Kevin Key's Blog

Saturday, November 09, 2013

Scraper App: Weather and Coding Geek Project: Kevin's Acu-Link to Weather Underground Rapid Fire Updater

Scraper App: Weather and Coding Geek Project:  Kevin's Acu-Link to Weather Underground Rapid Fire Updater

Latest version: 2015-03-17 20:06

I recently ordered and received the Acu-Link Internet Bridge and couldn't wait to set it up. It was very easy to configure with my 5-in-1 (temperature, humidity, rain, wind speed, and wind direction) sensor.  Barometric pressure is reported by the internet bridge.  I then went to Acu-Link.com and could view my own weather report online.  I also installed the Acu-Link Android app.




The next thing I did was set up a free account on Weather Underground. I went back to Acu-Link.com, entered my Weather Underground station ID and password, and began observing my weather data on Weather Underground.  Click the station ID to view my weather station data in real time: KCARAMON46


The sensor transmits data ever 18 seconds. Weather Underground has a feature named Rapid Fire which refreshes real-time weather data every few seconds. I soon discovered, however, that I was only seeing updates on WU every 15 MINUTES.  I thought that something must be wrong, so I searched around the acurite.com forums and found out that Acu-Rite only posts the weather data to Weather Underground every 15 minutes.  How disappointing. People on the forums have been asking for more frequenting refreshing of the data for over a year now.

I knew not to expect Acu-Rite to increase the update frequency anytime soon, so I decided to come up with my own solution: write an app that would scrape the data from AcuLink.com and post it to Weather Underground.


First, I had to scrape the data from Acu-Link's website.  I wrote a VB.NET app that makes use of HTML Agility Pack libraries and good ol' RegEx to scrape the data from AcuLink.com.  Much of the data parsing involves simply scraping the text values from HTML. Wind direction is represented graphically, but fortunately the JPG images are named appropriately. In order to make the wind direction data compatible with Weather Underground, I had to convert the direction (N, S, SW, SSW, etc.) into degrees.  Also, the decimal value for temperature is represented in a different set of tags than the integer value.



In order to calculate rainfall rate (vs. cumulative rainfall for the last 24 hours), I had to save the total rainfall for the past hour - and keep repeating.  I made use of a DataTable for this.  I did something similar for calculating wind gusts (highest wind speed in the past 10 minutes).



Finally, I need to post the data to Weather Underground.  The upload protocol is surprisingly simple.  There's a wiki page that explains it all.

And I made use of a timer control to refresh the data at regular intervals.
So now I have the data posting to Weather Underground every 15 seconds instead of every 15 minutes.  If you'd like a copy of the app, let me know.




2/3/2014: Latest version now includes bug fix that allows you to use alarms on Acu-Link without causing the app to crash.

Download the latest version 2015-03-17 20:06 This version includes added support for the metric system and other improvements.

110 Comments:

Blogger Doug said...

Excellent program. Nice job!

Mon Nov 11, 07:16:00 PM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Thanks Doug.

Tue Nov 12, 01:43:00 PM PST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am very confused, I am a mac user so dusted off an old laptop, ran windup, which must list ip addresses. I ran wincapp and it says its installed now what. do I plug the ether net into the accurate bridge, then what happens next? On the pc I don't see a program running

Thu Dec 26, 08:22:00 AM PST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great program! Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you very much!!!

Sat Jan 11, 02:45:00 PM PST  
Anonymous John said...

This is a great app Kevin. Thank you!

Sun Jan 12, 09:42:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Cześć Kevin
Please use the google translator
Przepraszam że pisze w języku polskim, ale nie umiem dobrze pisać po angielsku, a stwierdziłem że ty sobie możesz przetłumaczyć w google, chociaż czasami śmiesznie tłumaczy.
Ale do rzeczy dzięki za ten program /scraping the data from Acu-Link.com/ używam ten program, ponieważ nie mam możliwości mieć włączonego komputera przez 24 godziny.
A tak jak mój komputer nie jest włączony to pracuje bridge Acu-Link, w momencie jak włączam komputer, to włącza mi się twój program, dałem shortcut do katalogu startup.
Pracuje to super.

pozdrawiam z New Jersey
Bogusław KNJWALLI2

Mon Jan 13, 05:22:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Mon Jan 13, 05:22:00 PM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Cześć Bogusław Gawęda,

Dzięki za miłe słowa. Cieszę się, że mój program działa dobrze dla Ciebie.

