DarkSky acquired by Apple

[Guest]

Just read an article on The Verge that DarkSky has been acquired by Apple. All Android apps will be disconnected in early July. You can still use DarkSky on iOS devices.

 

More importantly, the DarkSky API will be discontinued as well, so support for the DarkSky Node Server will break at that time as well!

 

Another one bites the dust!

 

 

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[majkman]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/03/apple-acquires-dark-sky-weather-app-and-its-bad-news-for-android-users/

[Guest]

Thanks for posting that...

So for clarity, we can use the API until the end of 2021...

Here’s my question about ALL of these weather providers...

If we have weather stations, and we’re contributing data to these services, then why in the world wouldn’t these services provide us free access to the API???

In short, it seems like a very one sided relationship!


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[Ross]

Or is there a way for our weather stations to somehow interface directly with the ISY without having to upload to the cloud service?

I have a Davis Vantage Pro 2.  I don't have the Weatherlink Live service.

I am currently using WeatherBit.  The free version only updates the ISY hourly.  It also only provides the current weather (as of the last update) - no highs/lows for the day.

Ross

 

[asbril]

I use this Dark Sky nodeserver and it seems nothing to worry about till end of 2021. QUESTION : Are there other Polisy  weather nodeservers that work like Dark Sky, meaning no need to have your own weather station and are free to use ? 

[bpwwer]

There are more weather related node servers than any other category at this point.

WeatherFlow - supports the WeatherFlow personal smart weather stations

AmbientWeather/AmbientPoly - supports Ambient Weather stations via their cloud API

WeatherPoly - interfaces with a number of different weather software packages to get personal weather station data (WeatherDisplay, Cumulus, Meteobridge, Acuparse, etc)

WeatherLinkLive - interfaces with a Davis WeatherLinkLive personal weather station setup

MeteobrigeAuth - interfaces with the Meteobridge personal weather station package.

Meteobridge - interfaces with the Meteobridge personal weather station package

WeatherDisplay - interfaces with the WeatherDisplay weather software for personal weather stations

udi-darksky-poly - pulls current condition and forecast data from DarkSky.net

udi-owm-poly - pulls current condition and forecast data from OpenWeatherMap.org

udi-weatherbit-poly - pulls current condition and forecast data from Weatherbit.IO

udi-aeris-poly - pulls current condition and forecast data from AerisWeather.com

 

There is some duplication with the above node servers but in those cases, there are differences that may make one a better choice vs. the other.

I also have a node server for WeatherStack under development but haven't finished it.  WeatherStack replaced a service called APIXU, but reduced the data available significantly. Because of the limited amount of data they provide, I'm not sure it's worth finishing the node server.

If anyone knows of other weather services that have an API to access the data (preferable with a free subscription level), let me know. I'm getting pretty good at creating these node servers.  Same for personal weather stations. If there's a way to access the data via a network connection, I can probably create a node server for it.

[Ross]

bpwwer,

Thank you for all of your weather contributions on the Polisy nodeserver - you have about 15% of the total list - you need your own category!

I currently use your WeatherBit nodeserver; however, the free version only updates hourly I believe.  I don't upload to WeatherBit, but I found my station on WeatherBit's station database.  Maybe WeatherBit is getting their info from CWOP?

That said, I have a Davis Vantage Pro2 that uploads to the cloud via a WeatherlinkIP (which is different from WeatherlinkLive).  Would you please write a nodeserver that can send info from that to the ISY?

Here is the api info: https://www.weatherlink.com/static/docs/APIdocumentation.pdf

Thank you,

Ross

 

[madcodger]

7 hours ago, Ross said:

bpwwer,

Thank you for all of your weather contributions on the Polisy nodeserver - you have about 15% of the total list - you need your own category!

I currently use your WeatherBit nodeserver; however, the free version only updates hourly I believe.  I don't upload to WeatherBit, but I found my station on WeatherBit's station database.  Maybe WeatherBit is getting their info from CWOP?

That said, I have a Davis Vantage Pro2 that uploads to the cloud via a WeatherlinkIP (which is different from WeatherlinkLive).  Would you please write a nodeserver that can send info from that to the ISY?

Here is the api info: https://www.weatherlink.com/static/docs/APIdocumentation.pdf

Thank you,

Ross

 

You might want to look at trying Cumulus (for PC) or even better, CumulusMX (for Raspberry Pi). I have CumulusMX connected to my Davis Vantage Pro2, and it connects directly to Bob's EXCELLENT WeatherPoly nodeserver on my local network, updating each minute. So, no cloud connection needed! That said, CumulusMX can simultaneously connect to multiple other weather reporting systems. I have mine reporting to Weather Underground, for example.

I could not be happier with this setup. Both my local ISYs have access to weather data, even if the cloud goes down, yet I can also access that data on Weather Underground and other services. Sweet!

