Detecting Cloudy or Clear night

[niko]

I don't know where those particular numbers, 23.5, 24.1, came from, but it doesn't matter. As TechnoGuy posted you have to set numbers, degrees and tenths, in those boxes that work with your sensor. The values there are the difference between the night time temperature measured by your regular (air) temp sensor, and measure by your black body (temp in a jar) sensor. On a clear night the black body will be a lot cooler than the air temp, on an overcast night it will not be so much cooler than air temp. You are setting the values of temperature difference for clear and overcast so that WD can interpret the data and set the icon for clear or overcast.

[Zalmor]

I don't know where those particular numbers, 23.5, 24.1, came from, but it doesn't matter. As TechnoGuy posted you have to set numbers, degrees and tenths, in those boxes that work with your sensor. The values there are the difference between the night time temperature measured by your regular (air) temp sensor, and measure by your black body (temp in a jar) sensor. On a clear night the black body will be a lot cooler than the air temp, on an overcast night it will not be so much cooler than air temp. You are setting the values of temperature difference for clear and overcast so that WD can interpret the data and set the icon for clear or overcast.

OK, those numbers were there when I first opened that tab.
Will have to wait until a clear night shows up here to get an average temp difference.  Been cloudy the last few days and nights here.
Thanks. 

[TokKiwi]

Zalmor - you need to check the values on a cloudy night as well for the bottom of the range - the cloud sensor and the ambient wx stn temperature should both be the same.  If they are not, and you have a 1-wire sensor, then you can adjust the extra temperature with an offset so that 0deg difference = dark overcast.  you do need a fully cloudy night to set that end of the range.

[Zalmor]

Zalmor - you need to check the values on a cloudy night as well for the bottom of the range - the cloud sensor and the ambient wx stn temperature should both be the same.  If they are not, and you have a 1-wire sensor, then you can adjust the extra temperature with an offset so that 0deg difference = dark overcast.  you do need a fully cloudy night to set that end of the range.

Got the Overcast setting last night,  just missed the setting for a Clear night by a 1/2 hour.  When I looked outside, sky was clear facing east and completely starless facing west.

Currently using a Davis Wireless Temperature Station in a Jar just for night time cloud detection as I already have a Davis solar sensor up on a 30' pole.  To get the Celsius decimal readings I needed, I just toggled the Temperature units from inside VPLive.

Current setting for Overcast is 1.3 degrees, I have the Clear setting at 3.0 for the moment until a clear night shows up.  I've also toggled the 'Use the difference between ...' to ON since I'm not using a 1-wire sensor.

On another note, is it normal for WD to not show the WD current conditions like precipitation (drizzle/rain) when using a home made night time cloud sensor at night?

[TokKiwi]

No it should show a combination: "Cloudy night/Recent rain" or whatever other condition is happening, ie "Light rain" "Heavy rain", "Drizzle", "Fog" etc.

[Zalmor]

No it should show a combination: "Cloudy night/Recent rain" or whatever other condition is happening, ie "Light rain" "Heavy rain", "Drizzle", "Fog" etc.

Didn't do that here last night when I was tweaking the settings.    Only showed ''Cloudy night' and then later 'Overcast night' for the 30 or so minutes I was adjusting the settings.  Are there settings in another window/tab I'm missing?  Haven't seen any messages referencing anything else.  Will go through this thread from the start to see if I can find something.

[TechnoGuy]

Did you restart WD after you made your changes.

[Zalmor]

No it should show a combination: "Cloudy night/Recent rain" or whatever other condition is happening, ie "Light rain" "Heavy rain", "Drizzle", "Fog" etc.

Did you restart WD after you made your changes.

Updated to the most recent ZIP update today.

Made the changes, restarted WD, still only showing the 'Cloudy night' and no weather conditions like rain during the night time hours using Temp in a Jar sensor.  Works fine during the daytime hours utilizing Davis VP solar sensor?

My testtags.php is showing the following also:

Code: [Select]

// $current_summary = 'Cloudy night' . "<br />" . 'Cloudy night ';
   $dayornight = 'Night'; // dayornight
   $timeofdaygreeting = 'Evening'; // E.g Morning, Afternoon, etc
   $weathercond = 'Cloudy night';
   $Currentsolardescription = 'Cloudy night ';
   $current_summary = $Currentsolardescription;

Any ideas as to why the weather conditions are not showing up at night time?

[TechnoGuy]

I don't have a clue as mine is working very well now. You might need to email windy to take a look at this thread.

[lasatalayas]

Dumb question perhaps - having set this up, where do I see the result?

[Zalmor]

Dumb question perhaps - having set this up, where do I see the result?

Results should show up on your summary.gif file, at least they do here.

[TokKiwi]

I have added the sky conditions tag to my mainscreen so I can see it there too.  You can see your Summary.Gif by clicking on the weather condition icon beside the main page graphs.

[TechnoGuy]

I have added the sky conditions tag to my mainscreen so I can see it there too. 

Can you explain how you did this?

[TokKiwi]

I have added some steps to show how to add them - I have added as many as I can!!

1. Menu step in Setup

2. Select the top position arrowed and enter the text below in there and check the tick box

3.  Tick the check box top left to shift the new label into position because it ends up by my Sunrise / Sunset tags at the bottom of the Current Conditions screen region.  Use shift key and the mouse cursor (no clicks required) to Shift/Move a new tag into position. 

4.  Tick OK button,

5.  Do your shifting and moving.

6.  Go back into the same menu and click on the Save at the top center.

All done hopefully.

Cheers

Graeme

[bretto]

i was looking at giving this a go and read through the thread to see how to go about it. with some of the troubles found, i thought it would be best to ask first since it looks like a lot of methods have been tried.
for condensation problems would rice work effectively instead of silica?
maybe clear mica sheeting (like used on transistor insulation) would be more rugged than cling film and still quite thin.
to stop water sitting on top after rain using a water disperser (silicon based etc).
wouldn't salt help melt any  snow sitting on top?
for the metal base would a lead/bitumen roof flashing work, being a matt black finish already?
being that the point od the CS is to only 'see' the sky and isolate any surrounding radiation, isn't there the possibility, at least in built up areas, that connecting a metal pole in the centre of the housing may become an antenna for RF radiation? perhaps that's why bashy got significantly different readings up a mast, maybe line of sight of a transmitter? maybe some vertical metal poles around the enclosure grounded to the mast to work as shielding may help?
i was thinking about the possibility of using a mica prism arrangement with flashing and polystyrene base. do you think this would work okay?