Weather Underground

[krknopp]

I installed a new WeatherCat instance this week and I'm having problems with getting it to upload to Weather Underground. We have another WeatherCat instance at a different location that is working fine.

I've set up a new station on my WU account, but it says offline.

WeatherCat looks like it's trying to send, but I never get a status other than Running or Server busy/unavailable.   I did a packet capture to try and figure out if we had a firewall problem, but was unable to see the traffic even leaving the Mac WeatherCat is running on.  Seems weird.

FTP uploads are working and I'm accessing it remotely, so internet is all good. 

I attached a picture of the current status. 

[elagache]

Dear krknopp and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Since this is your first posting on the WeatherCat forum, let me welcome you to the forum! 

I installed a new WeatherCat instance this week and I'm having problems with getting it to upload to Weather Underground. We have another WeatherCat instance at a different location that is working fine.

I've set up a new station on my WU account, but it says offline.

WeatherCat looks like it's trying to send, but I never get a status other than Running or Server busy/unavailable.

I cannot be sure, but I see that your response time is 10 seconds.  I just checked my own Weather Underground upload on WeatherCat and the typical response time is under a tenth of a second.  So while your Internet is working, at least from this machine, access to Weather Underground is extremely poor.  I am noting problems with Internet access at my own location and we have a second thread suggestive of Internet connectivity problems.  I suggest you monitor the situation for another day or two and see if the response time improves or not.

Let us know if you observe anything else that might help us diagnose your situation.

Cheers, Edouard

[krknopp]

Thanks for the reply!

I ended up creating a new device and got an invalid username/password on that when trying.  So went back to the old one that hasn't been working and it worked on the first try.  ridiculous.

But alls well that ends well.

[xairbusdriver]

I think we should give IBM a little slack. They are the “new” owners of WUnderground and it takes some time to “learn the ropes”, especially when these new dangled computers are involved. You’ll find several threads (not just Posts) about their struggle for reliability!

I’d like to add by “WELCOME ABOARD”! Be sure to post on the New Members thread!

[lakedog]

I have a variation on this problem. I also have two stations, one at home and one in the mountains.  The latter is on a fairly recent MacBook Pro and has updated WCat to some version of 3. The one at home is on a quite old MacBook Pro. It has not been operating for a while because of old battery problems. I have it back running now. It was on a version of 2 and seemed to be running ok, WU settings showed lots of transmissions and responses, but it was not showing up on the WU site. So, I installed the latest V3. Install seemed to go well, but when I checked WU status, it showed the same as was posted by krknopf (But not sure of the response time). Seems strange to see the different behavior in V 3–no transmissions vs 2 having lots, but neither showing up on WU.

Krknopf, when you said you tried setting up a new device, was that on the WU site, or did you reset the console, or delete the preferences in WC?

[lakedog]

KrKnopp, sorry for the typo on your name.

On WU issue, I also noticed that CWOP tab also shows running but no packets.

[elagache]

Dear lakedog and WeatherCat data submitters,

I have a variation on this problem. I also have two stations, one at home and one in the mountains. 
. . . . .

On WU issue, I also noticed that CWOP tab also shows running but no packets.

I don't know about your CWOP issue.  That service has been very reliable in my experience.  Alas, Weather Underground has been struggling ever since being acquired by the Weather Channel and later by IBM.  There have been numerous server-related issues that can last weeks.  If you look at this reply in this thread:

https://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=3280.msg31427#msg31427

In the end simply putting back the Weather Underground ID and password was sufficient to get the problem solved.  You need to run the latest version of WeatherCat because Weather Underground changed their ID scheme and only the latest version supports the new scheme.  Once you have upgraded, my best advice is patience and persistence.

Cheers, Edouard

[lakedog]

It appears that my console had a bad barometer sensor, and I think that the sites were filtering for bad data and refusing to use the station. I replaced the console, and it appears to be uploading. My profile now says that I am online, but the station is not yet showing on the map. It sounds like that it may return after sufficient good data is received.

[lakedog]

Well, it may not be so simple. It ran for a while, ~24,000 packets, then WUG seems to have stopped acknowledging again over night. It shows my station as being offline. I tried stopping and restarting WUG uploading, but no dice. I restarted WeatherCat, and the uploads started again (rapid fire mode, 5 sec.). Doesn’t show online yet, but maybe after it gets enough transmissions. Any clues why WUG packets would have stopped sending? CWOP is getting and showing data.

BTW, I could not sign on to WUG in Safari, but did on FireFox.🤔 It shows station offline. A FAQ says one reason you might not show up is using a bad “key”. A column next to my device name is labeled “Key”, and it has a mix of numbers and lower case letters. There is a tab labeled “API KEYS”, but it is a complex page about various IBM weather services and keys. The keys given there are MUCH longer, and there is no info that I can find on how to use a key generated there. Any clues about this, and how to tell if I have a bad key?

[xairbusdriver]

I'm pretty sure the "key" you need to use is what you enter in WC Prefs/Wunderground PWS labeled "Password/Key". You should never need an API (Application Programming Interface) key/code unless you are developing an app to work/access/report with WU.

Did you read the WC thread linked in "Reply #6" above. WU changed everyone's "password/key" last year (I think) but have been somewhat chaotic in requiring its use. That's just another area where WU is "chaotic" and unreliable... It makes determining where the problem (our hardware/software? or their changes/failures?) is much more difficult. Plus they don't seem to report much about their own changes/failures.