Installation

Requirements: Python 3.7 or later and WeeWX 4 or 5. No third-party Python packages are needed. (Versions 3.0 through 3.9 required sortedcontainers; as of 4.0 it is no longer used.)

This extension has been tested with the WeeWX vantage and cc3000 drivers. It will likely also work with other drivers that, like the two drivers tested, report loop packets on a regular basis and report all observations on every loop packet. Use loopdata with drivers that report loop packets on an irregular basis and/or report partial observations, at your own risk.

WeeWX 5

1. Download the latest release, weewx-loopdata.zip.

2. Install the loopdata extension:

   weectl extension install weewx-loopdata.zip
   

3. Adjust the [LoopData] section the install added to weewx.conf (see First-time configuration below).

4. Restart WeeWX.

WeeWX 4

1. Download the latest release, weewx-loopdata.zip.

2. Install the loopdata extension:

   sudo /home/weewx/bin/wee_extension --install weewx-loopdata.zip
   

   Note: this command assumes weewx is installed in /home/weewx. If it’s installed elsewhere, adjust the path of wee_extension accordingly.

3. Adjust the [LoopData] section the install added to weewx.conf (see First-time configuration below).

4. Restart WeeWX.

First-time configuration

The install creates a [LoopData] section in weewx.conf (the full section is shown in Configuration). Adjust the values accordingly. In particular:

• Specify seconds with how often your device writes loop records (e.g., 2.0 for Davis Vantage Pro 2 and RainWise CC3000). This value matters: it is the weight given to each packet in the accumulators.
• Specify the target_report for the report you wish to use for formatting and units.
• Specify the loop_data_dir where the loop-data.txt file should be written. If loop_data_dir is a relative path, it is interpreted as relative to the target report’s directory.
• You will eventually need to update the fields line with the fields you actually need for the report you are targeting. Change this line later, after you are sure LoopData is running correctly.
• If you need the loop-data.txt file pushed to a remote webserver, you will also need to fill in the RsyncSpec fields; but one can fill that in later, after LoopData is up and running. See Syncing to a remote server.

Checking for a properly running installation

After a reporting cycle runs, navigate to <weewx-url>/loopdata/ in your browser to see the default loopdata report — the sample instrument panel. (Reports typically run every 5 minutes.) Once the page loads, its indicator should read LIVE and the needles should move with your station.

If something is off, see Troubleshooting.

Optional: SSH control master multiplexing

This applies only if you rsync loop-data.txt to another machine (see Syncing to a remote server). If you are rsync’ing loopdata to another machine every 2 seconds, inevitably some of these rsyncs will fail — perhaps on the order of 3 to 10 per day on the author’s systems. This is totally fine and is not noticeable, but there is an easy way to make the rsyncs lightweight and have none of them fail: create a .ssh/config file under the home directory of the user running WeeWX, with the contents below. The Host entered must match exactly the remote_server value entered in the RsyncSpec section of [LoopData] in weewx.conf.

Host www.paloaltoweather.com   # <-- CHANGE TO YOUR remote_server!
    ControlMaster auto
    ControlPath ~/.ssh/control-%r@%h:%p
    ControlPersist 10m
    ServerAliveInterval 15
    ServerAliveCountMax 3