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    Losing Solar/UV

    I'm just looking to brainstorm here as I'm at a bit of a loss.

    I have a Davis Vantage Pro 2 wireless weather station with Solar and UV sensors, the Davis Serial DataLogger and Cumulus to input the data into Homeseer.

    The past few days I seem to be having a problem with the Solar and UV sensors not reporting in the morning; readings naturally go to zero overnight but don't recover the following day. There is no reading displayed on the Davis console and of course no data input to HS.

    I've noticed that shutting down Cumulus and then restarting "appears" to correct the problem. This may be coincidental as success seems to occur only after 10:30 AM when we've already had several hours of daylight.

    - I've checked the station, all connectors appear to be clean and free of corrosion. The UV and solar sensors are connected separately.
    - Checked the config on the console and did reset it (power down, remove battery).
    - At first I thought perhaps the station battery or maybe supercap might be at fault. Replaced the battery yesterday, and I've ordered a replacement cap. The old battery, two years old, still measures better than 3.1 volts. These are a long shot however as no other sensor is affected and all others do respond throughout the night.

    Now I'm totally confused and could use some thoughts before I call Davis.

    Could Cumulus be responsible? The Datalogger? Or maybe the fact HS has been running more than 80 days (Again though, why would the console not be displaying the values).
    Real courage is not securing your Wi-Fi network.

    #2
    I have the same station, sorry you are having an issue.
    If restarting Cumulus fixes the issue, I have a hard time believing that the weather station is the problem.

    Are you sending data to other applications? Maybe there is some sort of lock on the data? I know some apps require an exclusive lock on the data...

    You could also temporarily disable the HS plugin and Cumulus and see if the UV gets to the console for more than 24 hours; if so then you know where the problem lies.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by MrMxyzptlk View Post
      I have the same station, sorry you are having an issue.
      If restarting Cumulus fixes the issue, I have a hard time believing that the weather station is the problem.
      I'm not entirely certain this isn't coincidental, especially since [so far] it only seems to be effective after 10:30AM. Tomorrow, I'll leave this alone if the problem occurs to see if the sensors don't recover on their own (IE. Supercapacitor???).

      Are you sending data to other applications? Maybe there is some sort of lock on the data? I know some apps require an exclusive lock on the data...
      To Weather Underground actually. I've been doing so for two years now. It's a thought, and easy to eliminate, but why would this affect only those two sensors though?
      Again, the Davis console also shows no data from those two sensors while it's malfunctioning, and the trouble only begins to occur after sunset, daily for the past week. The buffer between this and HS is the Datalogger.

      You could also temporarily disable the HS plugin and Cumulus and see if the UV gets to the console for more than 24 hours; if so then you know where the problem lies.
      Not using a plugin. This is HS2 and using a script I wrote to read the Cumulus data file. The script would error if the file were locked; it has not. But again, why only these two datum out of over fifty?

      The data path is: Station --> wireless to Console (herein seems to be the break) --> Datalogger --> Serial Port --> Cumulus (produces a text data file which is read by HS. Also transmits to WUN) --> HS.

      NOW. It occurs to me a neighbour half a block away mentioned a while back that he has a Davis station but hadn't been using it. If he's installed it it may be a matter of interference, in which case changing the station # would solve this. I'll speak to him.
      Real courage is not securing your Wi-Fi network.

      Comment


        #4
        Tried changing the station ID. That didn't work so well, perhaps I didn't wait long enough but ended up changing back.

        Just restarted HS. Eighty + days record run time down the drain.
        We'll see where this takes me. I highly doubt the problem lies on this end of things.
        Real courage is not securing your Wi-Fi network.

        Comment


          #5
          Yes, but sometimes when nothing makes sense, the process of elimination is the best solution.

          Comment


            #6
            Davis wanted me to return the station for repair after trying a different channel, which I'd already done. That's not happening. I have the spare supercaps now and if worse comes to worse, I'll replace it myself. Meantime, after five days of misery, things started working on their own. I hate unsolved mysteries.
            Real courage is not securing your Wi-Fi network.

            Comment


              #7
              Problem ongoing. Almost nightly.
              The fact that it only seems to occur at night might seem to indicate station failure, ie. the supercap. Not so fast, read on.

              I have pretty much determined that the problem is NOT in the station itself (unless, which I doubt, there's two way communication between the console and the station).

