Custom Forecast Message

Hi All,

I’m new here. Thanks to Chris at gateway2capecod.com for getting my weather site up and running. I have converted from VIS to Weather Display for my modest Acu-Rite station. Chris has taken a lot of time to get my site up and running.

A part of my site are the steel gauges. Chris added those at my request. One thing that I would like to do is get the forecast banner to show something. Since I am running Acu-Rite, it doesn’t automatically upload the file from which the steel gauges scroller reads. So my question is maybe something that has never been asked or done before:

Can I create a file to put on my server that the steel gauges page will draw the scroll text from? Just some kind of message or welcome or whatever from my company. It wouldn’t automatically update, as I would create the file manually. Is that possible?

One caveat…I am far from a techy. I need easy step-by-step info, please.

Thanks!

It would be be extremely helpfull to post the URL of your site. There are at least 3 different implementations of a “Steelseries” script.

Wim

Yes, that would be helpful. :slight_smile: Told ya I’m new.

Please visit my new site at weather.standardorbitap.com

First of all, your idea to substitue another text string for a missing forecast seems a good idea.

1. Your Saratoga-Template
You are using the Steelseries at http://weather.standardorbitap.com/wxssgauges.php.
WD is uploading the realtime data for this gauges in the file:[b]http://weather.standardorbitap.com/customclientraw.txt[/b]
That data is only stored on your website disk, before it is loaded from the browser javascripts displaying the gauges.
All conversion of the data is done in the browser so there is no way to add extra texts as it would involve customizing other scripts.
You could ask Brian (the creator of WeatherDisplay) if it is possible to substitute a text string when there is no Davis forecast in the customclientraw.
Or even better to make an option one could switch on or off to use ones own string. I think for special holidays it could be used also.

  1. Your Leuven-Template
    You are using the Steelseries at http://weather.standardorbitap.com/weather28/index.php?p=gaugePage&lang=en and also a subset of the gauges in the headers on every page.
    The data for these dials comes from WD standard realtime files http://weather.standardorbitap.com/clientraw.txt which are used for all realtime displays in the Leuven-Template.
    The clientraw data is also stored on your website but it is processed before sent to the browser / javascript. The data is converted to the requested format and units on the webserver and that is why there is no empty lcd but a lcd with a substitued message in it: “Data will be reloaded in”.
    Some users changed that “Data will be reloaded in” to their own strings, even including texts such as current weather values and trends.
    But one needs more than casual PHP program knowledge to do that.

What I will do is include an option to use ones own text string in combination with the forecast text (which can be empty). But as it is evening already her in the CET timezone, I will write and test it tomorrow.

If you PM or mail me your e-mail address I will e-mail you the changed scripts end of Sunday.

Wim

P.S. Nice idea which will be available to all in the 2.9 release June next year also.

There’s probably a simpler option. WD can also generate a forecast independent of the station, based on the Zambretti Forecaster algorithm. You can select to use this forecast instead of the station forecast on the Realtime FTP tab under Control Panel. The Davis VP also uses a simple forecast algorithm, I doubt it is any better than the Zambretti.

You guys are good, but you were talking way over my head. :?

Ultimately I would like to run the Leuven template. I like having the gauges on the main page. The Leuven site is working well EXCEPT the text wind direction and small pointer in the body of the site isn’t updating. It is correct when the page loads, but it won’t update with everything else. (I don’t have that issue on the Saratoga site. The wind direction text and direction pointer update with everything else.) On Leuven, the gauges on top update and most of the other text areas in the body update…but the wind direction and little pointer don’t.

Like I said, the new tech stuff is way over my head. Thank goodness for Chris who installed both templates and got them working for me.

Bottom line is whichever template I can get working will be THE one. Saratoga is working. I’d like to add the special scroll message if possible. I would RATHER run the Leuven template if we can figure out why the text wind direction and direction pointer are not updating with everything else.

Thanks for the input and continued help, everyone. I didn’t understand much of what you said, so if you can dumb it down even more, I may catch on. 8O If anyone is interested in helping with the work Chris is doing and getting the site working great, I will give you access to the server.

r

I tried to answer on your PM but that is a little ackward as I can not get a screenshot in the message.

The attached img is your Saratoga and Leuven templates displaying EXACT the same values and both turning green (new data received) at the expected intervals.

You can use my e-mail or this forum, but I reealy do not see what is wrong.

The word error means highest proirity on the support system (http://support.leuven-template.eu/) or in an e-mail, but I do not see an error yet.


wind.jpg

Its the wind direction in the area of your screen shot that is not updating on Leuven. See how in Saratoga it is showing WSW as the direction on the dial and the text? Leuven is showing W. It isn’t updating. It is correct when the page loads, but those two items are not updating with the rest.

