EV Cumulus Weather Station Driver + Meteobridge

[chicagoskiguy]

The current EV Cumulus driver (which is now free!) depends on the Cumulus software being installed on a PC that runs 24/7/365 

 

I have a few PC's that I leave on all the time, but none were close enough to my weather station console.

 

I found Meteobridge, which is a TP-LINK TL-MR3020 Portable Router with a custom  firmware installed on top. It connects to your weather station to your network. The Meteobridge allows you to upload your weather data to all sorts of places such as Weather Underground, etc. http://www.meteobridge.com/wiki/index.php/Weather_Networks

 

 

Overview:

• Once the Meteobridge is configured for your network and weather station - you then configure it to retrieve the "control4.txt" template from a webserver (meteobridge config example screen attached), meteobridge then replaces placeholders in that template file with the actual values from the weather station, then uploads the modified XML file via FTP. 
• The EV driver retrieves this XML file and uses the values from it in the 4Store App - or in Control4 Programming 

 

Issues:

• I had some issues with wifi connection to the meteobridge. Unsecured would stay connected about 2-3 weeks and then required a reboot of the meteobridge. WPA2 would last about 1 day required a reboot. Wired network connection to the Meteobridge is best. I have not had a wired connection failure. 
• No Cumulus Alerts - since - you know - data is not coming from Cumulus. You may be able to edit the alarms in the template file though, not sure if that is integrated into the driver or not. 
• There are 4 values the meteobridge does not supply to the 4Store App. Screen capture attached, and missing values are highlighted in yellow. 

Required:

• Meteobridge Compatible Weather Station http://www.meteobridge.com/wiki/index.php/Select_Station
• Meteobridge Device (see below)
• Access to a web server with FTP access (I use a local windows server - but server could be linux, external host, etc really just need to be able to FTP a text file, and serve it - nothing is happening on the server other than that)

You can "make" your own for about $100 total. I did that myself. If you've ever installed DD-WRT, you will be fine. You can get the firmware and the router from following links:

http://www.meteobridge.com (@$62 for the license but has a free 2 week trial)

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-MR3020-Wireless-Portable-Router/dp/B00634PLTW (@$35 new)

 

 

Or buy an already made one for about $220

http://www.amazon.com/Ambient-Weather-WEATHERBRIDGE-Universal-Ethernet/dp/B00FPPYM7M

 

USB adapter required to connect meteobridge (to my Ambient Weather WS-2080)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000Q8UAWY

 

USB A to A calbe required to connect USB adapter  above to Ambient Weather WS-2080

http://www.amazon.com/CNE20650-6-Feet-Type-Cable-Black/dp/B00DR0RBV6/

 

Required Meteobridge template attached (control4.txt)

 

Has been working well for me though, and I've enjoyed it. Meteobridge isn't perfect, but it's pretty good. You can read the Meteobridge forum for more insight. If you have some technical ability, I think you'll be just fine. If you aren't very technical, I think there are other better solutions for you. 

 

 

This is being released as an unsupported - No warranty expressed or implied. I'm happy to answer questions on the process, but not in setting up Meteo, web/ftp servers etc. 

control4.txt