WeatherFax ...

[rgleason]

Bdbcat has updated the Windows version of Weatherfax to much better year old internet download files. Get this version at the main plugin download site.

Please download this and test your area. If the url's are wrong, find a good weatherfax url and post it here please. If a weatherfax does not load properly please advise here, and include the new coordinate.xml if you can.

Additionally, it would be nice to get the UK Met weatherfaxes working, but they have a rotating set of numeric identifiers that needs to be figured out.
We would like to know what the sequence is so a download approach can be worked out. The site is here (both B&W and Color)

Surface pressure charts - Met Office

UK Met Surface Charts -Analysis & 5 days of forecast charts are updated every 12 hours around 0730 UTC and 1930 UTC, with the exception day four and five charts which are only issued once per day at 1930 UTC.

This may help with the numeric code used.

Weatherfax XML files need to be updated again. They are 1 year old, but much better and more complete than the previous XML files.

[rgleason]

Attached is a new set of Weatherfax XML files that include the German Weatherfaxes.

WeatherfaxInternetRetrieval.xml
CoordinateSets.xml

For Windows users, please copy these two files into your
C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 4.6.2\plugins\weatherfax_pi\data folder
over your older files, provided you have not modified them for your own use.

Also, for Windows users, please copy the same
CoordinateSets.xml
into your
C:\ProgramData\opencpn\plugins\weatherfax folder
provided you have not modified it for your own use.

These files are also good for Linux weatherfax plugin, but you will have to determine the appropriate directories.

See attached below. Remove the pdf, then unzip please.

When "we" (I need help here, besides others have to learn how this works too!!) get all the weatherfax links working properly again we will ask Bdbcat to update the main website download again, but this will take awhile, and I need help from each of you, checking weatherfaxs across the world.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Additionally, it would be nice to get the UK Met weatherfaxes working, but they have a rotating set of numeric identifiers that needs to be figured out.
We would like to know what the sequence is so a download approach can be worked out.

This might not last forever but the met office images are repeated at these addresses...

http://old.wetterzentrale.de/pics/bracka.gif current
http://old.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack0.gif +24
http://old.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack0a.gif +36
http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack1.gif +48
http://old.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack1a.gif +60
http://old.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack2.gif +72
http://old.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack2a.gif +84
http://old.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack3.gif +96
http://old.wetterzentrale.de/pics/brack4.gif +120


Found on this site - Weather Charts

HTH

[rgleason]

Conachair. I'll add your Met next and attach. Thank you.

Everyone please test your areas and post what urls / charts do not work. It should be a relatively small set but we should correct it.

[BlackSea]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Attached is a new set of Weatherfax XML files that include the German Weatherfaxes.

WeatherfaxInternetRetrieval.xml
CoordinateSets.xml

These files are also good for Linux weatherfax plugin, but you will have to determine the appropriate directories.

Hi Rick,

i have tried your XMLs from Zip. Under Linux copied both XMLs into $HOME/.opencpn/plugins/weatherfax. But I can't find in your Files any URL for "german weather" server.
Are you sure you have attached right Files?

Gruß
BlackSea aka free-x

[conachair]

Originally Posted by BlackSea

Hi Rick,

i have tried your XMLs from Zip. Under Linux copied both XMLs into $HOME/.opencpn/plugins/weatherfax. But I can't find in your Files any URL for "german weather" server.
Are you sure you have attached right Files?

Gruß
BlackSea aka free-x

Works OK on windows, sure you have the right area selected? If you leave lat & long empty it shows all the available urls..

[rgleason]

Using your Editor such as Notepad++ in the Coordinatesets.xml you should have

<Coordinate Name="German Weather(DWD) - European - A" X1="2968" Y1="1395" Lat1="70.00000" Lon1="10.00000" X2="3733" Y2="3998" Lat2="30.00000" Lon2="30.00000" Mapping="Polar" InputPoleX="2788" InputPoleY="-616" InputEquator="5991.00000" InputTrueRatio="0.9980" MappingMultiplier="0.5000" MappingRatio="0.7100" />
<Coordinate Name="German Weather(DWD) - European - B" X1="1084" Y1="509" Lat1="70.00000" Lon1="10.00000" X2="664" Y2="1459" Lat2="30.00000" Lon2="-20.00000" Mapping="Polar" InputPoleX="507" InputPoleY="-112" InputEquator="1090.00000" InputTrueRatio="1.0080" MappingMultiplier="1.0000" MappingRatio="0.8169" />

Look just after all the NOAA and OPC.

And in the weatherfaxinternetretrieval.xml you should find:

<Server Name="German Weather(DWD)" Url="http://www.dwd.de/DWD/wetter/wv_spez/hobbymet/wetterkarten/">
<Region Name="European">
<Map Url="bwk_bodendruck_na_ana.png" Contents="Surface Anlys(4mb)" Area="A" />
<Map Url="ico_tkboden_na_024.png" Contents="24hr Forecast" Area="B" />
<Map Url="ico_tkboden_na_036.png" Contents="36hr Forecast" Area="B" />
<Map Url="ico_tkboden_na_048.png" Contents="48hr Forecast" Area="B" />
<Map Url="ico_tkboden_na_060.png" Contents="60hr Forecast" Area="B" />
<Map Url="ico_tkboden_na_084.png" Contents="84hr Forecast" Area="B" />
<Map Url="ico_tkboden_na_108.png" Contents="108hr Forecast" Area="B" />

<Area Name="A" lat1="40N" lat2="60N" lon1="40E" lon2="40W" />
<Area Name="B" lat1="40N" lat2="60N" lon1="40E" lon2="40W" />
</Region>
</Server>

Look after all the NOAA, OPC and Aviation Weather.