-Kevin

Mon Jan 13, 06:22:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hello Kevin,

I have a question for you. I use your program, Scrape. But when I use it on Acu-rite My Backyard Weather, and when an alarm I set up goes off (only for temperature), your program crashes. But when I set an alarm for humidity and it goes off, your programs says the humidity is 0%. Is there a way to fix it so that I can use alarms.

Sincerely,
Boguslaw

Fri Jan 17, 01:18:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Fri Jan 17, 09:58:00 PM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Boguslaw Gaweda,

I will work on a fix for that. Give me a few days.

-Kevin

Fri Jan 17, 10:28:00 PM PST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just went to use the program and instead of seeing 19.1 F i saw 191.0 f. Was there something i forgot to do?

Tue Jan 21, 12:47:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

In the temperature widget, go to Setting and turn on “Display Tenths”.

https://acu-link.com/dashboard

Temperature / setting / Display Tenths

Tue Jan 21, 06:49:00 PM PST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks, i thought i did that and went back and apparently it never saved. working now

Thu Jan 23, 03:06:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hey Kevin, thanks but I cant figure out how to install it I click on download and it shows 2 files but it wont do anything, any sugestions?

Mon Jan 27, 02:44:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hey Kevin, thanks but I cant figure out how to install it I click on download and it shows 2 files but it wont do anything, any sugestions?

Mon Jan 27, 02:51:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Kevin,
Attempting to use your set up on a laptop running Win 8.1. Looks like all is good except it can't see the Ethernet port to gather the data. Successfully bridged the eth and wireless. Setup sees about 4 different possible localhost listings. Only one Ethernet port but that doesn't get data. There is activity on the acculink device. Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.

Bliz.

Tue Jan 28, 06:59:00 AM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Kevin,

Attempted to install your program on Sony 64-bit laptop running Win 8.1
Looked good at first, able to bridge eth port and wireless. But when started just sat and did not collect data. Gave it at least 5 min as requested. No matter which eth port or localhost setting listed in setup drop down. None gathered data.
appeaciate any assistance on this.

Thanks,

Tue Jan 28, 07:02:00 AM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Hi Jay,

Are the blue lights on the bridge blinking? Also, can you see recent data on Acu-Link.com?

Kevin

Tue Jan 28, 10:14:00 AM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Kevin,

Blue lights on bridge blink alternating and stop and stay solid for a short while and then start blinking again.

What does that indicate.

Tue Jan 28, 10:42:00 AM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Kevin,

Two thoughts.....

Could the laptop firewall setting be in the way? and/or

Does the patch cable to the bridge have to be a crossover cable?

Bliz

Tue Jan 28, 10:58:00 AM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Jay,

It sounds like your laptop may require the use of a crossover cable (some require it and others somehow manage to adapt without one). You can get one for around $25 at Radio Shack. You can find one on Amazon for much cheaper - but then you have to wait for it to be delivered.

-Kevin

Tue Jan 28, 11:14:00 AM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks Kevin, I will try that next and let you know.

Wed Jan 29, 06:44:00 AM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Kevin,

Just wanted to let you know that the crossover cable solved the connection issue.
What determines the update frequency. It seems to vary by a number of seconds.

Jay

Wed Jan 29, 05:09:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Where does the .CSV file get written and what is its name?

Wed Jan 29, 05:10:00 PM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Jay,

Awesome. The update frequency is approximately every 15-20 seconds.

The .CSV file is written to the same directory in which the app resides.

-Kevin

Wed Jan 29, 05:15:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Forget last question about file location. I found it. Just being stupid.

