To add on with my experience and decision process using a Meteobridge, my Weather environment today is:
- Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus ISS, dual Vantage Pro 2 consoles
- Davis WeatherLinkIP (I actually have 2)
- Ambient Weather WeatherBridge (a pre-built and already-licensed Meteobridge using a TP-LINK router)
- Apple iMac 5K (Quad-core, 512GB SSD, 16TB Drobo, etc...)
Some Basic Context:- I want to continue being a
Mac-centric guy, but I do keep a very cheap $200 Windows laptop around for the occassional Windows-only support need. I was an IT-kinda guy in my early professional life and can still get into geekie things if I must, but am honestly trying to keep my life simpler these days.
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I try to save a bit of energy when I can. My iMac is turned-on when I get up each day, is turned-off when I'm done with it at the end of the day, and sleeps when not in use. Keeping it on 7x24x365 is not desired.
- I have a
UPS to provide several hours of backup power for my home routers, landline and other key (relatively low power) peripherals. My Mac has a second UPS, but only runs for an hour or so without 110V, given it's larger power requirements, especially with that 27" display.
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I had a personal website I maintained for the past 17+ years, but have almost completed shutting that down in my effort to simplify my life. I therefore have no need or desire to put my weather information up to my own site.
My Weather-specific Objectives & Considerations- I have had a
Davis Vantage Pro2 for years, but it was NOT connected to any weather networks -- only to my dual Davis Consoles in my home. I decided to re-site my weather station, and in the process upgraded my ISS with a new Plus model, before connecting it to the outside world.
- I use a
Davis WeatherLinkIP logger in my Mac-centric world. It comes as a "Windows Device" and I suppose is not officially supported by Davis on a Mac, but works just fine. Initial setup (static IP) of the WeatherLinkIP is via Chrome or Firefox running under macOS. No problem. All other setup and sensor calibration is done via the Davis Console, so that's not an issue. If I should ever need to update the WeatherLinkIP firmware, I can do it with my cheap Windows PC. Of note is if you need to update Davis Console firmware like I did as part of the ISS upgrade, they only provide that utility via a Windows .exe, so I had to have the PC anyway having bought into the Davis world. Using the WeatherLinkIP vs. the officially supported USB version with a Mac has a number of benefits, but the greatest for me was the logger does not need to be physically connected via USB to my Mac and can be located anywhere my home network allows -- it's just a lot more flexible in that regard, AND I can use a ISS Plus model (UV & Solar) or any of their other devices some day -- The USB version supported with a Mac has major restrictions in that regard. All major weather reporting apps on a Mac also support the WeatherLinkIP, so the decision ended-up being a no-brainer for me. It costs a little bit more up-front, but is just a much more robust solution for my needs today and hopefully the future.
- I elected to use a
Meteobridge as the way for me to get my data up to the Weather Networks. Key things I like about it:
-- It's cheap. Just over $100US for the TP-Link and License if you want to DIY and are OK doing some Linux work, otherwise it's $200 for a ready-to-go version from Ambient Weather that works out of the box and you never have to deal with the underpinnings.
-- I don't have to keep my Mac on 7x24x365 to keep reporting to the Weather Networks
-- It takes perhaps 1-2 watts to run -- less than a night light. That works well with my trying to conserve energy where I can, and placing it and my Davis Console with the WeatherLinkIP on my existing UPS, communication will likely continue for several hours if there is a power outage.
-- It updates itself with the latest code any time you reboot the registered device for life. Simple. No intervention required.
-- It provides a "pass thru" ability, such that you can use a concurrent software applications such as WeatherCat to access the logger at the same time. I just tell WeatherCat I have a WeatherLinkIP and
provide the IP of the meteobridge (not the WeatherLinkIP), and it works.
-- All the major Weather Networks are supported, along with custom FTP ability if you want to use it for say connection to other WWW templates or SQL databases
-- It provides some capabilities to work with webcams, manipulate say static camera images, and an extremely powerful way to set up to 20 custom alerts and notifications via a number of communication methods. I use the latter to notify me of icy conditions, the battery is low on my ISS, or some of the sensors go offline.
-- It comes with a standard option allowing me to not only logon and manage the Meteobridge locally, but REMOTELY if I'm away from home. No futzing with remote IP management to accomplish that task. Easy.
- Davis ISS are not the only supported weather stations -- the list is pretty large.
-- and more.
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For my own analysis and real-time display while I'm using my Mac, my present tool of choice is of course, WeatherCat. WeatherCat catches-up with archival data from my WeatherLinkIP logger when it starts up with my Mac each time, so I'm only loosing a bit of data granularity when my Mac is off, that in the scheme of things is likely not that important for my needs. Data is still going up to my Weather Networks of choice 7x24x365 on the schedule I've established.
SummaryThere were not a lot of drawbacks for me making this decision to use a Meteobridge in my setup. I love WeatherCat -- it's refined; provides me some flexibility; this forum is THE BEST; and the combination is a large part of the reason for me to recently expand my weather hobby as I have. But I'll also be honest and say that I don't use many of WeatherCat's capabilities because they are offloaded to the Meteobridge and I don't need most of the website functionally either provide. The more recent change in WeatherCat to force my Mac to never sleep is bothersome. It's what had me looking at alternative applications that don't assume they are always running 7x24. I'll likely stick with WeatherCat because I'd miss it AND all of you reading this
, but hopefully the developer will consider my suggested enhancement in this regard (
http://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=2371.0) before too long.
My next project is getting my new Sharx 3924 camera going as a weather cam. I have not decided on everything with that quite yet, but that's for another thread some time.