Difference between revisions of "Getting Started"

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This section describes how to setup your Meteoplug client hardware and how to get it connected to Meteoplug server. It also explains basic settings to be done. If your are interested in a complete functional description of Meteoplug, please have a look at the Documentation, also presented in the menu on the left. This section just describes the first steps to do, to get operational with Meteoplug. When you follow the steps on this page you should have a running Meteoplug system without any major hassle.
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<!--T:1-->
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__NOTOC__
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=Meteobridge PRO=
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As the Meteobridge PRO has a display it is rather simple to get connected to it. You can reach out to it in two styles.
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* '''cabled''': When you started the unit first time with a LAN cable connected, it will try to receive an IP address via DHCP from your router. If this is successful the IP will displayed on the front panel. In this case you simply direct your browser to this IP and you can start setting up the unit.
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* '''WiFi''': When you started the unit first time without cable connection it comes up as a WiFi access point to allow you easy login with your smartphone, tablet or laptop. SSID to look for with your mobile device is given on the front panel of the Meteobridge PRO. Once you successfully directed your mobile device to connect to this temporary SSID all you have to do is to direct the browser on your device to IP 192.168.1.1. There you find the network configuration page of Meteobridge PRO. Please define network settings Meteobridge should use from now on and press „save and apply and reboot“. Having done this, Meteobridge pro will reboot and will try to connect with the given network credentials. If this works fine, IP of the unit will be displayed on front panel and fast blinking red LED will switch to steady on after a while. Now you are ready to login with your browser to the displayed IP and can start setting up the unit.
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=Meteobridge non-PRO=
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==Setup of Meteoplug Client Hardware==
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<br />When your router platform has been flashed with Meteobridge firmware, next thing is to connect to the Meteobridge with your browser and to do configuration steps. In its inital state a Meteobridge is configured in LAN mode as DHCP client, expecting an IP from your router. Therefore, it needs to be connected to your router with an Ethernet cable and it needs your router acting as DHCP server and providing an IP address to the Meteobridge as the router also does for your other devices in your LAN.
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This section describes the steps necessary to setup your Meteoplug client.
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Good thing with DHCP is that you don't have to assign an IP manually. Bad thing is, that only your router knows the given IP and as the Meteobridge does not have a display to show you the IP. But don't worry, there a various ways to find out the IP of the Meteobridge in your LAN.
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==Findout IP== <!--T:28-->
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===Meteohub System as Meteoplug Client===
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When Meteobridge is connected to your LAN it will try to receive a dynamic IP from your DHCP server during boot. Wait until blinking of the largest LED has stopped.
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When you have a Meteohub system this can also be used to feed Meteoplug server application. Please goto "settings tab and enable upload of data to Meteoplug server.
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Now there are different ways to find out which IP your Meteobridge has received.
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<center>[[File:Meteohub-data-upload.png]]</center>
  
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===Lazy Way=== <!--T:29-->
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Having done this you should notice the MAC of your Meteohub system. Meteohub displays the MAC on tab "System Information". You will need the MAC when registering for an account at Meteoplug server application.
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When Meteobridge starts it communicates LAN IP and WAN IP to the Internet server, where it loads the application stack from. Therefore you can ask there, what has been the last known LAN IP reported from a Meteobridge sharing the same router and WAN IP with your browsing PC. When Meteobridge and PC are in the same LAN, browsing to this address should tell you the LAN IP to use: [http://magicip.meteobridge.com MagicIP]
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===IP Signaling=== <!--T:15-->
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===Meteobridge System as Meteoplug Client===
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Do a short press on the push button on the top (TL-MR3020, WL-330N3G) or on the side (DIR-505) or a short press of the reset button behind the pinhole at the back of the unit (TL-WR703N, TL-MR3040). Now LED will start signaling the IP.
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When you have a Meteobridge system (version 1.8 or newer) this can also be used to feed Meteoplug server application. Please goto tab "weather network" on your Meteobridge and select "Meteoplug Cloud Graphing", to have Meteobridge to send every single piece of weather data it receives from the weather station to the Meteoplug server. You can specify an upload intervall for complete sets of data and a live data update interval to feed dashboards. When you add a station name, your station will also be visible on the Meteoplug map.
 +
<center>[[File:meteobridge.png]]</center>
  
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<!--T:16-->
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Having done this you should notice the MAC of your Meteohub system. Meteohub displays the MAC on tab "System". You will need the MAC when registering for an account at Meteoplug server application.
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Meteobridge will signal its IP by pulsing the LED beneath the pressed button (TL-MR3020) or the blue LED on the top of the device (TL-WR703N) or the green LED opposite to the power LED (TL-MR3040) or the power LED (WL-330N3G). Sequence begins with LED going off, then each of the four numbers (delimited by a dot) will be signaled one by one. The dot between the numbers will be signaled by a "H" (LED shines bright). Each number is signaled by blinking digit per digit. Each digit is represented by a "M" (LED shines medium dimmed) repeated as often as the digit tells us. The zero digit is signaled by ten blinks. After having done this for all digits of all numbers of the IP, the end is signaled by LED staying off a while like it started with. When Sequenze is done, the LED is constantly turned on again.
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<!--T:17-->
 
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Example: IP 192.168.10.77 Legend: M = LED medium dimmed, H = LED shines bright, _ = LED is dark
 
  
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<!--T:18-->
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===Meteoplug Clients TL-MR3020, TL-WR703N and WL-330N3G===
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<pre>Signal:                                          Comment
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Tiny and cheap TL-MR3020 and TL-WR703N platforms from TP-Link and WL-330N3G from ASUS are well supported by openwrt project. Openwrt-based Meteoplug client software is provided as a file that can be directly uploaded from a stock TL-MR3020 or TL-WR703N as a new firmware. By doing so you will void the warranty TP-Link/ASUS provides for the unit, but havng the cheap price in mind you will certainly not face a substantial financial risk by that.
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___M___M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M___M_M___H              192
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___M___M_M_M_M_M_M___M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M___H        168
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___M___M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M___H                  10
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___M_M_M_M_M_M_M___M_M_M_M_M_M_M___              77</pre>
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<!--T:19-->
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====Flashing Meteoplug Client Firmware to TL-MR3020====
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When Meteobridge is connected via LAN it will signal the LAN IP. To get the WLAN IP signaled in that case, please disconnect ethernet cable from meteobridge's LAN port and start IP signaling again. This time WLAN IP will be signaled.
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Please consult the TP-Link manual to understand how to get access with your browser to its web interface. What the manual will tell you is basically that you have to connect your PC/Laptop via ethernet cable, and log in to the router's web interface (IP is 192.168.0.254, login name is "admin", password: "admin").  
  