I’m sure its just a bug on my site, but I am not sure how to fix it. Those areas are updating on the Saratoga site, but not on the Leuven site. I’d like to run the Leuven site exclusively if we can fix that little problem.

r


OK, I have to be a bit more technical.
To get the data from WD to your website, one can use (in the Leuven-Template) for WD different input files for the data files.
Either Saratoga testtags.txt => testtags.php,
Leuven testtags.txt => testags.php (as used until release 2.6)
and tags.wd.txt => tagsWD.txt as used for release 2.7 , 2.8 and further.
The last possibillity is the advised and documented one. The other two are just for testing if a new release or a switch is possible.

You are using [b]http://weather.standardorbitap.com/weather28/index.php?tags&p=0000&pw=#data-area[/b] the Saratoga testtags.
I tried in the past to get most of the data from that file, but probably did not succedeed into getting all the data wanted.
I will look into finding the missing pieces from the Saratoga file.
And getting the winddirection move more frequently, but it is not a highest priority problem and certainly not an error.

When using the Saratoga testtags file, please switch off this page in the menu also. Those fields/values in the error messages are not there either. http://weather.standardorbitap.com/weather28/index.php?p=trends&lang=en#data-area

===

If you plan to use Saratoga, simply delete the weather28/ folder.

If you plan to use Leuven, please add the tags.wd.txt => tagsWD.txt to the upload of WD.
Life for me is far easier to find errors if they are there with the most recent upload files also.

Wim

I plan to use Leuven exclusively. I’ll delete Saratoga now and start switching Leuven as the only site and I’ll work on getting the settings as you need all set.

Thanks.

Niko,s idea would work
replacing that tag in the customclientrawlocal.txt file

Is it possible to use the Zambretti Forecast with consoleWD and have it in the customclientraw.txt instead of %vpforecasttext%?

I would like to have a weather forecast in my steelseries gauges scroll line.

Thank you for the support

Urs

yes, I could add that
which version?

That would be great!

I am running consoleWD (consolewd64desktop.tar.gz) and in the customclientraw.txt it says:

"version":"WD_console_18.0"

ah, OK, so this is the version for 64 bit linux desktop

Yes it is - but I am running it headless as consoleWD.

i have added the custom tag %zambretti% now to the latest update
ie so you replace %vpforecasttext% with that in the customclientrawlocal.txt file

I have installed it yesterday and it worked. I got a forecast message in my customclientrawlocal.txt file. However I did notice that there was something broken with the cronftpreal function.

I did then make a fresh install with the most recent version from today (i.e. Weather Display for Linux console 64 bit Linux desktop Version on 16 August 2019 - 01:40:07).

Now with this latest version (it says WD_console_18.0 in the customclientrawlocal.txt file). the ftp upload is working but the forecast is emtpy:

{"date":"20:57:34","dateFormat":"d/m/y","temp":"25.0","tempTL":"25.0","tempTH":"26.0","intemp":"23.9","dew":"16.4","dewpointTL":"16.0","dewpointTH":"16.4","apptemp":"27.0","apptempTL":"100.0","apptempTH":"-50.0","wchill":"25.0","wchillTL":"25.0","heatindex":"26.0","heatindexTH":"26.7","humidex":"29.9","wlatest":"0.0","wspeed":"0.0","wgust":"0.0","wgustTM":"0.0","bearing":"160","avgbearing":"121","press":"945.0","pressTL":"944.0","pressTH":"945.0","pressL":"944.0","pressH":"945.0","rfall":"0.0","rrate":"0.0","rrateTM":"0.0","hum":"59","humTL":"54","humTH":"59","inhum":"63","inhumTL":"%minindoorhum%","inhumTH":"%maxindoorhum%","intempTL":"23.9","TintempTL":"%minindoortempt%","intempTH":"23.9","TintempTH":"%maxindoortempt%","SensorContactLost":"0","forecast":"%zambretti%","tempunit":"C","windunit":"kmh","pressunit":"hPa","rainunit":"mm","temptrend":"-3.0","TtempTL":"20:55","TtempTH":"20:45","TdewpointTL":"20:45","TdewpointTH":"20:55","TapptempTL":"---","TapptempTH":"---","TwchillTL":"20:55","TheatindexTH":"20:45","TrrateTM":"","ThourlyrainTH":"","LastRainTipISO":"------","hourlyrainTH":"0.0","ThumTL":"20:45","ThumTH":"20:55","TinhumTL":"%dailylowindoorhumtime%","TinhumTH":"%dailyhighindoorhumtime%","TpressTL":"20:45","TpressTH":"20:55","presstrendval":"-68.0","Tbeaufort":"0","TwgustTM":"","windTM":"0.0","bearingTM":"160","timeUTC":"2019,08,18,18,57,33","BearingRangeFrom10":"110","BearingRangeTo10":"160","UV":"10.0","UVTH":"10.0","SolarRad":"26","CurrentSolarMax":"0","SolarTM":"26","domwinddir":"Northerly","WindRoseData":[0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0],"windrun":"0.00","cloudbasevalue":"1077","cloudbaseunit":"m","version":"WD_console_18.0","build":"---","ver":"14"}

Any help to this?

not sure…so it was parsing that OK…but not its not?

With the most current version parsing is not ok - ftp is ok.