What’s new:
* Fixed a bug that on startup missed rain that had fallen since the last archive record was written.
* Added feature for automatic syncing of console’s time to PC’s time.
* Added feature for display of wind direction relative to magnetic north after entry of declination.
* Added check for updates feature.
* Made some minor improvements to code that communicates with APRS servers.
The time sync is something a number of people have requested, so read the manual to see how I ended up implementing, and see how to turn it on (it’s off by default). NOTE: Many of the folks on this forum are running WeatherDisplay (a good idea!), and it has a time sync feature already. It’s not a good idea to have two different programs both trying to sync the console’s time. So be aware of that.
A number of people have also pointed out the rain problem where VPLive will miss rain that’s fallen since the last archive record was stored by the console when VPLive starts up and initializes its rain accumulators. I’ve put in code that I think will fix that, but since I live in a desert, it’s a hard one for me to test well. Keep your eye on the VPLive rain values when you start up, and let me know if you think I’ve put this to rest, missed the mark, or introduced a new rain bug.
As it has been in the past, VPLive is freeware, no strings attached.
It took me a long time to break the habit of turning on the sprinkler full blast causing completely blue sky rain fail with amazing amounts of precipitation.
I’m sure with a close by garden hose, she could help you test the rain function for you.
There is some public domain code that will actually calculate the declination based on the lat/long. I’d like to incorporate that into VPLive at some time. Thanks for the link. Until that feature is in, folks will have to get that themselves. I’ll add the link to the readme and the VPLive webpage.
I put the 1.1.9 in there to test the check update feature (there isn’t really a 1.1.9 version). I thought I had changed it back, but apparently my ftp to the web server failed, or my working too late at night made it so I only thought I changed it back.
The ahead/behind was a specific feature someone requested. They have some software that does some end of day processing immediately after midnight. If it does this but the console’s hasn’t done it’s midnight processing, then a bunch of stuff daily stats get screwed up. So they wanted VPLive to be make sure that the console was very close to the PC’s time, but NEVER even 1 second behind. The console always has to be ahead a little for everything to work. The software does something he needs, he didn’t write it, and couldn’t get the author to fix it.
Knowing how the VP works, where a bunch of stuff gets reset at midnight, I thought there might be other weather software that also might have a problem if the console time gets ahead or behind the PC, and the way I implemented it seemed the most straightforward way to cover the bases without people having to enter time tolerances. For most people, I think setting VPLive to match the console to the PC is the selection to make.
If you downloaded 1.1.8 already, and you’re having a problem with the VPLive APRS submissions, download and install 1.1.8 again from http://www.softwx.com/weather/vplive.html
I’ve made some changes to the vpaprs program that sends to the aprs servers. vpaprs is included in the VPLive setup.
