Weather station at far end of back garden (battery operated), reports
wirelessly to its display in the house. Data then goes via USB to a
RaspberyPi, which runs weather data collection and provides an HTML
webpage, which can be accessed with the Rpi acting as the server,
running on a wallwart.

outdoor (wireless) indoor display (USB) Rpi (5GHz) wifi router

Rpi connects to the main router via 5Ghz port, which has all worked
fine, apart from when the weather stations batteries die - then the
webpages on the pi have still been available, but with no updated data.

As happened mid summer for the second time - obviously cheap batteries,
because they normally last 18 months.

For the past few weeks, I have been regularly been unable to view the
webpage, to get it back I have had to reboot the pi - after which I
would regain access for an hour or so. I had it in mind that there
might be an issue with the 5Ghz wifi link. Looking at the pi, its
activity LED has continued to flash, even though there is no actual
contact.

A few days ago the display for the weather station stopped updating
data from the outdoor sensors, so obviously the batteries were dead yet
again. Very wet and boggy out there, so I left it until today.

I fitted new batteries this morning and the 5Ghz connection to the pi
has been rock solid ever since. Why would the weather station's outdoor
unit's batteries dieing, cause the pi's 5Ghz wifi to come to a stop?

"Harry Bloomfield"; "Esq." wrote in
message ...
Weather station at far end of back garden (battery operated), reports
wirelessly to its display in the house. Data then goes via USB to a
RaspberyPi, which runs weather data collection and provides an HTML
webpage, which can be accessed with the Rpi acting as the server, running
on a wallwart.

outdoor (wireless) indoor display (USB) Rpi (5GHz) wifi router

Rpi connects to the main router via 5Ghz port, which has all worked fine,
apart from when the weather stations batteries die - then the webpages on
the pi have still been available, but with no updated data.

As happened mid summer for the second time - obviously cheap batteries,
because they normally last 18 months.

For the past few weeks, I have been regularly been unable to view the
webpage, to get it back I have had to reboot the pi - after which I would
regain access for an hour or so. I had it in mind that there might be an
issue with the 5Ghz wifi link. Looking at the pi, its activity LED has
continued to flash, even though there is no actual contact.

A few days ago the display for the weather station stopped updating data
from the outdoor sensors, so obviously the batteries were dead yet again.
Very wet and boggy out there, so I left it until today.

I fitted new batteries this morning and the 5Ghz connection to the pi has
been rock solid ever since. Why would the weather station's outdoor unit's
batteries dieing, cause the pi's 5Ghz wifi to come to a stop?

I gather that everything is working at the moment, but when it next
happens... Are you able to access the Pi directly (eg USB keyboard/mouse and
HDMI monitor) or can you only access it remotely (eg VNC or SSH) via the
LAN? If you can access it directly and not via the LAN, what happens if you
disconnect and reconnect to the wifi network? Is the Pi working in all other
respects - eg can a browser on the Pi access itself (eg
localhost:portnumber) to see the weather data?

From outside, I presume all attempts to ping the Pi or to connect to it by
VNC or SSH fail, in addition to accessing its weather web site.

Which Pi is it - 3B+ or 4?


As a matter of interest, does your weather station have rechargeable
batteries (by photocells) or are they normal non-rechargeable batteries? My
weather station (Davies Vantage Vue) has a 3 V non-rechargable battery but
also has what I presume is a large capacitor that is kept charged by a
photocell array. The battery lasts about 3 years, because I presume it's
only used when there's not enough light to power the photocells.
Unfortunately the info that the base station receives and sends to the Pi
software over USB only reports OK/not OK for the battery state, with no
indication of how close the 3 V battery is to failing (as % charged or
terminal voltage).

I'm lucky that my remote sensor unit is on grass that's very close to a
drive, so I can get at it even when there's been a lot of rain. At the
moment (we moved house a few months ago) it's in a granite base that's
designed for bird feeders on poles, but I really need to find somewhere to
mount it onto the side of a building or to a brick pillar at the end of a
garden wall, because my wife is hinting that the birds need feeding ;-) Also
it needs to be a bit higher that the surrounding bushes so it gets realistic
wind speed and direction readings.

"NY" wrote in message
...
"Harry Bloomfield"; "Esq." wrote in
message ...
Weather station at far end of back garden (battery operated), reports
wirelessly to its display in the house. Data then goes via USB to a
RaspberyPi, which runs weather data collection and provides an HTML
webpage, which can be accessed with the Rpi acting as the server, running
on a wallwart.

outdoor (wireless) indoor display (USB) Rpi (5GHz) wifi router

Rpi connects to the main router via 5Ghz port, which has all worked fine,
apart from when the weather stations batteries die - then the webpages on
the pi have still been available, but with no updated data.

As happened mid summer for the second time - obviously cheap batteries,
because they normally last 18 months.

For the past few weeks, I have been regularly been unable to view the
webpage, to get it back I have had to reboot the pi - after which I would
regain access for an hour or so. I had it in mind that there might be an
issue with the 5Ghz wifi link. Looking at the pi, its activity LED has
continued to flash, even though there is no actual contact.

A few days ago the display for the weather station stopped updating data
from the outdoor sensors, so obviously the batteries were dead yet again.
Very wet and boggy out there, so I left it until today.

I fitted new batteries this morning and the 5Ghz connection to the pi has
been rock solid ever since. Why would the weather station's outdoor
unit's batteries dieing, cause the pi's 5Ghz wifi to come to a stop?

I gather that everything is working at the moment, but when it next
happens... Are you able to access the Pi directly (eg USB keyboard/mouse
and HDMI monitor) or can you only access it remotely (eg VNC or SSH) via
the LAN? If you can access it directly and not via the LAN, what happens
if you disconnect and reconnect to the wifi network? Is the Pi working in
all other respects - eg can a browser on the Pi access itself (eg
localhost:portnumber) to see the weather data?

