Download WEATHER DISPLAY HELP MANUAL

WEATHER DISPLAY HELP MANUAL
3rd June 2001
Minimum System Requirements to run Weather Display:
Windows 95 operating system
486 Type CPU
16mb Ram
Allow 6mb hard drive space for initial files, then about 10mb per month after that for
data storage.
800x600 screen resolution is best, with at least 256 colours (more the better).
A compatible weather station and serial cable with a free com port.
1. Downloading the file from the internet:
Go to http://www.weather-display.com/download/wdisplay32.exe
And then click on save file, and choose a location where you are going to download the
file to, and remember that location.
Once the download is complete, then you can run the installer program, wdisplay32.exe
Before you run the installer though, exit your current version of Weather Display first.
Make sure you install it into the same location as you last did (the installer remembers
this, the next time you do a new download). No data is lost, so there is no need to save
and files/data. If you are using a firewall, test a FTP upload, in case the ftp version has
changes, and so then you will need to tell the firewall to let it through.
2. Initial/first time setup
When the installer has finished, click on finish to have Weather Display run for you .
If it is your first time running the program, then it will say it is doing a 32 bit conversion
– that is for a upgrade from version 7.39, and this will only occur once.
Once the program has finished loading, then the first thing you want to do is choose the
language to use (see under setup, language- English is the default), then the units – i.e US
units if you live in the USA . Click on setup, then units to do this
Then choose the com port that your weather station is connected to. Click on setup
Comm Port to do this. (Don’t worry about the com port release times, unless you want to
let Davis Weather link get access to the station at some point in time to download data
from the Davis Datalogger). Davis owners also need to select their rain gauge resolution
type.
Next you will want to select the appropriate weather station type.
The default is the WM019/WX200. Click on setup again, then weather station type, then
choose the type you want.
For Davis weather station owners, you will also need to select the data logger baud rate.
The Full version is for when you have a rain gauge, humidity sensor etc. The wireless
WMII is the same as the WMII full version (as far as weather display goes)
For Ultimeter owners, there are a few things to setup. Make sure your weather station
console is in datalogging mode at all times (check this after your restart weather display).
If you have a U2000 older than 3 years or so, then you may need to choose the “no
average speed in the data” under Ultimeter data setup. You can also choose whether you
have a humidity sensor or rain gauge.
A WMR-918H is actually a WMR-968, so try that station type
ELV/Conrad/WS2000/WS7000 or The La Crosse or WMR900h users (these are all the
same type of station), you will also need to do some more initial setup. Click on view,
WS2000/WMR900H /Dallas 1 wire data information. Then set the outdoor temperature
sensor to use – choose from the list once you have a sample data – click on get data to get
one. Also set the loggin interval to 5 minutes . Click on set names to allocate names to the
sensors to appear with the data in this window. You can also allocate a
temperature/humidity sensor to use as your soil sensor, and have it displayed on the main
screen above the wind speed dial.
Dallas 1 wire station owners also need to do some additional setting up. You need to use
this same part of the program to check that it has found the ibuttons OK. Also on this
setup page, you can see the additional temperature sensor and the humidity
sensor/temperature readings (if you have one). Dallas wire station owners also need to
setup the wind direction ibuttons. Click on view, Setup Dallas 1 wire wind direction and
rain to do this. If you have a ini.txt file that was created by Weather 204 and the create
list program provided by Dallas Semi, then you can import that file to set the wind
direction, rain/wind ibuttons. Then check that the windspeed ibutton ROM id has been
correctly identified. If not, then see what was reported under view,
WS2000/WMR900H/Dallas 1 wire data information, and you can change the ROM id if
it is wrong, and then click save.
If you have a extra temperature sensor, then the ROM id for it should be displayed here
as well.
3. Setting offsets/start up rainfall
Weather Display stores its own rainfall totals separate from the weather station. So you
need to set this up for the first time use. Click on setup, Offsets and rainfall to do this.
Then select the amount for today’s rain, yesterday’s rain, monthly rain and yearly
rainfall.
