Meteobridge NANO - available NOW in Europe and US!

[admin]

With the introduction of the remarkable stamp sized VoCore computing platforms about two years ago the idea grew to build a Meteobridge as a plug-in module for Davis consoles. But things turned out to be a bit difficult that days... My prototypes with the VoCore1 in 2016 fitted physically but needed too much voltage for a console plugin and did not provide the necessary number of serial ports and lacked stability on WiFi operation. So I paused the idea. VoCore2 - which was released in 2017 - finally had all the needed features but also started with severe WiFi issues caused by the poor driver support for the MT7628 SOC, which has been keeping me busy until early this year. Finally, all that was solved back in February and I started to build a complete Meteobridge as a Davis console plugin module. Development is done and we call it the NANO.

nano-free-400.jpg (190.79 KiB) Viewed 25800 times

You can find more information here: http://meteobridge.com/wiki/index.php/Meteobridge_NANO

We have prototypes running fine and will start a first large production batch end of June. When things go straight units will be available for purchase in August.

[admin]

As I was asked I would like to add some information about power demand and battery use.

Power Demand:
A Davis Vue console peaks at 250 mA when equipped with a NANO. This goes down to 150 mA when NANO does not actively operate the WiFi.
When LCD backlight is switched on at the console it draws additional 100 mA.
The Davis power plug is rated 300 mA. That is OK for operating the NANO, but when you switch on LCD backlight on the console and NANO is doing WiFi traffic the setup draws too much juice from the Davis power plug and Voltage will drop to a level where the NANO reboots.
Therefore, it is recommended to use a stronger power plug when operating the console with a NANO. We are currently sourcing power plugs that can do that and will add it to the product bundle.

Batteries:
Batteries in the console only step in, when voltage of the power plug is going beyond a certain level, which also includes the situation when no power plug is connected at all. When operating the NANO with the original Davis power plug, batteries will add a few mA when WiFi is operating. It is just in the range of 1-2 mA but over time this might empty your batteries (within a couple of months). When you go with the stronger power plug, voltage will stay fine even when NANO is doing more heavy load and batteries will not be eaten up. Batteries in the Vue console typically have a capacity of 8.000 mAh (type C batteries). Assuming an average demand of 150 mA this will result to about two days of battery operation. As you see, running the setup on batteries only is not an option.

I did not test with Pro2 Console and Envoy but I assume numbers will be similar.

[admin]

As average power consumed by a NANO-equipped console is well in specs of the Davis power plug I made some experiments with adding a larger capacitor. Idea is to get the spikes compensated and to check this I monitored the voltage reaching the NANO computing module with my scope.

On the left picture you see the voltage the NANO receives from a console powered by the Davis power plug. When WiFi starts operation the voltage drops down to 3.1 V on certain spikes which is dramatically below the 3.6V needed for stable operation of the NANO's computing module. No wonder that it reboots being punched so badly.

The picture on the right shows the same spike situation with a 1000uF capacitor applied. As you can see voltage does stay above 3.8V which is a huge improvement and also gives some headroom to the recommended 3.6V minimum level.

TEK.png (183.03 KiB) Viewed 25731 times

The result of this finding is, that I think a Davis power plug replacement can be avoided by adding a suitable large capacitor to the NANO. Looks like I will have to free up the PCB a bit to find some room for a large SMD capacitor and by that dropping the need for a new power plug.

[admin]

Manufacturer did confirm that first batch of NANOs will be ready end August. I will use the time to polish SW to give it a smooth start.

[rick47601]

Will this be sold straight from you ?
I'm in the usa . I was going to order the Meteobridge pro from Ambient weather .I will wait for this . Will Ambient sell this Nano or will this be straight from you
Thanks
Rick

[admin]

USA will be handled by Ambient Weather.

[admin]

Meteobridge NANO will also handle the Davis Envoy8x, which some user might use to have more than one ISS operated.There are only a few users around having an Envoy8x which never got much traction is the market because Davis kept interfacing to it a secret. In regard to the very few Envoy8x in the market, NANO does not provide a dedicated initial setup option for this station. You will need a PC to do the initial setup with the Davis software. Nevertheless, the NANO can still be used like a Weather Link IP logger to give your PC access to the Envoy8x to do the initial setup.

[admin]

Newest Meteobridge version allows to initially setup Davis Pro2 and Vue consoles. As the NANO is just a variant of the Meteobridge SW family it automatically benefits from this as well. Please see the picture below to get an impression how this setup looks like. Setting up your Davis station can hardly be any more simple

800px-Davissetup2.png (182.74 KiB) Viewed 25409 times

[admin]

To make waiting even a bit more exciting we made a short video about the initial idea, development steps and the final look of the NANO. I hope you enjoy it.

https://youtu.be/5vF4Z0FyPZ4

[doncurtis]

What do you expect the price range (in $US) will be?

[admin]

NANO will also be able to drive an Envoy8x, but initial setup of the Envoy8x needs to be done with the original davis tools. Regular Envoy is fully supported as the davis consoles are.

[admin]

First batch of NANOs is being shipped to the resellers in Europe, so they will be able to fulfill orders in a few days.

Find list of resellers here: http://meteobridge.com/wiki/index.php/W ... ridge_NANO

nano.jpg (251.16 KiB) Viewed 24569 times

[pb2rdf]

How many records of data the nano can store?
Current Davis logger can store max 513 pages.

Most people use an archive interval of 10 minutes.

Just curious, it is not mentioned in the specs :
http://download.meteobridge.com/files/m ... asheet.pdf

Thanks in advance,
regards, Peter

[admin]

It adds the same amount of data logging storage to the console as the Davis logger does. But this is rather uninteresting as Meteobridge NANO reads live data and feeds that to the networks. It also registers its own min/max values for sensor data.

When you operate in pass-through mode, where the NANO is just used like a DAVIS IP logger, it will behave exactly like the Davis logger.

[pb2rdf]

Hallo admin,

Thanks for answering!

Lot of Davis VP owners are using Weatherlink, or other PWS software.
And would have an own local historical database.
But it is always possible there is loss of WIFI signal, distortion, malfunction etc.
MB Nano has only WIFI, and no cabled data connection.
When there is loss of WIFI communication, it is important for WL users to load all the logged archive date from the moment WIFI loss occured until the moment WIFI connection is restored.
And there is no loss of archive data.
Ie my archive interval is 1 minute for storing data in WL.
And when someone did forget to configure a fixed IP address, it is possible the MB Nano gets another, or no IPnr if dhcp is configured.
The MB Nano should be configured (imo) with a fixed IPnr by the user, and should be strongly recommended to all MB Nano users.
This counts also for the other meteobridge solutions.

Is my understanding right in conclusion to your answer, in case of WIFI communication loss, it is always possible to restore and download the archive data from a certain time, dependend of the archive interval, from the MB Nano?
1 minute interval is less back in time as an archive interval of 10 minutes.

Is it maybe possible to publish the specs of the MB Nano in more detail?
Ie how much memory is reserved for logging of the archive data, how many records and in which mode of the MB Nano?
It would be more clear for future users of the MB Nano, and may help the sales numbers.
If it may help you, it might be possible for me to write those specs.
But I do not own a MB Nano ...
Imo the MB Nano is more versatile then the WL IPlink and is an attractive alternative.

Thanks in advance,
Regards, Peter