Chowmain - Open Weather Agent

[alanchow]

Chowmain - Open Weather Agent
OpenWeather is a team of IT experts and data scientists that has been practising deep weather data science since 2014. For each point on the globe, OpenWeather provides current and forecasted weather data.

The Chowmain OpenWeatherMap agent brings all of this data into Control4 for use in the home automation system. This is useful for automating services within the home based upon the external environment.
Features

• The agent utilises project's Location and Temperature scale automatically to ensure that the data you receive is specific to your project and is returned in imperial or metric
• Auto polls for weather information every 15 minutes
• Bindings for current temperature and current humidity allows you to connect to temperature display driver and other thermostat drivers
• Current Weather Conditions for:
  • Sunset (time)
  • Sunrise (time)
  • Temperature Minimum
  • Temperature Maximum
  • Wind Speed (miles/hour or meters/sec)
  • Wind Direction (degrees)
  • Temperature (degrees celcius / fahrenheit)
  • Pressure (hPa)
  • Humidity (percentage)
  • Dew Point (degrees celsius / fahrenheit)
  • Clouds (percentage)
  • Rain (mm)
  • Snow (mm)
• Forecasted Weather Conditions for (Today & Tomorrow):
  • Temperature Minimum (degrees celcius / fahrenheit)
  • Temperature Maximum (degrees celcius / fahrenheit)
  • Wind Speed (miles/hour or meters/sec)
  • Wind Direction (degrees)
  • Pressure (hPa)
  • Humidity (percentage)
  • Dew Point (degrees celsius / fahrenheit)
  • Clouds (percentage)
  • Precipitation Rain (mm)
  • Snow (mm)

FAQ

Can you give us some examples of how we could use this driver?

• Humidifiers can be turned on automatically if it is going to be a dry day
• If it is going to be a hot and sunny day, close the shutters to shut the heat out
• If it is hotter indoors than it is outdoors and the wind direction is facing the motorised windows then open the windows
• If it's going to snow tomorrow, turn on the Heated Driveway System in advance
• If it is going to be a hot day turn on the AC
• If it is going to rain don’t automatically water the garden
• Water the garden if it is extremely hot and if it hasn’t watered the garden in X amount of days
• If it is going to be a cloudy day and the customer has solar then don’t turn on the smart appliances until tomorrow
• Combine with our Advanced Announcements driver to read the weather forecast out in the morning

Why do you only support OS 3.1.3 and above
Driver developers can only develop agents for OS 3.1.3 and above.

I can't find the driver in composer?
This is not a driver but an agent. You have to add it in via the agents tab. See PDF installation guide for detailed instructions.

I bought the internet weather forecast driver do i get an upgrade?
This driver uses the same licencing so no upgrade required. It will work.

How do I find out more information about the agent?
Please see the links below for more information about the agent.

Chowmain Website

How do I buy the agent?
This agent can be purchased from our distributor driverCentral.

Download Driver / Purchase Licence

Do you provide trial licences?
All Chowmain drivers for Control4 come with a 90 day trial.

Who do i contact for technical support?
We have two support desks. One in Australia and one in the US. Click on the link below for details.

Support

[zaphod]

Looks like OpenWeatherMap is kind of a reinvention of WeatherUnderground. But based out of the UK rather than the US.  Does anyone know if that is the case?

I just want to make sure that this is sustainable as we have been burned twice recently with Weather APIs - WU and then Dark Sky.

[alanchow]

5 hours ago, zaphod said:

Looks like OpenWeatherMap is kind of a reinvention of WeatherUnderground. But based out of the UK rather than the US.  Does anyone know if that is the case?

I just want to make sure that this is sustainable as we have been burned twice recently with Weather APIs - WU and then Dark Sky.

We have been using open weather for years.  This agent is actually a rewrite of the driver we have had in a much better and easier to use way.

