WeatherXML EOL - HS4 Native weather plugin

[russr999]

Hi mulu, HomeSeer came back to me as somehow the submission didn’t load properly into the publishing system. I resubmitted it again earlier today so hopefully published tomorrow.
The plugin is called rnbWeather. All my plugins start with rnb so they group together and I thought I’d keep the name easy.
Once HomeSeer confirm it’s published, I’ll post back here to let you know and also the link to the new forum.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[brientim]

Hi brientim ,
I think we were chatting previously on the hydrawse thread. Hope all is good over East and happy to see it starting to stablise 😀.
Happy to incorporate weatherlink as an option once I complete NOAA, YR and BOM. I'll reach out to you through message in a couple of weeks as I will need some sample data/results to make it work properly.
I agree, I'm not a huge fan of BOM but might be useful to have the offical weather station if needed. I will be using Openweather mostly myself.

Yes, we were previously chatting in the Hydrawise.

The BOM is accurate where it is located and I know they are now doing going through a significant investment transformation/upgrade right now as I know a few people working on the Project. They don’t really promote widely the citizens data that they have partnered through BOM (UK) WOW so I wonder what the future of that will be. Open Weather is a very reliable.

All is ok in Prison Victorian and who knows tomorrow might see some more relaxing of the lockdown and after 6 months, it is really been too long.

[mulu]

It is available now as a beta version

[mulu]

It doesn't install, though. I first clicked the install button and it didn't complain anything. I went to the plugin page and I didn't see it anywhere. So I shut down HS4 and restarted HS4 but still nothing. I checked the task manager and I didn't see HSPI_rnbWeather listed. So I tried to install it again but it said "Installation of package rnbWeather failed. Try disabling the plugin first then re-try again".

[mulu]

Note that in C:\Program Files (x86)\HomeSeer HS4 I don't see any executable HSPI_rnbWeather. Also the dlls are in C:\Program Files (x86)\HomeSeer HS4\Bin\rnb\rnbWeather. I would have expected them to be in C:\Program Files (x86)\HomeSeer HS4\Bin\rnbWeather

[russr999]

Note that in C:\Program Files (x86)\HomeSeer HS4 I don't see any executable HSPI_rnbWeather. Also the dlls are in C:\Program Files (x86)\HomeSeer HS4\Bin\rnb\rnbWeather. I would have expected them to be in C:\Program Files (x86)\HomeSeer HS4\Bin\rnbWeather

Hi mulu , apologies...I had a typo in the installer hence the executable didnt install. Fixed now and 4.0.0.1 BETA pushed to HomeSeer now.
I can see it in the updater. Can you have a go installing again and let me know.
The DLL's are in the right folder. I put all my DLL's into C:\Program Files (x86)\HomeSeer HS4\Bin\rnb\mypluginname.HomeSeer knows to look in this folder for them.

Also, I need to chase HomeSeer as they haven't created the new forum yet!
Thanks

[mulu]

I kept on looking for the new forum, both on the HS3 and HS4 weather plugins (though it really should be in HS4). So for now I am posting here.

After shutting down HS4 I manually removed the v4.0.0.0. I am not sure this was necessary but I just did it. Then I installed v4.0.0.1. This one installed successfully and then showed up in my plugin section where I enabled it. Then I setup OpenWeatherMap. I pasted the wrong key in as I later found out. When it came to creating the devices I kept on seeing the wheels and after about an hour I just hit refresh at which time they disappeared. Maybe it tried to update the devices but due to the wrong key got stuck. If that's the case maybe some timeout with an warning message would be good. On the other hand, I think there is another issue because when I tried to add other features like average temp it would do the same thing, i.e. it keeps on spinning despite the fact that it did add the devices.

I then went on to create the devices. I really like the design, probably because it's similar to WeatherXML to which I am used to. They devices did not update, though. At that time I realized I put in the wrong API key so I entered the right one. It still couldn't update, though despite the fact that I waited for longer than the update interval. I finally went to the plugin page, turned off the plugin and turned it back on. Then it updated the devices. At first I though it didn't update the next time but then realized the time listed in the device manager is when it last changed, not when the values were last successfully retrieved. It kind of makes sense.

Some suggestions:

• It would be nice if there is some mapping/replacement functionality for "Day Name". The full name (Monday, etc) is just too long for my HSTouch screens. I would then map Monday to Mon, etc. People in different countries could map it to their own language or whatever anybody desires.
• For the hourly forecast it would be really great to have an additional feature "Time". So let's assume the current time is 15:25. Then Hour 1:Time would be 16h, Hour 4:Time 4 would be 19h. Or if the current time is 15:35 than Hour 1:Time would be 17h, and Hour 4:Time would be 20h. As you see I am rounding to the next full hour because again I need to preserve space on my HSTouch clients plus the temperature isn't going to change that much.
• For the temperature sign some people will probably ask to show different icons depending on the temperature. Right now it's just one status graphics from -999 to 999. I don't care about it but I just figured I point it out. Btw, I will still try out replacing the default graphics for the Weather Summary.
• Even if some devices where update, i.e. the connection worked, the Openweather Connection device still has the old modified time from when it acquired data for the first time.
• Adding the degree symbol as a postfix to a temperature value doesn't work. I think you mentioned before that there are still some issue with that.
• Removing a selection from the setup page doesn't delete the corresponding device. So if I have average temperature selected but then later on deselect it the corresponding feature doesn't get removed.

The first two points are kind of important to me but the rest is relatively minor. All in all it already looks VERY GOOD for a beta. I also appreciate that you added the Solar Noon feature. That's very helpful. Thank you for all the work.

