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VP2 low battery alerts not triggering

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 2:36 am
by mikejeep
I have a Davis VantagePro 2 with wireless ISS and wireless anemometer. I am running Meteobridge 3.4 (Aug 13 2017, build 11364), FW 1.4. I have the following e-mail Services configured to warn me of low battery condition:

Code: Select all

Raise: [thb0lowbat-act]==1
Clear: [thb0lowbat-act]==0
Subj#Body: Meteobridge: Console Low Battery Alert#The VP2 console batteries are low!

Raise: [th0lowbat-act]==1
Clear: [th0lowbat-act]==0
Subj#Body: Meteobridge: Sensor Low Battery Alert#The VP2 sensor batteries are low!

Raise: [th0lowbat-act]==1
Clear: [th0lowbat-act]==0
Subj#Body: Meteobridge: Anemometer Low Battery Alert#The VP2 anemometer batteries are low!
I am almost certain these alerts worked previously, however I just discovered that my ISS batteries have been low for 3 days (no data reporting at night and console says low battery) and Meteobridge does not seem to know (Triggered Alarms: None on the "Live Data" page). I'd appreciate any insight.

Thanks,
-Mike

Re: VP2 low battery alerts not triggering

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 3:29 am
by mikejeep
I replaced the battery and the ISS is reporting normal again. Hovering over the 'i' showed an interesting log (see below). The Meteobridge definitely saw something change once I replaced the battery. Perhaps the syntax has changed? It appears that I am close, but something is incorrect. The alert did not trigger when the low battery condition cleared.

Image

-Mike

Re: VP2 low battery alerts not triggering

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 2:34 pm
by admin
The listing tells that a while no th0 sensor was seen. As you do not define a default value in your expression [th0lowbat-act] remains unreplaced as long as no data from th0 sensor shows up. Comparison to 0 and 1 fails, because the string [th0lowbat-act] cannot be compared to a number :)

In the lower part of the list you see that [th0lowbat-act] can be evaluated to "0" which triggers clearing the alert. On next raise to "1" it should send a mail. I can't see any reason, why it should not.

Re: VP2 low battery alerts not triggering

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 11:37 pm
by mikejeep
I apologize but I don't understand exactly what you are saying -- is my entry in the "Raise" field correct, or does it need to be changed?

If the battery goes low (or I remove it) I see those alternating Raise/Clear messages in the log but the alert is never triggered. The Meteobridge shows no alerts and I do not receive an email. Test emails work without issue, so it is definitely not triggering.

Thank you,
-Mike

Re: VP2 low battery alerts not triggering

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 10:10 pm
by admin
Your definition is per se fine.

Misunderstanding is, that you think lowbat will show "1" if you remove batteries.
But when you do so, sensor is not available and template evaluation will not work.
You can see this in the upper part of your drop-down list.

You can force to raise a lowbat alert when sensor not there, when you give this as the raise condition:

Code: Select all

[th0lowbat-act:1] == 1

Re: VP2 low battery alerts not triggering

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 3:58 am
by mikejeep
Thank you, I understand now! I added another event to trigger when the sensor is not reporting at all, and that worked.

I have done all my testing at night; perhaps the low battery alert will trigger if I remove the battery while the solar panels are actively powering the ISS. I know I got an alert in the past somehow. Will try that during daylight hours and report back for the benefit of others who may find this thread in the future.

-Mike

Re: VP2 low battery alerts not triggering

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 1:55 am
by mikejeep
I had another battery run out today, but the Meteobridge never caught a low battery condition. It used to work, so I'm not sure what changed. The new "no data reported" alert I implemented above did trigger once the solar power ran out so I was able to catch it.

Has anyone else have success with a VP2 triggering a low battery alert? My Davis console is in the basement so I don't know if it never reported the battery low at all, or if Meteobridge isn't catching it.

-Mike

Re: VP2 low battery alerts not triggering

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:13 pm
by mikejeep
Turns out my VP2 console was reporting the low battery condition, but for some reason the Meteobridge was not identifying it immediately. A couple days later it did trigger the alert. Could have been related to my failed supercapacitor which is now fixed.

-Mike