wviewweather.com

loonsailor · Joined: 05 Feb 2006 Posts: 15

I'm confused. I'm in the process of setting up a new wview station (ubuntu 6.06, Vantage Pro networked via Lantronix UDS-100). I see all the warnings about getting the archive interval right before I start, but I don't fully understand the implications. I understand that the archive interval I set with vpconf and specify in the configure script determines how often the weatherlink in my VP stores a data point, and therefore how long an interval it can store in case my server is down. It seems to also determine how often wview archives data in it's private file, optionally archives to mySql, and reports to wunderground and APRS. Is that right, or are those things independently settable?

However, I don't fully get how it interacts with HTML generation. In the user manual, I find

15.2 Notes On Console Poll Timer Settings

The ARCHIVE_INTERVAL setting in wview.conf MUST be less than or equal
to 60000 (60 seconds), and it must be an even divisor of 60000.

15.3 Notes On Generation Timer Settings

The htmlgen.conf variables START_OFFSET and GENERATE_INTERVAL control when
and how often the image and HTML generation occurs. Some examples:

START_OFFSET[1]=0
GENERATE_INTERVAL[1]=1
Start at 0 minutes past the next 5 minute mark (0, 5, 10, ...) and then
generate every 1 minutes - Once it starts, it will generate ~10 seconds
past every minute of each hour

Also...

13.1.3 Weather Data Update Frequency - this is controlled by the
"ARCHIVE_INTERVAL" parameter in wview.conf. This determines how often
the wviewd daemon polls the VP Console for current conditions. It is
given in milliseconds and should not reasonably be set to anything
less than 10000 (10 seconds), and must be an even divisor of 60000.

In the section on the VP, and in several posts on this forum, I'm told not to set an archive interval of <5 minutes (I'm thinking of going with 10 minutes). Is that different than the archive interval discussed in 15.2 of the manual, which MUST be <1 minute? And what does it mean that ARCHIVE_INTERVAL must both be a multiple of 60000 AND <60000?

So, if I set things up (using START_OFFSET, GENERATE_INTERVAL) to update the html at, say, 1 minute intervals, does that mean that wview will poll the vp at those intervals, update the html, and simply not archive the data? Are daily graphs granular to the VP archive interval, or the shorter interval that I may set here? Is the ARCHIVE_INTERVAL in wview.conf (as referred to in 15.2) different than the archive interval I set with vpconf and specify in the configure script?

Also, does anyone know how long my vp will store data for, at 10-minute intervals (how much internal memory it's got)?

Thanks in advance, for your help with this. Sorry if I'm missing something obvious.

bhnb · Joined: 28 Nov 2005 Posts: 127

I think 13.1.3 and 15.2 should both refer to POLL_INTERVAL rather than ARCHIVE_INTERVAL, which would explain the confusion

The daily graphs are granular to the archive interval rather than the update interval.

The logger holds 2560 records, which I calculate to be 17.77 days with a 10-minute archive interval.

Hope this helps - if it raises any more questions please ask away...

loonsailor · Joined: 05 Feb 2006 Posts: 15

Then, if it polls the station more often than it archives, what does it do with the extra data? Is it just to create new html's, and then discard?

So it's necessary to poll the station for this purpose at least once / minute, even if the html's don't need to be reposted that often?

Thanks again for the info.

Really, other than wind and rain rate, the weather doesn't change that fast.

bhnb · Joined: 28 Nov 2005 Posts: 127

Whilst it's important to get the archive interval right from the start, you should be OK to experiment with POLL_INTERVAL and GENERATE_INTERVAL.

The 'extra data' can be fed to alarms etc if required.

TheBum · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 9

To expand on what bhnb said, one of the really nice "etc." items is data feeds, which makes fresh weather data available on your network as often as once every 15 seconds. This is particularly nice for observing wind speed and direction.

mteel · Joined: 30 Jun 2005 Posts: 435 Location: Collinsville, TX

The "extra" data is used to keep the current conditions "current" - i.e., if you have a 5 minute archive interval but want to keep your current conditions up to date every minute, you can.

Yes, bhnb is correct about the misnomers in the documentation.

Mark