Wind Gusts

Ssayer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Messages
19,577
Reaction score
70,722
Location
SE Michigan USA
Hey, I've been using BIT seemingly forever now, but just recently started overlaying some weather readings on a single cam to be viewed as a quick current weather monitor on a cheapy tablet in my living room.

I have a PWS that uploads it's info to Wunderground, so the info that I'm grabbing from there is my weather station's info.

I'm just seeing if I'm doing something wrong, or if this is simply the way that BIT works. As an example, at this moment the overlay for my wind description is showing, "From the North @ 1.3 MPH, gusting to 5.4 MPH". On the next reading, if the wind has stopped, the wind description will now simply show, "Calm".

Am I doing something wrong that it isn't showing, "Calm, gusting to 5.4 MPH" so that I know what the gusts are? On Wunderground it shows 0 and then Gusts x mph. On the Ambient Weather page, it shows wind speed and gusts to the first decimal place.

Is it just that Wunderground doesn't pass the info along, so there is nothing that can be done, or is it something I've missed?

Thanks!
 

Mike

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
2,725
Location
New York
Hey, I've been using BIT seemingly forever now, but just recently started overlaying some weather readings on a single cam to be viewed as a quick current weather monitor on a cheapy tablet in my living room.

I have a PWS that uploads it's info to Wunderground, so the info that I'm grabbing from there is my weather station's info.

I'm just seeing if I'm doing something wrong, or if this is simply the way that BIT works. As an example, at this moment the overlay for my wind description is showing, "From the North @ 1.3 MPH, gusting to 5.4 MPH". On the next reading, if the wind has stopped, the wind description will now simply show, "Calm".

Am I doing something wrong that it isn't showing, "Calm, gusting to 5.4 MPH" so that I know what the gusts are? On Wunderground it shows 0 and then Gusts x mph. On the Ambient Weather page, it shows wind speed and gusts to the first decimal place.

Is it just that Wunderground doesn't pass the info along, so there is nothing that can be done, or is it something I've missed?

Thanks!
You aren't doing anything wrong, that is how WeatherUnderground is reporting the weather in the XML file that BIT uses. I find that the XML file is updated more / faster than the website.
 

Mike

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
2,725
Location
New York
Ahh ok, thank you. I sort of figured that would be the case, but... never know... :p
It's all good. A lot of people post up similar things regarding the results from WU and 99.999% of the time it's the results that are either being reported incorrectly or not at all. BIT uses WU's API / XML, not the regular pages that you and I use.
 

Ssayer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Messages
19,577
Reaction score
70,722
Location
SE Michigan USA
Just curious, Ambient Weather has an API set up so that weather info from a PWS can be pulled directly from there. Is it feasible to get the data from there with BIT? Would this simply be too tiny of a niche thing to make it worth your efforts with BIT?

If I had a clue (maybe I need to start getting one), maybe I could do it outside of BIT. Somehow I think that this, at this point in my life, would remain outside my pay grade regardless... :p
 

Mike

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
2,725
Location
New York
Just curious, Ambient Weather has an API set up so that weather info from a PWS can be pulled directly from there. Is it feasible to get the data from there with BIT? Would this simply be too tiny of a niche thing to make it worth your efforts with BIT?

If I had a clue (maybe I need to start getting one), maybe I could do it outside of BIT. Somehow I think that this, at this point in my life, would remain outside my pay grade regardless... :p
If you want to let me try to use your weather station and API I could give it a try
 

Ssayer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Messages
19,577
Reaction score
70,722
Location
SE Michigan USA
Whatever you need to take a look. Worst case is you find it isn't worth the time!

Weather Station? Are you talking about my station as seen on WU (KMILEONA8) or ??

So far as the key, Ambient Weather shows my API Key plus something about an Application Key. What do you need to take a look?

API Keys
An API Key is used to securely connect your weather station to applications created by outside developers. We've listed a few of them here.

Label API Key
(My API Key is shown here)
Developers: An Application Key is also required for each application that you develop. Click here to create one.

I appreciate you taking the time to look at it, even if turns out to not be worth your time!
 