[msgreenf]

5 hours ago, zaphod said:

just want to make sure that this is sustainable as we have been burned twice recently with Weather APIs - WU and then Dark Sky.

I don't see how anyone here can answer that for you.

[DawnGordon]

Are there any drivers available that show radar information/maps?

 

[South Africa C4 user]

My dealer installed the Agent for me today... but so far I am only getting zeros in every field.  Guess I need to get my dealer to have a look tomorrow.

As a matter of interest, what is the advantage of having this as an Agent rather than as a Driver?

[alanchow]

9 hours ago, DawnGordon said:

Are there any drivers available that show radar information/maps?

 

If you want a map you could possibly utilise a webview driver to display a webpage on your T3/T4 touchscreen.  Note it only works on T3/T4.

6 hours ago, South Africa C4 user said:

My dealer installed the Agent for me today... but so far I am only getting zeros in every field.  Guess I need to get my dealer to have a look tomorrow.

As a matter of interest, what is the advantage of having this as an Agent rather than as a Driver?

The Agent requires the following to be setup for data to be imported.

• Lat
• Long
• Project Temperature Scale (to Celcius or Fahrenheit)
• Open Weather Key

In regards to the advantage.  Control4 has been asking us to do this so that we can clean up projects a bit.  here is their reasoning.

Quote

Control4 developers and 3rd-party developers that had agent-type drivers that were written in Lua and distributed outside of the OS simply created a driver for that purpose. However, with the release of OS 3.1.3, developers can declare that their driver is an agent and it will be installable as an agent in the project. In the future, we will allow these types of agents to be distributed using the online driver database.

When would you consider declaring that a driver is an agent? Here are some potential indicators:
* It does not have a User Interface for the end customer
* There will only be one in the project
* It may interact with other drivers in the project or be a standalone service
* It doesn't really have anything to do with the 'room-based' architecture that drivers are installed into

 

[South Africa C4 user]

I think I had the wrong API key... not sure how... anyway, I now have a different key and will try again tonight ... otherwise my dealer will have to have a look! 

[South Africa C4 user]

8 hours ago, South Africa C4 user said:

I think I had the wrong API key... not sure how... anyway, I now have a different key and will try again tonight ... otherwise my dealer will have to have a look! 

And it is working... not quite sure what current weather is (I.e. is rain the rainfall for the day since midnight or the rainfall for the last 24 hours?)

[alanchow]

2 hours ago, South Africa C4 user said:

And it is working... not quite sure what current weather is (I.e. is rain the rainfall for the day since midnight or the rainfall for the last 24 hours?)

Current is at that point in time.

Note though the agent polls once every 15 mins so data may be 15 mins stale (which for weather should be ok)

[eggzlot]

Hi Alan - looking to do some programming around snow.  When it says If Snow Today is > 1, is that 1 meaning 1 inch of snow or 1% chance?  Assuming its % but just wanted to make sure.  And as of now its only today vs tomorrow, nothing hourly?  For instance I have some heated stairs that I turn on when it snows to help melt the ice/snow so its easier to take the dog outside.  I would like to start the stairs ~3-4 hours prior to snow fall.  Assuming this driver doesn't have hourly capabilities?  I could fudge it current, just may not have the 3-4 hour warm up time before but its better than nothing.

[Dueport]

40 minutes ago, eggzlot said:

Hi Alan - looking to do some programming around snow.  When it says If Snow Today is > 1, is that 1 meaning 1 inch of snow or 1% chance?  Assuming its % but just wanted to make sure.  And as of now its only today vs tomorrow, nothing hourly?  For instance I have some heated stairs that I turn on when it snows to help melt the ice/snow so its easier to take the dog outside.  I would like to start the stairs ~3-4 hours prior to snow fall.  Assuming this driver doesn't have hourly capabilities?  I could fudge it current, just may not have the 3-4 hour warm up time before but its better than nothing.