Note: for US units, the equivalent amount in inches is displayed. Click on Yes to set these
amounts. If you are just increasing the amount, then that amount is added on straight
away, and close the window down with the X in the top right hand corner when you have
this set
For the barometer, weather display uses the raw pressure value from the weather station.
So you need to set a pressure offset. This number is in hpa – there is a conversion for US
units (i.e inches) as well – for your reference. Note the offset is absolute – i.e if you want
to adjust it, and you want the pressure to increase by 1 hpa, then the offset need to be 1
hpa higher.
You need to set the offset until the pressure shown in weather display is what the Mean
Sea Level Pressure is for your lacation at that point in time. You can get this information
from a nearby Airport or the local newspaper (you may need to fine tune over a period of
time) – i.e you pressure reading needs to be similar to your nearest official weather
station at a the same time of day – ideally done in light winds/fine weather when there is
a large high pressure in your area.
On this page, you can tick if you want weather display to synchronize your PC clock via
the internet (you need to have the FTP program set up for this – i.e the ISP selected or the
cable modem option selected). The time sync occurs very 6 hours, at 30 minutes past the
hour
Alternatively you can use the clock offset , which is added/subtracted every hour if your
PC clock looses/gains time (weather display does not use the time from the weather
station)
4. Daily reset time
You can choose either midnight reset (default) or 9am reset (used in Australia and New
Zealand). See under setup, values reset time option. At either midnight or 9am the daily
high/low data will be reset, and yesterday rain will be set.
5. Start when windows starts
If you want weather display to start when your computer starts up (weather display is
designed to run all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), then click on setup, start
when windows starts, then click on yes. Alternatively you can copy a short cut to weather
display into the windows start up folder. A sort cut to the program is placed on your
desktop and into the start menu via the installer.
6. Loging of data
Logging of data is on by default, to a log file, updated every minute. These logfiles can
be found under the folder logfiles in the wdisplay directory.
For the month of may 2001, the name of the log file is: 52001lg.txt
There is also 52001lg2.txt, this is for soil temperature (if you have it) and for the daily
high/low temperatures
See under setup, log files recording for options, including having a comma separated log
file (.csv extensions) for use with excel or other spreadsheets. You can even have weather
display produce a custom log file, using the variable tags as found in the file
owntemplate.txt , or see the section custom web page in this help
7. Importing log files
You can import log files produced by other software- just select which software type
For the Davis log files, you need to import the file called download.txt , produced by
Weather link. The 32 bit weather display conversion is for if the automatic conversion for
first time upgrade from version 7.39 was not successful
If the 32 bit conversion when upgrading from 7.39 to 7.4+ does not work correctly, then
you can convert the log files one at a time using the option “convert weather display log
files to graphs”.
8. WM918/WMR918 forecast Icon
If you set this to display, then the icon that appears on the programs screen will be the
forecast icon from the station (and will appear in the summary.gif file). Note: It does not
work with the WMR968 at this stage.
If you select do no display, then I will not be visible at all.
If you select auto update, then you can have the icon updated via input daily weather, or
have it updated from a downloaded metar (see the section on Metar downloads)
9. Registration/Purchase of the software
Weather Display as you download it is fully working, apart from a random nag screen,
when it will stop receiving data from the weather station, until you click on OK. It also
has a trial period of 30 days, after which time it will not work anymore. You can still
register it after this time, by getting the registration number to me when I receive
payment, and then entering it into a program you can download from here:
http://www.weather-display.com/download/wdregistration.exe
To purchase the software, see the link to Order on the weather display web site, on the
left hand side, or go here:
You can purchase with Visa/Mastercard/Dinners or similar (not Amex at this stage), via
the secure online World Pay server. You can even choose from 5 currencies which one to
purchase in , and the conversion will be done at the current exchange rate conversions for
you. Then email the registration code that appears in the top box when you click on
register in weather display to : [email protected]
Once I have received confirmation of payment, which is by email, I will email you back
the new registration code, which you enter in the lower box, and then click OK.
