Trixology
WeatherCat => WeatherCat Integration => Topic started by: Denver on March 03, 2021, 04:51:49 PM
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Hi,
I recently moved, and have set up my old Davis Vantage Vue weather station (and Mac computer) at the new location.
However, when I run WeatherCat, after setting up my new information in the tab for Wunderground in WeatherCat preferences, the weather cat client and software still seem to be looking for historical data from my previous set up. I can see in the WeatherCat log that it is trying to upload historical data from my previous setup (several months ago), and ignoring the new configuration data that I set up in preferences. The log message says "no Wonderground data to upload" or something to that effect. On the Wunderground website, the new station is listed as inactive because it isn't receiving any data.
Trying to fix this, I deleted the WeatherCat files in user/Library/WeatherCat* on the Mac, and restarted WeatherCat, but that doesn't fix the problem.
How can I get WeatherCat to forget about the old Wunderground station, and simply use the new station that is now configured in the WeatherCat preferences under the Online/Wunderground tab.
It is never easy...
Thank you,
Denver
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Not sure what the asterisk means in this sentence: "...I deleted the WeatherCat files in user/Library/WeatherCat*..." There are at least two "WeatherCat" directories in ~/Library:
- WeatherCatBackups[created by the app
- WeatherCatBackups[manual backups, usually dated]
- WeatherCatData[this diretory conaitns the historical data grouped by year:
- Location1
- 2015
- 2016
- ...
- 2021
- 1_WeatherCatData.cat
- 1_WeatherCatData.cat.hrs
- 2_WeatherCatData.cat
- ...Daily Data
Does your "*" mean you deleted all those files and directories?!
Do you have "Rapid Fire Mode" enabled in the WU prefs?
What "Update Rate" are you using?
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I renamed the two weathercat directories in the lib directory, just to see if I could cause Weathercat to generate new directories and then recognize the new settings in preferences for Weather Underground. The refresh rate is rapid fire 2.5 seconds.
The issue is that WeatherCat acts like it is still seeing the previous configuration options at my old location before I moved.
For CWOP, I had no issue after updating the configuration in WeatherCat preferences to reflect the new location and station ID after my move. In that case, WeatherCat is doing what it should and uploading data to CWOP just fine.
Denver
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Dear Denver, X-Air, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,
. . . .
How can I get WeatherCat to forget about the old Wunderground station, and simply use the new station that is now configured in the WeatherCat preferences under the Online/Wunderground tab.
It is never easy...
Actually it is relatively easy in this case. Weather Underground historical uploads is an option on the WeatherCat preference pane on the subject. To prevent WeatherCat from attempting to make historical uploads, simply uncheck that option. You can get more information on this and other Weather Underground options on page 95 of the current manual.
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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Well, I wish it were... I had checked "Log Historical Uploads", because that is the only way I could see any activity related to Wunderground in the WC log. If I uncheck that option, then nothing shows up in the WC log, even though I have "Log Sent Data" checked. My weather station and WeatherCat were working perfectly before moving (2000 miles). Now I have set the station up in the new location, and received new station IDs from CWOP and Wunderground. CWOP works fine, but Wunderground does not even show up in the WC log unless I check "Log Historical Uploads (I was trying various options, just to try and see some activity). So when I uncheck that option, there is no mention of Wunderground in the logs, and no indication of data being sent to Wunderground. Is there some way that I can delete all files associated with WC, and just start fresh with a new installation of the software, and manually adding the configuration parameters again in the WC preference pane?
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Here is what the log looks like, with the configuration for Wunderground as shown in the previous image.
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Rather than "deleting" files, I'd suggest simply moving them. Just know there are dozens of them. I'm sure you put a lot of work into setting all the Pref entries. Those plist files can be viewed with even TextEdit.
If you don't see a "Modified:" date/time change when you make a change to a Pref, you might want to just move that plist file, Quit and Restart WC, and make sure that a new plist file is created.
• If not, that's a WC problem and the Dev will want to know.
• If it did, you can now set it up the way you want.
There is a serious and bad habit, at least in the Mac world, of having people put things in the "Trash" or "delete" them. The "Trash" is absolutely not a place to store things for later re-use. Deleting something before you can confirm it is somehow broken is simply a way to create work for the user.
plist files are created by an app and placed in the correct path. Simply moving them to a different path will prevent the app from knowing where they are. But the user can still see the data and restore it to the correct path if it is actually still usable.
