NOAA Weather Plus discussions

Getting this. It's not red as an error in my event log, but it doesn't look like it is doing something properly?

Aug 8, 2013 8:08:59 AM
NOAA Weather Plus Plugin Unknown error getting weather station list.
NOAA Weather Plus Plugin Warning: Error parsing weather station list XML from NOAA: no element found: line 1, column 0

Yes, you'll see that sometimes. I didn't make it a plugin error because there's generally nothing you can do about it. It's just letting you know that one of the data sources it's getting from NOAA is corrupted and can't be read. In this case, it's the list of all NOAA weather stations which the NOAA Weather Plus plugin uses to find a secondary data source, in the event that the primary weather data source fails for some reason.

It looks like the weather station list from NOAA is empty, or there's some weird network issue going on. You could try reloading the NOAA Weather Plus plugin, but if NOAA is giving bad data, it won't fix that particular problem.

Getting this. It's not red as an error in my event log, but it doesn't look like it is doing something properly?

Aug 8, 2013 8:08:59 AM
NOAA Weather Plus Plugin Unknown error getting weather station list.
NOAA Weather Plus Plugin Warning: Error parsing weather station list XML from NOAA: no element found: line 1, column 0

Yes, you'll see that sometimes. I didn't make it a plugin error because there's generally nothing you can do about it. It's just letting you know that one of the data sources it's getting from NOAA is corrupted and can't be read. In this case, it's the list of all NOAA weather stations which the NOAA Weather Plus plugin uses to find a secondary data source, in the event that the primary weather data source fails for some reason.

It looks like the weather station list from NOAA is empty, or there's some weird network issue going on. You could try reloading the NOAA Weather Plus plugin, but if NOAA is giving bad data, it won't fix that particular problem.

K. Sounds good.

Strange problem overnight-- I usually use the Tacoma Narrows Airport GPS coordinates and got this error. So, I changed to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport coordinates and have the same error messages. I updated to the latest NOAA Weather Plus plugin, 1.1.14. The plugin and data were flawless until just after midnight last night. Might this be a problem with NOAA's data? Looks like I'm not the first with this type of issue. And it doesn't look like there's anything we can do. Any new ideas? (great plugin, btw)


NOAA Weather Plus Error Error parsing XML from NOAA for device NOAA Wx Plus: not well-formed (invalid token): line 1, column 84. Try using GPS coordinaetes for a nearby airport (NOAA often places weather stations at airports).
NOAA Weather Plus Error Error parsing XML from NOAA for device NOAA Wx Plus: not well-formed (invalid token): line 1, column 111. Try using GPS coordinaetes for a nearby airport (NOAA often places weather stations at airports).
NOAA Weather Plus Error Error parsing XML from NOAA for device NOAA Wx Plus: not well-formed (invalid token): line 1, column 111. Try using GPS coordinaetes for a nearby airport (NOAA often places weather stations at airports).
NOAA Weather Plus Error Error parsing XML from NOAA for device NOAA Wx Plus: not well-formed (invalid token): line 1, column 84. Try using GPS coordinaetes for a nearby airport (NOAA often places weather stations at airports).
NOAA Weather Plus Error Unable to find current condition or forecast data in the resulting data file. Try using different GPS coordinates.

Yea, there's probably not much that can be done about it. I suspect that the times we see these errors correlate to times NOAA does some kind of server maintenance. However, if you see these errors often, try enabling debug logging in the NOAA Weather Plus plugin configuration. If you can capture all the debug logs surrounding the error and post that here, it might reveal something that can help work around the problem.

ok I want to use the CurrentCondition state to determine whether or not my sprinklers will run on the schedule. Naturally if the CurrentCondition contains "Rain" I don't want my sprinklers to run. I can't wrap my head around it for some reason. Do I need a script? Or some type of schedule or trigger?

ok I want to use the CurrentCondition state to determine whether or not my sprinklers will run on the schedule. Naturally if the CurrentCondition contains "Rain" I don't want my sprinklers to run. I can't wrap my head around it for some reason. Do I need a script? Or some type of schedule or trigger?

Here's how I do it with my setup.

