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**Michael McSharry** · December 30, 2005, 12:33 PM

The wind speed uses a DS2323 dual counter. I think they connected both counters to the same source. The one that shows up as water flow can be excluded/hidden.

The rain gauge is also a DS2423 dual channel counter. Same config as with the Wind Speed except the first counter is changed to rainfall counter. It will most likely assume the first counter is wind speed so you will need to experiment to see which of the two DS2423's are associated with each instrument.

Voltages are generated by DS2438 and DS2450. The DS2450 is the wind direction. The DS2438 is often used in Humidity. Since you are interested in Wind and Humidity rather than the raw voltages all the voltage devices can be excluded/hidden.

If the barometer is of the same design as the AAG barometer module then it cannot be used with mcsTemperature. They use a bit on a DS2406 to multiplex all data and control and processing a stream of data through a single bit is a burden on a general purpose PC. It would be fine if it was a dedicated micro with nothing else to do with its time.

I believe the Humidity module from AAG uses a DS2438 and is supported. It should show up as a Humidity device by default, but if not then look for a device where the serial number has 26 as the last two characters and select it to be humidity.

**simonog** · December 30, 2005, 06:28 PM

This will seem a naive question: how do I tell from the sensor numbers what the type of the sensor is? Am I missing something really obvious?

On the analogue page 1 I see a total of 12 devices. The one which is identified by the plugin as a Humidity device is the only one which doesn't show USB2 under the column headed Temp 05 D:I. It is blank instead. Mean anything?

does the Temp 05 heading mean that the AAG looks like a Temp 05 or is it just the convenient column for all one wire devices?

I really appreciate your having replied so fast to my previous post. I have now read the whole of the mcsTemp plugin manual - looking forward to getting it working fully.

Simon

**Michael McSharry** · December 30, 2005, 07:45 PM

Each sensor has a 16 character ID. The 15th and 16th characters define the family of the device. There is generally little relationship between the part number e.g. DS2438 and the family code (26). For most things you do not need to be concerened with the family code unless you are writing the software. In that case you use it to identify its interface behavior. mcsTemperature will make a guess as to what a device might be used for based upon its family code. It is up to the user to correct incorrect guesses by selecting the correct application. This means that a user will need to have some understanding of how their instrument is constructed.

The D:I column is primarily for the Temp05/08 to provide feedback as to how the Temp05/08 has indexed the devices in its memory. For the DS9490/DS9097U I put the port number in this column. I dont know why the humidity device is not showing this value, but it is only for information and would not be concerned unless your humidity devices is not working.

**simonog** · December 31, 2005, 10:20 AM

Slowly getting there, thank you!

When I look at the devices set up, there are some I still can't explain. I used the mcsTemperature help file to decode much of what's going on....

1. some device serial nos. seem to be 15 and some 16 digits

2. Devices \1 and \2 are family types 10 and 26 respectively; both are identified as temperatures devices by the plugin; the first shows a reading of 5 and the second 6.1 - interesting as I thought I had one temperature sensor and would have expected the same format of reading from each even if there were two

3. Wind direction seems (\33) resonable

4. Wind speed registers 0 - although if I run Weather.exe I get a real reading

5. Devices \65 to \73 are set up though not documented in the help file (stops on 64 for first house code). \65 and \66 have same serial no. and are DW and DG respectively and show readings of 0 and 103 (seems odd)

6. \67-70 are the same serial no. and shown as types V, V1-3 with readings of 4.5 4.47 4.5 4.47 4.61

7. \71-3 have same serial no. and shown as V, V1-2 with readings 4.61 2.07 and 0

any idea what these repetitive coded devices are? and what the devices are with codes 65 up?

Simon

PS Weather seems to read the barometric pressure so I wonder whether there is a less CPU intensive way to handle it? would be good if the plugin could support it.

**Michael McSharry** · December 31, 2005, 01:03 PM

1. You are likely seeing 16 and 17 characters. mcsTemperature appends a suffix to identify the application of a device. Usually this is a single character, but can be two if it is a multichannel device where the 18th character is used to identify the channel index. The suffix for a temperature sensors is null.

2. Device 10 is a low resolution (standard) temperature sensor such as comes with the AAG wind instrument.

Device 26 is a DS2438 which contains both A/D channels and a temperature sensor. The A/D voltage readings will show up as voltage type. The computed humidity based upon the A/D will be a humidity type. The temperature sensor will be a temperature type.

The readings from the two different temp sensors will be different. A 5 degree reading will appear as 5 and not 5.0.

4. Are you certain you have the correct DS2423 counter associated with the wind speed. You may be looking at the rainfall counter. Swap your device types around for these devices and see if you get reasonable wind. Without swaping you should also be able to look at rainfall which will be very high if you have wind recorded.

