[Xastir] Xastir and Ultimeter weather station

[Rick Green]

On Sat, 19 Jan 2008, Chip Griffin wrote:

> This gives me the impression that only Radio Shack and Peet Bros units are 
> compatible. I don't see anything in any of the README files that adds to what 
> is here. The FAQ only adds the following when talking about redirecting 
> serial ports (how does that really have to do with setting up a weather 
> station anyway):
>
>>    if you wish to put your weather station on a remote serial port,
>>    investigate using OWW (for Dallas weather stations), wx200d
>>    daemon for some Radio Shack/Huger/Oregon Scientific weather
>>    stations, or Meteo daemon for Davis weather stations.
>
> So it seems we could use some help gathering the collective consciousness 
> relating to (a) what is compatible and (b) how to set it up and write up some 
> docs to go into (a) the help file, (b) the FAQ, and (c) a README file 
> (perhaps a new one dedicated to weather stuff). I would contribute toward 
> this goal, but I have no knowledge of the topic (yet).
>
  There's a lot of comments in the source files, that even I, a 
non-programmer, can understand.  From the first page of wx.c:

//
// The code currently supports these types of locally-connected or
// network-connected weather stations:
//
//   Peet Brothers Ultimeter 2000 (Set to Data logging mode)
//   Peet Brothers Ultimeter 2000 (Set to Packet mode)
//   Peet Brothers Ultimeter 2000 (Set to Complete Record Mode)
//   Peet Brothers Ultimeter-II
//   Qualimetrics Q-Net?
//   Radio Shack WX-200/Huger WM-918/Oregon Scientific WM-918
//   Dallas One-Wire Weather Station (via OWW network daemon)
//   Davis Weather Monitor II/Wizard III/Vantage Pro (via meteo/db2APRS 
link)
//

I'm running a Peet Ultimeter 500, which seems to output the same data 
structures as the ultimeter 2000, but with all the 'missing' sensors 
zeroed out.  I wish there was a way I could configure xastir to ignore 
some fields, since it's reporting that it never rains here, rather than 
simply not reporting rain as it should.  And I don't have a baro sensor, 
but it's reporting some strange bogus values...

I haven't found anything in the code that treats a 'networked' weather 
station any differently than a serial-connected one, so I'm guessing 
that the 'networked' wx station is simply a serial wx station plugged into 
a 'serial server' or a 'terminal server', so that if you were to telnet to 
the server port, you'd see the same data stream as if you ran minicom on 
the serial-connected wx station.
   I think Steve mentioned that Weather Display offers a 'server port', so 
he  might try this experiment:
   1) telnet to that 'server port', and capture a screenful of data.
   2) Shut down Weather display, and use minicom(if Linux) or hyperterm (if 
windows) to look at the datastream directly from the wx station.  capture 
a screenful of data.
   3) If the datastreams look at all similar, try defining a 'networked wx 
interface' to xastir, pointing to weather data's 'server port'.

-- 
Rick Green, N8BJX

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
                                   -Benjamin Franklin