Weather Station Project #4 - Installed weewx on RPi

Whew, after resetting the Vantage Vue console (by pulling the batteries and putting them back in) the USB port came back up.  In addition, the console did not lose any of data that had already been recorded.  I was able to load weewx onto the Raspberry Pi, configure it, and get data.  The steps that I used (from Weewx on Rasp! (Chris Davies-Barnard))were:

(1) used raspi-config on a new SD with Raspbian; set my location (US), keyboard (US), timezone (Eastern), setup SSH, setup expand to full SD size, etc.

(2) added user weewx:
sudo su; adduser weewx; usermod -a -G sudo weewx

(3) added prerequisite packages:
sudo apt-get install python-configobj python-cheetah python-imaging
sudo apt-get install python-serial python-usb
sudo apt-get install mysql-client python-mysqldb
sudo apt-get install python-dev python-pip
sudo pip install pyephem

(4) check to see if ntp was setup correctly

(5) installed weewx:
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/weewx/weewx-2.6.4.tar.gz
tar -xzvf weewx-2.6.4.tar.gz
cd weewx-2.6.4

(6) modify setup.cfg to add root directory:
home = /home/weewx/system25

(7) build and install weewx
python setup.py build
python setup.py install

(8) configure the weewx.conf:
cd /home/weewx/system25
su -l weewx
mkdir public_html
nano weewx.conf
-->>
#debug = 0
WEEWX_ROOT = /home/weewx/system25/
[Station]
location = xxxxxxxx {set to my  home location}
latitude = xxxxxxxx {set to my home latitude, dec degrees}
longitude = xxxxxxxx {set to my home longitude, dec degrees}
altitude = xxxx, foot {set to the altitude of the ISS placement on my roof}
station_type = Vantage
[Vantage]
type = serial
port = /dev/ttyUSB0 {this is the usb port that came up when the Vantage Vue was plugged in}
[StdRESTful]
[[Wunderground]]
station = xxxxxxxxx {set to my Weather Underground station number}
password = xxxxxxxxxx {set to my Weather Underground password for the station}
rapidfire = True
[[CWOP]]
station = xxxxxxx {set to my Citizens Weather station number}

(9) mod the permissions on the usb port and check the weewxd run
sudo chmod 777 /dev/ttyUSB0
./bin/weewxd weewx.conf

after weewx connects to the console, you should see lots of packets of weather data dumped onto the command line.  stop with a control-c

(10) start the weewxd in the background and check that it is still there
nohup ./bin/weewxd weewx.conf > /dev/null & echo $! > run.pid

this will start weewxd with our configuration file setup and send the command line into a null dev black hole.  We will still be sending packets of weather data to Weather Underground and the Citizens Weather (CWOP) locations.

(11) check the running of weewxd:
ps -e | grep weewxd

Update: I need to setup /etc/rc.local to run weewxd on boot.  I encountered a storm after my weather station was running for several days and the power went out and stopped the data flow.  I discovered this when I went to Weather Underground during the storm to see how it was recording rainfall and I notice it had been off for 20 minutes.

Weather Station Project #3 - Setup of RPi

I worked on the interface from RPi to the Vantage Vue console last night.  I started with the latest version of Raspbian but found that raspi-config would not allow me to open up the SSH server.  I back peddled to the July 2013 version and that seemed to give me the ability to setup the SSH server and then update/upgrade to the latest versions of the software.  I was using portions of the procedure from Weewx on Rasp! (Chris Davies-Barnard).  I used the instructions to setup the weewx user, install the prerequisites, install weewx, and configure.  I have not tested the weewx install with the console at this point, that is tonight.  Update to follow.

Update: I added the weewx software to the RPi and then proceeded to put the USB interface on the Vantage Vue.  But, I didn't turn the power off to the console before mounting it!  That I believe is a mistake.  Now, I cannot get the weewx to communicate with the console.  My only hope is unplugging the power and doing a hard reset to the console.  Hopefully the USB port will come up like I want it to.  Otherwise, I am out the cost of the USB port and/or possibly a console which was messed up.  My setup is below.



I did some thinking about how I wanted to add both a UV and Light (for Solar Radiation) sensor to another RPi and connect it to the weewx software.  This should be easy since weewx is written in Python.  Here is my idea so far:

Weather Station Project #2 - Vantage Vue is in

I received the Davis Instruments Vantage Vue weather station. The box looks like so

I was rather pleased with the quality of the product. The reviews on Amazon rate it as a 4.5 out of 5 with 309 reviews. I generally don't like to order something without at least 50 - 100 reviews so this is way past that point. My son-in-law was nice enough to come over and put it up on the roof for me.


I got the ISS to mate with the console and it has been working for the last couple of days without any problem.


I am also now exploring the use of the RPi with weewx software to link into Weather Underground and with NOAA.

