Pyssel

Updated 2022-11-28 ! In a former post I showed how to download and extract data from forecast GRIB files but avoided to handle if the wind direction and speed was declared as U and V components, vectors.  In this post I will extract wind data from a GRIB forecast file and use the U V components to calculate, and display, wind speed and direction at a chosen point. The data is visualized as graphs in a NodeRed dashboard. Normally, using charts in NodeRed, the timestamp is taken from the time when the input message is created but here I will use the timestamp from the forecast, loading the whole chart in one go.

Updated 2022-11-06 ! Sometimes I'm a little confused if it's the local network that is the bottleneck or if the ISP, Internet Service Provider, is slow. In a former post I used 2 applikations to get the information, from both the local LAN and Internet, but on the other hand it maybe hade been nice with a more lightweight approach.  From  this post  I got inspiration and discovered a nice little  application " iperf3 "  which  is available for several OS .

New to Node-Red (NR) ? Maybe start with a simple application You direct can benefit from. This application is measuring Your Internet connection at chosen intervals using   speedtest.net  and showing the result in a graph. If the speed is under a set value it will send You an e-mail. Show the measured  Internet speed in Apples Home app ?

Updated 2022-09-18 ! Victron have a  state-of-the-art monitoring solution used by the GX products. It can monitor their other system components  such as inverter/chargers, solar chargers, shunts, and batteries  both local and remote all over the world. If you have a smaller Victron solution it is nice to know that the same software, Venus OS(VOS), can run on a Raspberry Pi(RPi) instead of the more expensive and versatile GX products.

Updated 2022-08-16 ! In a former post I went trough how to update an old MacBook Air 4.2, (mid 2011, SSD, 4 Gb memory) to Big Sur and in this post I will update the Mac to Monterey with the same patcher !!  This is despite that  max OS  for the Mac is  High Sierra. This is done, among other things, due to that t he patcher  handles Macs with graphic cards from 2008 - 2011 which Monterey doesn't do natively. Since my former upgrade, to Big Sur, included a format of the SSD disk I here used the  patcher to do an upgrade from Big Sur  to Monterey. Awesome !!!

The use case for this post is that a got a request from a customer where a commercial displays brightness, used for digital signage , should be put at a minimum when there is no people in the surroundings. After some checking I found that on most displays, even on our own TV set, there is a  connector for the  RS - 232 protocol  that accepts commands similar to the commands sent by the remote control. A nice explanation on how it works is found here .

If you are using Davis Personal/Professional weather stations (PWS) you will get a nice dashboard when you link your PWS to the Davis weatherlink (WL) site. What you probably really miss is a forecast displayed together with your PWS data. The picture is showing a part of the dashboard at pwsweather.com (PW) after you have linked your PWS to the site. An add on is that you via API:s can get both the current weather, forecast and other data free of charge, via the aerisweather.com (AW) site. This post will handle the setup and also a Node-Red dashboard interfacing the aeris API.

Updated 2022-07-04 ! O n the same server/hardware you can have a test environment for Node-Red(NR), separated from production separated instances for different applications Setup will follow for a Raspberry Pi(RPi) including how to  auto start at power on. A post for NR quick install .

In former posts   I used the temperatur sensor DS18B20, in several applications, but now it was time for the boats exhaust temperature and checking out YDTC-13 from Yacht Devices (YDTC). ( But please note that the YDTC can be used in any temperature application.) When you are boating, using the engine, it's  very important that the cooling water  always is present otherwise major damages can follow.  In "wet exhaust" systems it's easy to get the temperature which I posted here .

Updated 2022-06-10 ! In other posts I  blogged about a way to measure temperature with a Raspberry Pi(RPi), direct connected or via WiFi , together with the marine applikation SignalK(SK). In this post I will follow up with a short brief about the practical solution, measuring exhaust temperature in a boat and sending an alarm if the temperature exceeds a set value . In "wet exhaust" systems it is very important that the cooling water, injected in the exhaust system, always is present otherwise major damages can follow. If you wan't to avoid a RPi check  this post  with approved NMEA 2000 temperature sensors from Yacht Devices 

What is Wine ?  The OpenSource project , themselves,  explains it as;  Wine (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, macOS, & BSD So why ? In my case, I'm just running macOS and Linux, I had and old gadget where I had to change the settings and this could only be made with a windows program.

I have written a post with the same subject before, also using NodeRed (NR), but this post is using the latest WeatherLink v2 API instead of the v1 API .  The v2 API supports more devices and now also including the old ones. If You want a more advanced weather site  this is  a very nice one coded in PHP also using the v2 API.

This post is written for those who runs Signal K(SK), or applications that indirect are using SK, and want to write log files that could be read for later use. Other applications could be Openplotter which includes SK or OpenCPN for example interfacing a NMEA 2000 network via SK. There are sample files within the SK installation which can be used, for testing purposes, before you have created your own log files from your boat trips. Check here at "Input file/data".

In an other post  I explained how to access and edit the data on an USB attached drive with the Linux " standard"  ext4  filesystem.  In this post I will explain how to read, write or add files using Windows, File explorer, or Mac, Finder,  without third party software ! You "just" need a Linux machine, but since you want to access an ext4 filesystem there probably are a machine in the surroundings ? In this post I will use a "simple" Raspberry Pi(RPi) and the ext4 media attached to one of the USB ports.

Updated 2022-03-03 ! I'm having an old MacBook Air 4.2, (mid 2011, SSD, 4 Gb memory), which have been running Catalina for quite some time despite that the  max OS is  High Sierra. I have been using the great work by dosedudes1 and his Catalina patcher . Unfortunately he didn't continue with patches for newer OS:s but have helped with a new patcher . This patcher  even handles Macs with graphic cards from 2008 - 2011. Using the patcher i got the mentioned Mac up and running with Big Sur after just over an hour.   New post !! Upgrade to Monterey .

Updated 2022-01-11 ! During my  update of the cables going from the batteries, to the distribution panel and engines, I stumbled over the Victron SmartShunt (VSS). We had a 15 year old Mastervolt battery monitor but it didn't feel "true" and it wasn't at the right place in the boat.  So instead of moving the old shunt we bought a VSS. 

The actual use case was that I have a Raspberry Pi(RPi) sourcing Vesselfinder with AIS data from nearby. I wanted to change/test a new configuration but on the other hand I didn't want to take the RPi down, during a longer period, since it's an online service. So the solution was to make a bootable clone of the actual application and test with a second RPi. The major obstacle was that I then would have 2 hosts, with the same hostname, which will mess up the local network. So how to change the host name on the cloned SD card before I'm using it in the second RPi ? Another post on how to read and write Linux drives with Windows/MacOS