Discussion for Poor Mans Weather Station

[fixrim]

This is the Discussion for the Poor Mans Weather Station posted here:PM_Weather

[kenm]

I just installed it along side Dale Higg's WeatherPLUG, which is using the same AWS data. Should be fun to compare results.

Ken

[kenm]

fixrim,

First of all, Great Job!

feedback...

1. Devices didn't contain any data on the first pass. (ie. The first time I ran the script, the devices got created but they didn't contain any data) Second pass of the script updated the devices correctly.

2. Remove all of the extra text from the device strings. For example, "Wind Direction NNW" should be "NNW". "Wind Direction" is the device name so it can be retrieved with hs.GetDeviceByName.

3. Consider split the "time info" into new devices. I like the idea of knowing when the Hi or Low occured, but maybe that should be a separate devices.

Ken

[fixrim]

1. I also noticed that it did not contain any data or data in the wrong devices on the first pass, but was always right on any latter pass. I don’t know why, perhaps the scrip that creates the device has to be finished before Homeseer will let you post data to it?

2. That’s the way I had it at first, but I didn’t feel like it was very easy to read, that’s why I put the raw data in the PM_Weather.ini file. The downside is you can’t use the devices to trigger events. I use a recurring script file that compares the outside temp and outside temp to control a attic fan. It can be retrieved by using:

CurrentTemperature= hs.GetINISetting("Weather"," CurrentTemperature","","PM_Weather.ini")

If you would like me to set it up as an option to put just the data in the device strings I would be happy to do it.

3. The data is broken up in the PM_Weather.ini file it actually has 43 variables.

Thanks again for your feedback.

Paul

[jforster]

It was interesting to see that the station I was using didn't update very often. I found one nearby that is very accurate and it's working great!
Very nice work!

[GenevaDude]

Good script!
I installed it with no problem. Ran it twice to get the data updated. (No problem.) I have my script fire every 30 minutes, which is probably too aggressive but I do have a good connection and it takes mere seconds.

We do need to figure out how to integrate this into other stuff, including logging to an Access database, and into a web page, but this script does provide an excellent foundation!

Thank you for your efforts!

regards,

GenevaDude

[timevex]

This perfect.
Just needed something for enabling\disabling the sprinklers this is perfect for that. I was trying Dale's Weather Plug, which is very nice but your script out puts more data to base watering decisions on.

Thanks!

Tim

[GenevaDude]

I was looking at my selected weather site and noticed that they provide a light level in terms of a percentage (85%). This can be used to trigger Dusk/Dawn actions. If LightLevel < 30%, do Dusk routine. If LightLevel > 40%, do Dawn routine, etc... I am using my Ocelot with a light sensor to do this, but this is a "Poor Mans" way to do the same thing, assuming that your chosen location is nearby!

regards,

GenevaDude

[lshanepowers]

Excellent script. Keep up the good work.

Thanks,
-Shane

[Jebus]

fixrim,
Great script. It is the most comprehensive and consistant weather script on the board.
I found that I had to put a TRUE argument on the end of the device strings, or the script would not update the Last Change on my system. Example below.......

hs.SetDeviceString PM_HouseCode & PM_FirstUnit + 17, "Today & Yesterday's Rain " & TwoDayRain & " inche(s)", TRUE
hs.SetDeviceString PM_HouseCode & PM_FirstUnit + 18, "Last 7 Day Rain " & SevenDayRain & " inche(s)", TRUE
hs.SetDeviceString PM_HouseCode & PM_FirstUnit + 19, "Month to date rain " & MonthlyRain & " inche(s)", TRUE
hs.SetDeviceString PM_HouseCode & PM_FirstUnit + 20, "Last 30 Day Rain " & TotalRain & " inche(s)", TRUE
hs.SetDeviceString PM_HouseCode & PM_FirstUnit + 21, "Weather Data as of " & ReportTime & " on " & ReportDate, TRUE
If IsItRaining = True Then
hs.SetDeviceString PM_HouseCode & PM_FirstUnit + 22, "It Is Raining", TRUE
Else
hs.SetDeviceString PM_HouseCode & PM_FirstUnit + 22, "It Is Not Raining", TRUE
End If

end sub
'*********************************************************** ************************
.................................JG

[Bryan Nystrom]

Still trying to get mine to work, but one thing you probably shouldn't do is assume the location of the homeseer installation. In my case, the drive is D:\ and not C:\. In other cases, it may not be in the path you hard coded either. No big deal to search and replace, but having it figure that out or as a variable would be more user friendly.

I'm currently getting a problem with line 609 which referse to MID string. I'll figure that one out on my own...

Bryan Nystrom
Natara Software, Inc.

[Bryan Nystrom]

Hmm, not sure why, but my "GetURL" is not returning anything, although doing the same in a browser does return the proper page. Don't recall having that issue before....

Bryan Nystrom
Natara Software, Inc.

[lshanepowers]

I just realized that under Last Change I'm getting unknown. I have the script running every 15 minutes and everything else appears fine. Under the status column, it looks like the times are right there. I'm running 1.6.119 on an XP machine. Any ideas?

Thanks,
-Shane

[Rupp]

Look 4 or 5 threads up.

-Rupp

How come "abbreviated" is such a long word?

[Bryan Nystrom]

Rupp, GenevaDude, or fixrim...

Any ideas on why my GetURL is failing to return a web page? The address it is passed is correct.

fixrim,

You may want to gracefully exit the script if your GetURL (try 3 times) loop exits and the "len(WebPage) = 0". That avoids carrying on with the rest of the script thinking there is actually something to do. I added a conditional (If...) that posts an error to the log and then "Exit Sub".

Bryan Nystrom
Natara Software, Inc.