I've checked my upload files and these lines appear to be in the files.

The only thing I can think of, is you have not highlighted "EUROPEAN" on the right, and then selected a file to download when it appears. Please see the attached. If I am mistaken, please advise. Am now doing UK-MET with Conachair's links!

Thanks for testing.

[rgleason]

BlackSea,
As a second thought, it really makes a difference where you put these files. I don't have linux so I am unable to really advise, but I can tell you how the windows version works. See this post please: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2443447

The coordinatesets.xml in the C:\ProgramData\opencpn\plugins\weatherfax folder is updated when you use the Fax Wizard to fix the overly coordinates. So it is the most up to date file, rather than coordinatesets.xml in the C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 4.6.2\plugins\weatherfax_pi\data folder which are the files that are downloaded with the plugin.

When we are editing these files we need to know where the current xml settings are located.

[rgleason]

Blacksea,

Under Linux copied both XMLs into $HOME/.opencpn/plugins/weatherfax. But I can't find in your Files any URL for "german weather" server.

I would think you would do something like this:

Copy weatherfaxinternetretrieval.xml to $HOME/.opencpn/plugins/weatherfax/data

Copy coordinatesets.xml to $HOME/.opencpn/plugins/weatherfax/data

Then copy coordinatesets.xml to some programdata directory where files can be written to. Without having the OS available and searching I can't advise further. Do a search on your system for "coordinatesets.xml" to find out where they are located. You want to copy these files into the exact same locations they were in before you copied them. I believe you may have copied weatherfaxinternetretrieval.xml into the wrong directory, but you should check, by searching for it. There should be only one weatherfaxinternetretrieval.xml.

[LeaseOnLife]

Originally Posted by BlackSea

Hi Rick,

i have tried your XMLs from Zip. Under Linux copied both XMLs into $HOME/.opencpn/plugins/weatherfax. But I can't find in your Files any URL for "german weather" server.
Are you sure you have attached right Files?

Gruß
BlackSea aka free-x

On my Linux-Box I had to put the files into /usr/local/share/opencpn/plugins/weatherfax_pi/data

I think only the CoordinateSets.xml is taken from the home directory, if it exists there.

Dirk

[rgleason]

Yes, Dirk that's the right directory, I believe:
/usr/local/share/opencpn/plugins/weatherfax_pi/data

I don't understand this statement:
"I think only the CoordinateSets.xml is taken from the home directory, if it exists there."

Dirk, are these files working for you in weatherfax now?

Can you give us the full path descriptions for copying the weatherfax xml files so linux newbies get it?

Copy weatherfaxinternetretrieval.xml and coordinatesets.xml into _______?
Copy coordinatesets.xml into ______?

Thanks

[rgleason]

Attached are new files with UK-MET added.

Please refer to previous posts for where to copy these files for proper operation.
Windows Users see: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post2443447

Conachair Thank you for that contribution.

I notice that these files are just 50kb - 70kb yet OpenCPN & Weatherfax chew up goobs of memory when they are downloaded. This has been a problem with Weatherfax and in extreme cases, such as when I am testing weatherfax URL's I crash Opencpn or have to close Opencpn down and restart O to clear the memory use.

In this particular case with the UK-Met files each time they are downloaded there is about 100mb of memory use added to Opencpn!
So Opencpn when first open uses 91mb, load a UK-Met image and Opencpn uses 240mb, another, 350mb, another, 460mb, 550mb, 660mb, 770mb, 880mb, 990mb, 1100mb, 1210mb, 1320mb etc I did not get it to crash this time before closing Opencpn, but the memory use just keeps going up. Often Opencpn + Weatherfax opening files will crash at 880mb of memory use.

This is definitely a problem, but one workaround is to keep an eye on memory use and track of how many weatherfax files you have downloaded in a recent session. Then close O and restart back at 91mb memory. This problem really should be fixed, I have had it noted for almost a year.

Won't someone else please confirm this? Just bring up your task manager and see Opencpn memory use as you download weatherfax files!

See attached files including UK-Met. Take the pdf off and unzip.

[rgleason]

Ok, here are the new files with German Weather 500mb files added. Please remove the PDF and unzip and place in the proper folders.

Please note that if an overlay is not registered properly with the charts, you can initiate the Weatherfax Wizard by selecting the weatherfax, then "File" and then "Edit". You are now in the Weatherfax Wizard and can select the type of projection, coords, lat/long etc. What you select is then saved to the coordinatesets.xml in your C:\ProgramData\opencpn\plugins\weatherfax directory.

If the first try using the Weatherfax Wizard does not overlay properly, simply try it again, with File > Edit. Also I find bringing the weatherfax up in your browser is helpful, then Ctrl + zoom in to see the coordinates better, you have to have the right coordinates or it will not work properly!

There are lots of recent changes to even the NOAA faxes, and some don't work. Please note it is possible for you to send me the corrections for these items, as it is unlikely I will again check weatherfaxes for the whole world again. ....so we are depending on user's to maintain these XML files!

[rgleason]

Sorry, I had a typo in the 500mb list. Use this one. Take PDF off and unzip. Place in the proper folders.

[BlackSea]

Thank you, Rick!
I have copied both XML to /usr/share/opencpn/plugins/weatherfax_pi/data/ ( OpenCPN deb packages for Ubuntu 16.04)
And it works as expected

Gruß
Blacksea