Who is not happy

please post your problems
so we can work through them if you like

(apart from the davis WMII data extraction problem which I am still working on (trying to find the time to get back to working on),and the email to each email , which i still to find time to fix)
thanks

I’ll be the first. Sometimes I have a lot of trouble finding certain settings. The layout needs to be cleaned up I think. Station wise I think you should split the program as you already know. I think that would probably help the layout a lot. It would also help when bugs pop up specific to one type of station.

please suggest ways to improve the layout, what needs to go where

splitting the program:
it would be too hard to update different versions with a bug fix, as i only have a 28k (56k modem) connection

All in all, i’m pretty happy. I have a new PC running WD with lots of horespower. It usually gives me no troubles. Even though it has grown(program size) quite a bit in the last 3 years, I have plenty of overhead in CPU to be happy(until WD get to around 20 meg or so…hahaha)

So…no complaints from me…

BUT! … I am fixing to re-install my webcam so Brian…you may want to go on a holiday now!

:slight_smile:

Well off the top of my head I would:
Combine the graph setup with the other setup options.
Put all the various program color options together under one menu. Combine the various custom webpage options including the custom upload settings along with the summary graphic settings.
Combine the offsets and display units together.
Combine all the APRS options under one menu.
Combine the rest of the data uploads(e.g. WUnderground) to another section and have all of them in one menu under the main Setup section.
Combine the HTTP and FTP downloads into one section and uploads in the same or a separate section.

I’m not sure but if there are multiple settings that apply only to a single station type put all those under their own respective station menus.

I have a preference for a more traditional menu structure instead of the tabs. But that’s me. :lol:

That’s all I can think of right now but I’m sure other folks can come up with some better ideas.

arrh, run, no, no, not reelhouse and a webcam!
just kidding

i am going to add where you can select to have every 15 minutes for the web cam image for the all day animation sequence…
i have the date stamped files being saved at the moment, just need to find some time to do the above…
(just been fixing one of the fences on the farm that needs repairing, under a blazing hot summer sun, 20oC dew point to boot!

they are good ideas ryanbytes
i will see what i can do as time permits
i will probably get some bashing from people complaining they cant find some setup anymore, but they will get used to it

Brian,
I would suggest separating the data collection and logging from everything else. Make a snall no frills program that runs as a windows service or linux server. Use this to interface to the weather station and collect raw data and log it to disk. Then send the data to a client WD program with a big GUI, graphs,webcams, weather underground etc. You could use the existing TCP/IP mulitcast for this.

Why do I ask for this? Because whenever I go on vacation, something goes wrong and WD crashes, and I loose all the data for the time I am away. I can let it run for 6 months while at home, but as soon as I leave for vacation, it crashes! If the logging function were a windows service or linux server, and it crashed, then the OS would automatically restart it, or the whole machine, if necessary.

As always, it is just a suggestion. Overall I am very happy with WD. I just to stay home!

/Ian

That’s a good idea ian! He would have the corner on the weather station software market. Everyone would use his little data gathering app as the power behind their station apps.

ETA:
Of course Brian could continue with WD in it’s current form, just drawing from the data the collector app collects, or a new form with modules or something.

I’m still having trouble when the NOAA forecast download hangs(often). Instead of killing the routine and going on, it drops everything and goes to sleep until the next schedule. Has been around since dirt.

I didn’t get a Christmas bonus. Can you put in a call to my boss. :smiley:

jim, if you are on a dial up 56 k modem, then part of the problem is the noaa server gets real busy at time
BUT
what I will do is make the noaa ftp download the last thing it does
that will fix it!
i will do and test that in the next few hours, after dinner

humid here, 20oC dew point, 87% humidity

i have done this and have its working jim :slight_smile:
but the server is real slow, so am having trouble uploading it
I also added #3 ftp download setup while i was at it (finished what I had started a while back)
ian, your idea is ok, but it gets complicated for data history at start up from a data logger

I agree with most of the suggestions made in the comments above… the only real ‘issue’ with WD from a users perspective is the interface itself. The menus are confusing and sometimes finding the right button or option is almost impossible… in fact there are features that Brian has put in recently that I still haven’t found! I realize it is an art, and sometimes takes an artist, to create a fluid, easy to navigate application, so I understand and work my way through… but if I had one wish, it would be for a cleaned up more intuitive front end to WD…

I also agree with those that say a ‘data logger’ type app would be great. I figured with the database app that Brian made already this was coming. Once all the data is stored in a database of some type, the front end could be anything. I figure you could re-write all of WD and have WD query the database for it’s data… so you would have at a minimum… a database program running (Very small CPU footprint needed)… then if you chose to, a WD application that could run along with it that would query the database and generate graphs and charts and graphics… you could also have a 'web page generator" type application that could create web pages and include dynamically generated tables and trending information (again from queries to the databse). This would make it rather modular… adding only what you needed… and the only ‘custom’ stuff that Brian would need would be the core database stuff… the thing that is needed to read the different types of streaming weather data coming in… the other apps would be universal…

Enough from me!

I’m actually very pleased with WD exactly how it is… I only write as a ‘wish list’… as if Brian were only writing for me, and he had nothing else to do buy work on my wish list…

Merry Christmas all!

jim, the upload did not complete overnight, i will let you know when its ready
(and it already has some of ryans suggestions in it)

i have actualy already writen a simple data gathering program for the ws2310 program, that sends the data out via dde …and the this type of program i could expand for the other stations, and it would work for live data (but it gets tricky when setting different data lenghts like for the ultimeter stations, setting ROm Id’s like for the dallas 1 wire (actualy, WD would be alot more responisve if the dallas 1 wire was ran in another application))

its possible for me to this, and share the data with dde (no firewall issue then)

your database idea is quite good too stuntman, but I think one of the strengtsh of WD is that i have always kept it backward compatibale with peoples existing data

oh and yes setups are split up alot, but, if they were all in the one screen, for instance, then on slow pc’s with say only 64mb, it would never load up, that setup screen,thats one consideration

yeah yeah, i come up with an excuse each time…

jim
please try a new full beta download, to try the new way of doing the ftp download (ie. with the new new 7.01 ftp version)
thanks

i now have added a control panel , see under setup, in the latest beta, 9.99l

Just installed 9.99l on Windows Server 2003 (completely new installation). All looks fine except that the control panel does not appear when I click on it in the setup menu.

Pete

thats what happens when its after midnight…
it was working, then i noticed one of the new buttons was not working, i fixed that, and then that stuffed it all up, but i didnt test, was too tired,and set the upload going

so uploading 9.99m to fix that now