[russr999]

Hi mulu .... thanks for the feedback. I'll go through your points quickly:

• Forum - yes it's missing. I've sent an email to HomeSeer to get it created so being the weekend it will prob be Monday before I get the new forum. I expect it to appear here when created: https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/hs...er-plug-ins-aa
• Updating - There is no need to remove. after clicking update, HS4 automatically shuts down the plugin, updates it and re-enables it. I'm have version 4.0.0.3 in the updater now 😁
• The spinning wheels are supposed to disappear after the devices/features are created. Normally takes between 5-10 seconds for this. I'll look at this as there must be a problem somewhere between the javascript and HS4 plugin code. (Looks like they're not talking). Might take me a day or soo to resolve
• I will add a custom Day name option - but prob will be tomorrow or monday as I'm half way through building out the NOAA weather source and hoping to get that released tomorrow
• Hourly Forecast - time label asa feature - easy - I will add that in a few mins and will be in next update.
• The Openweather Connection device - only shows last device value change HomeSeer default = Last Change Time Updates on Status Change Only) but I like your thinking. I'll see if I can change this so the device updates the "Last Updated" time for each update. Nearly certain I can and if so, it will be in the next update
• Adding the degree symbol - there is some issue here as I know if I add it, it shows up in the device but is never used. I need to reach out to HomeSeer on this as it may be a bug or a silly error by me
• Removing feature - Yes, removing a feature does not automatically delete the feature by design. I took this approach as if somebody unticked a feature by accident, the plugin then delete the feature, if it was used in any events then then would be in error. I figured it was safier to leave the user manually delete so its a delete knowlingly - Does that make sense? Based on my approach - what are youur thoughts? Should it be an auto delete?

Thank your for the comments on the beta quality. I didnt want to release an alpha with poor experience so wanted to have a stable beta to release. You will hopefully see the beta versions moving fast over the next few days as I address some of these comments and start implementing other weather services.
I might not be making it easy for you to check if you have the correct key in your weather service but I felt encrypting it was important to try and protect the privacy of your personal ket etc. How did you discover your key was wrong? By trying a new one of did you turn on debug logging and see the error?

Happy any thoughts you have on layout on the other pages too: settings wizard etc. I'm trying to lay it out in a logical way but what makes sense for me might not make sense for others 😂

[russr999]

One other question - are you running HS4 on windows or Linux? Will help me in figuring out why the spinning wheels dont automatically go away

[mulu]

Here are some of my comments:

• I am not sure what is better, updating the time for a device when the device changed or when it was the last time when a value was successfully retrieved from the weather source. I kind of expected the latter but I am in no way saying that is how it should be done. I can see just as good an argument for your current approach. Before making any changes I would see what other people have to say (it might take some time to get some traction).
• Regarding the spinning wheel I am using Windows. It happens both on the new Edge Chromium and Chrome. Btw, I don't have to refresh the page. Even if I just click somewhere outside that pop up it will disappear.
• The degree symbol is no big issue. I haven't used it so far but it would be a nice touch.
• I do see your point regarding automatically removing features. The biggest problem is that events refer to devices by ID. So if a user accidentally removes a feature the events will get messed up. Personally, I would choose the approach of showing the user a warning about what might happen to their events, scripts, etc and if they agree remove the device. On the other hand, I think WeatherXML used your approach of letting users delete them manually. It's something that I didn't like too much but again, other people might have other opinions and maybe I am missing other important aspects.

I thought you are encrypting the key because it looked completely different from what I entered. Initially I did go to my HS4 setup page and copied the weather key into your plugin. When things didn't work I logged into OpenWeatherMap and realized it was different. The key in HS4 apparently is my NOAA key. Btw, initially I thought why don't you pick up they key from the HS settings. But frankly I prefer you don't. The reason is that I probably will get my daily data from NOAA but the hourly data from OpenWeatherMap.

The configuration was pretty straight forward. There is really just one item that I think could be improved. When configuring OpenWeatherMap there is a check box to select if you want to use your own weather icons. I wasn't quite sure if this is a permanent setting or not. I was unsure what to select but ended up not checking the box. After the setup was done I saw that apparently you can change it later on. It would be good if there is some note that it can be changed later on.

I will be installing 4.0.0.3 now.

[brientim]

Hello

I have installed the new version of both Weather and Hydrawise and immediately encountered issues. I am not sure is the is contention just some between the two plugins, as when one starts the other will immediately disconnect and then they cycle connect/disconnect so on and so on...

Disabling Hydrawise, Weather will run without issue however, the reserves is not the same and Hydrawise will fail regardless of Weather running or not.

[russr999]

Hi brientim ,

Jsut home now. That is not good the rnbHydra stopped working. I will look at this now.
Quick question - are you running HomeSeer on windows or linux?

[brientim]

Hi,

No real urgency as it isn’t impacting due to the weather over here. Not expecting any warm weather for a while yet.

I accept that is the risks of testing the Beta and I am running in Windows.

[russr999]

Thanks. I'll look at it now anyway as it shouldnt rnbWeather causing it and not fair if you have the plugin and it was working.
I may need to put a beta in for Hydrawise with increased logging to diagnose the problem. If I do, I'll let you know.

Good news on the restrictions starting to lift over there for you

[brientim]

Thanks, and yes we can leave home tomorrow and go out without requiring reason as of tomorrow. That is really hard to come to grips with after 6 months of making excuses I have lots of them that are now useless.