Lunatico AAG CloudWatcher Solo User manual

SOLO
SOLO
Users manual
Users manual
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 1/20 19. Jan. 2021

I n d e x
1. Physical installation
2. Accessin the data
2.1. Main web pa e
2.2. Graphs and information explained
2.3. Sin le Line Data files
2.4. ScopeDome data file
2.5. AAG CloudWatcher “Master”
2.6. Data lo er (USB pen)
3. Confi uration
4. “Hidden” features
5. Other interestin facts about the Solo
6. For more information
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 2/20 19. Jan. 2021

Thank you for your purchase of the AAG CloudWatcher “Solo”!
The “Solo” has been desi ned to improve the overall usefulness of the AAG CloudWatcher,
monitorin it, adjustin the heater, and constantly publishin information accessible in a variety
of ways.
1) Physical installation
The “Solo” has to be installed indoors. The installation cannot be more easy:
•unplu your CloudWatcher from the power supply (if applicable)
•usin the same power supply, power the “Solo” - any of the two plu s will
do
•with the included (short) cable, join the other jack plu in the “Solo” with
the CW
•Attach the SubD-9 (serial) from the CW to the “Solo”
•and, of course, connect the Solo to your local network usin a standard
RJ45 cable (not supplied)
… that's it. In a few seconds the “activity” LED in the “Solo” will start blinkin (slowly), showin
it is communicatin with the CloudWatcher
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2) Accessing the data
Now that the “Solo” is up and runnin , and connected to your local network, it will fetch an IP
address (automatically, usin DHCP, as standard in the vast majority of networks) and start
publishin information in a variety of ways.
There is a separate document explainin the procedure to enable your Solo bein accessed from
the internet.
2.1) Main web pa e
From your web explorer, now you can type: “http://aa solo” (in the address bar, not in Goo le! ),
and you'll see the main “Solo” pa e:
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There are a few thin s worth explainin in this pa e:
•in the upper left side , the current readin s are displayed. Hoverin the mouse pointer
over the icons will display the readin numerically.
•at its leftmost side , some buttons:
–stop / start auto update (will refresh every 60 seconds if enabled)
–reload data now
•in the upper ri ht , a lo pane with recent information
•coverin the rest (and main portion) of the pa e, the raphs with information coverin
the current day and the day before. Note the arrows at the top ri th of each raph -
You can use them to rearran e the raphs.
•Also at its leftmost side , some buttons:
–stop / start auto update (will refresh every 60 seconds if enabled)
–reload data now
–show / hide yesterday's data
–show / hide the three color back round (matchin the 3 levels of each
readin )
–show / hide a dotted line at the current “unsafe” settin
–choose between metric and imperial units
Last, in the lower ri ht side of the pa e the lan ua e can be chan ed, for the moment Auto,
En lish and Spanish are available.
This pa e can be made accessible from the Internet; the way of doin so varies from router to
router, but basically involves settin up a “NAT” rule for incomin connections at a iven port to
be redirected to the “Solo” – and of course the “Solo” needs to have a fixed IP address. You can
check our runnin unit at:
http://aa solo.lunatico.es:10800/
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2.2) Graphs and information explained
The information displayed by the pa e depends on the sensors installed; currently, the relative
humidity sensor and the anemometer are optional, so may be shown or not.
The elements of every raph are very similar:
Current data is shown in a bri ht line ( reen for sky temperature), yesterday's as a more pale
line.
A dotted oran e line marks the boundary between safe and unsafe. Finally the three
back round colors match the three ran es specified (clear / cloudy / overcast, for sky
temperature, etc.)
Some raphs however have some specificities. The rain raph, apart from the rain value (lower
values indicate rain), also shows a red line reflectin the sensor heater behaviour.
In this example can be seen the activity spikes of the heater matchin the rain periods.
The wind raph (and icon at the top), will show the avera e wind speed as a line, and the ust
as a dot:
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 6/20 19. Jan. 2021

2.3) Sin le Line Data files
Some pro rams and drivers (at least CCDAutopilot and CCDCommander in remote mode, and
also our own and Chris Rowland's ASCOM safety monitor driver), just need to access a file with
weather data formatted in a specific way.
The “Solo” does publish this file, and thus you can add weather safety just accessin it from the
network. Browse the network to the “aa solo” computer (by the way, user “pi”, password
“cloudwatcher” ):
If you can't find AAGSolo by browsin the network, just type “\\aa solo” in the address bar:
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For et the “tmp” folder, and o to the “AAGSolo” one:
There are quite a few files, but it is “aa _sld.dat” (meanin AAG Sin le Line Data) the one we're
lookin for.
There's also a file called “aa _sldc.dat”, bein the same but with a comma “,” separatin the
decimal numbers. I've check that at least CCDAP, if installed in a machine with a locale usin
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 8/20 19. Jan. 2021

that comma to separate decimal numbers, needs this file.
So, you just have to make your automation software (or ASCOM driver) point to this shared
folder. Important, dependin on the Windows version, you may have to connect to the “aa solo”
from the Windows explorer at least once at the start of every session.
2.4) ScopeDome data file
Accesin the network in the same way, we can find a special file for the ScopeDome software,
namely “scopedome.csv”:
… just select this file in your ScopeDome software, Confi , Cloud Sensor Confi (Current Cloud
Sensor Status File Name)
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 9/20 19. Jan. 2021

