WeatherCat forwarding UV sensor data to PWS – hano UV sensor and it is unchecked

[bob2k2]

I received an email (below) from AWEKAS that my weather station is reporting a UV index like I was in the tropics. Problem is I do not have a UV sensor and UV is unchecked in WeatherCat (3.2 setting . A reading of 16 is displayed on PWS Monitor for my station (see attached picture). I noticed the UV measurement being shown a month or so ago - never had it before. Interestingly enough, when I do check the UV setting in WeatherCat I will see a reading of 16 on my computer’s WeatherCat’s display. which apparently is the reading that's being fwd'd to PWS Monitor for my Weather Station even when not selected.

So, somehow a UV reading is being passed it PWS even though I don't have a sensor and  it's unchecked in WeatherCat.


Any ideas on why this is happening or how to resolve it?

TIA

Bob

"Dear AWEKAS Member

Your station is sending invalid values to AWEKAS Weather Network. One of our operators has disabled the following sensor(s):

 new deactivation     : UV (reported value 16 ) : - no end time


The administrator has added the following note: The UV value of 16 is not achievable in the region, a value of 16 exists only in the tropics."

The system I'm hosting the WeatherCat on is a iMac 24 inch M1 Monterey 12.6  WeatherCat 3.2 Build 224

[xairbusdriver]

I don't have a UV sensor either. But I'm not having any values reporting anywhere, so no problem reports.

Do you have a plain text editor such as BBEdit? It is free for personal use, BTW.

If you have that kind of editor, you can view the com.trixology.weathercat.plist file.
Once opened, search for "<key>ShowSolar</key>".
The next line should show"<false/>".
If it shows "<true/>", that is why the invalid value is getting sent.

Solution may be as simple as toggling that value in Settings

• Click the box to "Enable".
• Quit WC
• Restart WC
• UN-Click the box to disable.
• Quit WC
• Restart WC
• Check the .plist file to confirm that "Show Solar" value now shows "<false>" or check a newer report at AEAKAS.

The above steps are an alternative to removing a .plist file. If these steps do not fix the problem, your .plist file is probably corrupt and the normal fix is to Quit WC and remove it (just changing its name will suffice).
You will now have two options;
    replace the .plist with a known good version (from TimeMachine?)
            or
    let WC create a brand new file (this will require setting anew all your previous settings!).

[bob2k2]

Thanks, very much for the quick response. I've already tried the toggling approach. No luck.

I actually did a search in the "hidden" Library for com.trixology.weathercat.plist file. I can find a "com.trixology.weathercat" folder in the hidden ~Library but there's no plist file in the folder - just 3 unrelated files stating with "httpstorages".  Searching completely in ~Library for "com.trixology.weathercat.plist" I get zero hits.  I'll come back to it later. But again I appreciate your help.

[elagache]

Dear bob2k2, X-Air, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

I received an email (below) from AWEKAS that my weather station is reporting a UV index like I was in the tropics. Problem is I do not have a UV sensor and UV is unchecked in WeatherCat (3.2 setting .

. . .

Any ideas on why this is happening or how to resolve it?

That is definitely curious.  Could you let us know what the WeatherCat Live Data window reports with respect to a UV sensor?   If you have never used the Live Data feature, it is described on page 85 of the current WeatherCat manual.

Let us know what you discover.

Edouard

[bob2k2]

Edouard

Sent a response but not sure it went out. So here it is again I know see I am getting solar radiation without a sensor on my VantagePro2.

Best

Bob

[xairbusdriver]

The Path to the com.trixology.weathercat.plist in your Home Library (normally hidden by Apple):
    BOOT drive/Users/yourHomeVolume/Library/Preferences/com.trixology.weathercat.plist

WC creates two .plist files there:
    com.trixology.weathercat.plist
        and
    com.trixology.WeatherCatClient.plist

The hard way to access that Library is to use the option-click the "Go" System/Finder menu. That will add a "Library" item just below the "Home" item. That is your Home Library that will contain nearly all the .plist files for your applications. Once you have opened a Finder window showing the Home Library, you can drag the window into another open finder window and drop it into its Sidebar. After that, your Home Library will always be available without having to remember the 'option-click-Go menu' trick!

