meteohub.de

I use a TL-MR3020 with Meteobridge. I was surprised at the amount of bandwidth that is being used to send updates to WUnderground. I need to minimize this bandwidth, because I will be using a modem to connect to a cellular (mobile phone) network.

I use a USB flash drive to save 4MB of bandwidth at bootup. I changed the historical data to "once a day". I wish there was a "Never" option.

From the 14 sensors, I only have Meteobridge sending data from 8 of them to WUnderground. I was expecting about 200 bytes each update (every 5 seconds), but it is approximately 2KB each update (10 times as much).

Is there anything else that can be done to reduce bandwidth usage?

200 bytes of paypload data is also what I would expect. WU takes data by a http get request. So there is a DNS reuest in the beginning, then the http get request with protocol overhead and a return packet saying OK, which also needs to be acknowledged. I don't know if that really pumps up to 2kb but I don't have an idea what else should take the bandwidth. Please set "retries" for WU to "never", as this will send packets repetetive if it does not succedd on first time.

BRW, how do you measure this? When you look at TX picture an system tab, you also see the web interface traffic, not just the one leaving your LAN.

To get the full picture you might analyze the traffic with a packet sniffer monitoring the LAN port where your Meteobridge is connected to your switch (managed switches allow to mirror a port for this purpose). Doing so you can analyze every single TCP packet being sent.

Thank you for your suggestions. However, I already had the Meteobridge set to "no retry".

Initially, I was connected to a cell modem and the usage was high. So I connected it to my home internet modem and monitored the usage on the modem. It is the only thing attached to that port. When I set up Meteobridge to send NOTHING (Weather Station on "no upload" and no push services), the usage is 2K/minute. Why?

If I set up Meteobridge to send updates once per minute to WUnderground, it goes to 9K/minute. At updates every 5 seconds, it is 25K per minute.

I tried NOT sending to WUnderground and instead sending to a php file on my webserver this http string: http://www.mydomain.com/weather.php?w=[wind0wind-act=.0:--]&g=[wind0wind-max2=mph.0:--]&g1=[wind0wind-max10=mph.0:--]&g2= [wind0wind-max60=mph.0:--]&d=[wind0dir-act.0:---]&t=[th0temp-act=F.0:--]&p=[thb0seapress-act=inHg.2:--]&h=[th0hum-act=.0:--]&dp= [th0dew=F.0:--]&r=[rain0rate-act=in.2:--]&rt=[rain0rate-dmax=in.2:--]
I also sent the string to my email and it translates correctly. The php file is about 500 bytes.

The usage using this route was 7K/minute for one minute uploads (down from 9K using WU), but 40K/minute for 5 second updates (up from 25K using WU).

In all cases, the usage seems extremely high, considering the small string that is sent.

Meteobridge does store the min/max values for all sensors and for various time frames (data you see in historical section of Live Data tab) every 10 minutes to the Meteobridge server. This is needed to have that in case of a shutdown/reset. Storing it in internal flash would wear out the flash storage in the MR3020 in a year or less and by that the MR3020 will be bricked. Therefore there is no alternative to make this data permanent in the cloud. I can't say if that inflates your statistics on a level that corresponds to your feeling how much traffic should be there. You can trim that down to once a day on "Select Station" tab.
But as said, just monitor the TCP packets and check yourself. There is nothing to hide.

Thanks again for your assistance. The usage I stated before was with a setting of "once a day" on the historical data. Do you have any plans for "never" for Save Historical Data? I do not need the data stored. I send it to WUnderground and I am done with it. The station is needed for current data only.

As some weather networks also as for more aged data (monthly rain, etc) instead of
computing that themselves. I fear that will bring up a wave of complaints.
Once a day should not ruin your data volume, it is just a few kb.