Wed Jan 29, 05:16:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Kevin,

Just a thought. How about being able to determine where the .CSV file is written? Like on an external HDD with custom names?

Just thinking that would keep the files off the main HDD.

Wed Jan 29, 05:37:00 PM PST  
Blogger PDMGuru said...

Hi Kevin
I love the screen scaper->WU upload
I wondered if you'd considered developing something to push the scraped data to cumulus, that would be really cool since cumulus is excellent and also it does not currently support the acu-rite weather stations

Fri Jan 31, 10:21:00 AM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Kevin,
Do you think you can do anything about the alarms on My Background Weather yet?

Sun Feb 02, 05:42:00 AM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Jay,

I will look into adding the ability to choose the location of the CSV file real soon.

-Kevin

Mon Feb 03, 07:19:00 PM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Boguslaw Gaweda,

I'm working on the fix now. Stay tuned.

-Kevin

Mon Feb 03, 07:20:00 PM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Boguslaw Gaweda,

And now the latest version - with a bug fix for the alarms - is ready for you to download (see link in above blog post).

-Kevin

Mon Feb 03, 07:51:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

now the program works great :)
thanks Kevin

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KNJWALLI2

Tue Feb 04, 03:28:00 PM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Boguslaw Gaweda,

Cool. :-)

-Kevin

Tue Feb 04, 08:16:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Kevin I'd like to know the progress of the app running without having to log in. Thanks.

Thu Feb 13, 07:22:00 AM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Jason B.,

Hopefully sometime in the near future. I'm busy with my day job and am currently busy with a side job on top of that. Getting the app to run without logging in will involve some major changes.

-Kevin

Fri Feb 14, 12:20:00 AM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

I understand.... thank you!

Sun Feb 16, 08:04:00 PM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Jason:

I found a way to set my app (or any app, for that matter) to run automatically when Windows boots up. Following the instructions here. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/67503-task-create-run-program-startup-log.html The only thing I'd do different is the uncheck the box that says "Stop the task if it runs longer than:".

-Kevin

Fri Feb 21, 11:31:00 PM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Jay Blizman:

I've added the ability to specify the path and filename for the CSV file. See my other post for the updated version.

-Kevin

Sat Feb 22, 02:24:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Start / All Programs / Startup / AcuLinkScraper.exe - Shortcut
simply pasting the shortcut

Sat Feb 22, 05:08:00 PM PST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the scraper app is telling me it cant login to aculink.com i have checked user name and password they are correct. also says key entry already made.

Tue Mar 04, 08:44:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Kevin,

Thanks for including my requested .CSV location and filename in the latest version. This is working great!

Bliz

Wed Mar 05, 07:22:00 AM PST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The scraper app is no longer working can you please help. It has worked so well now says cant log in. Thanks

Wed Mar 12, 12:00:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Kevin,

I am looking for a way to extract all my weather data since I started using the system 3 months ago - is there a way to do that? I am also a .NET developer.

Joe

Sat Mar 15, 10:15:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Unknown said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Tue Mar 18, 08:22:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi, Kevin. Is it possible to configure/modify your software so that I could read data from the AcuLink hooked up to the router, as in the AcuRite product stock configuration. Reason is, I'd rather not have to install a second Ethernet card in my PC and set up a bridge, as it is already overloaded. It seems to me that you could read directly from the AcuLink as it should just be another device sitting on the network. Or not?

Tue Mar 18, 08:23:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous rnshagam said...

Hi, Kevin. Is it possible to configure/modify your software so that I could read data from the AcuLink hooked up to the router, as in the AcuRite product stock configuration. Reason is, I'd rather not have to install a second Ethernet card in my PC and set up a bridge, as it is already overloaded. It seems to me that you could read directly from the AcuLink as it should just be another device sitting on the network. Or not?

Tue Mar 18, 08:25:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Freels said...

Just curious if the login problem on the scraper that mentions a key already in use has been solved by anyone. I would much prefer to do this than to buy an additional network card for my PC and run a bridged internet connection. If this is something that is being addressed then I'll just wait. But if something happened that completely breaks the ability to access the data this way then I'll just have to go that route.