[rant]Sorry for climbing on my soapbox, this is one of my 'pet peeves' in the way some offer "support".[/rant]
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Your log in Reply #5 shows CWOP info which you said is OK.
My own data is updated to WU every 5 minutes. But even with my WC prefs set to "Enable Historical Uploads", "Log Historical Uploads" and "Log Sent Data" in the Wunderground PWS prefs. I only see current Data (every 60 seconds) in Console, it is basically the same data as seen in the Data Viewer/Editor.
At the WU site the data is at 5 minute intervals, I assume that the displayed data is the last item; "Log Sent Data". Of course, the last data at their site is at least 24 minutes old...
I assume you are searching/typing "wu" or "wunderground" in the Console search box.
Mar 3 18:08:03 Jamess-Mac-SSD-mini WeatherCat[29308]: Wunderground: dateutc=2021-03-04+00%3A08%3A03&winddir=180&windspeedmph=0.0&windgustmph=0.0&windgustdir=180&windgustmph_10m=0.0&windgustdir_10m=180&humidity=51&dewptf=38.77&tempf=56.70&rainin=0.00&dailyrainin=0.01&baromin=30.072&solarradiation=1570&UV=16.0&softwaretype=WeatherCatV3.12B34&action=updateraw
CWOP:
Mar 3 18:08:31 Jamess-Mac-SSD-mini WeatherCat[29308]: CWOP: Starting connection...
Mar 3 18:08:31 Jamess-Mac-SSD-mini WeatherCat[29308]: CWOP: Trying to connect to cwop.aprs.net.
Mar 3 18:08:31 Jamess-Mac-SSD-mini WeatherCat[29308]: CWOP: Connecting to cwop.aprs.net.
Mar 3 18:08:36 Jamess-Mac-SSD-mini WeatherCat[29308]: CWOP: Sending data to cwop.aprs.net. Success.
Mar 3 18:08:36 Jamess-Mac-SSD-mini WeatherCat[29308]: CWOP: Finished.
Mar 3 18:08:36 Jamess-Mac-SSD-mini WeatherCat[29308]: CWOP: Next transmission in 10 minutes and 13 seconds.
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Good point on "moving" the files instead of deleting.
I stopped WC, created a temporary directory and moved the two existing WC directories there. Then I restarted WC, confirmed that WC generated two new WC directories WeatherCatBackups and WeatherCatData, and WC did not modify the timestamp of the files in the renamed directories. I then looked at the Pref pane in the WC client, and all of my WC pref settings for WU and CWOP were preserved. It is almost like WC has another place where this data is stored (not in the plist files in the WeatherCatData directory). Or this data is cached somewhere somehow, not sure. Once again, I confirmed that CWOP was running and uploading data as expected, but there was nothing about WU anywhere in the log/console.
The strange thing is when I enable the WU option "Log Historical Uploads", the date of the uploads WC is looking for (according to the log) is October 18, 2020, which is about the time that I stopped WC and took down the weather station prior to making the move. Perhaps there is a WC bug that prevents the proper starting of the WU service if the previous Pref setting for WU was set for Enable Historical Upload. Possibly, WC is trying to upload that historical data before it will start properly. The fact that I changed the name of the Station ID might have something to do with it. When I took the station down before moving, I removed the battery and boxed it up until just a day or two ago, so it hasn't been recording any data since I made the move in October.
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It is almost like WC has another place where this data is stored (not in the plist files in the WeatherCatData directory). Or this data is cached somewhere somehow, not sure.
I’ve had similar thoughts about other apps! I’m hoping the Dev will see your thread/posts or another user can offer you some real help or suggestions. I think your discoveries will lead to a solution. It may be another quirk of Big Sur. Stu has already created one work-around for that OS! ThU32:-)
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I hope that a developer is paying attention. I don't know what else to do, have taken what seem like reasonable steps to troubleshoot and resolve this. Maybe I will just give up on Wunderground for now, or perhaps buy a cheap PC to receive the data from the Davis weather station, and look for a different software platform for uploading to the Internet. Not sure.
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It appears that there are other Weathercat files that may need to be deleted. Haven't tried deleting these yet...
~/Library/WeatherCatData
▪~/Library/WeatherCatBackups
▪~/Library/Application Support/WeatherCatCustomWeb
▪~/Library/Application Support/WeatherCatMedia
▪~/Library/Application Support/WeatherCatTemp
▪~/Library/Application Support/WCWeb
▪~/Library/Preferences/com.trixology.weathercat.plist
▪~/Documents/WeatherCatExports
▪~/Documents/WeatherCatReports
▪(where ~ is your home directory). Not all of these folders may be present depending on your WeatherCat configuration.