Note: the code is case sensitive
Customers in Germany, please go to : http://www.weather-display.de
Customers from Switzerland please go to:
http://www.worldmeteo.ch/ebene3/shopsoftware.htm
10. Weather wunderground/Weather for you setup and Internet connection setup
The first thing you need to do is set up the Internet Service provider (Dial up
networking), or select cable modem/permanent connection option if you are permanently
connected to the internet. Click on setup, then click on setup FTP/Internet/Reboot/pager,
then select the connections Tab (across the top – there are some arrows, < and > in the
top right hand corner you can use to scroll through all the setup pages).
If you do not have a permanent connection to the internet, then click on Get ISP’s. Then
select the one you want to connect to (there most likely will only be one) from the list in
the top left hand corner. Then the Username and Password should get filled in
automatically. If your dial up networking does not have the password being saved, then a
box will appear asking you enter the password for your connection to the internet (same
password as you would normally enter when you connect to the internet.
For Wunderground/Weather For you setup, click on view, then Wunderground setup or
Hamweather setup. The clock on the link to go to the sign up page, or click here for
wunderground setup:
http://weatherstation.wunderground.com/weatherstation/usersignup.asp
or here for the Ham weather/weather for you setup, click here:
http://www.hamweather.net/weatherstations/
Then enter in the Station ID and password you are provided with into Weather Displays
setup page
Then select the times to upload the data, then turn the switch on ( so it shows green), then
try a test by clicking on Test. Then you should be able to see your data when you click on
view data. You can select the cloud type to include in the data, or you can include the
weather conditions from the Metar you are downloaded and have selected ( see the
section on Metar download in this help file).
11. FTP setup/FTP program options
There are a number of internet capabilities you can do with Weather display without the
need to have a web page/ FTP server to use.
Tick start with FTP program visible for debugging so that you can see what is happening.
Untick this option so that the ftp program does not pop up over the top of everything.
Tick start minimized (but not in system tray, which is down by the clock, to have it
appear on the task bar in a minimized state ).
Tick produce a log file if you want to view the last log file – which you can do under
view, ftp error log file, then click on view full log file.
Hit cancel on re-establish connection is a good idea, but minimize connection box when
connected applies only to Win 95
Time out in minutes for when a slow connection is the overall time out.
FTP connect time out and Mail connect time out should be Ok at the default settings
If you don’t want to have Weather Display run its own FTP program, because you are
using a Weather display on a server, then untick Use Weather Displays own FTP, and
you can enter in the box below a .bat file for weather display to execute instead to copy
the files to where needed, or you can select the location of where to produce the files
under the Tab Files, and click on the button in the top right hand corner, called set web
files location
If you still want weather display to do other functions, such as send data to wunderground
or download Metar’s etc, then tick Still use ftpupd.exe for everything but normal uploads
If you want weather display to update a web page on the internet , say at your home
page, then you need to set up the FTP server, Username, and password, as provided by
your Internet Service Provider or your home page service.
The remote directory is the most tricky part to get correct, as you need to get the
placement of any / needed correct. Don’t forget to turn the master switch on, so that it is
green. Click on OK to save the settings at any time, then go back to the setup screen
again.
Next you will want to select the times that your web page is updated under Upload times.
If you want the files updated/uploaded every minute, then tick Update every minute. The
daily averages/extreme files are updated at the times specified, and you can set these to
update at a more convenient time . The actual averages/extreme files are updated at either
5 minutes past midnight (if you have the midnight reset time selected), or 5 minutes past
9am (if you have 9am reset time selected – see under setup, reset times), regardless of the
time you set for when the files are updated to your web page. If you untick do daily
uploads of averages/exteme, then the files will neither be created or uploaded.
Next you will want to set up the web page settings – click on the files tab to go there:
To set the file that will be uploaded to your web page, and be part of the URL, enter that
under weather station filename. Note: no spaces, but you can use – or _ and don’t include
.html or .htm
This file name will have .htm put on the end of it automaticly – you can have it use .html
if you want – see that option (use .html instead of .htm).
If you are uploading a web cam file (the file name must remain static – see web cam
upload option to setup this up), then add in the title of the web cam that you want to
appear on the web page (e.g. “my backward”)
If you want a wallpaper /background image to appear on the web site, then you enter the
name of the wallpaper or image (jpg or gif only), but this file must be on your FTP
server. You can upload it to the server – see manual upload, or use another FTP program.