Tue May 13, 11:41:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Hey (Other) Kevin,

I've figured it out: it sounds like you're missing the file HtmlAgilityPack.dll - it should be in the same directory as the app. Put that file in the same directory as the app, restart the app, and you should be good to go. The file is in the ZIP file containing my app.

Tue May 13, 08:42:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kevin, I had posted the other day about a memory leak issue and being able to retain data such as rain fall amounts if you stop and start the application. I was told you were already aware of these issues and were getting ready to release an update, any news on these items in a future update? Thanks!

Fri May 16, 06:36:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Fix for losing the wind and rain data when the app is restarted is coming any day now.

Mon May 19, 11:41:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Adam said...

Hi, I've downloaded and installed your program, but I keep getting this error message, and it's not updating to Weatherunderground. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and thanks for all you've done thus far!!
Error Message: "Conversion from string "lan" to type "Integer" is not valid"

Thanks, Adam

Mon Dec 29, 06:23:00 AM PST  
Anonymous Adam said...

Please disregard my post. I re-read your instructions and it's now working perfectly. Thanks again!!!

Adam

Mon Dec 29, 06:43:00 AM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hello Kevin,

I updated Windows 7. On one computer i have Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
and on the other Professsional 32 Bit.
On both i did the optional update (Intel - LAN, LAN (Server) - Intel(R) 82579V Gigabit Network Connection)
and then your program Scrape stopped working.
It doesnt even want to turn on. Then i installed the newest Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.
It turned in but it said that the password is incorrect,
it turns off and says that there is a error.
Would you be able to help me out?
Thank you very much.
Boguslaw

Mon Dec 29, 02:14:00 PM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Hi Boguslaw,

Can you try replacing HtmlAgilityPack.dll with this one? HtmlAgilityPack.dll

Mon Dec 29, 07:46:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

thanks. working

Tue Dec 30, 12:58:00 PM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Boguslaw,

Cool. Glad you got it working.

Kevin

Tue Dec 30, 08:28:00 PM PST  
Blogger David said...

I don't have the bridge so I use the version of your app that scrapes the acurite website. Works great overall. I do get these errors randomly. At least once per min (it's checking every 20 seconds). Any ideas? ERROR logging in to Acu-Link.com. Please check your username and password.

ERROR getting data from Acu-Link.com.The underlying connection was closed: Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel.

Thu Jan 01, 02:44:00 PM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Hi David,

Are you still experiencing the problem you described? Sometimes there are issue with the Acu-Link.com website itself. Let me know if you still have the problem - or if it has gone away.

Thanks,

Kevin

Fri Jan 02, 08:49:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

Kevin, I had success with the setup, however, the pressure reported to WU is slightly different than what my PWS is reporting. Also, the total rainfall and rainfall rate are reported backwards on WU.

Sun Jan 25, 06:58:00 AM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

thanks for the new improved version

Sun Mar 29, 04:53:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Boguslaw,

You're welcome.

Kevin

Sun Mar 29, 11:41:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Richard Shagam said...

Installed the latest update--thanks. You may want to know that Norton Security Suite passed the files as virus free, but then Norton ran something called Sonar (or similar) when I started the app and decided that this was a high risk program and deleted it. I over-rode the delete and the program is running fine, now.

Sun Mar 29, 08:06:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Hi Richard,

Glad you like the latest updated. Thanks for the heads-up regarding Norton. I'm not sure what I can do to get Norton to like my app, however. I'd probably have to submit the source code to Norton and get them to approve it.

Kevin

Mon Mar 30, 05:52:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Doug said...

Still lovin' this app! Any chance the next go around you can scrape the "feels like" or "wind chill" data?

Sat Apr 04, 05:45:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Richard Shagam said...

Hi
Any possibility to adapt your code to post data on the Citizens Weather Observer Program? http://wxqa.com/
This is a site in partnership w/ NOAA where NOAA actually reports and uses data from private stations like ours. I used to be able to contribute when I was running Weather Display as ID CW0082, but AccuLink doesn't support CWOP, much to my disappointment.