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===Alternative Ways to Find-Out IP=== <!--T:20-->
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Meteoplug firmware has to be installed, exactly like a firmware from TP-Link. Please use Meteoplug-Client Image  [http://www.meteohub.de/files/meteoplug-tl-mr3020-v1.4.bin meteoplug-tl-mr3020-v1.4.bin]. Please make sure path name is very short and ends with ".bin", otherwise router might not accept the firmware image file.
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If you don't like reading the blinks, you can also use an IP scanner (for example: [http://www.advanced-ip-scanner.com/ Advanced IP Scanner]) or you can look into the logs of your router that provides IPs via DHCP for clients in the LAN/WLAN.  
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Wait until unit restarts. After that it will be a Meteoplug client in standard configuration (LAN mode).  
  
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<!--T:21-->
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When you ever decide to revert Meteoplug client back to a stock like TL-MR3020 router, you can follow steps explained in [http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-mr3020#restoring.original.firmware this] posting. Please understand that all you do here is at your own risk, nothing guaranteed.
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When a FAT formatted USB stick is connected to the USB port, a file "network.log" is written to the USB stick in addition to the LED blinking. The file will look like this:<pre>Sat Jan  5 00:23:16 UTC 2013
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MAC:    xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
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LAN IP:  192.168.123.245</pre>
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==Cloud Simulator for Network Configuration== <!--T:22-->
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====Flashing Meteoplug Client Firmware to TL-WR703N====
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If Meteobridge client cannot connect to your LAN or your LAN does not provide a DHCP service, large LED will not leave fast-blinking mode. To get network settings fixed, you can define the correct network parameters in a simulator in the Internet, which works as follows.
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As TL-WR703N does only come with a Chinese web interface, it might be a bit tricky to find the right menu item to initiate firmware update. First you have to login with your browser. To achieve that you have to connect your PC/Laptop via ethernet cable, and log in to the router's web interface (IP is 192.168.1.1, login name is "admin", password: "admin").  
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# Please browse to [http://config.meteobridge.com config.meteobridge.com]. There you will find a simulation of the Meteobridge web interface. Please select the "Setup Network" tab and configure settings as needed for your specific network situation.  
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When you have access to web interface of TL-WR703N, you select the item at the bottom of the left menu items, marked in light red on the left picture below (system screen). Next you choose sub menu item as marked in light red in the right picture below (flash screen) and browse to target file by pressing light red marked file select dialog in the middle of the screen. You find Meteoplug firmware for this device here: [http://www.meteohub.de/files/meteoplug-tl-wr703n-v1.3.bin meteoplug-tl-wr703n-v1.3.bin]. When error message 18005 occurs, please shorten file name and filepath, as manufacturer firmware can't handle longer file path names.
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# When settings are done, please press "save" and change to "Download" tab which will cause your browser to start downloading a configuration file named "config.tgz".  
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# Please store that file (as is, do not unpack) on a USB stick formatted as FAT32 and start the Meteobridge with the USB stick plugged into the USB port of Meteobridge. When network settings are right, Meteobridge will stop with slow and fast blinking and turn on the LED constantly.
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# You can now remove the USB stick, it is no longer needed. When you restart this Meteobridge client with the same USB stick inserted, file "config.tgz" on USB stick will not be used again as it has been marked as used for this specific Meteobridge unit. Nevertheless, the stick can still be used to setup networking of other Meteobridge clients. The stick also holds a log file which reports if an update of network settings was applied.
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==First Login== <!--T:23-->
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<gallery>
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When you have done the flashing of your Meteobridge and initial network setup done, you can reach Meteobridge for final configuration with your browser by typing in its IP as URL.  
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File:wr703n-p1.png|system screen
 +
File:wr703n-p2.png|flash screen
 +
</gallery>
  
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<!--T:24-->
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Finally, a "are you sure" dialog will pop up, please press "yes" button and wait until progress bar has reached 100%. Unit will reboot automatically. After reboot it will be a Meteoplug client in standard configuration (LAN mode).
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As login is protected by a password, your browser will ask for a user name and password. '''Please enter ''meteobridge'' as user and also ''meteobridge'' as password'''. While the user cannot be changed, you can change the password later on. On first login you will be guided to "License" tab, where you have to accept license terms and have to press "Save and Apply" before you can navigate to the other tabs. Sections listed in the setup menu at the left will tell you how to finalize configuration so that your weather data gets finally uploaded to Weather Underground.
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<!--T:25-->
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====Flashing Meteoplug Client Firmware to WL-330N3G====
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Your browser will show you Meteobridge's web interface with 7 tabs. Please go through all these tabs and make the required settings. The page will show warnings for all still missing essentials until you have worked through all of this. It is just a few steps, which will be explained in the setup chapters, page by page.
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As ASUS WL-330N3G cannot be flashed by its stock web interface, it is necessary that you setup a TFTP environment on your Host PC to transfer the flash data via the ethernet to WL-330N3G. Using TFTP is quite simple.  
  