Bob deserves a HUGE Thank You from the community for creating these nodeservers. Fantastic contributions.

 

[Ross]

Madcodger,

Thank you for the suggestion. 

I took a look at Cumulus and it appears that the PC has to be on at all times.  The advantage of the Weatherlink IP is that it attaches to the console and it transfers the data to the cloud - no need to interact with a PC.  Since the Weatherlink IP has its own DID and IP address, I was hoping that bpwwer could somehow tweak/clone his Weatherlink Live nodeserver to do the same with the Weatherlink IP.  I'd rather not involve a PC as the middleman.

If not, then I might go the Cumulus route.

Thanks much,

Ross

 

[bpwwer]

12 hours ago, Ross said:

bpwwer,

Thank you for all of your weather contributions on the Polisy nodeserver - you have about 15% of the total list - you need your own category!

I currently use your WeatherBit nodeserver; however, the free version only updates hourly I believe.  I don't upload to WeatherBit, but I found my station on WeatherBit's station database.  Maybe WeatherBit is getting their info from CWOP?

That said, I have a Davis Vantage Pro2 that uploads to the cloud via a WeatherlinkIP (which is different from WeatherlinkLive).  Would you please write a nodeserver that can send info from that to the ISY?

Here is the api info: https://www.weatherlink.com/static/docs/APIdocumentation.pdf

Thank you,

Ross

 

Thanks. 

To be clear, I didn't write all of the node servers on the list above, I was going for a comprehensive list.  I don't want to take credit for the fine work others are doing in this area too.

Thanks for the Davis API link, I'll take a look at it.

[bpwwer]

@Ross A node server for the Davis WeatherLinkIP version 1 API is now available in the node server store.  It's called DavisWeather. It's all based on the demo data available from the API documentation you pointed at which may be different from what an actual station reports.   If you find that something important is missing, set the log level to debug and capture the data being returned for your station and send it to me so I can update the node server.

[asbril]

I Installed Open Weather and I already had Dark Sky. I used the same latitude and longitude data but get different "Now" weather and different forecasts. The difference can be as much as 4 to 5 F.......  Makes no sense to me.

[Ross]

Bob,

I appreciate you working on this.

Unfortunately, it just shows zeros for me.

I've attached the Event Viewer log and the Polisy log.  Please let me know if you need anything else.

Maybe Gary Bixler will have better luck.  He was looking for a Weatherlink IP nodeserver in the Davis Weatherlink Live thread.

Thank you,

Ross

 

polyglot_2020-4-4_202853.txt ISY Log.v5.0.16B__Sat 2020.04.04 20.28.34.txt ISY-Events-Log.v5.0.16B__Sat 2020.04.04 15.46.35.txt

[madcodger]

16 hours ago, asbril said:

I Installed Open Weather and I already had Dark Sky. I used the same latitude and longitude data but get different "Now" weather and different forecasts. The difference can be as much as 4 to 5 F.......  Makes no sense to me.

Hi Asbril,

I don't use forecast data at my station (at least yet) as I was primarily interested in current data (mostly temperature).But I've found Bob very wiling to try to work out bugs or data sources. He just needs time to do it, of course. Good luck with this.

 

[bpwwer]

14 hours ago, Ross said:

Bob,

I appreciate you working on this.

Unfortunately, it just shows zeros for me.

I've attached the Event Viewer log and the Polisy log.  Please let me know if you need anything else.

Maybe Gary Bixler will have better luck.  He was looking for a Weatherlink IP nodeserver in the Davis Weatherlink Live thread.

Thank you,

Ross

 

The polyglot log indicates that the node server is running just that it's not getting any data.  Can you capture the node server's log instead?  That's in the nodeservers/DavisWeather/log/debug.log file.  Also, bump up the log level from the drop down selector on the main node to debug.  That will dump the results of the queries to the Davis server so we can see if that's reporting an error.

[bpwwer]

22 hours ago, asbril said:

I Installed Open Weather and I already had Dark Sky. I used the same latitude and longitude data but get different "Now" weather and different forecasts. The difference can be as much as 4 to 5 F.......  Makes no sense to me.

The different services can use different sources for the data so that type of difference is not unusual.  I've seen as much as 10 degree difference in temperature between two weather stations about the same distance away from me, but in opposite directions.

[Ross]

Bob,

In Polisy, I went to the Dashboard, selected DavisWeather Details, clicked on Log and then Download Log.  It is attached.

If this isn't what you wanted, please give me detailed instructions - I'm still a newbie at all of this.

Also, I believe you're going to the cloud to obtain the info.  In your WeatherLinkLive nodeserver, I believe you are grabbing the info before it goes to the cloud.  Is that not possible with the Weatherlink IP?  It has it's own IP address.  I have no idea, just posing the question.