Mike

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
2,725
Location
New York
Whatever you need to take a look. Worst case is you find it isn't worth the time!

Weather Station? Are you talking about my station as seen on WU (KMILEONA8) or ??

So far as the key, Ambient Weather shows my API Key plus something about an Application Key. What do you need to take a look?

API Keys
An API Key is used to securely connect your weather station to applications created by outside developers. We've listed a few of them here.

Label API Key
(My API Key is shown here)
Developers: An Application Key is also required for each application that you develop. Click here to create one.

I appreciate you taking the time to look at it, even if turns out to not be worth your time!
I have an Ambient Weather station but I don't think it has an API. I have always wanted to add other weather services besides WU to BIT but there aren't readily available ones that are also free. If your weather station has a built in API and you can give me full access to it then I should be able to integrate it with BIT. Make sense?
 

Ssayer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Messages
19,577
Reaction score
70,722
Location
SE Michigan USA
Hmmm that's strange, could you tell me which Ambient Weather station you have? If it can send to WU... You should be able to access it via Ambient's Dashboard. So, it should have an API key.
 

Mike

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
2,725
Location
New York
Hmmm that's strange, could you tell me which Ambient Weather station you have? If it can send to WU... You should be able to access it via Ambient's Dashboard. So, it should have an API key.
That's the thing, I never was able to get it on Ambient's Dashboard. Mine is the WS-101 WIFI
 

Ssayer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Messages
19,577
Reaction score
70,722
Location
SE Michigan USA
That's the thing, I never was able to get it on Ambient's Dashboard. Mine is the WS-101 WIFI
Just checked to be sure. Your's should do it all! Do you know what version of firmware you have on it? They changed servers in the not too distant past and you need the latest firmware to get it hooked in to the servers to use the dashboard. Once there, the API key is just a click away.
 

Mike

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
2,725
Location
New York
Just checked to be sure. Your's should do it all! Do you know what version of firmware you have on it? They changed servers in the not too distant past and you need the latest firmware to get it hooked in to the servers to use the dashboard. Once there, the API key is just a click away.
Ahhh interesting, maybe that's why. I'll check my firmware and get back to you
 

Mike

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
2,725
Location
New York
Doing it now...Will report back
 
Last edited:

Mike

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
2,725
Location
New York
I hate this thing, I really do. Now it won't connect to wifi or the outdoor station and isn't reporting weather to WUnderground anymore. Kind of been a POS since day 1
 

Ssayer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Messages
19,577
Reaction score
70,722
Location
SE Michigan USA
After the update, did you go in and reconfigure everything? It sort of forgets what some of your setup is. Even what model! :p
 

Mike

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
2,725
Location
New York
After the update, did you go in and reconfigure everything? It sort of forgets what some of your setup is. Even what model! :p
lol yup, I did...it finally connected to the station and is reporting locally but didn't connect to wifi yet, despite saying it is connected.
 

Ssayer

BIT Beta Team
Joined
Jan 5, 2016
Messages
19,577
Reaction score
70,722
Location
SE Michigan USA
I hate to tell someone something they already know, but... just in case... did you pull the power, wait the half minute or so, and then plug the unit back in when you were done? I hate Fakebook with a passion, but back when I did mine, the guy that runs Ambient gave people a lot of tips as to what you need to do to make it work after the update.
 
Last edited:

Mike

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
2,725
Location
New York
I hate to tell someone something they already know, but... just in case... did you pull the power, wait the half minute or so, and then plug the unit back in when you were done? I hate Fakebook with a passion, but back when I did mine, they guy that runs Ambient gave people a lot of tips as to what you need to do to make it work after the update.
I sure did, but I will keep it unplugged longer this time and try again. If not I might be bringing this thing to the shooting range later ;)

Edit: Weirdest thing...It's now reporting to ambientweather.net but NOT wunderground.

Edit x2: We are back online and reporting to WU! Just took a while. Time to start reading the API documentation :)

Edit x3: wtff...Reported once then stopped....I'll let you know the final outcome.
 
Last edited:
Top