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==Back to Defaults== <!--T:26-->
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First of all the router needs to toggled into "TFTP update mode". This is done by keeping the button on the top pressed for 5-10 seconds while doing a power cycle. After a couple of seconds the power LED starts a very slow blinking. You can now release the button. Router now waits for being firmware-updated via TFTP.
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When you have misconfigured the network or system password in a way that you can't no longer reach Meteobridge, you can revert the system back to defaults by pressing the button on the top of TL-MR3020 / WL-330N3G or on the side of DIR-505 or the reset button of TL-WR703N / TL-MR3040 at the back behind a pin hole. By pushing these buttons (during normal Meteobridge operation, not during boot) you can revert to defaults in three ways.
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# '''Reset to default network operation''' is done by pressing the button and keeping it pressed until LED goes on again for the first time. Now release button and system will restart with default network configuration, which is LAN DHCP client mode. Network settings done before are still stored inside Meteobridge when unit has started in LAN DHCP client mode, but these will need additional "Save" clicks to be made active again.
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Image to be flashed can be downloaded here: [http://www.meteohub.de/files/meteoplug-wl-330n3g-v1.3.sys meteoplug-wl-330n3g-v1.3.sys]
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# '''Reset password''' is done by pressing button and keeping it pressed until LED goes on for the second time. Meteobridge will reboot and will be available with default password via ssh (user root, password meteobridge) and http (user meteobridge, password meteobridge).
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Sections below describe how to do flashing for Linux and Windows 7.
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# '''Reset to factory defaults''' is done by pressing the button and keeping it pressed until LED goes on again for the fifth time. This will delete all user settings changes made to the file system of the unit. Stored historical data will be erased. License will remain untouched. Unit will reboot automatically with default network settings and password.
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</translate>
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=====Flashing via TFTP on Linux=====
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TFTP update does not need any additional software installed, your Linux already has all you need. Flashing is very straight forward, just execute the script below.<pre>#!/bin/sh
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#
 +
if [ "$1" = "" ]
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then
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  echo "error: flash sys file missing as parameter"
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  exit 1
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else
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  echo "power cycle WL-330N3G with button pressed and wait"
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  echo "until power LED does go off and on again. Then "
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  echo "release button and press <RETURN>."
 +
  read a
 +
  echo "start flashing..."
 +
  ifconfig br0:0 192.168.1.20
 +
  echo -ne "binary\ntrace\nrexmt 1\nput $1\nquit\n" | tftp 192.168.1.1
 +
  echo "...transfer done."
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  echo "Wait until unit does reboot (will take at least 2 minutes). "
 +
  echo "Do not remove from power during flash process!"
 +
fi
 +
</pre>
 +
 
 +
The script needs to be called with the downloaded image file as parameter. Please execute the script as root, otherwise "ifconfig" and "tftp" will not do or will ask for root password. "ifconfig" sets a virtual ethernet adapter with IP 192.168.1.20 on your Linux box, which is the IP the router expects to get the firmware update from.
 +
 
 +
=====Flashing via TFTP on Windows 7=====
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First you have to enable the TFTP service of your Windows 7. You can do that by
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# Open Control Panel > Programs and Features
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# Click "Turn Windows features on or off" on left side menu
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# Enable "TFTP Client" then click OK button
 +
 
 +
Next step is to set the IP of your hosts Ethernet adapter to "192.168.1.20". This will disconnect your Host from your network (as far as your equip is not in the 192.168.1.x class c subnet) but it is necessary to use this distinct IP address in order to make the WL-330N3G to accept the flash data transfer.
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If you dont know how to set your Ethernet adapter to a static IP, please have a look [http://blog.mclaughlinsoftware.com/2009/11/26/windows-7-static-ip/ here].
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 +
When TFTP is enabled and IP of your host PC is set to 192.168.1.20 we can start flashing. Please open a CMD shell and type in the command <pre>tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put flash-file-name</pre> where ''flash-file-name'' is the name of the image to flash. When command is done successfully, number of transferred bytes is displayed.
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 +
=====Final Flashing Tasks=====
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IP of router in update mode is 192.168.1.1, which hopefully will not do a collision with one of your other devices. If there is a collision, switch off the other devices during flash. After data has been transferred via TFTP you have to wait a couple of minutes until flash process inside the router is done and router restarts itself. Restart switches off all LEDs for a short time. Now it is safe to disconnect the router from power. Interrupting the flash processes by a power cycle will brick the router.
 +
 
 +
====First Login to Meteoplug Client====
 +
When Meteoplug is connected to your LAN it will try to receive a dynamic IP from your DHCP server during boot. Wait until blinking of the largest LED changes into constant on. Press and release the transparent pushbutton on top of the large LED (TL-MR3020) or the reset button behind the pinhole at the back (TL-WR703N) or button on top of the device (WL-330N3G). Now LED will start signaling the unit's IP as explained [http://wiki.meteoplug.com/Hardware#Findout_IP here].
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 +
If Meteoplug client cannot be connected to your LAN or your LAN does not provide a DHCP service, then large LED will not leave fast-blinking mode. To get network settings fixed, you can setup network settings with the network cloud simulator, which is available here: [[Network Cloud Simulator]]. Having done the corrrect network settings with the simulator, you can store these onto a FAT formatted USB stick, plug that stick into your Meteoplug client and do a reboot. Settings stored on USB stick will be transferred to your Meteoplug client during boot. When credentials are OK it will leave blinking mode and large LED will turn constantly on, which indictaes that boot and load of application stack from Meteoplug server in the Internet went fine.
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 +
When you manage to reach the meteoplug client with your browser and if you are fimilar with openwrt, which does all the network handling of your Meteoplug client, you can also browse to "http://lan-ip-of-your-meteoplug-client/cgi-bin/luci" and do even more advanced network settings. Password for access via luci is "meteoplug". The headline of each sreen inside openwrt includes a push button named "Open Meteoplug Client" to open a screen, where status of data logging and received sensor values can be inspected. It is the same page you get displayed when you browse to the IP of your Meteoplug client. This page does not provide great features to display data (this is done by the Meteoplug cloud service in the Internet) but it allows you a quick chek if connection to Meteoplug is fine and if weather station sensors do deliver data.
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 +
[[File:openwrt-screen-6.png]]
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 +
===Bifferboard as Meteoplug Client===
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Bifferboard development environments are well described on [http://www.bifferos.com/ Bifferboard Product] and [http://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard Bifferboard Wiki]. Actual Meteoplug client Image is a minimal Linux 2.6.30.5 kernel with the proposed patches applied and a minimal loader, that loads the recent Meteoplug client software from the Meteoplug server. This takes care that each time your Meteoplug client gets rebooted, you will get the most recent SW version. So you never have to bother yourself with applying SW updates.
 +
 