BTW, another way to see that the <key>ShowSolar</key> is probably set to 'true' is to look at the Weather Station Gauges window (Tools->Gauges). If you see a "UV" gauge at the far right-hand, lower group, WC may be showing that 'bad' "16" value.

[bob2k2]

Previously I had no access trouble accessing the Library. However curiously when I did search for com.trixology.weathercat.plist I never found it. This time when I want to the Preference folder it was there.  Could not find a com.trixology.weathercatClient.plist though in the preference folder.

Didn’t know that you can drag the window into another open finder window and drop it into its Sidebar. Thx

So  when I went to the Show Solar Radiation it was “false" & SolarRadiationGraphWinOpen was "NO?
 
<key>ShowSolar</key>
<false/>

And

<key>SolarRadiationGraphWinOpen</key>
<string>NO</string>

This doesn't explain why I am still forwarding UV and Solar Radiation #’s to PWS Monitor. These do not show up on my WeatherCat Gauges on my computer. I tried deleting and reading my Station from PWS abut Solar Radiation and UV #’s are still showing up.

FYI the original message I had from AWEKAS was that that they toggled off UV #'s.   But when accessed my Weather Station on their site Solar Radiation was ON - so I toggled it OFF too.

Thanks for your help.

Bob

[xairbusdriver]

How long has WC been continuously running?

Please provide the Modified date on that plots file.

[bob2k2]

Prior to last week it has been running for for quite a while- maybe even months before I updated to 3.2 to fix another problem last week that turned out to be a WC email issue. A day or two ago  I restarted the app several times when I toggled the UV setting in the app. Right now the com.trixology.weathercat.plist file has a modified date of Today @1245 - but I made no changes. That is ~ when I copied the data from the com.trixology.weathercat.plist file that I posted in my last email.

[elagache]

Dear Bob, X-Air, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Sent a response but not sure it went out. So here it is again I know see I am getting solar radiation without a sensor on my VantagePro2.

Unfortunately, the live data screen explains the problem.  Your station is sending data to WeatherCat that doesn't exist.  The problem is on your console or weather station side.  Here is my Live Data screen:



I do have a solar radiation sensor which is listed as valid.  I do not have a UV sensor which is listed as invalid. 

To double-check on this, check the values of radiation and UV at the console itself.  If the console reports values for these sensors then that settles the matter.  Check your console manual for details.  If you have trouble finding this information let us know.  Unfortunately, my station is so old that I couldn't give you useful page numbers from my manual.

If you can confirm that the station is the problem, you'll need to contact Davis technical support.  Here is the contact info:

https://www.davisinstruments.com/pages/contact-us

Sorry for the bad news.  Let us know what you discover.

Edouard

[bob2k2]

Edouard

Well, I can't really find the UV or solar on my Davis device since I don't have the sensor attached to it - Unless Davis support can to me how. I have sent a note to Davis support and I'm awaiting a reply.

I'm just curious. The Davis system is not sending the data to the PWS Monitor - the WeatherCat system interface fwds data it receives. So, it seems even though if on can inhibit what data can be shown on my WeatherCat system  - UV and Solar - weatherCat is just sending ANY and ALL data it receives from the Vantage Pro2 to Wunderground PWS, CWOP ? As a result there is an inability for WeatherCat to remove some data that is unelected from that Vantage Pro 2 data stream? I can understand that it might NOT be possible to modify that data stream. Just curious.

Thanks

Bob


Bob

[bob2k2]

I forgot the post that when trying to access a UV reading on my Vantage Pro2 Console  (Press BAR and then 2nd) there is no UV reading  - The manual Notes "REQUIRES A UV SENSOR" which I not not have. It also does not show a HEAT INDEX or THSW Index which also "REQUIRES A UV SENSOR" according to manual.  So this makes sense.