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The saga continues...
I renamed all of the files listed above, ran a fresh copy of the WC application, and configured the WC preferences by duplicating what had been in preferences previously (it had been working for 8 years, before my move mentioned in the original post). Then I unplugged the Davis VAntage Vue console from the computer, and plugged it back in. Finally, I restarted the WC application.
And now, WC displays the following message in the console log "Weather data not ready..."
Here's what I am seeing
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Dear Denver, X-Air, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,
Well, I wish it were... I had checked "Log Historical Uploads", because that is the only way I could see any activity related to Wunderground in the WC log. If I uncheck that option, then nothing shows up in the WC log, even though I have "Log Sent Data" checked.
. . . . .
Unfortunately, you are looking in the wrong place for confirmation that Weather Underground uploads are working. With rapid-fire on, logging every upload would spam the log files. Instead, statistics are kept on the upload progress. You'll find that information on the WeatherCat Statius window described on page 65 of the current manual.
I renamed all of the files listed above, ran a fresh copy of the WC application, and configured the WC preferences by duplicating what had been in preferences previously (it had been working for 8 years, before my move mentioned in the original post). Then I unplugged the Davis VAntage Vue console from the computer, and plugged it back in. Finally, I restarted the WC application.
And now, WC displays the following message in the console log "Weather data not ready..."
Here's what I am seeing
Unfortunately, in all your attempts to move things around you have either corrupted some preference files, disrupted your station driver, or both. Try installing the Silicon Labs driver once more and see if that solves your problem. Instructions on how to do this can be found on the WeatherCat Wiki:
https://wiki.trixology.com/index.php?title=Obtaining_the_latest_drivers_for_use_with_Davis_data_loggers (https://wiki.trixology.com/index.php?title=Obtaining_the_latest_drivers_for_use_with_Davis_data_loggers)
If your computer is still running macOS 10.10 (Yosemite) then you will need to use the legacy driver that is also included in the distribution. If you have upgraded to a newer version of macOS, you might need to go through the security validation procedure described in the Wiki article.
Sorry that you have had such difficulty, but WeatherCat is a sophisticated piece of software which should be handled with care.
Edouard
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I wonder what "data" is being sent to any service since all the listed items are "not ready"!
Perhaps back to the beginning is order?
I think you mentioned that the batteries are new, in both the ISS and the Console?
Is data actually showing on the Davis Console?
If not there is lots of good trouble-shooting steps in the ISS Manual starting at page 7.
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Thanks for the replies. I am being careful with this highly sophisticated (and problematic) piece of software.
Unfortunately, at this particular point in time the ISS manual is not available for download, at https://support.davisinstruments.com/article/0ics9tab6w-manual-vantage-vue-integrated-sensor-suite-manual-6250-6357
I just restored the original WC files, rebooted the computer, restarted weathercat. The same problem I was having that motivated me to post to this forum is happening again. Everything is running fine, data shows up on the WC client, data is being uploaded to CWOP, but no data is being sent to wunderground and there is no indication in the console log of a problem. Therefore, there is no issue with driver.
I really don't know what to do. WC support has not been very helpful, and with the timezone difference the turnaround time in the conversation is slow.
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Also, I turned off rapid refresh in WC preferences for wunderground and set it to one minute. I then rebooted the computer and restarted WC. Here's the log file after doing that. There is no mention of wunderground in the console log (but most other services can be seen in the log when they are starting).
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Unfortunately, ... the ISS manual is not available for download
Try Firefox. I managed to download the PDF using this link: <https://www.davisinstruments.com/product_documents/weather/manuals/07395-261_IM_06351.pdf (https://www.davisinstruments.com/product_documents/weather/manuals/07395-261_IM_06351.pdf)> OOPS, that appears to be mainly the Console Manual, I'll look for one for the ISS.
Nope, only other file that downloads is the almost useless "Quick Setup Manual". [banghead]
Perhaps another form member has the PDF manual you are willing to share with Denver?
Based on the two lines showing data is being "fetched from weather station", at least the data seems to now be available.
However, there is a mention of a "*** Station Power Alert***". I asked about checking the batteries and the ISS power levels in my last post (Reply #15).
Again:
Is data actually showing on the Console?
