stations a radio-controlled clock should be part of the deal.

[YJB]

As far as I can determine the VP supports the setting of the time through it's interface using the following command

Code: Select all

"SETTIME"
Sets the time and date on the Vantage console. Data in a binary format is sent after ACK.

If you are looking for this, you will need to ask Boris if he is able to enhance the support for the VP in meteohub and have metoehub to do a "settime" a couple of times a day.

[wfpost]

yep, seems to be the case - would be a nice feature, if meteohub could keep VP2s clock in line.

from Vantage Pro and Vantage Pro2 Serial Communication Reference Manual

Page 18 of 52
"SETTIME"
It sets the time and date on the console. Data in a binary format is sent after ACK.

The data is 6 bytes plus a 2 bytes of CRC. The each field is one byte. The fields, in order,
are: seconds, minutes, hour (24 hour format), day, month, year – 1900. See section XI for
more information on calculating CRC values.

Example (to set 3:27:00 pm, June 4, 2003):
>"SETTIME"<LF>
<<ACK>
><0><27><15><4><6><103><2 Bytes of CRC>
<<ACK>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"GETTIME"
It retrieves the current time and date on the console. Data is sent in a binary format.
The format is the same as the SETTIME command.

Example (Vantage responds with 5:17:42 am, January 28, 1998):
>"GETTIME"<LF>
<<ACK>
><42><17><5><28><1><98><2 Bytes of CRC>

[HeinrichH]

Finaly, update 4.6r it's there....

[admin]

yep, seems to be the case - would be a nice feature, if meteohub could keep VP2s clock in line.

Meteohub reads time from Vantage, compares time to its own time and detects any difference. When receiving logged data from Vantage the difference gets applied. This does keep the Vantage clock untouched but also compensates for wrong time settings (wrong daylight saving status is a usual candidate for that, especially for Envoys where you don't notice wrong time settings on a display).

Time compensation feature is weakly tested so far.