Finally, I'm nervous about being off-topic as this thread is about DarkSky being acquired by Apple.  If you want to start a new topic, please feel free.  It might attract others to assist us.

Thank you,

Ross

 

DavisWeather_2020-4-5_115820.txt

[bpwwer]

1 hour ago, Ross said:

Bob,

In Polisy, I went to the Dashboard, selected DavisWeather Details, clicked on Log and then Download Log.  It is attached.

If this isn't what you wanted, please give me detailed instructions - I'm still a newbie at all of this.

Yeah, that's what I was looking for.  I can reproduce the error if enter garbage info for apikey, user, and password.  Actually, I get that if I just enter a bad password.  To test it I've been using the demo account info specified in the API document. The demo account info is:

apikey = demo0a002bc5272033001d0a002bc527
user = 001D0A00DE6A
password = DEMO

You might want to try with those values and verify that it works.  Either something is wrong with the credentials that you're providing or the service no longer works. Do you have some way to verify that you can access the station data from Davis with those credentials?

1 hour ago, Ross said:

Also, I believe you're going to the cloud to obtain the info.  In your WeatherLinkLive nodeserver, I believe you are grabbing the info before it goes to the cloud.  Is that not possible with the Weatherlink IP?  It has it's own IP address.  I have no idea, just posing the question.

The API document you provided only has the one method to access the data and that's via the https://api.weatherlink.com/v1/NoaaExt.json server link.  If there is another way to access the data locally via the IP address, I don't have any documentation on how to do that.

[Ross]

Bob,

The demo does provide data under the Weatherlink folder on the ISY.  However, not the Daily, Monthly or Yearly folders - but that maybe the demo doesn't provide that data.

I do access the Weatherlink site with my username and password.  When I log in, they display my 32 character token (same length as the demo) and I just copy/paste it into the configuration.  I'll contact Davis to see if they can assist.

Thank you for your efforts,

Ross

 

[bpwwer]

57 minutes ago, Ross said:

Bob,

The demo does provide data under the Weatherlink folder on the ISY.  However, not the Daily, Monthly or Yearly folders - but that maybe the demo doesn't provide that data.

I do access the Weatherlink site with my username and password.  When I log in, they display my 32 character token (same length as the demo) and I just copy/paste it into the configuration.  I'll contact Davis to see if they can assist.

Thank you for your efforts,

Ross

You can also try just entering the URL from the API doc in your browser and replace the token, user, and password with yours and see what happens. You should be able to do queries like that and get results in the browser.

[bpwwer]

@Ross I just pushed a new version (1.0.2) that does a lot more error checking. I've noticed that it doesn't always send all the data and I wasn't handling that very well.  That's why the day/month/year nodes weren't getting updated with the demo data.

[Ross]

Bob,

Same result (I restarted the admin console, but I didn't reboot the ISY).

My API isn't working yet (I have an email into Davis).  However, I did a bit more research, and it appears that Davis only pushes an update once an hour anyway for the Weatherlink IP (https://support.davisinstruments.com/article/ho5bb63y88-what-is-the-update-frequency-of-weather-data-to-weather-link-com-2-0).  So, if the nodeserver pulls from the cloud, it appears it's going to be no faster than the WeatherBit nodeserver I'm using. 

And, speaking to my earlier question of trying to talk to the IP before it goes to the cloud, this is the only item I've found: https://support.davisinstruments.com/article/ohno6ugc5x-how-do-i-communicate-directly-with-my-weather-link-ip-data-logger.

I need to get WeatherLink Live if I want more frequent updates.

I hope this wasn't a waste of time for you and it somehow benefited you.  I apologize if it didn't!  I'll still see what Davis says and verify it's only an hourly update.  I'll update you if/when I find out.

Thank you so much for your time,

Ross

 

[bpwwer]

19 hours ago, Ross said:

Bob,

And, speaking to my earlier question of trying to talk to the IP before it goes to the cloud, this is the only item I've found: https://support.davisinstruments.com/article/ohno6ugc5x-how-do-i-communicate-directly-with-my-weather-link-ip-data-logger.

I need to get WeatherLink Live if I want more frequent updates.

I was able to dig up more information about directly accessing the station via port 22222 and it's pretty complicated. It would be a lot of work to try and do a node server for that method. And not having direct access to the hardware would make it even more difficult.  So not something I want to tackle at this time.

It seems like WeatherLink Live is the current way forward to get data from Davis stations.

[Ross]

Bob,

Makes complete sense.

Thank you for your time and responses.

Ross

 

[asbril]

I added Open Weather just to see what free alternatives I have when Dark Sky goes "dark"   . However I noticed that Open Weather is an hour ahead of my time zone, even though I used the correct zip code.  At 11 pm  "Today"  shows the day and date of Tomorrow. It is not a big issue as Dark Sky apparently will work till 2021, but I wonder if anyone has seen the same issue..