              - I'm using Cumulus and do have the Davis serial Datalogger. Reading at 5 second intervals. (too much? But why only at night? Maybe midnight?).
              - At this point, I'm not entirely sure all data isn't hung when this occurs. I'm taking steps in HS to make this determination.
              - When it does, the console displays "----" for the solar sensor, indicating no sensor present. Within seconds of restarting Cumulus, the console displays a number (0 when dark).

              - Restarting Cumulus does usually seem to solve the problem. To me, this indicates a problem between the console/datalogger and Cumulus. Pretty sure I can automate the restart if necessary, but that'll be a last resort.
              - Just now I've set the "Restart if Data Stops" option in Cumulus. Will see.

              Hate to contact Davis, because they're going to tell me to return the console and/or station for repair or to use their software which I doubt will be compatible with HS although I never did look at it.
              Real courage is not securing your Wi-Fi network.

              Comment


                #8
                Here purchased a datalogger with a large buffer from Australia. It is/was a redesign of the Davis datalogger.

                The above written this is the third datalogger cable I have purchased. The original one was a just a serial port with no buffer that really did work fine.

                Second one was a replicate of the Davis datalogger.

                BTW run CumulusMX here today on an RPi2. It has done fine. Well still running the original Cumulus in XP on another weather station.

                Steve has improved the Davis console connection with CumulusMX. There are documented LOOP and LPS errors that happen with the Davis datalogger.

                For a bit here I was using a mini serial server for both CumulusMX on the RPi2 and Cumulus on W2003 server.

                Steve mentioned to me that it wouldn't work. It did work until I totally switched over to CumulusMX.

                Davis has been good to me over the years. About 5 years ago a bird (guessing here it was a hawk) ate two of my wind cups off. I didn't have the little hex key to take off the old ones and Davis sent me a new one with the new cups.
                Last edited by Pete; October 7, 2016, 09:11 AM.
                - Pete

                Auto mator
                Homeseer 3 Pro - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e 64 bit Intel Haswell CPU 16Gb
                Homeseer Zee2 (Lite) - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e - CherryTrail x5-Z8350 BeeLink 4Gb BT3 Pro
                HS4 Lite - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenovo Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram

                HS4 Pro - V4.1.18.1 - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenova Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram
                HSTouch on Intel tabletop tablets (Jogglers) - Asus AIO - Windows 11

                X10, UPB, Zigbee, ZWave and Wifi MQTT automation-Tasmota-Espurna. OmniPro 2, Russound zoned audio, Alexa, Cheaper RFID, W800 and Home Assistant

                Comment


                  #9
                  Since I'm reading the data out at five second intervals, I doubt very much data overrun is an issue. I am thinking that might well be the area of issue but this only ever seems to occur sometime overnight. The fact it's only apparently affecting the solar data and that it seems to be hanging in the console itself is the puzzle and the reason I suspect the datalogger itself.
                  I could try shutting off Cumulus for a few days and perhaps pulling the datalogger from the console, but since I use the solar data in dozens of events controlling lights, this will take a couple of days preparation to modify all the affected events and scripts in such a way that I can easily switch back and forth as necessary. Best start I guess.

                  Previously too the console was connected via a remote (Quatech) serial port. I moved it a couple of days ago to one on the HS mother board. No change.
                  Real courage is not securing your Wi-Fi network.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Yes; here with testing using the micro terminal server had one connection over to a Quatech box which connected to a W2003 box running old Cumulus. Steve mentioned that it would quit due to a buffer overrun which it did not; but I was probably just lucky.

                    I have occasionally gotten some weird 200MPH wind speed reads which I typically delete.

                    Looking at the CumulusMX INI file running on the RPi2 here are my settings for the interval.

                    RestartIfDataStops=0
                    SyncDavisClock=1
                    ClockSettingHour=4
                    SyncFOReads=0
                    WS2300IgnoreStationClock=0
                    LogExtraSensors=0
                    DataLogInterval=2


                    Here do my Cumulus stuff a bit different. I upload the realtime.txt file to the same hosting web site for two weather stations. I then use HS3 Cumulus to read the two realtime.txt files. I do another replicate of Cumulus data with WeatherXML. I also upload a custom csv file for mcsSprinklers running on another box here.
                    - Pete

                    Auto mator
                    Homeseer 3 Pro - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e 64 bit Intel Haswell CPU 16Gb
                    Homeseer Zee2 (Lite) - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e - CherryTrail x5-Z8350 BeeLink 4Gb BT3 Pro
                    HS4 Lite - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenovo Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram

