Snevl_WW Weather Warnings discussion thread

[stevea]

Hello Steve,

Yes; doesn't make sense to me either. I will email ini file. Thank you.

Pete,
I created a new script that only extracted the part of Snevl_WW that plays the WAV file. It pulled the WAV file path from the SnevlWeatherWarnings.ini file, and used the exact same subroutine (copied and pasted from the main script). The Main() routine only pulled the speaker instance and WAV file path from the INI file (again, copied directly from the main script). In the Snevl_WW config web page, I set the WAV file to this:

c:\Program Files\Homeseer HSPRO\Data\Snevl\ding_dong.wav

First time I tried it, the WAV played just fine (and drove my dogs crazy: That WAV is one of the ones I use for my doorbell sound).

I have no idea what is going on in your setup. I'll wait for the INI and see if I can figure out more.

Steve

[Pete]

I tested it again; each time looking at the INI file. It wrote the INI file correctly and never delected any spaces.

Please accept my apologies; I am not sure what happened before; but it looks like its working as you specified.

[stevea]

I tested it again; each time looking at the INI file. It wrote the INI file correctly and never delected any spaces.

Please accept my apologies; I am not sure what happened before; but it looks like its working as you specified.

No apologies needed, Pete. I'm glad you got it working, as I thought I was going crazy. Besides, as thorough as you are, it's good to see even you make a mistake now and then. Makes the rest of us look not quite as hopeless as before!

Steve

[Pete]

I took advantage of the multiple tornado/storm warnings the day before yesterday.

It was literally continously until midnight or so central time.

I kept getting the alerts in the morning and started to play with the application making an adjustment here or there.

In the process of configuring other methods of notice (versus TTS). The email and texting works well. I am inserting the alerts on my WUN weather camera upload and looking maybe to flash a lamp or something similiar in the home.

Great application there Steve; thank you for your patience.

[stevea]

Pete (and anyone else who gets lots of alerts):

I haven't had a good string of live alerts since the last set of blizzards in February. If in the process of seeing lots of alerts you get some thoughts on additional filtering that might be needed, other ways to control repeated announcements, additional ways to de-dupe alerts, etc., please let me know. Since the source code is out there, I think some industrious folks might even be able to try some mods. Share them back, and I'll try and get them in the next release.

I've got several things now added to what will probably be v2.9. A "test mode" that lets you create a fake alerts to test things out has been added, as well as an option to trigger a separate event for High Priority Alerts. I also parse out the SAME code (Specific Area Message Encoding). I don't do anything with it yet except put it in a device (also optional). The SAME codes are what map to the Emergency Alert System, so there is some potential to use it that way, although the Alert Type already does most of the same thing.

Steve

[stevea]

Last chance: I've got a v2.9 ready to go, but Ed is out of town and won't be able to pull together an installer package for a few days. Any issues or requests before I pull the trigger on v2.9? As far as I can tell, there hasn't been many issues, so this may be the last release for a while.

Steve

[Pete]

Thanks Steve. With the "test mode" I can validate more "stuff" and play with the application (mods you mentioned).

I shut off the regular TTS alerts. The multiple tornado, flood, storm alerts all day for like maybe 2 days a few days back drove my wife nuts.

Not sure if I configured it right Steve. I'm guessing that I will only hear a tornado warning or watch in the configured setup as attached?

[stevea]

Thanks Steve. With the "test mode" I can validate more "stuff" and play with the application (mods you mentioned).

I shut off the regular TTS alerts. The multiple tornado, flood, storm alerts all day for like maybe 2 days a few days back drove my wife nuts.

Not sure if I configured it right Steve. I'm guessing that I will only hear a tornado warning or watch in the configured setup as attached?

Pete,

It may be something that I should change, but if you turn off the announcements (via the checkbox) it actually will actually not announce anything, including the high priority alerts. If you want to only announce the high priority ones, I'd suggest enabling the announcements, but clear out the WAV and announcement templates for normal alerts.

Maybe I need a separate checkbox to enable high priority announcements, and then you can have normal alerts not be announced by unchecking the box you checked. I would have to re-wicker the logic in that part of the script (I think) but it's worth thinking about.

Steve

[Pete]

Thanks Steve.

Maybe I need a separate checkbox to enable high priority announcements, and then you can have normal alerts not be announced by unchecking the box you checked. I would have to re-wicker the logic in that part of the script (I think) but it's worth thinking about.

Sounds good. No rush.

Cleared the WAV and announcement templates for normal alerts.

[Pete]

I was doing some bandwidth intensive stuff on another computer a few minutes back and noticed the following on the HS logs.

5/28/2011 6:15:41 PM Error SnevlWeatherWarnings failed to retrieve XML from NWS 3 consecutive times.
5/28/2011 7:00:37 PM Error SnevlWeatherWarnings failed to retrieve XML from NWS 3 consecutive times.

[stevea]

I was doing some bandwidth intensive stuff on another computer a few minutes back and noticed the following on the HS logs.

Yeah, that's the trap I put in to try and deal with the XML feed connection failing. It could be the bandwidth issue, or you may be getting rejects from the NWS.

You can try and bump the number from 3 to something higher. I don't have access to the script right now, but there is a const defined near the top of the script. Feel free to experiment.

Steve

[Pete]

Thanks Steve. First time I've seen this but it was also one of the first times I pushed a bunch of data out of my network in a short time.

Adjusted it to 5 anyways.

Const DeviceLoc as String = "Snevl Warnings"
Const MaxAlerts as Integer = 5
Const MAX_XML_ERRORS as Integer = 5

[spknapp]

Last chance: I've got a v2.9 ready to go, but Ed is out of town and won't be able to pull together an installer package for a few days. Any issues or requests before I pull the trigger on v2.9? As far as I can tell, there hasn't been many issues, so this may be the last release for a while.

Steve

I'll put my $.02 in - any thoughts on making it hide devices for warnings that have no warning?

Thanks for all the hard work.

[tenholde]

Anyone have any suggestions for improving the web page?

tenholde

[stevea]

Anyone have any suggestions for improving the web page?

tenholde

Ed,

I don't have any active alerts right now, but I seem to recall you display most of the fields (device strings) on each alert. I've added a new one: The SAME code (Specific Area Message Encoding) doesn't seem to be of much value by itself, but it maps to the Emergency Alert System that the radio and TV stations follow. I personally wouldn't add it to the page, but it is there if someone does want it.

Steve