5. The higher device codes are catchall for devices that were added after the initial design allocation. The DS2423 is a dual channel counter and the second channel defaults to water flow. The ones that are in the higher device code space should not be left as wind speed and gust since the plugin is expecting only one wind instrument. This may be another reason why your wind speed is not reporting as expected.

6. Voltages for DS2450 wind direction device

7. Voltages for DS2438 humidity device

I know the design for the AAG can be interfaced, but there are other designs that are more efficient at the interface and that is what I elected to support. The AAG interface is complex and would be imposible to integrate without the device in hand. With devices that have a more straight-forward interface then there is a reasonable chance that I could interface per spec and then work with someone who has the device and get it working with a few debugging sessions.

**simonog** · December 31, 2005, 02:06 PM

Michael

thank you once again: for someone who has never seen the device being controlled you have some great insights!

1. Convention now understood. I had misconstrued the variable length string you attach

2. I will ignore the family 10 temperature device (\1) and instead use the family 26 one (\2). The latter reads 4.1 at the moment however: is that right or does your comment mean I should only see integers?

4. My wind speeds are \34 and \65. BOTH read zero. \35 (WG) also reads zero though \66 (WG) reads 136 - if it is the max speed we would have more hurricanes in the UK (so I don't really trust those readings)

5. How do I achieve a device which "should not be left as"? If I go to the analogue(1) panel in mcsTemperature General Settings, I have to set that device to something (there isn't an "ignore" type of entry). What's best to use?

5b. Nothing currently identified as a Rain Gauge - presumably I should pick the other DS 2423 counter once I have the Wind Speed sorted out. Is the device type "Rain Today" or something else?

Sorry that I chose such a complicated unit to use! I can only plead that it is one of the few available in the UK (and it has users in even Australia I see, as well as the US).

If you think it is worth your while amending the plugin to improve support at all, I am happy to experiment on the setup for you.

In the meantime, thank you for all your help over the last couple of days.

Happy New Year

Simon

**Michael McSharry** · December 31, 2005, 03:34 PM

2. Your family 10 temp sensor is likely the one installed in the wind gauge globe. The reason you should ignore this one is that it will heat up when sunlight hits the globe so it will not be very accurate. The other one is inside the humidity sensor so same cautions about where you mount it it you want to use it for both tempertaure and humidity. This temp sensor is intended to be used as a calibration since quite often the A/D reading of the circuit being monitored will change based upon temperature. I do not think it is the case for humidity, however. It will not be as accurate at other pure temperature sensors, but definitely better than one that is exposed to sunlight.

The numbers you see from the sensor will typically contain decimal values with minimum accuracy of 0.5 depending upon the temp sensor family.

4. You will need to look at the raw data from the wind speed counter. It is easiest to do from the IO/Echo window. The counter value will show up along with the sensor serial number. Observe the counter between two sample intervals. Also be sensitive to looking for info that indicates a error when reading it. You can also view it in the HS log with a setup page checkbox/button selection to show raw data.

5a. Anything which is connect to the 1-wire bus will be read. It can be ignored by clearing the setup field's device code column. It can also be ignored by selecting the "Hide Device" property of the associated HS device code. The database field on mcsTemperature setup should also be cleared so you are not recording useless data to the database.

5b. Rain Today is what you want. When you look at the raw data you should see both DS2423 counters. One will be wind and one will be rain. Once you get which is which sorted out then make the appropriate type selection on mcsTemperature setup.

If you can get some source code from AAG on how to interface the barometer I'd be willing to try to integrate it. It is too big a step to design it from scratch

If I recall correctly the Weather.exe will write output to a log file. If this is the case and all you want to use your 1-wire network for is what you now have then another option may be to use mcsTemperature csv file input capabiltiy to accept the data rather than having mcsTemperature actually manage the 1-wire interface. It does limit your growth capability unless you wish to obtain a second DS9097U.

**simonog** · December 31, 2005, 06:57 PM

Originally posted by Michael McSharry

5a. Anything which is connect to the 1-wire bus will be read. It can be ignored by clearing the setup field's device code column. It can also be ignored by selecting the "Hide Device" property of the associated HS device code. The database field on mcsTemperature setup should also be cleared so you are not recording useless data to the database.

Thank you - I'll sort this out tomorrow.

I am keen to get the AAG working direct into the plugin; one reason is that I run HS as a service and don't want to have a logged in job running (weather), and I like the idea of an extensible system.

