jmed999 Posted August 28, 2013 Posted August 28, 2013 For some reason the ISY isn't getting the weather info from my backyard weatherbug station. Any ideas on how to fix this? My weatherbug station is reporting accurately but I have all zeros on my climate module page. Thanks!
jmed999 Posted August 29, 2013 Author Posted August 29, 2013 Also, if I change to a non-backyard station the ISY is able to get the values. So normal weather stations are coming in great but my personal weather station values aren't. I have been using my weather station for a long time now so not sure why the sudden change. Also it's not on weatherbug's end since my weatherbug website is showing accurate info. Hope this helps! Thanks!
Michel Kohanim Posted August 29, 2013 Posted August 29, 2013 Hi jmed999, The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the station ID for your backyard's weather station has changed? With kind regards, Michel
bpwwer Posted August 29, 2013 Posted August 29, 2013 I don't seem to be getting data from my backyard station either. But, the weatherbug web page isn't showing me any data, it says "No current observations available at this time Please try again later or Select a different station" But the weatherbug backyard station test page for my station is showing that they're getting the data and it's up-to-date. i.e. this page: http://data.backyard2.weatherbug.com/data/ecv.aspx works but this page: http://weather.weatherbug.com doesn't when both pages reference the same station id. So I'm thinking it's a weatherbug issue. Edit: I just logged into the weatherbug developer's site and it appears that this is a sitewide issue.
jmed999 Posted August 29, 2013 Author Posted August 29, 2013 They are having an outage. For some reason my weatherbug page still shows my correct and current info as it always does during their outages. Not sure why but their outages does not effect my station. So my station shows up on the weatherbug page but in the ISY I get all zeros.
arw01 Posted August 31, 2013 Posted August 31, 2013 Michel, is progress still being made to implement a method that we can get the weather data from other sources? Sorry so vague, I don't recall the thread to refresh my memory if it was part of the 2 way network feature you guys are working on, of it was more related to a different weather api you had found to implement. e.g. our backyard stations could update this other site and it was more reliable to get the ISY to talk to it. Ultimately I would like to be able to run a weather station on a pi or something and have the isy get that information directly from the station or my own internal server I could have control over. Someday I will win a Davis system off ebay for the price I want to pay!
IndyMike Posted August 31, 2013 Posted August 31, 2013 This seems to be a bit more than a simple loss of the backyard stations. Most of my local schools and businesses have disappeared as well. Currently, with a 40 mile radius, I have 2 NWS stations (airports) and 1 school showing up. Previously, there were at least 30 stations. Most of these were schools and businesses. For the time being, I would regard only the NWS stations as reliable.
TJF1960 Posted August 31, 2013 Posted August 31, 2013 For the time being, I would regard only the NWS stations as reliable.I am not even so sure about that. For 3 or 4 days this last week my Evapotranspiration was reporting as 0.019"per day and typically its around 0.16 with the weather we have been having for the last 2 weeks. The stations I am using is KBAB (Beale AFB), which is listed on the NWS site.
Michel Kohanim Posted September 1, 2013 Posted September 1, 2013 Hello everyone, Just sent an email to Earth Networks. This is not normal. They did change their APIs/Servers for customers who do not use their commercial APIs (8/31/2013) but we were promised that there would be no impact to commercial API users of which we are one. With kind regards, Michel
bpwwer Posted September 3, 2013 Posted September 3, 2013 From yesterday (9/2) It definitely has to do with WeatherBug.com (and our feed that pushes data to apps). All your test pages are perfectly fine, so we're getting data from your station, but it's breaking down on the feed. Most recent update: Got an update from our teams (not much but it's something): They're being worked on as we speak, and should be back up "this week".
Michel Kohanim Posted September 3, 2013 Posted September 3, 2013 Hi Bob, Thanks so very much for the update! With kind regards, Michel
swnewman Posted September 6, 2013 Posted September 6, 2013 I have been having constant issues this summer with either WeatherBug or the ET module algorithm. Half of the times I check the Irrigation required value, it doesn't change from day to day. I end up having to manually run my irrigation program which defeats the purpose of having the module. The value does go up, eventually, but with temperatures around 90 and no rain, Irrigation Required should definitely be going up every day. Has anyone else experienced this? When is this value supposed to be updated? Midnight? FYI, I am at 35756 and have been using KHSV at the airport, assuming that to be the most reliable data. It just gets frustrating knowing that at this point in summer the sprinklers should be going off like clockwork every 3-4 days, but I end up having to do it myself. I'm not sure if this is related to the recent WeatherBug outages, because this issue has been going on all season...
IndyMike Posted September 6, 2013 Posted September 6, 2013 Backyard stations appear to be on line today (my area at least). I am still missing all but one of the local schools.
jmed999 Posted September 6, 2013 Author Posted September 6, 2013 Mine is working now too Sent using my Galaxy S4 and Tapatalk!