Is your data actually showing at CWOP?
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Dear Denver and WeatherCat troubleshooters,
Thanks for the replies. I am being careful with this highly sophisticated (and problematic) piece of software.
I understand, but you'll need to show some patience when it comes to support from the forum and WeatherCat technical support. Forum participants are just plain folks with all the miseries life is tossing at us at this point. Alas, our fearless leader (Stuart Ball, WeatherCat developer) has many issues of his own since he recently moved to the London area and must deal with all the troubles associated with COVID in that locale. These days nothing is easy.
I just restored the original WC files, rebooted the computer, restarted weathercat. The same problem I was having that motivated me to post to this forum is happening again. Everything is running fine, data shows up on the WC client, data is being uploaded to CWOP, but no data is being sent to wunderground and there is no indication in the console log of a problem. Therefore, there is no issue with driver.
There are one thing to check at this point. First make sure you are using the key provided by Weather Underground as the "password." For perverse reason, WU changed their protocol and they supply the key instead of using your WU password. If you don't use the key, it is an incorrect login and that will stop uploading right there.
If that checks out, I'm very much at wit's end. Looking at your screen shot of the preference pane, it appears that WeatherCat is locked up at the point of starting to upload to Weather Underground. This is suggestive of a corrupted preference file. Do you have a backup of your preferences before these problems started? If so you could try restoring this file:
~/Library/Preferences/com.trixology.weathercat.plist
The file path is in UNIX notation and must be retrieved in the Library folder. You might need to make a special effort to reach that folder. If you do not have a backup before these problems started, you might note all the WeatherCat settings and delete the preference file. Either way reboot your computer before launching WeatherCat. macOS caches preference settings. If you delete the preference file and don't reboot, macOS will restore the corrupted settings and you are right back where you started.
I've cobbled together a quick AppleScript that is cannibalized from my WC Status Growler AppleScript. It is attached to this posting. If you download it, decompress it, and double-click on it, it should launch the Script Editor and display the script in a window. At the top of that window will be a "play" arrow like a media player. If you click on that, the script should run and display in the bottom part of the window the error message that WeatherCat is receiving. If you can get that message, post it here and we'll see if we can figure out what your problem is. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if your problem is covered in the list of errors provided to AppleScript. We'll just have to see.
Sorry, normally it doesn't get this complicated, but such are the conditions that prevail during a pandemic.
. . . . . . Oh well, . . . . . . Edouard
P.S. I attempted to get my installation of WeatherCat to display the uploaded data to Weather Underground and failed. Perhaps there is some issue there but I didn't have time to look into it more carefully. Can someone else look into this?
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Enable "Log Sent Data" check box in the Wunderground prefs. That data is then listed in "system.log" section of Console (at least in Catalina macOS 10.15, it may very well be different in BS as Apple seems intent on making Console as un-user-friendly as possible. [banghead] You can put something like "Wunder" in the Console search box to reduce the clutter of the output list.
One of my WU "sent" packages looks like this:Wunderground: dateutc=2021-03-06+00%3A01%3A16&winddir=17&windspeedmph=7.0&windgustmph=7.0&windgustdir=5&windgustmph_10m=7.0&windgustdir_10m=5&humidity=45&dewptf=25.95&tempf=46.10&rainin=0.00&dailyrainin=0.00&baromin=30.171&softwaretype=WeatherCatV3.12B34&action=updateraw
Of course, if the WU prefs page shows "Reports sent: 0" in the Current Status section, it would be a small miracle to see any data in the log. [rolleyes2]
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Trying to answer everyone’s questions.
The battery in the ISS is new.
I put fresh batteries in the console too, but they had been in the drawer for a number of years and I need to buy some new ones. Anyways, since everything is working except wunderground upload, I don’t think the batteries are the cause of the problem.
Yes, data actually showing on the WC Console, and looks complete and accurate.
Yes, my weather data is actually showing at CWOP and it updates regularly.
I’m sorry if I seem impatient. It is more that I am tired, like everyone else I suppose.
I did make sure to use the upload key that I received from Wunderground when I set up the new “device” on their website. I did not use my wunderground password.
I unzipped the apple script, and clicked on the “play” symbol in the upper pane. In the lower pane, the message “undefined state” appeared.
