WinAPRS \ Weather Interface

I am running Weather Display and WinAPRS on the same machine. The weather station is a Peet Bros Ultimeter 2000 in the compete record mode.

Can anyone explain how to move the current WX data from Weather Display to WinAPRS for transmission on the local VHF network?
I have the WXNOW.TXT file set up in the WinAPRS folder. I have verified that the file is refreshed every minute. I can’t get WinAPRS to recognize the data in the file and transmit on a regular basis.

The WinAPRS station does seem to work great reading the local mail and broadcasting my beacon hourly.

Thanks for any help,
73
Bob N0NHC

Not sure but I think that when they released that version that that feature still wasn’t working correctly… That was a awhile ago though…

I was using mine with UI-View32 and it worked fine so must be a bug with WinAPRS

there are a few options for how the wxnow.txt file is setup up…
you may have to experiment and with winaprs to see if you get it to work (i know others had a similar prob , but it to work
or you could create your own one, using the custom file special converison…(under custom web page)

Using the WXNOW.TXT file hasn’t yet worked in WinAPRS though it appears as a setup option in WinAPRS 2.6.1, the latest version.
The WinAPRS author Keith Sproul told me (on March 9), “This is now fixed, we have to get a new version out. It should be very shortly.”
FWIW.

73 (ham-speak for “Best Wishes!”), Cap KE6AFE

Hi,
I was reading this thread and it raises a lot of questions for me.
Right now, I am running a Davis Wizard III (christmas present). I’ve tried to hook it up directly to WinAPRS 2.6.1, but with no luck at all. The config keeps changing from my Davis config to a U2000 (I do nothing other than let WinAPRS run, and next time I look it is another Wx device). :frowning:
I have run the station directly to a home control system (HCA 4.2), and it works pretty well.
What I really want to do is get the weather going out over APRS, and even over the web.
Does this thread really mean that folks are generating strings to files in APRS format, then transmitting them via APRS from that file??
Does anyone do this directly with WinAPRS?
Any hints/pointers much appreciated.
Thanks & 73,
Don (VE7IMD)

weather display can send aprs data direct to a TNC via a com port or
or via the internet, to findu.com
or you can get uiview to use the wxnow.txt file

Finally, the Sproul brothers have released a new version of WinAPRS that can properly use the WXNOW.TXT file from Weather-Display. You can find WinAPRS 2.7.1 at
http://www.winaprs.com/downloads

Shame… I held out for a long time for it to work and had to switch to UI-View for the Weather Display support. Since then I have decided to switch to Linux and Xastir and now I have lost support again for WD. Hopefully Brian will be kind enough to get the Server feature of WD to work with the Network WX Station feature of Xastir.

Xaprs is also coming out soon, I have volunteered to try my hand at that and test it out. Hopefullly the Sprouls will keep with the Linux WX Network standard so that everyone can be on the same page. WXNOW.TXT would be a pain to use on Xaprs since it would require NTFS->NFS support and mounting of the HD just to get it to work. Not too bad but it could be a pain to make reliable with SMB.

Rich

I have been able to get this to work. Here is what you need to do.

  1. In the WINAprs WEATHER menu option. Check the WX Display File Button.
  2. Put the path to the WXNOW.txt file in the space provided. For example:
    D:\wdisplay\datafiles\WXNOW.TXT.
    The entries are case sensitive, so pay attention to the full path and naming convention you actually have on your computer and enter it exactly.
  3. In Weather Display. Go to the Setup - > Produce APRS output file option.
  4. Click on Yes/Setup
  5. Select your datafiles directory : D:\wdisplay\datafiles and click SAVE. Of course you could put the file where ever you want. This just made sense to me.
    Next go back to the Setup/ Produce APRS output file option (I wish Brian would make the menus so they didn’t disappear without you wanting them to. Maybe like having to press esc or something :slight_smile:
  6. Select Com Port output of data. This is COM port for a seperate serial cable that goes to the TNC. In my case I used COM2 for the Davis Vantage Pro weather station at 9600 Baud, and the COM3 for a serial cable connection to the TNC using 14400. Yes I know. But it worked.
  7. Set the frequency of the output to one (1) minute. This makes sure that the data going to the TNC is always on time. The APRS program expects its weather input to be no less than 90 minutes old. Thats built in and you can’t change it. Its in the documentation for WinAPRS.
  8. Do a test com port usi ng the option provided. If the com port connection is correct, Weather Display will let you know that. I then forced creation of the first weather file by using that option.
  9. In the Setup/ Produce APRS output file option I checked YES to the option add /fwd on the end. This is not in the Weather Display documentation, but I believe it adds the wxd on the end of the APRS weather data stream.
  10. Make sure that in the KISS mode option in WinAPRS that the Digipeater option is not checked. You can not send weather when Digipeating.

I believe this is all that I did. I had to play with things for a while before it started working right. I eventually went back to using my Peet Ultimate 2000 connected directly to the COM3 port and stopped using WXDisplay data for APRS. I how have both weather stations running. One generating website data the other APRS.

With the tiirdparty add-ons now available for UIView, plsu using the Precission Mapping CD, and the stability, I now like UIView better than WinAPRS. Somewhere I read that one cannot use WinAPRS as both weather and digipeater. I use UIView for both, so if so, that in and of itself is a reason why I would stay with UIView.