Sat Apr 04, 07:17:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As I just have a temperature and humidity sensor, the app refuses to post data:
**********************************
Please add the Wind widget to your Acu-Link.com page.

Please add the Rainfall widget to your Acu-Link.com page
**********************************

Could you please add an option to post data in absense of those widgets?

Fri May 01, 07:15:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Hi,

I'll look into modifying the app to accept only temp and humidity data.

Kevin

Thu May 07, 07:37:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Big cheese said...

I'm having a slight issue with the rain data to Weather Underground. It rained yesterday 0.3 mm according to my in home displays and My Backyard weather. Today it rained 0.3 mm, and again confirmed as above.

However, I'm using your Scraper App and it shows on Weather Underground that it rained 7.6 mm for the same two instances above. Any ideas why it is doing that?

Mon Jun 15, 01:52:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Unknown said...

I then went to Acu-Link.com and could view my own weather report online. I also installed the Acu-Link Android app.
scrape a website

Thu Aug 20, 10:31:00 PM PDT  
Blogger BWX said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Mon Aug 31, 09:06:00 PM PDT  
Blogger BWX said...

Hmmm..

Description
A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.
Faulting Application Path: G:\downloads\ACU-RITE model 01010W2\scraper app\AcuLinkScraper.exe

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: AppHangB1
Application Name: AcuLinkScraper.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 5508ebc5
Hang Signature: 7776
Hang Type: 262144
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Hang Signature 1: 7776956d62e241f6f8a04b999cd31956
Additional Hang Signature 2: 0d28
Additional Hang Signature 3: 0d282430df4db08ec1f43bff885f1c78
Additional Hang Signature 4: 7776
Additional Hang Signature 5: 7776956d62e241f6f8a04b999cd31956
Additional Hang Signature 6: 0d28
Additional Hang Signature 7: 0d282430df4db08ec1f43bff885f1c78

Thu Sep 03, 04:01:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Awesome program. Thanks!

Wed Sep 30, 11:17:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Kevin,
I recently bought an Acurite station and Acu-link to discover that it only updates every 15 minutes. It is my understanding that your program would need to be installed on a PC that is always turned on. Is that right?
I have a laptop that is not always at home and when at home is only connected through wifi. This would not work, right?
Would a cell-phone app work? If the app is installed on a smartphone, it could always pull data from Acurite and push them into WU.
Looking forward to your response.
Giovanni

Sat Oct 31, 09:33:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi, Kevin
I just upgraded my computer from Win 7 to 10. The scraper application no longer works. I get the following messages:
12/3/2015 10:31:48 PM ERROR logging in to Acu-Link.com. Please check your username and password.
12/3/2015 10:31:48 PM ERROR getting data from Acu-Link.com.Could not load file or assembly 'HtmlAgilityPack, Version=1.4.6.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=bd319b19eaf3b43a' or one of its dependencies. Unspecified error (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004005 (E_FAIL))

I checked my passwords. I believe they're correct. Should the scraper app work with Win 10?
I'm not currently in a possition to use your two ethernet port version.
Thanks

Thu Dec 03, 09:42:00 PM PST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I upgraded like you but haven't had any problems. So it might be password/username related.

Fri Dec 11, 12:57:00 PM PST  
Blogger Unknown said...

hello where do I add this DLL thank Marek New York

Tue Jan 19, 09:20:00 AM PST  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Hi Marek 2os073 New York,

Just place the DLL in the same directory as the executable.

Kevin

Tue Jan 19, 10:40:00 AM PST  
Blogger Nick Santos said...

I get a hard crash with no error running this on Windows 10 now. It worked fine when I was on windows 7 though. I think the error occurred at the time of upgrade (but not positive). Here's the stacktrace I could get from Windows Event Logs (it's big so I put it on PasteBin to not ruin the comments page): http://pastebin.com/itZTnKAk - I also changed my network card around the same time, so it's possible that's related? Kevin, if you're interested, I can send you my user.config file (and just change my password online). If not, no worries!

