Weather Data via Text File

[mktmgrjrm]

I've managed to get BackyardEOS to access the daily text file from my Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station for temperature/humidity measurements.  For the most part, this works very well - but we've had a significant cold spell here where the temperature has been single digits and below zero. Every time this happens, BackyardEOS chokes on the data because the characters reported by the Davis text file change position (different starting point and different length).  I can see that the same situation will likely occur if the temperature gets above 99F, but I won't likely be imaging under those conditions where I live!!  I believe that this issue could be corrected if BYEOS could read the text file as a delimited text file with maybe a dropdown for the delimiting character (comma, semi-colon, etc.) rather than a fixed length text file.  Any chance this could be done?

 

Thanks for listening.

[admin]

This is implemented and will be in the next release in April.

I made it configurable as stated.  The default is SPACE delimited (current behavior).  

You can use any character as a delimiter.  In your case you would use a comma.  I also allow TAB delimited files; in this case you would need to use the letter T as a delimiter.

Regards,

 

[admin]

Can you send me an example file that is working and one that is not.

[mktmgrjrm]

Here is a portion of the text file generated by the Davis weather station software - I have highlighted the temperature values showing the below 0F in red and the above 0F in blue.  The minus sign (-) when the temperature is below 0F adds a character to the text string. BYEOS captures the temperature data using character positions in the text file, so when the temperature goes below 0F the additional minus sign in the string makes the setup in BYEOS incorrect.  If the temperature comes back above 0F, the temperature is correct again.  The same issue occurs if the temperature goes from one digit to two or three digits - say from 9F to 10F or 99F to 100F.  If it were possible to use the comma as the delimiter instead of character position, the temperature should always be correct no matter if it is above or below 0F, or if the temperature is one, two, or three digits.  Hope that explains what I'm talking about. I'm also attaching a PDF of this in case the info doesn't show up well in the forum.

 

07/01/17,09:20,2.0,83,-2.0,2.0,4.0,260,0.00,0.00,30.539,0.72,68.1,36,3.0,-4.5,2.0,0.0,0,0.000,0.000,-5.5,110,0.0,242,0.00,0.00
07/01/17,09:30,2.4,82,-1.8,3.0,7.0,256,0.00,0.00,30.542,0.72,68.1,36,5.0,-7.6,2.4,0.0,0,0.000,0.000,-5.7,134,0.0,288,0.00,0.00
07/01/17,09:40,3.0,82,-1.3,3.0,7.0,258,0.00,0.00,30.542,0.72,68.0,36,2.0,-0.8,3.0,0.0,0,0.000,0.000,-5.0,158,0.0,242,0.00,0.00
07/01/17,09:50,3.6,82,-0.7,3.0,6.0,252,0.00,0.00,30.544,0.72,67.9,36,4.0,-4.6,3.6,0.0,0,0.000,0.000,-4.4,181,0.0,282,0.00,0.00
07/01/17,10:00,4.2,80,-0.6,3.0,6.0,263,0.00,0.00,30.546,0.72,68.0,36,4.0,-3.9,4.2,0.0,0,0.000,0.000,-3.8,204,0.0,277,0.00,0.00
07/01/17,10:10,5.1,80,0.3,3.0,8.0,250,0.00,0.00,30.552,0.72,68.1,36,4.0,-2.9,5.1,0.0,0,0.000,0.000,-2.9,226,0.0,249,0.00,0.00
07/01/17,10:20,5.3,79,0.2,3.0,7.0,257,0.00,0.00,30.555,0.72,68.3,35,3.0,-0.8,5.3,0.0,0,0.000,0.000,-2.7,248,0.0,279,0.00,0.00
07/01/17,10:30,5.7,79,0.6,4.0,6.0,248,0.00,0.00,30.553,0.72,68.5,35,3.0,-0.3,5.7,0.0,0,0.000,0.000,-2.8,268,0.0,262,0.00,0.00
07/01/17,10:40,5.9,78,0.5,4.0,8.0,243,0.00,0.00,30.550,0.72,68.6,35,7.0,-5.9,5.9,0.0,0,0.000,0.000,-2.6,287,0.0,253,0.00,0.00
07/01/17,10:50,6.8,76,0.8,4.0,7.0,259,0.00,0.00,30.550,0.72,68.8,35,2.0,3.3,6.8,0.0,0,0.000,0.000,-1.7,304,0.0,277,0.00,0.00
 

Davis Log File.pdf

[admin]

Ah, okay.  I see the file is comma delimited instead of the (currently supported) space delimited implementation.

 

Perhaps the easiest way to approach this would be to offer a comma delimited text file implementation in BYN/BYN separate from the current space delimited.  This should allow support to a much broader range of device... and for a final kick, the delimited character should be configurable, some may use TAB for example.

 

Regards,

[s3igell]

Allowing a choice of Delimiter might also skirt any issues with a "Comma as Decimal Indicator - ie: European Numeric Display layout".  Or perhaps you're using a Library Routine which already picks that up from the Personalization Data embedded in Windows.

[mktmgrjrm]

Outstanding, Guylain!  Thank you very much for this.

[blakesphere]

Hello. I hope this is OK to touch on this again.

I have tried a dozen different things to get a Davis weather station text file to work on my Backyard EOS. 

The curious thing is that I tested it in Backyard Nikon and it worked fine. So that leads me to believe the source text file is OK.

So, before I launch into a round of additional testing, I wonder if I can ask if there are any known issues? Has this been specifically addresses, worked on, fixed, or dropped in the most recent versions?

And if it is supported, are there specific things I can do to properly test this?

I really miss having current weather information in Backyard.

regards,
blake

 

[admin]

There are no known issues. It's 100% the same code for BYN and BYE.

What versions of BYN / BYE did you test.

Please post a copy of your file.

[blakesphere]

Is there any issue with the operating system? I have 3.1.18 on my netbook running... ready for it?! ;-)... running... Windows XP!

The successful tested was on Windows 10 with BYN 1.0.

regards
Blake

 

downld02 (data from CAO weather).txt

[admin]

What is your setting like in BYE for the text file configuration?

[blakesphere]

In an early test, I used:

data    start len

city    180    5 (not the real location)

temp    18    6

hum    40    3

I tried various settings and options in the TEXT FILE DELIMITED dialogue box without success.

Again, I used the same settings as with Backyard Nikon, and it loaded fine.

Something seemed to go wrong when accessing the file. The app would get really show and then hang. I'd have to kill the process in Task Manager.

 

[admin]

can you please post a print screen of you actual setting window and text file setting window. I've seen too many users claim their setting was correct.  A print screen leaves nothing to intepretation.

thank you

[admin]

oh, can you please send me your BYE logfile? I'd like one where you have it configured and it is not working.

[admin]

I just tried your settings with your file and I get a reading.

 

[blakesphere]

You screen snaps exactly match what I do in BYN.

So again, that's how I concluded the data file I was using worked.

I'll try to get a log file from BYE...

 

[blakesphere]

Well. Guess what? It's working now.

I can't recreate the error. I don't know what's different. But I'm not getting the slow, sluggish, hanging response as before.

Guylain, I'm sorry about this.

Resume normal functions...

regards,
Blake

 

 

[blakesphere]

Snip...