Similar situation here - we have satellite internet for automatic failover if the cable internet goes out.  The dish has a heater on it to melt snow.  I’d like to program it so the dish heater will turn on during hours when snow is expected and off when it isn’t.

[alanchow]

Snow and rain are in mm

https://openweathermap.org/api/one-call-api

[eggzlot]

4 hours ago, alanchow said:

Snow and rain are in mm

https://openweathermap.org/api/one-call-api

Thanks Alan

I saw in the API description

• current.snow
  • current.snow.1h (where available) Snow volume for last hour, mm

Is your drive doing that last indent - the current snow is really what is within the last hour?  Or is your “current” what its been to that point in the day?

I am doing 

? If OpenWeather > Today_Snow Greater than 76.0000 (that is 3 inches aka 76 mm)
    ? If OpenWeather > Current_Snow Greater than 15.0000 (that is 0.5 inches aka 15mm)
        Turn on Heated Stairs

So if your “Current Snow” is what has accumulated in the last hour I’d probably drop that 15mm to a lower #.  If its total accumulated for the day so far I’d keep it there

And two more questions

1) would I need an “And” statement or the double nested If is ok?
2) Any different if “today Snow” is first in the nested statement like it is above vs putting “current snow” first and next “today snow” under “current snow”?

 

Advanced appreciation from a New Jersey guy looking at 6’’+ this week over 2 storms

[alanchow]

1 hour ago, eggzlot said:

Thanks Alan

I saw in the API description

• current.snow
  • current.snow.1h (where available) Snow volume for last hour, mm

Is your drive doing that last indent - the current snow is really what is within the last hour?  Or is your “current” what its been to that point in the day?

I am doing 

? If OpenWeather > Today_Snow Greater than 76.0000 (that is 3 inches aka 76 mm)
    ? If OpenWeather > Current_Snow Greater than 15.0000 (that is 0.5 inches aka 15mm)
        Turn on Heated Stairs

So if your “Current Snow” is what has accumulated in the last hour I’d probably drop that 15mm to a lower #.  If its total accumulated for the day so far I’d keep it there

And two more questions

1) would I need an “And” statement or the double nested If is ok?
2) Any different if “today Snow” is first in the nested statement like it is above vs putting “current snow” first and next “today snow” under “current snow”?

 

Advanced appreciation from a New Jersey guy looking at 6’’+ this week over 2 storms

Yes the current.snow.1h is what i am using.  To be honest its the only thing we get.  Its polled once every 15 minutes so its at that polling point.  I am not sure if it is a total accumulation or for that particular hour.

In regards to double nested there is no need for an 'and' nor is order important.

[eggzlot]

3 minutes ago, alanchow said:

Yes the current.snow.1h is what i am using.  To be honest its the only thing we get.  Its polled once every 15 minutes so its at that polling point.  I am not sure if it is a total accumulation or for that particular hour.

In regards to double nested there is no need for an 'and' nor is order important.

I’ll assume it’s what happened in the last hour per the api documentation

 

and thanks for the feedback on the IF statement

fingers crossed it works 

[eggzlot]

On 12/13/2020 at 2:31 PM, alanchow said:

Snow and rain are in mm

https://openweathermap.org/api/one-call-api

this may be a question for a meteorologist - any on here?  

My area is expected to get 8-12'' of snow today/tomorrow.  When I look at the properties in the driver it has 16.xx of snow today and 19.xx of snow tomorrow.  If its in MM that 35 mm = 1.35 inches.  So is it as simple as moving over the decimal as 13.5 inches makes a heck of a lot more sense.

[Dueport]

On 12/13/2020 at 8:05 PM, eggzlot said:

I’ll assume it’s what happened in the last hour per the api documentation

 

and thanks for the feedback on the IF statement

fingers crossed it works 

Wondering how your experience has been so far?  Were you able to get this working?

[eggzlot]

1 hour ago, Dueport said:

Wondering how your experience has been so far?  Were you able to get this working?