 +
When you are using a Bifferboard as Meteoplug client you are facing one of these situations
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* Your Bifferboard is already flashed with a Meteoplug client image. In that case you can skip flashing instructions chapter. You will find Bifferboards already flashed with Meteoplug client software and ready to [http://www.bifferos.com/buy/ here].
 +
* Your Bifferboard has a standard image installed and needs to be flashed with a Meteoplug image as explained in next paragraphs.
 +
 
 +
====Flashing Meteoplug Client Image to Bifferboard====
 +
Flashing is done by a Python script that connects to a just booting Bifferboard via LAN and sends the packets to be stored in flash storage as ethernet packets. You need a Linux system running, which has Python installed. Furthermore you need following files:
 +
* Python script that does the flashing: [[File:bb-eth-upload.zip|bb-eth-upload.zip]] (please download and unzip)
 +
* Meteoplug client image for Bifferboard: [[File:mp-bb-image.zip|mp-bb-image.zip]] (please download and unzip)
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* MAC of your Bifferboard. Mac has format xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx where "xx" stands for a two digit hexadecimal number. You will find MAC of your Bifferboard written on a sticker on one of the chips on the PCB or in the documentation received with it.
 +
 
 +
Connect Bifferboard to be flashed to your LAN, reboot Bifferboard by repowering it, and start downloaded script on your Linux box by <code>python bb_eth_upload.py eth0 a1:b2:c3:d4:e5:f6 mp-bb-image</code>, where "a1:b2:c3:d4:e5:f6" must be replaced by MAC of your Bifferboard. The MAC is needed to address the correct board. Without a correct MAC, no flashing will start. You will see on your console that buckets from flash storage first being erased and then written the new data to. After flashing is complete Bifferboard will reboot.
 +
 
 +
When you discover problems during flashing, please consult [http://sites.google.com/site/bifferboard/Home/howto/flash-kernel this page] as you are facing a Bifferboard related issue, I can provide very limited help on.
 +
 
 +
====Start Meteoplug Bifferboard Client====
 +
Connect your flashed Bifferboard to your LAN and weather station and power it on.
 +
 
 +
Meteoplug client will connect Meteoplug server in the Internet. This requires that your LAN is connected to the Internet by a router, which also provides an IP address by DHCP service. All routers out there have a DHCP feature. Please make sure that it is enabled. As an alternative you might have a dedicated DHCP server in your LAN, which is also fine. In addition to the IP address Meteoplug client also needs the IP of the gateway to address the Internet and IP of a DNS (domain name server) in the Internet. But don't worry, your router normally provides all this information and your Meteoplug client will probably be able to connect Meteoplug server in the Internet. If this does fail for some reason you don't have much options. Meteoplug client is fully controlled by the server application. It cannot work without this.
 +
 
 +
What you might check in case of trouble is that your router is not blocking outgoing HTTP traffic on port 80. Normally, that kind of traffic is allowed for all IPs in the LAN, but your router might have some special settings (like "Kindersicherung" in AVM Fritz!boxes) blocking this until you explicitly select a LAN IP to be able to access the Internet. Meteoplug client does not need any incoming ports opened, as it is not going to be connected from the outside. Direction of traffic is outgoing only.
 +
 
 +
=== Regular Linux System as Meteoplug Client (no longer supported) ===
 +
When you want to use an already running X86 Linux box as Meteoplug client, you simply have to download this package:[[File:generic-image.tgz|generic-image-tgz]]. Installation is described in the attached README. According to the distribution you are using, some individual changes might be necessary, hopefully not too complicated ones. You can also post into the Meteoplug forum, when you need help or want to share experiences about this.
 +
 
 +
=== Fritz!Box 7270 as Meteoplug Client (no longer supported)===
 +
You can use a Fritz!Box 7270 as Meteoplug client. All you have to do is to install this package [[File:meteoplug-7270-install.img|meteoplug-7270-install.img]] on the 7270. You simply do that by the web interface used for AVM updates. When you upload the package, your 7270 will warn you that it is not a regular AVM image. When you accept that, Meteoplug client will be installed as an additional package on your 7270. If you have a non-stock firmware running or have other additional packages installed there might be problems. However, by installing Meteoplug client you accept that this can happen and in worst case can "brick" your 7270. When you want to uninstall Meteoplug, please install this uninstaller package [[File:meteoplug-7270-uninstall.img|meteoplug-7270-uninstall.img]]. A few minutes after installation you can view Meteoplug client dashboard by browsing to your 7270 LAN IP on port 7770. When this works, installation of Meteoplug client on 7270 has gone fine.
 +
 
 +
==Meteoplug Server Application==
 +
When you have done steps above you should leave your Meteoplug client powered and connected. You can merely forget about it, because no interaction with it will be necessary in the future. It will just be there and sends data.
 +
 
 +
===Create an Account===
 +
Please login at [http://login.meteoplug.com http://login.meteoplug.com]. You will see a screen like this were you can login or - as a first time user - can register an account.
 +
 
 +
<center>[[File:mp-user-admin.png]]</center>
 +
 
 +
To register an account first step is to specify the MAC of the device the account should be created for. If you are lucky - and most times you will be - your Meteoplug client has already made a first contact with Meteoplug server an have told the server its MAC and which IP your router does use to connect from the Internet. If your browsing PC and your Meteoplug client share the same connection to the Internet, the server application already knows the MAC of your client and will present as in a "select MAC" drop-down menu for selection. If no MAC is provided, you will have to type in the MAC of your Meteoplug client. Please use standard MAC notation (xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx).
 +
 
 +
Next things to fill in are a user name of your choice. User names are restricted to alphas and numbers, please don't make use of special characters as these will be rejected and/or might produce trouble later on. Password has to be at least 6 characters long and has to consist of alphas and numbers only. Next is your email address. This has to be a valid address, because your account will need an activation by replying to an email that will be send to the given address.
 +
 