                    HS4 Pro - V4.1.18.1 - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenova Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram
                    HSTouch on Intel tabletop tablets (Jogglers) - Asus AIO - Windows 11

                    X10, UPB, Zigbee, ZWave and Wifi MQTT automation-Tasmota-Espurna. OmniPro 2, Russound zoned audio, Alexa, Cheaper RFID, W800 and Home Assistant

                    Comment


                      #11
                      It does seem to me that the logger may be hanging, since restarting Cumulus does seem to reset the communications by means of re initializing the port.
                      Why this has become an issue after two full years of running problem free is the question.

                      I can, in my event/script, watch the data and perhaps determine if there has been no change during a specific period, programmatically restart Cumulus. Failing that, it may be required to do this once per day regardless. I've checked; it is possible in VB.Net to kill a given process, and then restart it. Before I do that, I still need to determine whether or not all data is frozen or only the solar sensors. The question remains however; why only sometime during the night.

                      I will contact Davis and ask the question "Is it possible that if the data logger hangs, is the console also affected?". To my mind, that would be a design flaw, albeit a fortunate one in that it's been my only clue to what is happening. What I don't want to do is throw two or three hundred dollars (depending on whether its serial or USB) at them for a new data logger.
                      Real courage is not securing your Wi-Fi network.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Are you using Cumulus or Cumulus MX?

                        The 3rd party data logger's I have purchased are $20-$40.
                        - Pete

                        Auto mator
                        Homeseer 3 Pro - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e 64 bit Intel Haswell CPU 16Gb
                        Homeseer Zee2 (Lite) - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e - CherryTrail x5-Z8350 BeeLink 4Gb BT3 Pro
                        HS4 Lite - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenovo Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram

                        HS4 Pro - V4.1.18.1 - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenova Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram
                        HSTouch on Intel tabletop tablets (Jogglers) - Asus AIO - Windows 11

                        X10, UPB, Zigbee, ZWave and Wifi MQTT automation-Tasmota-Espurna. OmniPro 2, Russound zoned audio, Alexa, Cheaper RFID, W800 and Home Assistant

                        Comment


                          #13
                          MX requires Net 4.5 which isn't available on XP; yes XP is still on my HS machine. While I'm no longer adverse to moving up a step to Win 7 (Never 10), it would require some work, and not a little downtime. I see no guarantee either that MX will solve the problem.

                          I believe I did note this morning that all data had frozen in Cumulus/HS, while at that point the console was still indicating Solar data. Now, this seems to me to be indicating that the logger probably is hanging eventually with a full buffer and then finally freezing the console.

                          I could at this point convert to a USB logger at some cost (and again no guarantee of improvement), having moved the console to a location within reach of the HS machine. Or, perhaps invest less in some generic logger. (What source Pete?) At least now I have enough information to make some intelligent decisions.

                          First however, given this new information, I'll run all this by Davis out of curiosity per their response, IE: are these loggers known to be buggy and if so is there a fix?
                          Real courage is not securing your Wi-Fi network.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Yeah here put CumulusMX on a Rpi2 with Wheezy / Mono 3.12. All I have done is update. Tiny footprint as I have it velcroed to the back of the Davis Console.



                            I dunno about the USB logger. I am using an RS-232 to USB cable to the newer RS-232 logger.

                            All three data logger cables came from different sources.

                            The first one (simple without a buffer) came from the moderator on one of the weather forums that was using a Davis Vantage Pro. It's been a few years.

                            I will look for the sources.
                            - Pete

                            Auto mator
                            Homeseer 3 Pro - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e 64 bit Intel Haswell CPU 16Gb
                            Homeseer Zee2 (Lite) - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e - CherryTrail x5-Z8350 BeeLink 4Gb BT3 Pro
                            HS4 Lite - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenovo Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram

                            HS4 Pro - V4.1.18.1 - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenova Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram
                            HSTouch on Intel tabletop tablets (Jogglers) - Asus AIO - Windows 11

                            X10, UPB, Zigbee, ZWave and Wifi MQTT automation-Tasmota-Espurna. OmniPro 2, Russound zoned audio, Alexa, Cheaper RFID, W800 and Home Assistant

                            Comment


                              #15
                              See http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=130347 which is a recent thread that discussed loggers

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