1. Create an Indigo variable (I called mine "isPrecipitationToday") with an initial value of "false".
2. Create a "Device State Changed" type trigger that fires whenever your NOAA Weather Plus device's "Current Condition" state "Has Any Change".
3. The trigger's Conditions should be configured like this:

   Code: Select all

      "Any" "of the following rules are true"
      "If device" "NOAA Weather Plus Device" "Current Condition" "contains" "Rain"
      "If device" "NOAA Weather Plus Device" "Current Condition" "contains" "Showers"
      "If device" "NOAA Weather Plus Device" "Current Condition" "contains" "Thunderstorm"

   (Note that the "contains" option is only available in Indigo Pro 6.0 or later).
4. The trigger Actions tab should have 1 action. It should be a "Modify Variable" action that sets the "isPrecipitationToday" variable (or whatever you called it) to true.
5. Modify the conditions for each of your sprinkler schedules in Indigo so that they look like this:

   Code: Select all

      "Any" "of the following rules are true"
      "If variable" isPrecipitationToday "is false"

6. Create a new Indigo schedule that fires at least an hour or two after your last sprinkler schedule starts (so it executes well after your last sprinklers have turned off).
7. The Conditions for the schedule should look exactly like the Conditions for the trigger in step 3 above.
8. The Actions tab should have 1 action. It should be a "Modify Variable" action that sets the "isPrecipitationToday" variable (or whatever it's named) to false.

Thank You. That's exactly what I needed.

I like this solution. Wonder however if steps 6, 7 & 8 couldn't be replaced by a Schedule that fires every morning sometime well before (at least an hour) the first sprinkler action is due (perhaps 5 am) that simply set the variable to false without bothering with the conditions tab.

Am I missing something that would require the extra steps?

you should add if it HAS rained > x inches

I have a rain sensor from oregon and use the following logic before sprinkler starts ~ 2:30am:

...
set enoughRain to false
if rainYesterday > 0.4 then set enoughRain to true
if rainToday > 0.2 then set enoughRain to true
if rainRate > 0.2 then set enoughRain to true
...

then sprinkler action checks enoughRain

Good discussion of potential rain in the future, but my experience is that the accuracy of forecast is ~ 50% here in Dallas and if you skip watering several times your plants die.

Karl

Am I missing something that would require the extra steps?

The extra conditions are there in case it's raining when the schedule executes so that the "isPrecipitationToday" variable isn't incorrectly reset to "false" when it's actually still raining. For example, if it's been raining for more than a day, not putting in this condition could cause the "isPrecipitationToday" variable to be set to "false" while it's still raining, potentially resulting in the sprinklers coming on while it's still raining (this happened to me, that's why I added the condition).

you should add if it HAS rained > x inches

I have a rain sensor from oregon and use the following logic before sprinkler starts ~ 2:30am:

That would be ideal. However, as you point out, that requires a rain gage sensor (like you have). If all you're using is NOAA Weather Plus, there is no condition that provides the current number of inches of precipitation.

OK I added the variable and set it to false, finished putting the schedule, assigned the trigger with conditions. I then executed the trigger but the variable switches to true even though Current Conditions are not Rain, Thunderstorm, or Showers. It should be false if it is anything but those.

I use my Oregon Rain gauge to determine how long I should water using the Sprinkler Duration Multiplier and an embedded Applescript.

I now use my Vegetronix Rain Sensors with the Phidgets board to determine when I should water my lawn.

OK I added the variable and set it to false, finished putting the schedule, assigned the trigger with conditions. I then executed the trigger but the variable switches to true even though Current Conditions are not Rain, Thunderstorm, or Showers. It should be false if it is anything but those.

Manually executing a trigger is only useful for testing the actions in the Actions tab. Any time you manually execute a trigger, it always bypasses the conditions in the Conditions tab. When the trigger is fired as a result of the trigger event (the device's state changes in this case) the conditions will be evaluated first.

ok Thanks again Nathan!

one way to get yesterdays rain is to count NOAA rain status every 15 minutes. if > 4 then you had 1 hour of rain... etc

1. create variable rainCount
2. scheduled action at 6am: set rainCount to 0
3. schedule action every 15 minutes with condition "if NOAA indicates currently raining*)" ==> action: increment variable rainCount
4. at time ~2am of sprinkler check variable rainCount >4 (=1 hour of rain in the last 20 hours) if true, no sprinkler run today.
and same 2..4 every day.
not exact measurement of rain, but a pretty good indicator.

no programming needed, can all be done with std indigo actions and conditions and actions.

Karl

*) dont know the exact status words (in Dallas we don't have rain in August)

That's a great point Karl! Hadn't even thought about counting length of time it was raining as a rough indicator of amount. Thanks for sharing!