 +
When you have finished input in the register section, please press "register". An email will be send to the given address. This email contains a link which activates the requested account for operation. The email also includes the user name and password for your personal reference. Please keep this data at a secure place. It might take a few minutes until the email will arrive at your mailbox. I you don't find it there after 15 minutes, please check your spam folder. The mail might have been dropped there for unknown reasons. Clicking the link in the email will activate your account. Now you have a free demo period of 30 days activated and can make full use of Meteoplug's features. This allows you to do a intensive test drive before licensing Meteoplug for a 12 months period.
 +
 
 +
When you have logged in at Meteoplug for the first time, please go to "license" page. You will be asked to accept license conditions by setting a mark at the corresponding check box and have to press the "I accept" button. When you don't accept the license terms, your usage of Meteoplug comes to an end now as this is mandatory and you will not be able to reach the other admin pages without that.
 +
<center>[[File:mp-license.png]]</center>
 +
 
 +
===Complete Initial Settings===
 +
Go to "Settings" tab and provide following information:
 +
<center>[[File:mp-settings.png]]</center>
 +
* Select your preferred language (German and English is available from the beginning, more languages might be added later on).
 +
* Select your time zone, resp. the timezone your weather station is positioned in. This setting is very important to make graphs etc right later on.
 +
* Give exact coordinates of the position of your weather station. Coordinates are entered in degrees, minutes and seconds (just as integers). If you have decimal positions, please use a service like [http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html this] to compute the needed numbers from that.
 +
* Select a standard upload interval and a shorter interval being used during first 10 minutes after reboot of the client and after a change in client configuration.
 +
Finally, press "Save" to make your changes effective.
 +
 
 +
When you use a Meteohub or Meteobridge system to feed data into your Meteoplug account, geographical coordinates and upload intervals are defined on the client and are just shown here, without the option todo changes.
 +
 
 +
===Select Weather Station===
 +
Select the weather station connected to your Meteoplug client from the drop down list. You will see that the screen updates and allows for additional settings for the selected weather station. In the example below a WMR-928 weather station has been selected and a module reporting system status data has been selected as a second "weather station".
 +
<center>[[File:mp-weather-station.png]]</center>
 +
Depending on your weather station you have to make further settings.
 +
* Type of Connection: Here you specify how your weather station is connected. Normally that will be USB serial or USB HID. When you have a look at the top of the screen you will see a report from your Meteoplug client that indicates what type of connection has been detected. If "USB serial" is listed with a device, you should make use of "USB serial". When you see a device listed as USB HID, please make use of "USB HID". When you do connect to an IP enabled weather station, you should use "TCP/IP".
 +
* Device: This defines the exact device Meteoplug should connect to. If you have "USB serial" selected as connection type you can choose from a drop-down list. Usually the device will be "/dev/ttyUSB0". When it is a "USB HID" connection type, no further device information needs to be specified. When using an IP weather station. please enter IP or name of weather station and port number to connect to, separated by a colon (example, 192.168.1.99:10001).
 +
 
 +
When you press "Save" your settings will be stored and Meteoplug client will apply settings next time it connects to Meteoplug server. This will happen at intervals yous have defined on "Settings" tab.
 +
 
 +
When you use a Meteohub or Meteobridge system to feed data into your Meteoplug account, this page is missing, as selection of weather station has been already done with the client.
 +
 
 +
===Assign Sensors===
 +
The idea of "Sensors" page is to define unique IDs to the sensors reported from your weather station, resp your weather stations if you have more than one connected to your Meteoplug client.
 +
 
 +
Each connected station is displayed in a rectangular field which lists all sensors reported. To help you finding out which sensor is reported where, the type of the sensor is displayed as well as the given number, if it is a sensor that has been given a certain number by the weather station. Your task is to select an ID from the drop-down list of all received sensors. Please select "th0" to be your primary outdoor temperature/humidity sensor. This is necessary as some kinds of wind chill computation might take the sensor as reference. All other IDs you can select as you like. In addition to selecting an ID you can also specify a Name which might make remembering what sensor the ID represents more easy later on.
 +
 
 +
<center>[[File:mp-sensors.png]]</center>
 +
 
 +
Press "Save" to make your changes being stored. Changes will be reported to your Meteoplug client next time it connects the server.
 +
 
 +
When you use a Meteohub or Meteobridge system to feed data into your Meteoplug account, you cannot change sensor IDs and recent settings are just displayed here.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
This video demonstrates server setup step-by-step as described above.
 +
 
 +
<center><wikiflv width="640" height="468" >/flv-videos/bbstart2.flv</wikiflv></center>
 +
 
 +
===Instruments===
 +
On "Instruments" page you have to select the sensor IDs to be taken for display as weather instruments. This needs some amount of weather data being recorded. If you don't get meaning full values right after setup, please wait some minutes (depends on chosen data upload interval).
 +
 
 +
You have to select sensor IDs to take values from. In addition to that you can also provide:
 +
* a station name to be displayed
 +
* Language to be used for instruments display
 +
* Measurement units to be used
 +
 
 +
<center>[[File:mp-instruments.png]]</center>
 +
 
 +
When you want to embed the instruments display into your website, just copy the URL available at "Call instruments as URL" into following IFRAME statements on your home page.
 +
<pre>
 +
<iframe src="http://www.meteoplug.com/cgi-bin/meteochart.cgi?draw=...your...specific...code..."
 +
        allign="top"
 +
        scrolling="no"
 +
        frameborder="0"
 +
        width="550"
 +
        height="400">
 +
    Browser does not support IFRAMEs
 +
</iframe>
 +
</pre>

Latest revision as of 15:22, 9 February 2020

This section describes how to setup your Meteoplug client hardware and how to get it connected to Meteoplug server. It also explains basic settings to be done. If your are interested in a complete functional description of Meteoplug, please have a look at the Documentation, also presented in the menu on the left. This section just describes the first steps to do, to get operational with Meteoplug. When you follow the steps on this page you should have a running Meteoplug system without any major hassle.

Setup of Meteoplug Client Hardware

This section describes the steps necessary to setup your Meteoplug client.

Meteohub System as Meteoplug Client

When you have a Meteohub system this can also be used to feed Meteoplug server application. Please goto "settings tab and enable upload of data to Meteoplug server.

