In a previous post we provided the steps to install ConsoleWD, for a Davis weather station, and FTP the data to your website. As at the time of writing there are lots of other options around setup that you can also use with ConsoleWD. This post will provide a summary of each of those options
Different weather stations
First off we look at the different types of weather stations that will work with consoleWD. In the same way you choose to use a Davis station in the configuration, you can also chose other types of stations. Compatibility is shown in the table below:
| ConsoleWD option | Compatability | Additional Notes |
| Ambient API |
API connectivity to data on the Ambient website.
See ambientweather.com for more details
|
|
| Arduino (9600 baud) | Arduino boards | |
| Davis IP Data Logger | Davis stations with IP datalogger | |
| Davis Weather Link Live (IP Bridge) | Davis stations with WLL | |
| Davis Weatherlink.com | Davis stations using weatherlink.com | |
| Davis WMII | ||
| GW1000 Type | Ecowitt type stations | |
| Irox | Irox stations | |
| LaCrosse 2310 | ||
| LaCrosse 3600 | ||
| Meteobridge | ||
| OWWfile (One Wire Reader) | One Wire stations | |
| Rainwise CC-2000 | Rainwise type stations | |
| Rainwise CC-3000 | Rainwise type stations | |
| Rainwise IP | Rainwise IP type stations | |
| Ultimeter | Ultimeter type stations | |
| Universal (Raw Data input) | ||
| Weather Flow Console | ||
| WeatherFlow / Tempest | ||
| Weather Underground API |
API connectivity to data on the Weather Underground website.
See wunderground.com for more details
|
|
| WH1081 | Available under a range of brands, and models | |
| WMR100 | Oregon Scientific type stations | Refer to the Oregon Scientific website for more details |
| WMR200 | Oregon Scientific type stations | Refer to the Oregon Scientific website for more details |
| WMR300 | Oregon Scientific type stations | Refer to the Oregon Scientific website for more details |
| WM918 | Oregon Scientific type stations | Refer to the Oregon Scientific website for more details |
| WMR968 | Oregon Scientific type stations | Refer to the Oregon Scientific website for more details |
| WXT510/520 | WXT530 (TBC) | Refer to the Vaisala website for more details |
Any of these options are available via the "Select a weather station type" drop down in the ConsoleWD Setup. If you know of any models that are compatible with the ones stated above, let us know in the comments and we will add them to the table
Feature add-ons
Along with the ConsoleWD install, comes a number of additional features. To help you work out what each of these do, I've listed the programs in the table below.
When setting the above options up, I'd recommend that you use the config.html program - at least initially. This will create a brand new config.txt file, which you will need to copy / move into your consolewd directory, replacing the old config.txt
Once you have figured out what parameters you need to change, you can also edit the config.txt directly, but make sure you have a backup!
| Program | Description | Enabled by |
| Croncloud | Allows updates to be sent to Weather Cloud | On the config.html page, make sure "Run Cron Programs" is ticked (under FTP Settings), then fill out the fields under "Weather Cloud Settings" incl the ID and Key/Password |
| Croncwop | Allows updates to be sent to CWOP | On the config.html page, make sure "Run Cron Programs" is ticked (under FTP Settings), then fill out the 5 parameters under "CWOP Settings" including Station ID (Which you can get from the CWOP site), Latitude and Longitude |
| Crondavisair | Collects measurements from your Davis Air unit | Enable the "Davis Air Link (Air Quality)" feature in the cong.html page, and provide the network IP address to the sensor |
| Cronftpnoaareport | Generates a daily NOAA style report | Refer to dailynoaareport.htm in the consolewd directory |
| Cronftpreal | FTP component used to send data to a website | |
| Cronmysql / cronmysql2 / crontablecreate | Provides facility to store data into a database | Refer below |
| Cronpws | Allows updates to be sent to PWS | On the config.html page, make sure "Run Cron Programs" is ticked (under FTP Settings), then fill out the PWS ID and Password (both of which you can set up on the PWS site. Also tick the "Update PWS" box |
| Cronwindfinder | Allows updates to be sent to windfinder | On the config.html page, make sure "Run Cron Programs" is ticked (under FTP Settings), then fill out the Windfinder ID and Password (both of which you can set up on the Windfinder site. Also tick the "Update Windfinder" box |
| Cronwow | Allows updates to be sent to WOW | On the config.html page, make sure "Run Cron Programs" is ticked (under FTP Settings), then fill out the WOW ID and Password (both of which you can set up on the UK Met Offices Weather Observations Site (WOW). Also tick the "Update WOW" box |
| Cronwu | Allows updates to be sent to Weather Underground | On the config.html page, make sure "Run Cron Programs" is ticked (under FTP Settings), then fill out the 6 parameter values required, including location, username and password key (both of which you can set up on the WeatherUnderground website . |
This covers the main cron files that come with the consolewd package. However I'd strongly recommend you work your way through the config.html process, as there are a number of additional options that don't rely on a cron job:
- facility to send updates to windy.com - On the config.html page, make sure "Run Cron Programs" is ticked (under FTP Settings), then fill out the windy station number and API key (both of which you can set up on the windy.com website.
- Setting up of any offsets that may be required
- Creation of custom files
- Temperature, Rainfall and Humidity offsets
- Setting up of emails with weather conditions
Fresh Weather Display Live
Way back when, there was a piece of software called Weather Display Live. Being Flash based, it was refreshed on a regular basis on the website when data is uploaded (ie no page refresh was required), giving the impression that the page reflected a "live" reading.
With the demise of Flash, a new solution has been developed using Java, called Fresh Weather Display Live. It looks and behaves in a similar way to the original version. Of course you need to run it on a web server, so if you are keen to set FreshWDL up on your Raspberry Pi, you can. Alternatively upload both the config.js and the FreshWDLmaster.htm file (both of which you will find in your wdconsolefiles directory), to your website, update the details in the config.js file, and then open up the FreshWDLmaster.htm file in your browser.
ConsoleWD Gui
Although ConsoleWD is designed to run from a command line there is a GUI. To get to it, you need to run the file WDpi. Locate the file in your consolewdfiles directory, and double click on it, then choose "execute".
You will see a window pop up, similar to the one below:
And that's pretty much the current features that come with consoleWD. There's one more to cover seperately which is the storing of data in a database, otherwise feel free to browse the other articles on ConsoleWD.
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