Title of Web page: This will appear on people’s bookmark of you URL, on the browser
window, and on the Table title on the web page. Special status message: use this as a
quick and easy way to let people know the status of the weather station.
Next choose which files/images you want updated/uploaded
The real time graph upload is the one you can see under view, real time graph (or right
mouse click on the graph in weather display to see this option – in fact, right mouse
clicking on most of the screen in weather display gives you some popup options, and a
left mouse click will also go straight to some screens).
Tick the screen shot option to have the weather display screen, as you see it now, appear
on the web page. You can change the colour of the screen shot – see the button to set
screen shot colour (this independent from the colour you have selected under setup,
colour setup/program title, program start up center option).
The summary image is the first image that appears on the web page.
Enter a title for this image ( I have entered Awhitu for my location, see
http://ps.gen.nz/~windy/otherdat.htm for my weather page.)
You can have the summary.gif file updated and uploaded, but not shown on the web page
if you want.
If you are downloading a metar (see the metar download section), then tick include extra
metar info to have a speparate metar image produced (which you can view in weather
display by clicking on the weather icon)
The snow icon temperature threshold is to set the temperature at which weather display
decides you are having snow when precipitation is recorded.
If you don’t have the WM918 forecast icon selected, then the weather icon that appears
on the summary image is based on either the one you have chosen under input daily
weather, or based on the rain in the last 10 minutes, or if below 10oC and over 97%
humidity, then it will be a foggy icon, or if over 30 kts average speed, then it will be a
windy icon. You can even have the weather conditions reported in the chosen
downloaded metar to update the icon. You can select the background colour, text colour
(i.e for the words windspeed, and the Title colour. Hopefully soon I will get the chosen
font to be selected properly
Half an hour before and half an hour after sun set /sunrise (please set up the sun moon
settings correctly first – see view, sun moon – enter here your latutude/longitude: make
sure you use a –ve number for the southern hemisphere for latitude, and if you are west of
GMT (i.e west of the UK/England), ie. You live in the USA, then have a negative number
for the longitude), there will appear either a setting sun or a rising sun
If you don’t want this off to one side, and instead want it to appear where the weather
icon is, then tick don’t have sunrise/set as a separate image
After half an after sun set, the current phase of the moon will appear – I you have the
above mentioned option ticked, it will replace the current weather icon instead of
appearing off the side.
Click on the weather icon in weather display to see the summary image at any time
If you don’t want this weather icon to appear on the screen shot on the web page, then
tick don’t show the icons on the main screen (useful if your PC screen colour is only set
to 16 colours).
If you have designed your own web page, and want to include individual dial image files,
then tick that option to have them produced, and tick to upload them (un-tick this option
of you are running on a web server).
The upload time stamped 24 hour graph files option is useful if you want to limit the
amount of web server space weather display uses (i.e. un-tick this option to limit the file
space used.
Tick don’t show indoor temperature/humidity on web page if you don’t want these values
to appear on the screen shot (some weather station types do not have indoor
temperature/humidity anyway)
If you only want some images/dials on your web page, and no table, then you can tick
that option.
The upload daily high/low pressure is to upload and include on your web page the daily
high/low extremes (see under view, or click the extreme conditions section on he weather
display screen to see this image).
You can create links to other web sites, and a email to yourself link – click on reset to
reset these links to start over if you make a mistake.
You can even change the back ground colour and cell spacing of the web table.
12 Metar download
Click on setup, ftp setup, then FTP/metar download to set this up:
There are 2 sections to this setup page:
The download times apply to both a warning or forecast download and the Metar
download. They all are provided by NOAA, based in the USA.
The Metar download is the easiest to setup. Just select a nearby airport/station nearest to
you from the list, so that it is added to the list on the right hand side, or enter it into the
space provided and click on the > button. Remember to include the .txt at the end of the 4
letter station ID code.