Yes it “works” but snow is read in a liquid measurement not solid.  So when I got 8-9” storm over night c4 read 16.x one day and 19.x another day

after googling it seems like a liquid to solid ratio for snow is anywhere from 10:1 to 20:1 based on if it’s a heavy wet snow vs a light and fluffy snow. 
 

may take trial and error to dial it in and we only get a few storms anyway.  So this is a work in progress for me 

[Rob21]

On 1/2/2021 at 4:43 PM, eggzlot said:

Yes it “works” but snow is read in a liquid measurement not solid.  So when I got 8-9” storm over night c4 read 16.x one day and 19.x another day

after googling it seems like a liquid to solid ratio for snow is anywhere from 10:1 to 20:1 based on if it’s a heavy wet snow vs a light and fluffy snow. 
 

may take trial and error to dial it in and we only get a few storms anyway.  So this is a work in progress for me 

I am considering using this solution for my heated driveway. Are you still using this solution? How did everything work out for you?

[eggzlot]

2 hours ago, Rob21 said:

I am considering using this solution for my heated driveway. Are you still using this solution? How did everything work out for you?

no it just got too confusing for me.

I kind of use the wake up agent in reverse - but basically I can set a time for when I want an action to happen, that action happens to be putting on the heated stairs.  So we'll watch the weather and get an idea of when the snow is going to come, then I can set the wake agent to ~3-4 hours in advance and it will kick on the heated stairs.  Some manual intervention but I never got the math down with all the variables to use the agent.  And again for heated stairs/driveway it takes a while to get the surface warm, so you need to start hours before the snow event, and that was always my issue, getting it to start in advance.

[Rob21]

1 hour ago, eggzlot said:

no it just got too confusing for me.

I kind of use the wake up agent in reverse - but basically I can set a time for when I want an action to happen, that action happens to be putting on the heated stairs.  So we'll watch the weather and get an idea of when the snow is going to come, then I can set the wake agent to ~3-4 hours in advance and it will kick on the heated stairs.  Some manual intervention but I never got the math down with all the variables to use the agent.  And again for heated stairs/driveway it takes a while to get the surface warm, so you need to start hours before the snow event, and that was always my issue, getting it to start in advance.

Thanks for the input. What ended up being too complicated? I was thinking of using it for basic programming such as the programming in the driver docs (image attached). When it is going to snow tomorrow, turn on heated driveway one day before. 

[eggzlot]

49 minutes ago, Rob21 said:

Thanks for the input. What ended up being too complicated? I was thinking of using it for basic programming such as the programming in the driver docs (image attached). When it is going to snow tomorrow, turn on heated driveway one day before. 

looking at that line of code I don’t know what time they would go on.  if it’s going to snow tomorrow (let’s say Wednesday at 6pm is the forecast) that code looks like sometime on Tuesday it’s going to turn on.  Could be on for more than 24 hours before it snows?
 

For me I found 3-4 hrs in advance fine.  I’d rather not have it on for 10+ hours or more than 24 hours in advance.  
 

 

[Rob21]

15 hours ago, eggzlot said:

looking at that line of code I don’t know what time they would go on.  if it’s going to snow tomorrow (let’s say Wednesday at 6pm is the forecast) that code looks like sometime on Tuesday it’s going to turn on.  Could be on for more than 24 hours before it snows?
 

For me I found 3-4 hrs in advance fine.  I’d rather not have it on for 10+ hours or more than 24 hours in advance.  
 

 

That makes sense. Thank you!

 

@alanchow do you have any inout here? Any thoughts on being able to have the driveway turn on a set number of hours before snow? Thanks

[alanchow]

2 hours ago, Rob21 said:

That makes sense. Thank you!

 

@alanchow do you have any inout here? Any thoughts on being able to have the driveway turn on a set number of hours before snow? Thanks

 

The best you can do is 24 hours before due to the data returned.  That's a long time to have your hearing element on for in my opinion.