Having not heard back from Davis I called them. No resolution to the issue. The tech was unfamiliar with WeatherCat or Trixology and at the end I now find myself in the middle with fingers being pointed from both directions. The tech basically said it's not showing up on our display - not our problem – not exactly in those words but that was the jist of it.

AWEKAS is already treating this data as erroneous and inhibiting it to other sources - although it is still showing up on PWS Monitor for my station,  I'll come back to the issue at a later date. Maybe it will resolve itself just as a created itself.

[bob2k2]

Following my last post I received a response from Davis Support. The tech that I spoke to tto "older" techs there regarding the erroneous UV and SOLAR data being received.

There you have it.

Bob

      
Glenna Thomas (Davis Instruments)
Oct 4, 2022, 2:26 PM PDT

Hello Bob,
 
After some discussion with one of our Senior Techs that is one of our logger gurus, unless you have an actual Solar or UV Sensor installed on the Vantage Pro 2 Sensor Suite, the dataloggers pull the data from the console.  Sounds like you need to explain that to the folks that own the weather cat.
 
Verify that the Solar and UV readings on the console are not displayed and reading.  That's all we can offer at this time.
 
regards,
 
Glenna

[elagache]

Dear Bob and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Well, I can't really find the UV or solar on my Davis device since I don't have the sensor attached to it

My concern is that you have some sort of hardware problem in the console itself that is resulting in a nonexistent UV reading.  If the console reports a UV value, WeatherCat will use the value as if you have a sensor.  WeatherCat has no way of checking if the console is incorrectly reporting the existence of a sensor.

So, it seems even though if on can inhibit what data can be shown on my WeatherCat system  - UV and Solar - weatherCat is just sending ANY and ALL data it receives from the Vantage Pro2 to Wunderground PWS, CWOP ? As a result there is an inability for WeatherCat to remove some data that is unelected from that Vantage Pro 2 data stream? I can understand that it might NOT be possible to modify that data stream.

That is the difference between valid and invalid that you see in the next to last column of the Live Data window.  If there isn't a sensor, the console is supposed to report that so WeatherCat doesn't forward that data.  That is why I believe the problem is in your console.  It is reporting to WeatherCat that there is valid UV data when there isn't a sensor.

I forgot the post that when trying to access a UV reading on my Vantage Pro2 Console  (Press BAR and then 2nd) there is no UV reading

At least according to my manual, the sequence to display UV is [2ND] [RAIN_YR].  When I do this I get a display on the Console that has no numbers displayed.  Is that you observed?

It also does not show a HEAT INDEX or THSW Index which also "REQUIRES A UV SENSOR" according to manual.  So this makes sense.

It would appear that our manuals are basically the same at least in this section.  However, the comment about UV sensor only applies to the paragraph above, not below.  The heat index depends only temperature and humidity.  You should be able to display this.

I checked my console and it behaves consistently with the WeatherCat Live Data display.  I can display on my console the solar radiation for which I have a sensor.  My console correctly displays no data for UV.

Please double-check to make sure that indeed your console has no value for UV.

Edouard 

[bob2k2]

Verified that I am not showing you UV data on my counsel(see picture). Spoke to Davis support. They indicated the method I was checking for UV readings was correct. They said that they would talk to more senior techs and respond. I later received this email from Davis support.

Glenna Thomas (Davis Instruments)
Oct 4, 2022, 2:26 PM PDT

Hello Bob,
 
After some discussion with one of our Senior Techs that is one of our logger gurus, unless you have an actual Solar or UV Sensor installed on the Vantage Pro 2 Sensor Suite, the dataloggers pull the data from the console.  Sounds like you need to explain that to the folks that own the weathercat.
 
Verify that the Solar and UV readings on the console are not displayed and reading.  That's all we can offer at this time.
 
regards,
 
Glenna
Tech Support
Glenna Thomas
Technical Support
Davis Instruments


I feel like I'm in the center of a circular firing squad with everybody pointing in the direction the other party.

I will just live with this as a UV and Solar data is already being disabled and ignored by AWEKAS - although I'm still seeing those same unchanged UV and Solar #'s on my PWS Monitor page for my weather station -KVAARLIN22.