[Xastir] Weather Stations

[Brett Friermood]

On Tue, Sep 4, 2018 at 2:40 PM Curt, WE7U <curt.we7u at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Just curious, does anyone run the ADS-WS1 weather station from ArgentData?
>
>    https://www.argentdata.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=135



I use one. I wrote a custom script running on a BeagleBone Black (what I
had laying around, if I build another I would use a Raspberry Pi 3) to
directly read and parse the output and deliver the information in a few
different ways.

APRS packets are created from scratch and sent through the co-located radio
(Alinco DR-135 with Argent's T2-135 installed) via the Linux AX.25
subsystem using the 'beacon' application. My script also establishes and
maintains a connection with Firenet and will push the APRS weather packets
at the same time as RF.

The APRS beacon timing is adaptive based on the significance of the current
weather picture. Good weather with minimal variability will generate 10-15
minute beacons, while worse weather and/or rapidly changing conditions will
generate more frequent updates.

Electrical power was easily provided to the station location, but no
network access. To solve that I set up a 5GHz wireless link using Ubiquiti
access points to extend my home network. This link provides full network
and internet access to the BBB along with a 2.4GHz access point I installed
using the dual-port POE pass through feature of the Ubiquiti APs.

In addition to allowing the Firenet connection, I am also using the link to
push the weather information back to the rest of my network via UDP every
10 seconds or so and being primarily displayed via a Python GUI running on
a Raspberry Pi 3 with a 7" touchscreen. Xastir can also be connected to the
radio/TNC through the use of 'ldsped' for full station functionality.

Sorry for the long reply, I started answering the original question then
realized I'd never actually documented it at all. Station callsign is WX5G4
for curious.

Brett KQ9N