I've been considering getting a network bridge anyway, at which point I'd be able to use your other tool, but just wanted to let you know what I'm seeing on this computer right now. Thanks for the great tools, as always :).

Sun Jan 24, 09:04:00 PM PST  
Anonymous Mike V said...

Just downloaded your app. After a couple of hiccups, its working perfectly. YOU ARE THE MAN!!! thank you soo much for taking the time to do this for all of us weather geeks.

Mon Feb 01, 01:40:00 PM PST  
Anonymous Mike V said...

Hey Kevin. All weather info seems to be frozen now. Constantly reading the same info. Any ideas?

Mon Feb 01, 01:59:00 PM PST  
Blogger BWX said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Thu Mar 17, 11:51:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Richard C. Lambert said...

I also installed the Acu-Link Android app. Project Management and invoicing Software

Mon Mar 28, 11:24:00 PM PDT  
Blogger fffavela said...

Hi Kevin,

I get the following message "Please add the Rainfall widget to your Acu-Link.com page". That widget is there in my page. What can I do about it? My widgets are: wind, temp, pressure, humidity, rainfall and dew pont. I use the 3-in-1 sensor and the acu bridge in windows 7 x64.

Great job by the way!

Fernando

Fri Jul 01, 08:21:00 AM PDT  
Blogger BWX said...

You need a 5-1.

Sat Jul 02, 12:21:00 AM PDT  
Blogger BWX said...

3 in 1 doesn't do rainfall or wind direction. Need to have all the widgets in the correct spot.

Sat Jul 02, 12:22:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Anil Jacob said...

Hi Kevin, Thank you for putting together these apps. Can you use this scraper method to send data to PWS Weather?

Regards
Anil

Sat Jul 16, 11:14:00 PM PDT  
Blogger hpadres said...

the scraper do not work in metric

Mon Jul 18, 03:23:00 PM PDT  
Blogger BWX said...

So is this new "My Acurite" app/ cloud service going to screw everything up? They are talking about migrating over to it, and asking customers in a survey if they want to migrate as soon as it becomes available, etc.. Stupid question by Acurite since I have no idea if it is going to wreck everything we have going on here with scraper or not, or maybe the new system will be worse than old Acurite system, or maybe they will start charging monthly fee. Who knows.

Wed Jul 20, 09:20:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Hi all,

I just got the email from Acu-Rite asking whether to proceed with the firmware upgrade to the Acu-Link bridge. I told them to proceed. I should be getting the upgrade soon.

If you're using my apps - either the scraper or the one that intercepts the network packets from the bridge - the upgrade will break my apps until I modify the code. I will update the code for the bridge reader app first and the scraper later on.

Keep in mind that, if you just want to simply do rapid-fire updates to Weather Underground, the newest firmware should eliminate the need for my apps. If you want to post to CWOP, PWSWeather, and other weather services, you'll need to wait for me to update my apps.

Also, both of my apps work just fine running on Windows 10 - if you're debating whether to upgrade to Windows 10 just do it. I've been quite pleased with Windows 10.

Kevin

Thu Jul 28, 12:42:00 PM PDT  
Blogger BWX said...

Cool.. Thanks for update. Just upgraded to win 10 on two PC's in the house yesterday but I have a little notebook type PC running win7 that is always on running scraper, and that's all it ever does, LOL..it works great and uses very little power.

I had no idea there was another app that could get data directly from network packets from bridge! That would be less network utilization I guess, not that there's much anyways doing an update once every 60 seconds.

I just use WU website to get PWS data out to WU apps on phone, etc. Maybe scraper not needed after update I guess?

Thu Jul 28, 01:31:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Unknown said...

FYI I migrated to the myAcuRite account and found I was off-line from Weather Underground for about 7 hours. I finally deleted my smart Hub settings and set up a new one, which got me back online. Now I that I see I've got RapidFire capability, I guess I won't be needing the scraper application any more. So thanks.