Meteohub-data-upload.png

Having done this you should notice the MAC of your Meteohub system. Meteohub displays the MAC on tab "System Information". You will need the MAC when registering for an account at Meteoplug server application.

Meteobridge System as Meteoplug Client

When you have a Meteobridge system (version 1.8 or newer) this can also be used to feed Meteoplug server application. Please goto tab "weather network" on your Meteobridge and select "Meteoplug Cloud Graphing", to have Meteobridge to send every single piece of weather data it receives from the weather station to the Meteoplug server. You can specify an upload intervall for complete sets of data and a live data update interval to feed dashboards. When you add a station name, your station will also be visible on the Meteoplug map.

Meteobridge.png

Having done this you should notice the MAC of your Meteohub system. Meteohub displays the MAC on tab "System". You will need the MAC when registering for an account at Meteoplug server application.


Meteoplug Clients TL-MR3020, TL-WR703N and WL-330N3G

Tiny and cheap TL-MR3020 and TL-WR703N platforms from TP-Link and WL-330N3G from ASUS are well supported by openwrt project. Openwrt-based Meteoplug client software is provided as a file that can be directly uploaded from a stock TL-MR3020 or TL-WR703N as a new firmware. By doing so you will void the warranty TP-Link/ASUS provides for the unit, but havng the cheap price in mind you will certainly not face a substantial financial risk by that.

Flashing Meteoplug Client Firmware to TL-MR3020

Please consult the TP-Link manual to understand how to get access with your browser to its web interface. What the manual will tell you is basically that you have to connect your PC/Laptop via ethernet cable, and log in to the router's web interface (IP is 192.168.0.254, login name is "admin", password: "admin").

Meteoplug firmware has to be installed, exactly like a firmware from TP-Link. Please use Meteoplug-Client Image meteoplug-tl-mr3020-v1.4.bin. Please make sure path name is very short and ends with ".bin", otherwise router might not accept the firmware image file. Wait until unit restarts. After that it will be a Meteoplug client in standard configuration (LAN mode).

When you ever decide to revert Meteoplug client back to a stock like TL-MR3020 router, you can follow steps explained in this posting. Please understand that all you do here is at your own risk, nothing guaranteed.

Flashing Meteoplug Client Firmware to TL-WR703N

As TL-WR703N does only come with a Chinese web interface, it might be a bit tricky to find the right menu item to initiate firmware update. First you have to login with your browser. To achieve that you have to connect your PC/Laptop via ethernet cable, and log in to the router's web interface (IP is 192.168.1.1, login name is "admin", password: "admin"). When you have access to web interface of TL-WR703N, you select the item at the bottom of the left menu items, marked in light red on the left picture below (system screen). Next you choose sub menu item as marked in light red in the right picture below (flash screen) and browse to target file by pressing light red marked file select dialog in the middle of the screen. You find Meteoplug firmware for this device here: meteoplug-tl-wr703n-v1.3.bin. When error message 18005 occurs, please shorten file name and filepath, as manufacturer firmware can't handle longer file path names.

  • system screen

  • flash screen

Finally, a "are you sure" dialog will pop up, please press "yes" button and wait until progress bar has reached 100%. Unit will reboot automatically. After reboot it will be a Meteoplug client in standard configuration (LAN mode).

Flashing Meteoplug Client Firmware to WL-330N3G

As ASUS WL-330N3G cannot be flashed by its stock web interface, it is necessary that you setup a TFTP environment on your Host PC to transfer the flash data via the ethernet to WL-330N3G. Using TFTP is quite simple.

First of all the router needs to toggled into "TFTP update mode". This is done by keeping the button on the top pressed for 5-10 seconds while doing a power cycle. After a couple of seconds the power LED starts a very slow blinking. You can now release the button. Router now waits for being firmware-updated via TFTP.

Image to be flashed can be downloaded here: meteoplug-wl-330n3g-v1.3.sys Sections below describe how to do flashing for Linux and Windows 7.

Flashing via TFTP on Linux
TFTP update does not need any additional software installed, your Linux already has all you need. Flashing is very straight forward, just execute the script below.
#!/bin/sh
#
if [ "$1" = "" ]
then
  echo "error: flash sys file missing as parameter"
  exit 1
else
  echo "power cycle WL-330N3G with button pressed and wait"
  echo "until power LED does go off and on again. Then "
  echo "release button and press <RETURN>."
  read a
  echo "start flashing..."
  ifconfig br0:0 192.168.1.20
  echo -ne "binary\ntrace\nrexmt 1\nput $1\nquit\n" | tftp 192.168.1.1
  echo "...transfer done."
  echo "Wait until unit does reboot (will take at least 2 minutes). "
  echo "Do not remove from power during flash process!"
fi

The script needs to be called with the downloaded image file as parameter. Please execute the script as root, otherwise "ifconfig" and "tftp" will not do or will ask for root password. "ifconfig" sets a virtual ethernet adapter with IP 192.168.1.20 on your Linux box, which is the IP the router expects to get the firmware update from.

Flashing via TFTP on Windows 7

First you have to enable the TFTP service of your Windows 7. You can do that by

  1. Open Control Panel > Programs and Features
  2. Click "Turn Windows features on or off" on left side menu
  3. Enable "TFTP Client" then click OK button

Next step is to set the IP of your hosts Ethernet adapter to "192.168.1.20". This will disconnect your Host from your network (as far as your equip is not in the 192.168.1.x class c subnet) but it is necessary to use this distinct IP address in order to make the WL-330N3G to accept the flash data transfer. If you dont know how to set your Ethernet adapter to a static IP, please have a look here.

When TFTP is enabled and IP of your host PC is set to 192.168.1.20 we can start flashing. Please open a CMD shell and type in the command 
tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put flash-file-name
where flash-file-name is the name of the image to flash. When command is done successfully, number of transferred bytes is displayed.
Final Flashing Tasks

IP of router in update mode is 192.168.1.1, which hopefully will not do a collision with one of your other devices. If there is a collision, switch off the other devices during flash. After data has been transferred via TFTP you have to wait a couple of minutes until flash process inside the router is done and router restarts itself. Restart switches off all LEDs for a short time. Now it is safe to disconnect the router from power. Interrupting the flash processes by a power cycle will brick the router.

