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Copyright (C) 2004 Bruce Bennett <bruts@adelphia.net>
Portions Copyright (C) 2000-2023 The Xastir Group
(Modified for the Xastir project under GPL license)
Davis Weather Station support for Xastir - db2APRS
OVERVIEW
--------
This is a bridge utility between "meteo", a Davis Weather Station
data storage & display application by Andreas Muller (see
http://meteo.othello.ch) and "Xastir", the APRS package for
Linux (see http://www.xastir.org). It allows your Davis weather
data to be used by Xastir for local station data.
You will need to obtain and install Xastir, mysql and meteo as
outlined in the following sections. After Xastir and meteo are
in working order, this utility can be run as a daemon to provide
weather data to Xastir (or any other APRS-format application).
"db2APRS" watches for new weather data in the database, retrieves
the new data, formats it in APRS "position less" ASCII format and
makes it available on a TCP port of your choosing. Xastir is
capable of reading this data (see note under Xastir installation).
INSTALLATION
------------
Steps in order:
1) Install mysql - initial tested version mysql-3.23.58
although version 4 is released and has some significant
improvements - and version 4 *should* work (to be tested yet).
If you use an RPM or DPK binary-image version, be sure to add
the mysql-devel headers. For the latest image-version, see
http://www.mysql.com and follow the links to the downloads.
I used mysql-3.23.58-pc-linux-i686.tar.gz from that site.
2) Install meteo - tested versions meteo-0.9.4 and meteo-0.9.8
Version 0.9.9 is available and based on the change documented
will work. See the instructions for installing & then setting
up meteo that come with the tar ball. Obtain the latest meteo
at http://meteo.othello.ch - the setup is rather involved but
worth the efort. Some SQL/XML skills can help here, but are
not absolutely required...
3) Install or update your installation for Xastir to the latest
version ("http://github.com/Xastir/Xastir" project Xastir)
4) Install db2APRS - version 0.1.2
See instructions below.
SETTINGS & STARTUP
------------------
1) mysql - it is recommended by mysql to set up passwords, but for
this usage it doesn't matter. In fact, it's a bit of a pain.
TODO - db2APRS has the annoying fault of clearly displaying
the password used for the mysql database for anyone to see via
'ps -ef'. Start mysqld before db2APRS, meteo and Xastir in your
boot-time initializations.
2) meteo - my testing used a one minute data accumulation rate.
Thirty seconds would more closely match Xastir, but the
database growth rate would be twice as fast (about 600
Mbytes/year at 30 sec rate). Set your desired rate using the
meteopoll command line options. I run the full meteopoll
package with averaging, graphs and meteodequeue - but the
only *required* element is meteopoll. Start the meteopoll
daemon after mysqld is up. (meteodequeue is recommended - see
the doc's that come with meteo and man pages).
3) db2APRS - see "db2APRS RUN OPTIONS" below. Start this daemon
after mysqld and before Xastir. When meteopoll isn't running,
you will get old weather data, time stamped by Xastir as new
data.
4) xastir - start this last, if you are auto-opening the WX port.
Set the weather port as a network weather station on
"localhost", port number as chosen in "db2APRS RUN OPTIONS"
(default is 1313). Make sure your station is set to one of the
"w/weather data" and your Icon is set to a weather Icon.
db2APRS RUN OPTIONS
-------------------
The db2APRS utility takes standard short & long command line
options, which can be displayed by "db2APRS -?". Here's the list:
-h --help
Show help info and exit.
-v --verbose
Useful with the -n switch, for trouble-shooting, not for
normal operation. Tells you more than you really wanted to
know, but I recommend that you use this switch while you
try to initially set up db2APRS.
-c --cport [port#]
Choose which TCP/IP port data comes out from. If not used,
port number 1313 is the default. HINT: "telnet localhost
[port#]" is a handy way to verify db2APRS operation.
-s --sensor [sensor group#]
Indicate what group of sensors are the outdoor ones.
If not supplied, sensor number 1 is the default.
HINT: Tables "station" and "sensor" in the meteo
database control what your "sensor" (which means
sensor group) definitions are for your "station".
-u --user [database user]
Username for mysql database connection. If unspecfied
defaults to "meteo" (which is per the meteo setup intended
to be a read-only account for meteo).
-p --password [db passwd]
Password for mysql connection. If unspecfied, no password
is supplied. NOTE: this password is unfortunately visible
to anyone on your system running 'ps -ef'. TO BE FIXED.
-b --database [database]
Database name for mysql connection. If not supplied the
default is "meteo".
-n --nodaemon
Run in the fore-ground as a program. Useful for debugging
or initial setup, when used with -v.
-r --repeat
Keep going till killed - if not specified, one pass is
performed and then db2APRS exits. The only case where this
switch is *not* used is during initial setup/debug.
Typical example: "./db2APRS -r -u meteo -p meteo" for normal use
or "./db2APRS -r -n -v -u test -p password" for debugging.
OPERATIONAL DETAILS
-------------------
db2APRS connects to the specified mysql database, extracts the
latest timestamp and compares it to the last timestamp it read.
If newer, the outdoor weather data (extception: air pressure is
taken as indoor=outdoor) bearing this timestamp is extracted
and formatted in the APRS "position less" string format with a
Davis and X-APRS tag on the end. Any connecting client is given
this string at 25 second intervals, after new database entries
are checked for.
This daemon could run on any networked Linux machine instead of
the machine hosting Xastir, if desired (it's a good way around
lack of processing power, disk space or serial ports!).
Note that the db2APRS daemon keeps providing data to Xastir even
when no new entries in the database have been made. This could
lead to errors in the timestamp on the data that Xastir is
transmitting.
BUILD db2APRS
-------------
It's the usual:
$ cd xastir/Davis
$ ./bootstrap.sh
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su -c 'make install'
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & AUTHORS
--------------------------
db2APRS is the product of Bruce Bennett, callsign KB8ROP
<bruts@adelphia.net> It is freely available at no charge
under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE (see "COPYING" document)
NO WARRANTY, expressed or implied, use at your own risk.
Please feel free to contact me with test results & comments
at the above EMAIL address
Code portions and style taken from wx200d by Tim Witham
<twitham@quiknet.com>, et. al.
meteo is the work of Andreas Muller <afm@othello.ch>, et. al.
mysql is the product of MySQL - see http://www.mysql.com for
team details.
and finally, Xastir is the brain child of Frank Giannandrea et.
al. (see http://www.xastir.org for current EMAIL addresses)
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