However, I still would like to see the scraper handle CWS, which I haven't been able to participate for some time now. Is there any possibility you'd be adding that to the Scraper app? I'm really not interested in having my smart Hub connected directly to my computer, mainly due to hardware issues I have .

Tue Aug 09, 03:30:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Hi all,

I've got my bridge updated to the latest firmware. I'll work on an update to my scraper app soon and then make it available for download.

Kevin

Wed Aug 31, 12:44:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Chris said...

I am wanting to capture the acurite bridge data and store it in my sql server database, for use in another home automation project. I'm a .net developer and would like to do that myself. Any chance you would share the source for your project? I would not share it with anyone else, without your explicit approval.

Sun Sep 18, 08:18:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Hi Chris,

Sorry for the delay - somehow I overlooked your comment the other day. I will certainly share this latest version on GitHub as I've done with earlier versions. I want to clean up the code a bit and then I'll post it. For now, you can have a look at the much older code here:

https://github.com/kevinkey619/AcuLink-Bridge-Reader


Again, stay tuned for me to post the code for my latest version.

Kevin

Thu Sep 22, 10:03:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Kevin,

Great blog!

I recently bought the acurite aculink and display unit and it uploads fine to the website.
How though do I get to download latest firmware to turn aculink into smarthub.

Thanks!

Mon Sep 26, 04:03:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Anonymous,

Thanks. Go to https://www.acurite.com/learn/my-acurite/whats-new for more info on the firmware update. Acu-Rite will push the update out to you in the near future. You *might* be able to get the update sooner by calling Acu-Rite tech support (phone number is on their website).

Kevin

Mon Sep 26, 04:24:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks Kevin, no luck though.

I suppose Acurite has until Friday to let people know how to get firmware.

How did you get yours though?

Thanks!

Mon Sep 26, 04:33:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Anonymous,

Try calling Acu-Rite tomorrow during Central Time business hours. I got mine a while back (I've had my Acu-Link for a few years now) after receiving an invitation email from Acu-Rite. Hopefully they really will get up updated by Friday.

Mon Sep 26, 04:36:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you Kevin.

One other question, will the new firmware allow for the new sensor maximum of 10 to ALL be displayed in the new my acurite app or website?
Also does the 5 in 1 weather station count as 1 sensor or 5?

Again thanks!!!

Mon Sep 26, 04:49:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Phil said...

Gotta say thanks for a great software. Can't tell you how much it's appreciated. Donation on the way.

Unplugged my DSL line from back of modem during a storm last night (11:18pm). Program stopped reporting as expected. Plugged back in this am (5:08am). Inside unit reports 0.89 inches or so before midnight. Looks as though software doesn't keep up with the incoming data, and starts counting again once uplink is restored?

No complaints, just wanted you to have the dataset.