From outside, I presume all attempts to ping the Pi or to connect to it by
VNC or SSH fail, in addition to accessing its weather web site.

Which Pi is it - 3B+ or 4?


As a matter of interest, does your weather station have rechargeable
batteries (by photocells) or are they normal non-rechargeable batteries?
My weather station (Davies Vantage Vue) has a 3 V non-rechargable battery
but also has what I presume is a large capacitor that is kept charged by a
photocell array. The battery lasts about 3 years, because I presume it's
only used when there's not enough light to power the photocells.
Unfortunately the info that the base station receives and sends to the Pi
software over USB only reports OK/not OK for the battery state, with no
indication of how close the 3 V battery is to failing (as % charged or
terminal voltage).

I'm lucky that my remote sensor unit is on grass that's very close to a
drive, so I can get at it even when there's been a lot of rain. At the
moment (we moved house a few months ago) it's in a granite base that's
designed for bird feeders on poles, but I really need to find somewhere to
mount it onto the side of a building

Not a great idea with a weather station. The temperature can
be quite different to out in the open and the rain gauge and
wind speed way out too.


or to a brick pillar at the end of a
garden wall, because my wife is hinting that the birds need feeding ;-)
Also it needs to be a bit higher that the surrounding bushes so it gets
realistic wind speed and direction readings.

On 06/11/2019 17:36, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Weather station at far end of back garden (battery operated), reports
wirelessly to its display in the house. Data then goes via USB to a
RaspberyPi, which runs weather data collection and provides an HTML
webpage, which can be accessed with the Rpi acting as the server,
running on a wallwart.

outdoor (wireless) indoor display (USB) Rpi (5GHz) wifi router

Rpi connects to the main router via 5Ghz port, which has all worked
fine, apart from when the weather stations batteries die - then the
webpages on the pi have still been available, but with no updated data.

As happened mid summer for the second time - obviously cheap batteries,
because they normally last 18 months.

For the past few weeks, I have been regularly been unable to view the
webpage, to get it back I have had to reboot the pi - after which I
would regain access for an hour or so. I had it in mind that there might
be an issue with the 5Ghz wifi link. Looking at the pi, its activity LED
has continued to flash, even though there is no actual contact.
Look in Pis log files.

Once up you should be able to ssh in, if not set it up so you can


A few days ago the display for the weather station stopped updating data
from the outdoor sensors, so obviously the batteries were dead yet
again. Very wet and boggy out there, so I left it until today.

I fitted new batteries this morning and the 5Ghz connection to the pi
has been rock solid ever since. Why would the weather station's outdoor
unit's batteries dieing, cause the pi's 5Ghz wifi to come to a stop?

Coincidence.


--
How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think.

Adolf Hitler

On Thu, 7 Nov 2019 05:11:10 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:


I'm lucky that my remote sensor unit is on grass that's very close to a
drive, so I can get at it even when there's been a lot of rain. At the
moment (we moved house a few months ago) it's in a granite base that's
designed for bird feeders on poles, but I really need to find somewhere to
mount it onto the side of a building

Not a great idea with a weather station. The temperature can
be quite different to out in the open and the rain gauge and
wind speed way out too.

You disagree? AGAIN, you auto-contradicting senile pest? VBG

--
Kerr-Mudd,John addressing senile Rodent:
"Auto-contradictor Rod is back! (in the KF)"
MID:

NY has brought this to us :
Which Pi is it - 3B+ or 4?

Yes, still working fine..
Rpi 3B+

Station uses a pair of alkaline AA cells, though rather than climb up
to swap batteries and because its a bit of a faff to restart it - I
have wired it down to two 2x AA cell holders inside my garage in
parallel. It should make it possible to swap one pair of cells at a
time, to keep it running and it should run for much longer too.

I normally have no access to the pi, apart from through the LAN. I just
set up the microSD card and ran it without a monitor, mouse or
keyboard.

I have it mounted on a long mast, on the side of my garage. To the west
there is a sheltering, but the wind is normally from the west, so its
usually not far out.

The Natural Philosopher was thinking very hard :
Look in Pis log files.

Once up you should be able to ssh in, if not set it up so you can

Such a long time since I last actually logged in, I will have to read
up on it again..

Are you sure that that in fact was what you were seeing, it might just be
that corrupt or dodgy data was on the link surely?
Brian

--
----- --
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
Harry Bloomfield; "Esq." wrote in
message ...
Weather station at far end of back garden (battery operated), reports
wirelessly to its display in the house. Data then goes via USB to a
RaspberyPi, which runs weather data collection and provides an HTML
webpage, which can be accessed with the Rpi acting as the server, running
on a wallwart.

outdoor (wireless) indoor display (USB) Rpi (5GHz) wifi router

Rpi connects to the main router via 5Ghz port, which has all worked fine,
apart from when the weather stations batteries die - then the webpages on
the pi have still been available, but with no updated data.

As happened mid summer for the second time - obviously cheap batteries,
because they normally last 18 months.

For the past few weeks, I have been regularly been unable to view the
webpage, to get it back I have had to reboot the pi - after which I would
regain access for an hour or so. I had it in mind that there might be an
issue with the 5Ghz wifi link. Looking at the pi, its activity LED has
continued to flash, even though there is no actual contact.

A few days ago the display for the weather station stopped updating data
from the outdoor sensors, so obviously the batteries were dead yet again.
Very wet and boggy out there, so I left it until today.

I fitted new batteries this morning and the 5Ghz connection to the pi has
been rock solid ever since. Why would the weather station's outdoor unit's
batteries dieing, cause the pi's 5Ghz wifi to come to a stop?