First Login to Meteoplug Client

When Meteoplug is connected to your LAN it will try to receive a dynamic IP from your DHCP server during boot. Wait until blinking of the largest LED changes into constant on. Press and release the transparent pushbutton on top of the large LED (TL-MR3020) or the reset button behind the pinhole at the back (TL-WR703N) or button on top of the device (WL-330N3G). Now LED will start signaling the unit's IP as explained here.

If Meteoplug client cannot be connected to your LAN or your LAN does not provide a DHCP service, then large LED will not leave fast-blinking mode. To get network settings fixed, you can setup network settings with the network cloud simulator, which is available here: Network Cloud Simulator. Having done the corrrect network settings with the simulator, you can store these onto a FAT formatted USB stick, plug that stick into your Meteoplug client and do a reboot. Settings stored on USB stick will be transferred to your Meteoplug client during boot. When credentials are OK it will leave blinking mode and large LED will turn constantly on, which indictaes that boot and load of application stack from Meteoplug server in the Internet went fine.

When you manage to reach the meteoplug client with your browser and if you are fimilar with openwrt, which does all the network handling of your Meteoplug client, you can also browse to "http://lan-ip-of-your-meteoplug-client/cgi-bin/luci" and do even more advanced network settings. Password for access via luci is "meteoplug". The headline of each sreen inside openwrt includes a push button named "Open Meteoplug Client" to open a screen, where status of data logging and received sensor values can be inspected. It is the same page you get displayed when you browse to the IP of your Meteoplug client. This page does not provide great features to display data (this is done by the Meteoplug cloud service in the Internet) but it allows you a quick chek if connection to Meteoplug is fine and if weather station sensors do deliver data.

Openwrt-screen-6.png

Bifferboard as Meteoplug Client

Bifferboard development environments are well described on Bifferboard Product and Bifferboard Wiki. Actual Meteoplug client Image is a minimal Linux 2.6.30.5 kernel with the proposed patches applied and a minimal loader, that loads the recent Meteoplug client software from the Meteoplug server. This takes care that each time your Meteoplug client gets rebooted, you will get the most recent SW version. So you never have to bother yourself with applying SW updates.

When you are using a Bifferboard as Meteoplug client you are facing one of these situations

  • Your Bifferboard is already flashed with a Meteoplug client image. In that case you can skip flashing instructions chapter. You will find Bifferboards already flashed with Meteoplug client software and ready to here.
  • Your Bifferboard has a standard image installed and needs to be flashed with a Meteoplug image as explained in next paragraphs.

Flashing Meteoplug Client Image to Bifferboard

Flashing is done by a Python script that connects to a just booting Bifferboard via LAN and sends the packets to be stored in flash storage as ethernet packets. You need a Linux system running, which has Python installed. Furthermore you need following files:

  • Python script that does the flashing: File:Bb-eth-upload.zip (please download and unzip)
  • Meteoplug client image for Bifferboard: File:Mp-bb-image.zip (please download and unzip)
  • MAC of your Bifferboard. Mac has format xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx where "xx" stands for a two digit hexadecimal number. You will find MAC of your Bifferboard written on a sticker on one of the chips on the PCB or in the documentation received with it.

Connect Bifferboard to be flashed to your LAN, reboot Bifferboard by repowering it, and start downloaded script on your Linux box by python bb_eth_upload.py eth0 a1:b2:c3:d4:e5:f6 mp-bb-image, where "a1:b2:c3:d4:e5:f6" must be replaced by MAC of your Bifferboard. The MAC is needed to address the correct board. Without a correct MAC, no flashing will start. You will see on your console that buckets from flash storage first being erased and then written the new data to. After flashing is complete Bifferboard will reboot.

When you discover problems during flashing, please consult this page as you are facing a Bifferboard related issue, I can provide very limited help on.

Start Meteoplug Bifferboard Client

Connect your flashed Bifferboard to your LAN and weather station and power it on.

Meteoplug client will connect Meteoplug server in the Internet. This requires that your LAN is connected to the Internet by a router, which also provides an IP address by DHCP service. All routers out there have a DHCP feature. Please make sure that it is enabled. As an alternative you might have a dedicated DHCP server in your LAN, which is also fine. In addition to the IP address Meteoplug client also needs the IP of the gateway to address the Internet and IP of a DNS (domain name server) in the Internet. But don't worry, your router normally provides all this information and your Meteoplug client will probably be able to connect Meteoplug server in the Internet. If this does fail for some reason you don't have much options. Meteoplug client is fully controlled by the server application. It cannot work without this.

What you might check in case of trouble is that your router is not blocking outgoing HTTP traffic on port 80. Normally, that kind of traffic is allowed for all IPs in the LAN, but your router might have some special settings (like "Kindersicherung" in AVM Fritz!boxes) blocking this until you explicitly select a LAN IP to be able to access the Internet. Meteoplug client does not need any incoming ports opened, as it is not going to be connected from the outside. Direction of traffic is outgoing only.

Regular Linux System as Meteoplug Client (no longer supported)

When you want to use an already running X86 Linux box as Meteoplug client, you simply have to download this package:generic-image-tgz. Installation is described in the attached README. According to the distribution you are using, some individual changes might be necessary, hopefully not too complicated ones. You can also post into the Meteoplug forum, when you need help or want to share experiences about this.

Fritz!Box 7270 as Meteoplug Client (no longer supported)

You can use a Fritz!Box 7270 as Meteoplug client. All you have to do is to install this package meteoplug-7270-install.img on the 7270. You simply do that by the web interface used for AVM updates. When you upload the package, your 7270 will warn you that it is not a regular AVM image. When you accept that, Meteoplug client will be installed as an additional package on your 7270. If you have a non-stock firmware running or have other additional packages installed there might be problems. However, by installing Meteoplug client you accept that this can happen and in worst case can "brick" your 7270. When you want to uninstall Meteoplug, please install this uninstaller package meteoplug-7270-uninstall.img. A few minutes after installation you can view Meteoplug client dashboard by browsing to your 7270 LAN IP on port 7770. When this works, installation of Meteoplug client on 7270 has gone fine.