-- LW

Weather Station Project #1 - Purchased Weather Station - Vantage Vue

I just purchased a Davis Instruments 6250 Vantage Vue on Amazon.  My current weather setup started showing signs of sensor failure this weekend, first with the humidity sensor and then with the rain sensor.  This setup is about 5 to 6 years old so it is probably about time to replace it.  I was somewhat annoyed with the purchase since I have to purchase a $129 component in order to interface the readout with a Raspberry Pi USB port.  That is outrageous!  From what I know, the Davis Instruments provides the best customer service that is out there for most medium capability weather stations, so I decided to bite the bullet and pay the price.  The sensor unit is self contained and has a solar panel for power (i.e., it will save trips to the roof to change the batteries).  The picture of the unit looks like this (from the Amazon site):

From what I understand of the unit, it has high praise, being rated 4.5 out of 5 overall out of 306 reviews.  The unit looks clean so it will not be an eyesore being mounted on my chimney.

Current plans are to sample the information coming across the USB line from the Vue with the RPi, process/archive the data, and then send response to Weather Underground/WeatherBugNet.

Update: apparently the software of choice here would be WeeWx (http://www.weewx.com).  The Davis Vantage Vue is supported, as is uploads to Weather Underground and CWOP (interface to Weather Channel).  I was not able to figure out how to be a part of WeatherBug network; it seems that is closed to PWS implementations.  Anyway, good information to know.

AdaFruit PiTFT 2.8 inch TouchScreen

I finally got around to getting the PiTFT up and running.  The instructions at https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-pitft-28-inch-resistive-touchscreen-display-raspberry-pi are very easy to follow, just make sure you follow them closely.  After downloading the OS patches and applying them to a fresh copy of Raspbian, I was unable to get past a problem with a missing driver.  It turns out that I didn't heed one small part of the instructions for removing something that came into the Raspbian mix after Sept 2013.  Once I had removed the directory, as instructed, everything fell into place.  Next on the list is to set up some libraries that can be used to form a menu function for executing individual script files.  A picture of the PiTFT from the AdaFruit site is shown below.  Note you can order this 2.8 inch touchscreen panel from the AdaFruit site at http://www.adafruit.com/products/1601 .

My desire is to have a screen X by Y matrix that can move between different menu levels and each one capable of executing a script file or executable.

Portable Pi Project - Part #3

Well, I attempted to put the cables together to make the portable RPi.  However, there were several issues that I had to deal with:

(1) when I applied power, it became obvious that there was not enough current going through the wires.  I did check out all of the lines and the voltage was correct.

(2) I found one of the sides of my DPDT switch was momentary.  I needed a switch that was ON-OFF-ON but I picked up one that was ON-OFF-(ON), the (ON) indicating that it was momentary - well, live and learn.

(3) I had the Adafruit 1601 2.8" touch screen on the RPi which added a 100ma load to the power supply, further dragging down the power

(4) the ethernet connection would not light off because of the low power.

So now I am back to trying out the application of power with regular power supplies to make sure that there is not something wrong with the particular RPi that I was using.

After using another, albeit more powerful power supply, I was able to get the RPi to come up and stay up, including the AdaFruit touch screen display. It would appear that I may have misjudged the amount of power needed with the switched setup that I was using earlier.

General Purpose RPi WiFi Thingy

I encountered another one of those interesting snags at work where you wished you had a device that did something out of the ordinary.  With that in mind, I want to build a general purpose WiFi-Ethernet interface using a Raspberry Pi.  I am willing to sacrifice an RPi to get what I want.  This also should serve to get me back into the experiment game.  I want the RPi to serve as a couple of different types of Router and Access Point configurations.  No fancy VLAN stuff, just the basics.  But since I occasionally need Wireshark and TOR I have some alternates.  So what I want to do is the following:

1. Router #1

  -- Ethernet -> Firewall (w/wo TOR Proxy) -> Ethernet (w/dns&dhcp)

2. Router #2

  -- Ethernet -> Firewall (w/wo TOR Proxy) -> WiFi (w/dns&dhcp)

3. Access Point #1

  -- Ethernet -> Bridge (w/wo Wireshark) -> WiFi (wo/dns&dhcp)

4. Router #3

  -- WiFi -> WiFi -> Firewall (w/wo TOR Proxy) -> Ethernet (w/dns&dhcp)

5. Router #4 (wireless hotspot)

  -- WiFi -> WiFi -> Firewall (w/wo TOR Proxy) -> WiFi (w/dns&dhcp)

6. Access Point #2 (Repeater)

  -- WiFi -> WiFi -> Bridge (w/wo Wireshark) -> WiFi (wo/dns&dhcp)

7. Client Bridge #1

  -- WiFi -> WiFi -> Bridge (w/wo Wireshark) -> Ethernet (wo/dns&dhcp)

8. Client Bridge #2 (Wireshark Passthrough)

  -- Ethernet -> Bridge (w/Wireshark) -> Ethernet (wo/dns&dhcp)

I think that I will work this up both on a Raspberry Pi and on a VM to run on my work laptop.  The front connections for WiFi (#4, 5, 6, and 7) should allow for capture pages (e.g., Panera).  The back connections for WiFi (#2 and 5) should allow for WPA/WPA2 and a known SSID.