Tried to remove a device set up by mcsTemperature by going to the General Settings panel and Analogue(1); cleared the virtual device code and the database field, and get this message:

<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime0 noWrap align=left>31/12/2005 23:38:13 </TD><TD class=LOGType0 align=left colSpan=3>Error </TD><TD class=LOGEntry0 align=left colSpan=8>DeviceClass error for CC000800142EC610, cannot have a null or empty house code. Returning to A</TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime1 noWrap align=left>31/12/2005 23:38:13 </TD><TD class=LOGType1 align=left colSpan=3>Error </TD><TD class=LOGEntry1 align=left colSpan=8>DeviceClass error for CC000800142EC610, cannot have a null or empty device code. Returning to 1</TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime0 noWrap align=left>31/12/2005 23:38:13 </TD><TD class=LOGType0 align=left colSpan=3>mcsTemperature </TD><TD class=LOGEntry0 align=left colSpan=8>Reassigning Temperature CC000800142EC610 to </TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime1 noWrap align=left>31/12/2005 23:38:14 </TD><TD class=LOGType1 align=left colSpan=3>mcsTemperature </TD><TD class=LOGEntry1 align=left colSpan=8>Removing virtual device \1, datababase field tCC000800142EC610 left in database</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

and the device still sits in HS with code now A1. Should I separately delete it from there? P15 of the manual led me to believe that the plugin would delete the device from HS - perhaps I misunderstood it?

Simon

**Michael McSharry** · January 1, 2006, 01:21 AM

A few of the HS2 releases before 2038 had problems with device identification and would exhibit the problem you saw. I tried it with HS2 2038 and worked as expected. What version of HS are you using?

**simonog** · January 1, 2006, 06:41 AM

I am using 2040.

I'll just delete the devices manually from HS.

Extra data: when I restart HS, the plugin intervenes again:

<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime1 noWrap align=left>01/01/2006 10:26:49 </TD><TD class=LOGType1 align=left colSpan=3>Warning </TD><TD class=LOGEntry1 align=left colSpan=8>(1)Device Temperature CC000800142EC610 has properties different from its current device type of virtual - device type has been changed to virtual.1</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

That's the device I blanked out on the plugin Settings General panel.

I had one other problem - which won't affect most plugin users as they have used this for ages. I have built a virgin bottom up configuration and nothing gets displayed in the temperature.asp page even though the data is in the database.

I finally diagnosed this. the default setup of the mcstemperature.ini file didn't get a [Group] section. When I created one, the Edit button on the displayed web page became live (it wasn't before). I just put these lines at the end:

[Group]
Default="None","LinSel"

Might need a change to the install routine to avoid other new users falling into the same hole?

Simon

**Michael McSharry** · January 1, 2006, 02:13 PM

I found the combination that causes the device error messages. I recently removed the creation of the Default group. Now I know why I had it in there originally. Thanks for isolating the problem. I posted an update at the top of the subforum V4.44.4

**simonog** · January 1, 2006, 04:12 PM

Well diagnosed!

Another little issue(tte).

I tried to delete the unwanted devices, doing it mostly in the plugin tabs Analogue (n).

when I restarted HS next, the 2423 devices were recreated! 3 of them now have device code A1; several others are apparently set up again with 4 adjacent new codes - although I still have the 2 virtual devices which I didn't delete when I deleted the unwanted channels.

If I don't delete the unwanted channel, what do I do with it? I can hide it but the plugin will still see 2 rain gauges and 2 wind speeds.

I would now quite like to make sure that I have the right settings for the plugin which really means avoiding any noise from the editing by removing its impact and reinstalling with whatever settings I determine (from experience plus any advice on these deletes). Is there a reliable way to do that eg can I just delete some .ini file or do I need to rebuild the PC from scratch [please no!]

simon

**Michael McSharry** · January 1, 2006, 05:29 PM

The DS2423 could be a problematic device since the support for the second channel was added after the initial design and considerations had to be given to backward compatibility. I'd rather not get into trying to fix the recreation problem because that will likely cause other problems for other users. You can simply set their device type to Temperature or something else that you do not use and then hide them via the properties in HS. It would also be good if you do not have devices with the same device code so renumber then to something else.

mcsTemperature uses 2 ini files and a database. The database is the one you define. The ini files are mcsTemperature.ini and mcsForecast.ini. These and the HS devices are the only things that you need to work with to start from scratch. If you have setup some events using mcsTemperature features then you also need to remove those to start clean.

**simonog** · January 1, 2006, 06:21 PM

Thank you - I'll delete both ini files and the database and presumably by hand the HS devices, and let the plugin recreate them all.

this time I think I won't delete devices given messages like this:

<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime1 noWrap align=left>01/01/2006 23:38:37 </TD><TD class=LOGType1 align=left colSpan=3>mcsTemperature </TD><TD class=LOGEntry1 align=left colSpan=8>Database field sDA00000006557A1DW is being created</TD></TR><TR><TD class=LOGDateTime0 noWrap align=left>01/01/2006 23:38:37 </TD><TD class=LOGType0 align=left colSpan=3>mcsTemperature </TD><TD class=LOGEntry0 align=left colSpan=8>Resize Fields: on line 820 Cannot define field more than once.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Really appreciate all your help. I will try to write a concise note for future AAG users of what a clean install of one requires: once you work through it, it isnt too bad. The plugin is also great in the features it offers.

Simon

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