Edouard, if Wunderground uploads failed on your WC setup too, that may be the biggest clue yet…
I have “log sent data” enabled on Wunderground preferences. I launched iMac console and clicked on the system log pane. I filtered on “Wunder” and similar strings, but there was nothing matching that. It is weird, as all of the other online/upload services (like weathercloud, pwsweather, etc.) have an entry in the WC log when I start WC that shows them starting up and running. Just nothing in there for Wunderground.
Additionally:
One weird thing that showed when I renamed the old WC files and did a fresh install to generate new WC files. In the old setup, these three files existed in the Library/Preferences directory:
com.trixology.weathercat.plist
com.trixology.weathercat.plist.ucPxkwX
com.trixology.WeatherCatClient.plist
However, after I renamed them and did a fresh install of WC, the only file that was created was com.trixology.weathercat.plist, and the other two were not created. And this was the environment where the weather data was no longer being fetched from the weather station.
That’s all I know for now.
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First, a big thanks for so definitively answering all the many questions! I know it (I) can sometimes be tedious! [blush]
If you still have those files, you might check the "Modified" date/times. It is possible that one or more of them is quite old as it may no longer be one that the latest version of WC uses.
The one with ...plist.ucPxkwX is certainly strange but it may actually have a purpose for an app or the developer.
I'm know you have TextEdit, but TextWrangler (https://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/) is a much better (and free) app for opening these files. For one, it will usually 'colorfy' the code making it easier to differeniate the tags and their values. Their format is actually just text with a rather small number of "<tags>". The first two lines are usually: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
Next line is probably one that specifies the version of the plist, it may or may not match the version of the app.
Next will be a collection of the "tags", normally in pairs:<dict>
<key>SomeText</key> note the "/" in the tag
<string>YES</string> (or maybe: NO, 1, 2, etc.)
<key>dockDewPoint</key>
<true/>Note the tag "closes" itself
<key>dockShowPrecipitation</key>
<false/>TRUE and FALSE are so often used they have their own tag!
<key>dockTextRed</key>
<real>0.60000002384185791</real>
<key>internetURL</key>
<string>10.0.1.3</string>
...
...
</dict>matches the "dict" tag at the beginning of the block of code
</plist>again, this matches the beginning "plist" tag at the beginning of the code
As you can see, there are a quite limited number of "tags" (the blue words) and they are easily human readable. The black text & numbers are usually human readable, but that doesn't mean they are always human (user) understandable! Those are sometimes texts that are only 'appreciated' by the Dev. ;D
The point is, if you see "strange" values or tags or missing closing tags (a tag without a "/" somewhere in it) that may mean a corrupted plist. That's one you definitely want to replace or discuss with the Dev. ThU32:-)
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BTW, here are the entries in the com.trixology.weathercat.plist file concerning Wunderground:
<key>com.trixology.wunderground.log</key>
<true/>
<key>controllerWinOpen</key>
<string>NO</string>
<key>customWebUploadRateMenu</key>
<integer>120</integer>
...
<key>wundergroundCameraEnabledCB</key>
<false/>
<key>wundergroundCameraID</key>
<string></string>
<key>wundergroundCameraKey</key>
<string></string>
<key>wundergroundEnableHistoricalLogging</key>
<false/>
<key>wundergroundEnableHistoricalUploads</key>
<false/>
<key>wundergroundEnabled</key>
<string>1</string>
<key>wundergroundRapdFire</key>
<false/>
<key>wundergroundStationID</key>
<string>KTNGERMA20</string>
<key>wundergroundStationPwd</key>
<string>----------------</string>
<key>wundergroundUpdateRate</key>
<false/>
<key>wundergroundUpdateStepper</key>
<false/>
<key>wundergroundUploadIndoor</key>
<false/>
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Thank you for all of your help.
WeatherCat support responded, with a suggestion to disable historical uploads for Wunderground, and see if the Wunderground starts properly and begins uploading data. If that works, then enable historical uploads again to cover future WC downtime.
Well, it worked! Apparently, I am guessing, since in moving I had changed the weather station name (and location), this prevented WC from uploading past historical data for the old weather station name (and location) that at that point no longer existed, and the process got stuck at this point in the startup process.
Anyway, doing that freed up the startup process for Wunderground, and now everything is rosy and the data is flowing to Wunderground.
Thank you, again.
Denver
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Dear Denver and WeatherCat faithful,
Glad to hear that you are finally back in business!
Cheers, Edouard
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I love it when a WeatherCatter finally figures out something that works. Thanks for reporting back, and a special thanks to Edouard, who has forgotten more about WeatherCat than the rest of us ever learned in the first place.