Weathercat vs iMac sleep

[jamesmb]

I've run into the problem that when my Mac goes to sleep after a period of inactivity then I get flat lines in my WeatherCat data rather than using the datalogger data.

The basic issue is that Weathercat is designed to ask my Davis VP2 for the data as per the schedule in Weathercat, it only falls back to the datalogger cache of data if Weathercat is not running. If it is running and the Mac sleeps it doesn't get any data and interpolates with a flat line. If it isn't running (for more than a half hour) and doesn't get data it uses historical data from the datalogger cache.

One solution outlined here is to create an iCal alarm to run an Automator script to shutdown Weathercat before a scheduled sleep.
The Other solution is to stop the Mac from sleeping

I have tried a variation on the first - not to run Weathercat in the background (heresy I hear you cry) - but to use the iCal alarm to run an Automator job that starts Weathercat, waits for four mins and then stops WeatherCat again. During this time the data is pulled from the data logger and the various uploads are done.

This defaults me to the datalogger sample rate and so on but does the job. However I get two problems:
1. If the Mac is asleep for the iCal aarm/Automator schedule - no dice
2. Every iPad and iPhone in the house ping the alarm for the iCal task - some fancy Apple synching!

So now I'm trying the no sleep iMac option .......

Any ideas?
James

[WCDev]

Hi James,
One solution is just to sleep the display - on an iMac it is the display that uses most of the energy.

A member posted some power usage figures a while back which demonstrated this - a search should bring it up.

Cheers,
Stu.
 

[jamesmb]

Indeed that is my latest tactic, just seeing if I can get away with it.
It's more a noise issue, I'm just seeing how quiet the iMac is once the power hungry stuff stops.

Thanks for the quick reply

[elagache]

Dear James and WeatherCat fans,

It's more a noise issue, I'm just seeing how quiet the iMac is once the power hungry stuff stops.

   . . . That's not a bug - it is feature!  That is Apple's trademark white noise generator!!  

Seriously I can sympathize, but having slept with much more noisier computers in my room than I have now I can confirm that you get used to it reasonably quickly.

Nonetheless, I have had to go to sleep once during a power outage and was a really stunned to realize how quiet my room could actually be!!

Cheers, Edouard 

[JosBaz]

The solution is to get a 2nd hand MacMini 

[Blicj11]

James:

I went through all this several weeks ago myself and came to the same conclusion that Stu suggested: put the display to sleep. On the bright side, now you know what you can use your Mac for when you get a new one (assuming you don't take JosBaz suggestion in the meantime and buy a used Mini.