IndyMike Posted September 7, 2013 Posted September 7, 2013 Hello swnewman, First and foremost, you need to be running ISY V4.0.5. Earlier versions did have some issues with the date calculations. Beyond that, I've checked your weather site and your area. KHSV Weather Site: 1) Weatherbug appears to be reporting data accurately at this time. I have no way of determining if there were data losses in the past. 2) WeatherUnderground shows the site history from June to present. No indications of problems. Your Soil: 1) The soil map from UCdavis has your area listed as having "silt loam". That's as good as it gets for water retention: http://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/soilweb_gmap/ 2) From the table below, your soil can hold 0.2 inches of water per inch of root depth. 3) If your grass has 6 inch root depth, your soil retention would be 1.2 inches of water. 4) The table recommends a maximum 50% depletion - you should irrigate when your ET exceeds 0.6". Field Capacity Table You have had a lot of rain this summer. I'm wondering if this hasn't changed your irrigation from what you would call "normal". The table below shows your historical Eto for your area. For irrigation, you need to compute Etc (crop evapotranspiration) for your specific plant type: [*:6hu1e1cs]Etc = Eto * Kc (where Kc is a crop coefficient). Use Kc = 0.8 for cool season grass and Kc=0.6 for warm season grass.[*:6hu1e1cs]For your hottest months you would normally get a Eto of .17" per day. Using a Kc of 0.8 would reduce this to 0.136" per day.[*:6hu1e1cs]From the field capacity table above we determined that you should water when you've depleted your soil water balance by 0.6".[*:6hu1e1cs]At a rate of 0.136" per day, you would need to irrigate every 4.4 days (about what you had figured). Local Data The plot below shows what I believe the ISY should be calculating based on actual data as reported by stations KHSV and KALMADIS16. As I mentioned above, you've had a lot of rain. [*:6hu1e1cs] The ISY calculated Eto for KHSV is running a bit higher than normal. I believe that this is because this station is reporting wind at the NOAA height of 10m rather than the NWS height of 2m. The station is reporting "average" windspeed of between 4 and 6 mph. That is very high and is causing the calculation to overstate Eto.[*:6hu1e1cs] The windspeed for that KALMADIS16 station (0 to .27 mph) is much more in-line and the calculated Eto is closer to historical values.[*:6hu1e1cs] The stations pretty much agree on the July rainfall (which was excessive), but differ on June and August. I don't have a good explanation for this other than topography in your area (you know this better than I). Even though the totals differ, the events occur on the same days. Running through the numbers, I believe the ISY should have scheduled irrigation between 3 and 4 times per month over that period. [*:6hu1e1cs] Answers to your questions: [*:6hu1e1cs]Eto is calculated at midnight.[*:6hu1e1cs]Rainfall is totaled at midnight and subtracted from the Irrigation required.[*:6hu1e1cs]Irrigation is subtracted from Irrigation required immediately when you execute the "irrigation complete" command Since both Eto and Rainfall are tabulated at midnight, it is possible for ET to be close to rainfall resulting in no change in the "irrigation required". It would be very odd for this to happen over a period of days. Based on the above data from stations nearby, I disagree that your lawn needs watering every three to four days. I'm basing this on many assumptions about your soil and grass, so I may be off. My questions: [*:6hu1e1cs]How does your grass look? Under watering can cause it to go dormant (not harmful). Over watering will kill grass - particularly with your humidity.[*:6hu1e1cs]What settings are you using in the irrigation panel (below)?[*:6hu1e1cs]Do you believe that the rainfall reported at either of the sites above is accurate for your area? I have been having constant issues this summer with either WeatherBug or the ET module algorithm. Half of the times I check the Irrigation required value, it doesn't change from day to day. I end up having to manually run my irrigation program which defeats the purpose of having the module. The value does go up, eventually, but with temperatures around 90 and no rain, Irrigation Required should definitely be going up every day. Has anyone else experienced this? When is this value supposed to be updated? Midnight? FYI, I am at 35756 and have been using KHSV at the airport, assuming that to be the most reliable data. It just gets frustrating knowing that at this point in summer the sprinklers should be going off like clockwork every 3-4 days, but I end up having to do it myself. I'm not sure if this is related to the recent WeatherBug outages, because this issue has been going on all season...
rossarmstrong Posted September 8, 2013 Posted September 8, 2013 According the the Weatherbug Backyard site, everyone should now be back up. I can confirm that my site is once again showing on the Backyard Map and my ISY is receiving the proper data from my weather station.
swnewman Posted September 9, 2013 Posted September 9, 2013 IndyMike, Thanks for all the info. Very helpful. You are right, we have had a wetter than usual summer and I haven't needed to water much. Grass looks good, so I can't complain too much. I'm specifically talking about the periods where we have gone a few days with no rain in the area. I'll check the Irrigation required one evening, and then check it again the next day, and sometimes it is exactly the same. In the instances where normally a new day would have triggered going over my threshold (I set the limit set at 0.5in vs. 0.6in), I have had to manually run the program to keep it on track. I don't remember all of the settings I have for the module, I'll have to check later. Other things: I am running the most recent ISY firmware I have bermuda grass, cut fairly long (second highest setting on push mower) I imagine the stations reportings are fairly accurate, although we do get very isolated storms in the summer I have noticed another inconsistency with KHSV in that it randomly reports light data, but most of the time does not Again, my grass looks good for the most part, and I believe I've had to run the sprinkler cycle 10 or fewer times this year so I think my settings are good. It just seems like the midnight update doesn't happen some of the time. I'll have to do a better job of logging what is happening so I can have more concrete data. Any suggestions on how to easily record daily values in a spreadsheet type format?
IndyMike Posted September 13, 2013 Posted September 13, 2013 Hello swnewman, Glad to hear that the grass is doing well. With bermuda grass, you should be using a Kc of 0.6 (warm season grass). If you have the network module, you can periodically log data to the ISY in a comma delimited format (.CSV) that Excel can import. I've been logging data at 10 minute intervals (when I poll Weatherbug) for about 5 months now. File size is at 3 M. The notification file formats are located here: http://forum.universal-devices.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=10905&p=86231&hilit=network#p86231 Instructions for creating the output file are here (instructions are for an Elk file - use the formats in the link above): http://forum.universal-devices.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=11753&p=90748&hilit=network#p90821
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