10/12/2016 11:14:14 PM,69.0,86,16,17,0,30.1,0.04,0.04,64.7,5n1x3,3242,0.04
10/12/2016 11:14:51 PM,69.0,86,17,17,0,30.1,0.04,0.04,64.7,5n1x3,3242,0.04
10/12/2016 11:15:09 PM,69.0,86,15,17,338,30.13,0.06,0.06,64.7,5n1x3,3242,0.06
10/12/2016 11:16:06 PM,68.9,86,12,17,338,30.13,0.06,0.06,64.6,5n1x3,3242,0.06
10/12/2016 11:16:42 PM,68.6,86,11,17,338,30.12,0.06,0.06,64.3,5n1x3,3242,0.06
10/12/2016 11:17:01 PM,68.6,86,15,17,0,30.12,0.16,0.16,64.3,5n1x3,3242,0.16
10/12/2016 11:17:19 PM,68.6,86,14,17,0,30.14,0.16,0.16,64.3,5n1x3,3242,0.16
10/12/2016 11:17:38 PM,68.6,86,15,17,338,30.14,0.20,0.20,64.3,5n1x3,3242,0.20
10/12/2016 11:17:57 PM,68.4,86,15,17,338,30.14,0.20,0.20,64.1,5n1x3,3242,0.20
10/12/2016 11:18:15 PM,68.4,86,23,23,338,30.13,0.25,0.25,64.1,5n1x3,3242,0.25
10/13/2016 5:06:30 AM,61.1,91,6,6,338,30.14,0.25,0.25,58.4,5n1x3,3242,0.25
10/13/2016 5:06:48 AM,61.1,91,5,6,0,30.14,0.00,0.00,58.4,5n1x3,3242,0.25
10/13/2016 5:07:07 AM,61.1,91,5,6,0,30.14,0.00,0.00,58.4,5n1x3,3242,0.25
10/13/2016 5:07:26 AM,61.1,91,5,6,0,30.14,0.00,0.00,58.4,5n1x3,3242,0.25
10/13/2016 5:08:02 AM,61.1,91,6,6,0,30.14,0.00,0.00,58.4,5n1x3,3242,0.25
10/13/2016 5:08:21 AM,61.1,91,4,6,0,30.14,0.00,0.00,58.4,5n1x3,3242,0.25
10/13/2016 5:08:40 AM,61.1,91,4,6,0,30.14,0.00,0.00,58.4,5n1x3,3242,0.25

Thanks again,
S.B.

Thu Oct 13, 06:38:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Anonymous,

Each sensor - regardless of type - should only count as one.

Thu Oct 13, 07:15:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Hi Phil,

Thanks again for the donation.

As for the rain totals, the app can recover somewhat - that's why I have it write the rain data to an XML file - but there's nothing I can do to recover rain data not collected during the time that the bridge loses an internet connection. Unfortunate the AcuLink unit stops reporting data - even locally - when it loses its connection to the internet. During this time, the unit just seems to stop collecting weather station data and devotes its time and energy to getting reconnected to the internet. I don't know this 100% as I don't have inside knowledge, but this is based on observation.

It would be nice to be able to modify the AcuRite unit itself to be able to work in standby mode (with access to the internet), but this would involve reprograming the unit itself. My app does things that the AcuRite unit was never designed to do - it basically spies on the outgoing network packets that the unit sends to the internet, processes them, then resends the data to your specified weather networks.

My app can recover from brief reboots or outages - such as when Windows Updates are installed and the PC reboots. This why I store the wind gust and rain data in external XML files instead of just in RAM.

Thanks,

Kevin

Thu Oct 13, 07:30:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Kevin Key said...

Phil,

I just re-read your message. Are you saying that you had 0.89" prior to midnight? How long had the app been running prior to the outage? It looks like you had a daily total (to later reset at midnight) of 0.25" of rain before you lost connectivity. I'm not sure how your display got .89".

Kevin

Thu Oct 13, 07:34:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Phil said...

Disregard the 0.89 inches of rain comment: I see now that the KMA software will not agree with the indoor unit unless both have been running for some time, which I cannot attest to.

The loss of uplink interrupting the hubs capture of weather data is unfortunate. Something for AcuRite to build into their next firmware maybe.

Thanks again,
Phil

Fri Oct 14, 09:18:00 PM PDT  
Blogger LockTutor said...

03/02/2017 is this blog still active? If so, I have a question about the hub. Im trying to find a solution to the lack of connection to weather underground. According to AR tech support online forum the inability to connect is limited to users on the EXEDE Viasat network. This problem came about after the recent hub upgrade. My previous hub could connect to WU, the new one doesnt, and AcuRite says Excede wont cooperate in finding a solution. When I look at the web server in the hub (index.html) it clearly has fields for the login and password for WU, but they are blank. The hub only accepts port 80 connections over wifi so i haven't been able to experiment with telnet, ftp, ssh, etc. Any chance you have some wisdom on how this hub communicates with WU and what is needed to solve this issue?

Thu Mar 02, 08:28:00 PM PST  
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Sat Jul 22, 01:55:00 AM PDT  
Blogger cannava said...

Each sensor - regardless of type - should only count as one.


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