Meteoplug Server Application

When you have done steps above you should leave your Meteoplug client powered and connected. You can merely forget about it, because no interaction with it will be necessary in the future. It will just be there and sends data.

Create an Account

Please login at http://login.meteoplug.com. You will see a screen like this were you can login or - as a first time user - can register an account.

Mp-user-admin.png

To register an account first step is to specify the MAC of the device the account should be created for. If you are lucky - and most times you will be - your Meteoplug client has already made a first contact with Meteoplug server an have told the server its MAC and which IP your router does use to connect from the Internet. If your browsing PC and your Meteoplug client share the same connection to the Internet, the server application already knows the MAC of your client and will present as in a "select MAC" drop-down menu for selection. If no MAC is provided, you will have to type in the MAC of your Meteoplug client. Please use standard MAC notation (xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx).

Next things to fill in are a user name of your choice. User names are restricted to alphas and numbers, please don't make use of special characters as these will be rejected and/or might produce trouble later on. Password has to be at least 6 characters long and has to consist of alphas and numbers only. Next is your email address. This has to be a valid address, because your account will need an activation by replying to an email that will be send to the given address.

When you have finished input in the register section, please press "register". An email will be send to the given address. This email contains a link which activates the requested account for operation. The email also includes the user name and password for your personal reference. Please keep this data at a secure place. It might take a few minutes until the email will arrive at your mailbox. I you don't find it there after 15 minutes, please check your spam folder. The mail might have been dropped there for unknown reasons. Clicking the link in the email will activate your account. Now you have a free demo period of 30 days activated and can make full use of Meteoplug's features. This allows you to do a intensive test drive before licensing Meteoplug for a 12 months period.

When you have logged in at Meteoplug for the first time, please go to "license" page. You will be asked to accept license conditions by setting a mark at the corresponding check box and have to press the "I accept" button. When you don't accept the license terms, your usage of Meteoplug comes to an end now as this is mandatory and you will not be able to reach the other admin pages without that.

Mp-license.png

Complete Initial Settings

Go to "Settings" tab and provide following information:

Mp-settings.png
  • Select your preferred language (German and English is available from the beginning, more languages might be added later on).
  • Select your time zone, resp. the timezone your weather station is positioned in. This setting is very important to make graphs etc right later on.
  • Give exact coordinates of the position of your weather station. Coordinates are entered in degrees, minutes and seconds (just as integers). If you have decimal positions, please use a service like this to compute the needed numbers from that.
  • Select a standard upload interval and a shorter interval being used during first 10 minutes after reboot of the client and after a change in client configuration.

Finally, press "Save" to make your changes effective.

When you use a Meteohub or Meteobridge system to feed data into your Meteoplug account, geographical coordinates and upload intervals are defined on the client and are just shown here, without the option todo changes.

Select Weather Station

Select the weather station connected to your Meteoplug client from the drop down list. You will see that the screen updates and allows for additional settings for the selected weather station. In the example below a WMR-928 weather station has been selected and a module reporting system status data has been selected as a second "weather station".

Mp-weather-station.png

Depending on your weather station you have to make further settings.

  • Type of Connection: Here you specify how your weather station is connected. Normally that will be USB serial or USB HID. When you have a look at the top of the screen you will see a report from your Meteoplug client that indicates what type of connection has been detected. If "USB serial" is listed with a device, you should make use of "USB serial". When you see a device listed as USB HID, please make use of "USB HID". When you do connect to an IP enabled weather station, you should use "TCP/IP".
  • Device: This defines the exact device Meteoplug should connect to. If you have "USB serial" selected as connection type you can choose from a drop-down list. Usually the device will be "/dev/ttyUSB0". When it is a "USB HID" connection type, no further device information needs to be specified. When using an IP weather station. please enter IP or name of weather station and port number to connect to, separated by a colon (example, 192.168.1.99:10001).

When you press "Save" your settings will be stored and Meteoplug client will apply settings next time it connects to Meteoplug server. This will happen at intervals yous have defined on "Settings" tab.

When you use a Meteohub or Meteobridge system to feed data into your Meteoplug account, this page is missing, as selection of weather station has been already done with the client.

Assign Sensors

The idea of "Sensors" page is to define unique IDs to the sensors reported from your weather station, resp your weather stations if you have more than one connected to your Meteoplug client.

Each connected station is displayed in a rectangular field which lists all sensors reported. To help you finding out which sensor is reported where, the type of the sensor is displayed as well as the given number, if it is a sensor that has been given a certain number by the weather station. Your task is to select an ID from the drop-down list of all received sensors. Please select "th0" to be your primary outdoor temperature/humidity sensor. This is necessary as some kinds of wind chill computation might take the sensor as reference. All other IDs you can select as you like. In addition to selecting an ID you can also specify a Name which might make remembering what sensor the ID represents more easy later on.

Mp-sensors.png

Press "Save" to make your changes being stored. Changes will be reported to your Meteoplug client next time it connects the server.

When you use a Meteohub or Meteobridge system to feed data into your Meteoplug account, you cannot change sensor IDs and recent settings are just displayed here.


This video demonstrates server setup step-by-step as described above.

<wikiflv width="640" height="468" >/flv-videos/bbstart2.flv</wikiflv>

Instruments

On "Instruments" page you have to select the sensor IDs to be taken for display as weather instruments. This needs some amount of weather data being recorded. If you don't get meaning full values right after setup, please wait some minutes (depends on chosen data upload interval).

You have to select sensor IDs to take values from. In addition to that you can also provide:

  • a station name to be displayed
  • Language to be used for instruments display
  • Measurement units to be used
Mp-instruments.png

When you want to embed the instruments display into your website, just copy the URL available at "Call instruments as URL" into following IFRAME statements on your home page. 

<iframe src="http://www.meteoplug.com/cgi-bin/meteochart.cgi?draw=...your...specific...code..." 
        allign="top" 
        scrolling="no" 
        frameborder="0"
        width="550"
        height="400"> 
    Browser does not support IFRAMEs
</iframe>
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