Then if you want to use one of these metars to update Wundeground, or to update your
weather icon, or to appear as extra text on the summary image, then select that metar, so
that it appears in the bottom edit box, and then tick to use this metar for local sky
conditions (and wunderground).
Note: You don’t need a web server/ftp server or homepage to download Metars or
forecasts warnings .
If you want to have the metar or forecast/warning visible on your web page, then you
need to tick include these text files on my web page.
You can select a location for where the files are downloaded to (double click), and then
click on view, downloaded metars , to view each file. If you have ticked use this metar
for local sky conditions, then when you click on the weather icon on the weather display
screen, the metar will appear in a summarized form (and this image will appear on your
web site).
Note: If you want the metar to be the most up to date on your web site, then download it
before your web page is updated (weather display ftp program can do multiple agenda
items at the same time). Make sure you turn the switch’s on (so they are green) for either
the metar or forecast/warning download.
See here:
ftp://weather.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/
For different locations to use in weather displays setup for state forecasts or zone
forecasts, etc.
Other countries, like BOM in Australia, also provide a similar service.
The forecast / warning download is by anonymous FTP download, whereas the Metar
download is by a faster HTTP download.
Use the Test button to see if the Metar you have choosen is actually available.
Note, as with all setup pages in the ftp setup, nothing is saved to be used by weather
display until you click OK or test.
There are also 2 lots of different Forecast or warnings you can set up (i.e #1 setup and #2
setup).
13. Weather warning setup
Weather Display can email or notify a pager when certain threshold conditions are met,
that you have selected.
Click on setup, setup weather warning email to do this.
The first thing is to set the threshold settings. They are metric based, and kts for
windspeed, but the equivalent US units conversion is displayed, and to get kmh from kts,
there is 1.85 kmh for every 1 knot of wind. You can easily get to this page by clicking on
the alarm LED on the main weather display page. If this is flashing, then a warning has
occurred, and then click on reset alarm LED;s to stop the flashing.
Next, if you want to email someone this weather warning, then add there email to the list
(enter there email, then click on the > button).
Enter your weather station name, your name, your email address.
Then set up your email settings, that is used with your Internet Service provider – I.e the
mail server you have setup in Outlook express or Netscape mail. Change the port number
if needed, but this is normally set to 25.
Make sure you turn the switch to show green, in the top right hand corner to enable the
weather warning emails.
Then click on the test button to send a test report.
You can have any other .exe or .bat file on your pc run at the same time – just include the
full path name here.
You can also add extra text to the email (see where I have Testing ) in the example
screen shot above.
You can email a pager, if you have this service provided by someone, with the
information being contained in the subject of the email
There are a few settings here (bottom left hand corner) to note:
If going to a numeric pager, then you need to tick email to a numeric pager, so no special
characters (like % and oC) are included. You also need to enter the email address to
email to this numeric pager. If you don’t want anything to appear in the body of the
email, then tick use email subject line only for message. This is needed for a SMS email
service. If your station name is too long to fit in the SMS limited space, then enter a new
shorter station name.
If you have a list of emails for the weather report email (see later in this help, and see
under FTP setup, weather report/reboot), and you want to email the same people a
weather warning email, then click on import list from weather report list.
If you want a sound to be played when a weather warning event has occurred, then just
name a .wav file (either record one, or use a existing sound file (i.e a .wav file ) on your
PC, but you need to rename the sounds, and have them located where weather display is
installed to ( c:\wdisplay is the default location).
The sound file names you need to have are:
rainin6hourswarning.wav : For the rain in 6 hours threshold being exceeded.
rainin1hourwarning.wav : For the rain in 1 hour threshold being exceeded.
pressurechangewarning.wav : For the pressure change in 1 hour being exceeded.
maxavwindspeedwarning.wav : For the maximum average windspeed threshold being
exceeded.
lowavwindspeedwarning.wav : If the threshold is not zero, then this warning will be
activated when the average windspeed goes below the setting you have chosen.
rainrecorded.wav : each time rain is recorded, this sound will be played – get the
washing off the line !
Note that any threshold will only be set off at a maximum rate of once per hour – and the
low temperature threshold gets reset (so it can be set off again) when the temperature
next goes above that setting.