I started having issues with the Guruplug that I use for my station computer.  The file system kept getting corrupted and was being made read only.  It finally reached the point where it wouldn’t boot anymore at all.  So I pressed a workstation I had nearby into service as a replacement.  This computer is an older workstation running Centos Linux.  It took me a while to get everything set up as I didn’t have backups for all the configuration files and scripts.  Most of them were backed up, but there were a few I had been tweaking on the Guruplug.  I back up all my Windows workstations nightly, but never implemented a backup solution for the Guruplug.  That was a mistake that I will correct ASAP.

The new station computer is working well and is much more capable that the Guruplug could ever hope to be.  The benefit is that the weather data is updated more frequently.  The downside is that my UPS can only run this computer for several hours rather than several days for the Guruplug.  Maybe I can come up with an old laptop which should extend the run time a bit.  But for now the station is back up an running again.

The webcam is working great on my Windows Home Server.  The only down time it’s had was a power outage about a week ago.  The server is on a ups and ran for a while with no power, but that only lasted about 30 minutes or so.  The ups on the actual weather station computer (a Guruplug) lasted for the entire outage (about 3 hours) and the station never missed a reading.  So some degree of success there.

I’d been having problems with the rain gauge not reading.  I disassembled the gauge and made sure there was no blocakge and the tipping buckets could move freely.  I didn’t see anything wrong so I reassembled the gauge.  We’ve had rain several times since then and the gauge worked fine both times.  I have no good explanation, but I’m glad to have the rain gauge working again.

I finally got motivated and built a new workstation for myself.  This meant that the webcam was taken offline until I had a chance to reinstall the hardware and software that supports it.  As a part of that process I moved the webcam to one of my servers that stays on 24 hours a day.  That will permit me to let my workstation sleep when I’m not using it.  It also will hopefully make the webcam a bit more reliable.  I had so many USB devices connected to my workstation that I had occasional issues with keeping the webcam up.  This will be a good test to see if that issue is resolved by moving the webcam.  Anyway, configuration on the server was simple, I modified my firewall rules to point to he new webcam host, configured the software, and away we go.  I may also choose to revisit some of the other webcam software that had more features but weren’t always stable on my workstation.  But I will see how this goes for a few days/weeks before I start messing up what’s working again.

I purchased a UPS for the weather station.  I plan to shut down the station this weekend for some maintenance.  One of the items will be to install the new UPS.  Another is to take apart and clean the rain gauge as I still don’t think it is registering correctly.  Hopefully I’ll make it to the hardware store and pick up some pins or long skinny bolts to help hold the PVC tubing together a little better.  I plan to drill holes where the fittings come together and insert bolts or pins to hold the parts together and keep them from turning.  During the last storm wind was able to turn some of the parts that were a force fit so that sensors were facing in the wrong direction or even upside down.  I could cement everything together, but I like the idea of having easily removeable and replaceable parts.  I’ll post another update after this weekend with what work I actually was able to accomplish and what is left for another weekend.

Also, I purchased a Raspberry Pi, whcih is a small ARM based embedded Linux computer on a board.  I’ve set up a webcam on it.  Depending on how it goes (I’m still experimenting) I may use this as my full time weather station webcam, replacing the current webcam setup.  That decision still remains to be made.  I’ll post an update with what I’ve accomplished in that department shortly.

Some severe thunderstorms rolled through this past Friday, 06/29/2012.  Many homes and businesses are still without power almost 3 days later.  Trees are down and traffic lights are not working.  I was very lucky as my power only went out for a short time.  Just enough to disrupt my weather station data collection.  The wind knocked down the weather station, but it was fairly easy to put back up again.  The anemometer stopped working, but after a couple of days it started working again, even before I could take a look at it.  Must have gotten some water in it that eventually dried up.  Also, the rain gauge doesn’t always record rainfall even when I know it has rained, so I need to take a look at it.  I also have a couple of improvements planned, such as a UPS and securing the PVC tubing with pins to keep the parts from separating under the wind load. I’ll post an update when I get back to working on some of these fixes.

I haven’t posted any updates in quite a while now.  I’ve only made minor tweaks over the last month or two.  I did update the background picture in the page heading for this blog to something more appropriate for Spring.  Other than that I’ve just been monitoring.  My Webcam still has intermittent issues, but that appears to be USB related rather than software.  Usually I can just unplug it and then plug it back in to get it working again.  I may move it to my home server that doesn’t have so many other USB devices attached to it.

The station software and hardware has been very stable, and my quality reports from CWOP have been good as well.  I may start thinking about enhancements, but I have many other projects going on and haven’t decided where to focus my efforts next.  If anybody has any suggestions feel free to drop me a line.  And even though the station is on auto-pilot currently I will be making occasional posts just to you’ll know I’m still here and listening.

I decided it was time to enhance my mobile Web site.  I decided to try using jQuery mobile as the framework for the revised site.  This should allow it to be cross platform.  Right now I only have Android to test with.  I have access to people with iPhone and iPod browsers, so I’ll test both of those as soon as I get a chance.

The new site has a menu and 4 pages.  There’s actually only one page with multiple pages embedded in it.  This makes switching pages faster, but increases the load time for the main page.  The 4 pages display: the current weather conditions, today’s station statistics, the NWS forecast for the station location, and the current Webcam image.  All the pages are dynamic and update on a scheduled basis.  I know I’ll continue to tweak the page layout and formatting.  But for now it is in good enough shape to release.

The URL is http://www.cloppermillweather.org/mobile.php

I haven’t posted anything for several weeks now., so I thought I would enter a quick update.  I’ve made very few minor tweaks to the site.  Nothing big enough to be worth mentioning.  The site is running pretty well at this point.  I have been watching my station data, and check the MADIS and CWOP quality checks daily.  The data quality is pretty good and I’m quite pleased with how the station is running at this point. 

Today could get interesting, as high winds are predicted, with gusts up to 50 mph.  I’ll be watching to see what kind of gusts the station records, and if the wind manages to do any damage to the station.  Hold on to your hats everybody.

I finally added a page with satellite images.  Not using my own receiver as I wanted to.  I just link to images on the NOAA site.  Took the easy way out for now.  But I still hope to build an antenna and get my receiver receiver working.  Maybe in the Spring.  But for now, the NOAA images are very good.  I may add some more or change which ones I’m displaying.  I’ll decide after I use these for a few days.

I just learned today that my code to display advisories doesn’t work in all browsers.  IE8 is one that is confirmed to not work.  The fix is easy enough.  The Knockout code uses the word “class” in the Knockout Javascript code to set the attributes of the advisory box.  I need to surround that word with single quotes and everything should be fine.  I’ll fix that as soon as I get a chance and test it out.  I really need to come up with a better way to test these pages, as I currently test with just Firefox9, IE9, and my Android browser.

Update: I made the fix last night and tried it using IE8 this morning.  The Web site now displays with no error dialog boxes displayed.  Hopefully this is now fixed.

Update 2: I installed both  Google Chrome and Safari tonight.  I need to do more extensive testing with both of them, but at first glance the pages appear to display correctly.