I’ll be installing the WF station to a location where the wifi and power supply is unreliable (e.g. thunderstorms, etc.). I’ll have a UPS for the Hub but I’m not sure if I can use it for the wifi router.
At first I wanted to log data remotely (from home) with the Weather Display (Windows version) but after some testing at home, I found it to be not 100% reliable.
I’m thinking to add a RPi to the WF’s remote location so it is in the same wifi as the Hub. My concern is what happens if the wifi goes down and recovers in a few hours (will data still be post-logged in the RPi?).
I prefer using Weather Display (probably the consolewd?) but am open to other options as long as they’re reliable. My goal is to log all data provided by WF, including solar and lightning strikes.
ArchiveSW is made to to capture all data and can run on a battery backup. The Hub connects to the RPi via Wi-Fi so it works even when your network is down.
I’m not aware any solution that can make a wifi-only hub talk to a local computer on your LAN when the wifi is down.
If the wifi is down, you’re basically down and you’re going to miss data ‘unless’ the hub has storage and some software magic in it to try to catch up to the WF servers once the WAN is back and available.
sigh - I have too many blasted hubs. Some are wifi-only. Not the WF one.
weewx is another far more widely used option for over a decade now. It’ll capture your traffic and catch up gracefully when your wifi comes back. Even can catch up your posts to WU etc. afterward hands-off.
Except weeWX does not do what he is asking for. And while weeWX has been around for some time, the Smart Weather Station and ArchiveSW is developed specifically for the Smart Weather Station.
Gary - I know you love promoting your software, which is great, but you are incorrect. Weewx can do what he asked for. It’s all in how you map the data.
No, it can’t. First you say you don’t know of any software that can do what he wants, now you say weeWX can.
He wants the data from the Hub stored even if his Wi-Fi access point goes down. ArchiveSW acts as its own Wi-Fi access point and runs on a battery backup. If the Wi-Fi at his remote location goes down the Hub will continue to send the data to ArchiveSW and it will continue to store that data. Once his Internet comes back online the data will be sent upstream.
This has noting to do with me promoting my software. It has to do with giving him the one solution that will help him. I’m sorry you don’t understand this.
As I said earlier, which you missed reading apparently, I misspoke about the WF hub being wired. So shoot me.
A wired WF hub and a wired raspi can communicate over wired if wifi is down. Weewx can, and does, work fine in such a scenario, including storing data and backfilling data to the third-party Internet sites it uploads to. There are multiple solutions to his scenario.
It is not helpful to post inaccurate information, so I’m trying to make it clear there are multiple options for the original poster. I would suspect there are other solutions such as meteobridge that might work too.
Your software working as one possible solution does not discount the fact that other software has that itch scratched too.
You are still not understanding what he is asking for.
He wants data stored if the Wi-Fi access point at his remote location goes offline. ArchiveSW is the only solution that has its own Wi-Fi access point built in. In other words, The Smart Weather Station Hub connects directly to the RPi and does not been any other Wi-Fi access point.
Hi @petercek, I have setup what I think you may want. I have a RPi which is setup as an access point. The RPi can then connect to the local network through a wired RJ45 port or you could do what I have done for my RV unit and that is add a WiFi USB dongle to connect to another WiFi network. I followed this guide but substituted wlan1 for eth0 for my second WiFi.
I did this for several reasons but mostly because I didn’t want to have to constantly reconfigure my WF hub when I went camping. Now I can setup the RPi to hook to any WiFi I want and it will auto connect to previously setup networks.
I settled on a PiJuice for battery backup. It isn’t cheap but it works really well and I can program in any battery parameters I want. It also provides plenty of power to the RPi so I never get a low voltage icon on the screen. I paired it with a 12000mAh battery and installed it in a SmartiPi Touch stand with large back cover, a 7" Raspberry Pi touch screen, and a temperature probe for indoor temp. The WF hub is powered by the RPi. All this works even if the home network goes down.
I installed ArchiveSW and it keeps displaying real-time data on the screen and storing the data to an sql database file on the microSD card. ArchiveSW is specifically designed for the 7" Raspberry Pi 800x480 screen but works equally well on higher resolution screens.
Hi @gizmoev, this is what I’m looking for, thanks. I’ll set it up at home as a test bed and then move to the location. Didn’t think about having the RPi configured as an access point
@GaryFunk and @vinceskahan, I’m sorry I didn’t want to start a fight here. I appreciate answers from both of you! I know weeWX is used by several colleagues and works great on a RPi. I didn’t know the ArchiveSW before. I’m used to Weather Display on a PC but am looking for RPi platform options now. It is great to have developers and supporters like you are. Please don’t fight.
This is what I did. It had been so long since I had done much with Linux that I had to dust a few mental cobwebs off so I have my mobile setup in my house at the moment. If you have PoE at your remote location you could either get a PoE HAT that the RPi 3B+ has available or use a PoE splitter at the RPi end to power it.
There is no fight. I designed ArchiveSW to do exactly what you asked for. It collects and stores data directly from the Hub regardless of and independently of any network.
I’m setting up my new RPi now. Your installation works fine. I just needed to do some manual apt-get fix.
Since WF sends data in UDP packets, I decided to use ArchiveSW, weeWX and consolewd, all in parallel. I’m sooo used to Weather Display that I can hardly survive without it. But am open for new options that’s why I want to see how other SW works.
The most important feature for me is a reliable and simple-to-access database.
I need to do some hardware work now (stevenson screen for the Air) before going for a real installation. I’ll report back.
I have issues with setting up the access point. wlan0 and wlan1 randomly swap at power cycle. The USB wifi dongle is from ThePiHut but I read Realtek 5370 chipsets have stability issues.
Is there an easy way to solve the swapping or should I set up the “rules” file?
I’m off somewhere there is no internet. What the best 3rd party app to use that will log data to a computer (Pi would be best). Is Gary’s ArchiveSW compatible with a Tempest.
thanks, Peter
