Getting Started

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. 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.

Findout IP

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. Now there are different ways to find out which IP your Meteobridge has received.

Lazy Way

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: MagicIP

IP Signaling

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.

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.

Example: IP 192.168.10.77 Legend: M = LED medium dimmed, H = LED shines bright, _ = LED is dark

Signal:                                          Comment
___M___M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M___M_M___H               192
___M___M_M_M_M_M_M___M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M___H         168
___M___M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M_M___H                   10
___M_M_M_M_M_M_M___M_M_M_M_M_M_M___              77

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.

Alternative Ways to Find-Out IP

If you don't like reading the blinks, you can also use an IP scanner (for example: Advanced IP Scanner) or you can look into the logs of your router that provides IPs via DHCP for clients in the LAN/WLAN.

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:

Sat Jan  5 00:23:16 UTC 2013
MAC:     xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
LAN IP:  192.168.123.245

Cloud Simulator for Network Configuration

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.

1. Please browse to 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.
2. 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".
3. 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.
4. 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.

First Login

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.

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.

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.

Back to Defaults

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.

1. 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.
2. 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).
3. 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.

Flash Again

When you need to flash a new Meteobridge firmware to your TL-MR3020, TL-MR3040, TL-WR703N or DIR-505, you can do that by calling the URL "http://ip-of-your-meteobridge/cgi-bin/fwupdate.cgi". This will shutdown some running services and will bring you to the openwrt SW stack below Meteobridge application software stack. If your device cannot load Meteobridge application stack from the Internet for some reason, you can also directly access openwrt web interface by browsing to "http://ip-of-your-meteobridge-device/cgi-bin/luci". Login with your Meteobridge password and go to "System" tab. Select sub tab "Backup / Flash Firmware" and use offered "Flash new firmware" section. Unmark "keep settings" option and start flashing. Keep device connected to power, it will restart automatically. If you have a WL-330N3G, this always needs to be flashed with the TFTP environment as in setup section for that device explained.