I am having a bad time trying to reliably capture GRLevel3 V3 radar images. Can someone please tell me what program they are using that is reliable? Any guidance would be appreciated. I am currently using a trial version.
Thank you
Craig
Is this topic any help?
Thanks, but this thread has to do with uploading the files after they are created/captured, which is what I need help with. I am trying to capture the images - WD can do the uploading.
Craig
I did a quick search for auto capture utilities and there are several listed here: Auto take screenshots at regular intervals in Windows 11/10. One app is ShareX, which I have used for several years to manually capture screens, so that might be an option, among the others listed.
Novawx - thank you. I had seen that post and tried the first 4. The ShareX had all the functionality, but I could not get the auto capture to work reliably. It seemed to stop if the monitor went to sleep.. Went back and looked again, and the last one, Automatic Screenshotter had more capabilities than were in the description. I installed and configured it, and it has been running for hours exactly as I want it to, starts with windows, and is doing the job. Thanks for the nudge.
Craig
Hey Craig - thanks for following up with a solution. Maybe I’ll purchase GRLevel3 V3 since it does have additional features.
At what frequency do you auto capture? Since the NEXRAD volume scans are variable (usually 5-6 minutes in reflectivity mode and about 3 minutes in clear air mode), you could get duplicate times or miss a scan. Then how do you upload the files and ensure as you add a new file, the oldest file drops out of the sequence?
Bill
Bill,
I am still working through the settings to reliably capture. I am capturing every 90 seconds (for my testing), using a static filename, which overwrites the file, and have WD looking at that folder, and doing an upload every 5 minutes. See attachment. WD is uploading every 5 minutes. When I have the screen on, everything seems to work. My issue is that when the screen goes to sleep, after a couple of hours, either the screen capture or the upload fails. I am crawling thru 8 hours of WD FTP logs and I don’t think WD is the problem. I am currently looking at the settings. I had the same issue using ShareX - the capture stopped after a period of time.
I will continue to experiment and let you know what the outcome is. I have been using StormLab Turbocharged, and it has its own capture program built in, and I never had an issue. But the program is old, non-supported and what you see is what you get. GRLeve3 is more feature rich.
I’ll be back with my progress.
Craig
You might already be aware of this, but under Windows Settings → System → Power → Screen, sleep, & hibernate timeouts, you can select “Turn my screen off after” Never.
Bill,
I am well aware of that. Today, my Stormlab program captures and uploads the radar images whether the monitor is on or off. WD does the exact same thing with the Webcam images. The monitor can either be asleep or completely off, but the images are still captured electronically, and uploaded. That is what I am trying to do. I do not want my LG 4k 4840X2160 monitor to be on 24/7. If you are OK with that, either ShareX or Automatic Screenshotter work just fine when you monitor is on and “live”.
Craig
I do leave the monitor for my GRLevel3 V2 display on 24/7. The reason I do so is the app will shutdown randomly - sometimes it will run for a couple of weeks, sometime less than an hour after a restart. By leaving the monitor on, I can glance at the screen when I walk by to see if the app is still running. The monitor, along with my other weather computers and monitors are in a room nobody uses, so leaving them on doesn’t disturb anyone.
I do show the status on my wxstatus.php webpage, and I just checked - GR failed yesterday at 5:28 PM!
I need to update my script that checks my status page - right now it sends me a daily email showing the status of the Davis ISS and console battery. I need a script that runs every hour or so and emails me if GR is not current.
Bill,
If you have a display that only had GRLevel on it, there is a setting in Automatic Screenshotter that can capture the window as soon as it changes, but the capture happens as soon as something changes on the active window, so if there are other things on the screen, it captures anything that changes. That being said, I am walking away from GRLevel3 as there can be as much as a 10 or 15 minute delay in the radar image. I have the shots, using a static name, being sent to a folder. WD uploads that image every 5 minutes. Therefor if you capture every 2 minutes, the image could be over 7 minutes old. My Stormlab radar program captures the image as soon as it changes and immediately uploads that to the website, so it is there within 30 seconds of the new image update. I like the functionality of V3, but can’t get past the capture / upload issues without writing all kinds of scripts and such to make it happen.
Maybe Ken True has some thoughts on this, as I think he is the one who implemented this function into his templates.
Let me know if you find anything. I am running a version of GRLevel3 V3 and capturing a screenshot every 2 minutes with an always on screen and I will let you know if I see any failure.
Craig
Let me point out up front, i have have no idea what i am talking about, but with Stormlab DOA and GR3 now becoming a thing of the past, there is an opening here for someone. A new program with publication would have a market.
Alternatively, are the maps available just for the pulling with parameters? If so, then some script writer {much} smarter than i could write a script to pull them and save them sequenced. It would not have to be fancy, i.e. we don’t need every type of optional map (base reflectivity, velocity and composite relectivity would make me more than happy), we don’t really need zoom (but it would be nice). We already have a script to display them.
What say one of you smart script writers?
Jim
Bill,
I have been running GRLevel3 V3 for 24 hours using Automatic ScreenShotter to capture the images every 3 minutes, and keeping my display on. In 24 hours it captured 483 images, so that is good.
That being said, I am using my Stormlab program which has its own capture and FTP program, and uploads are immediate as soon as new data is received.
If you find and additional info, please let me know.
Craig
Poking around the NOAA websites i found a java app WCT-4.8.1 which runs well here and allows me to see a variety of Level 3 screens. I can select various reflectivity levels and composite reflectivity. I can manually save images as png files and apperantly as animations (although i haven’t quite figured that out yet.) I can automagically refresh on a timed basis as fast every 30 seconds. Best of all, its free.
Now, as i have oft stated, i am not a programmer, but perhaps one of you programmer wizards can adapt that java code to automatically save these images where they can be uploaded to our websites and viewed. There is a save to clipboard item and i could bring into paint without a problem. Automating this is just way above my head.
Sample attached.
Edit: Zoomed, Range Rings and Home Marker added.
I think i have met the enemy and he is mine.
The NOAA Weather and Climate Toolkit is a free download and available here. Once you have it running, Go to data->data colllection by organization->Level3 and make selections from there. Save it as a favorite. You can add layers, markers, etc. When done, save the whole thing as a session, but you have to turn on the marker each time the program starts. On the left hand side Data tab go to favorites and set an autorefresh time.
I am using a mouse macro recorder to click the Save Image button, save it to a known location, i.e. /wdisplay/downloads. The mouse macro recorder is free and i am using MiniMouseMacro available here. Go to windows task scheduler and create a task to run, say every 5 minutes to run the macro that clicks the save image, selects the filename, clicks save and says yes to overwrite.
In weatherdisplay FTP/Internet setup->General FTP functions upload that file to the website, i use every 5 minutes.
The NOAA tool kit has to stay on top, it doesn’t matter if your screen goes to sleep.
My results can be viewed here. i am leaving the legend on for now so i can see that itis working and updating.
Voila, free Level 3 radar.
Jim
P.S. You need the Java runtimes for the NWS program.
Had to look this up. . . War of 1812, report by Oliver Hazard Perry of the defeat of the British at the Battle of Lake Erie, 10 September 1813?