2.5) AAG CloudWatcher “Master”
The “Solo” also behaves as a CloudWatcher Windows application in Master mode, so you can
connect other instances of the Windows software, runnin as Remote, to the “Solo”.
ote: to chan e your current Windows software from Master to Remote, o to the “Setup”
tab, “Network” section, and select “remote”.
The windows software runnin in remote mode needs a special file to read the data from the
sensor; browse the network a ain to the aa solo machine (reminder, user “pi” password
“cloudwatcher”), and you'll find the AAG_CWNetData.dat file:
This is the file your “remote” AAG pro rams will need to operate. Selectin , from those remote
mode applications, the folder containin it, will allow them to run.
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As said before, dependin on the Windows version, you may have to connect to the “aa solo”
from the Windows explorer at least once at the start of every session.
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 11/20 19. Jan. 2021

2.6) Data Lo er
An useful feature of the Solo is its ability to record a CSV file in a user supplied USB stick. You
just need to insert, in one of Solo USB ports, a suitably formatted USB memory stick (suitably
formatted means FAT – other formats may work if you know what you're doin ...).
Once the stick is inserted, the Solo software will detect it, mount, and start addin information
to a CSV file (userdata.csv) in the base folder of the stick – so you just have to insert the stick
for the lo in to start.
However, to remove the stick, you have to “unmount” it (similar to the Windows “safely remove”
operation) – there is an option in the confi uration pa es to do so.
Final note: the software will append information to the file if it exists; if you have already taken
the file in your computer and want to start afresh, just delete it from the USB stick before
insertin it a ain in the Solo.
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 12/20 19. Jan. 2021

3) Configuration
To access the confi uration pa es, please, a ain in your web browser, type:
https://aa solo/confi /
notice the “s” after http – this means it is a secure protocol. You'll et a warnin , or maybe
several, about the site not bein secure. You are in your local network, so please trust you're
accessin your “Solo”. You'll be asked for user and password, in this case the user is “solo”, the
password the same as before, that is, “cloudwatcher”.
The reason for this warnin is we're usin a custom certificate that allows all information to be
encrypted, for safety, but the certificate itself is not re istered in a certification authority; that's
a more complex and expensive step unneeded here.
Once you've a reed to proceed to the site, you can access three pa es:
–configuration, where you'll be able to setup your “Solo” in a very similar way
to the CloudWatcher Windows software.
–system details, where you can make some adjustments, set the time / date,
network confi uration, chan e the default password1 (“cloudwatcher”), reboot
the system (just in case), and also shutdown it.
–For the shutdown process, and iven it will take you a trip to the observatory
to start it a ain, you'll be challen ed to confirm your selection.
–USB status, it may be unmounted, as shown, or mounted. Clickin the button
will check the USB status a ain (if unmounted) or unmount it prior to a safe
removal (if mounted)
–Last, update the system. From here you can check if there's a new version
and, optionally, update to it.
Just a few notes about the confi uration – please consult the online documentation for the
Windows pro ram for more specific data.
1 Please note the password you can chan e here is the one to access this confi uration section of the web. It
does not affect the password used to access the files usin the Windows network.
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SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 14/20 19. Jan. 2021

–Units (ºC Kmh, or ºF MPH): choose your favourite units.
–timezone: you have to select your time zone so the readin s are accurate and match
your local time, for the automation pro rams. The data in the web pa es will match the
local time of the place you're connectin from.
–load previous / default configuration: options to let you recover from errors or tests.
–max rain graph / max light graph: definin the upper limit of the raphs, so they
look pretty. The other raphs (cloud, temperature, wind speed) adjust themselves in the
current data ran e.
–Ambient and IR temperature offsets, used to compensate for the electronics heatin
and other factors; the offsets will be substracted from the raw readin s of the sensors.
–Source of ambient temperature: rule of thumb, if you have the external RH sensor
installed, select it as source of ambient temperature.
–And last, the “unsafe” limits; here you can specify the limit exceedin which a readin
will be considered unsafe. This is a difference from the Windows software, where you had
only 3 options (matchin the 3 ran es) for settin unsafe.
So, for instance, you can define wind speeds 0 to 5 Kmh to be calm, 6 to 25 to be windy,
and above that to be very windy, but set the unsafe wind limit to, say, 20 Kmh.
The System pa e contains settin s of a more computer nature, network, date and time, etc.
If several “Solos” will share the same network (as it happens in observatory hostin places),
then it is enerally advised to chan e the name, so each one is unique in the network.
In the network confi ...
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… here we can specify if we just want the address of the Solo to be obtained automatically for
our router (full automatic), avoidin any problem, or if we prefer to also specify a static (fixed)
address, which is useful to make the Solo accessible from the internet.
If your Solo fails to access the internet (more noticeable if the software updates fail to work),
then you may need to adjust the DNS (name server):
… the su ested one (208.67.222.220) is a ood option, free to use, from FreeDNS. Another
popular server is one from oo le, easier to remember, 8.8.8.8.
Fillin the ZeroConf data will make the Solo publish, every few minutes, summary data to our
cloud server. At this moment is useful for users of our android wid et.
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 16/20 19. Jan. 2021

If you want the Solo to send push messa es to your smartphone, PC, or whatever, now there is
support for this usin Pushbullet, a reat and free system but not available for iOS, and also
Pushover, almost free (very low, one time only payment), and available in every platform.
You'll need to open a Pushbullet or Pushoveraccount; then you'll have the option to install a
client or you can check your notifications in the website; the client pro ram is available for many
platforms, and quite useful IMHO. With your account you'll be able to enerate a token (or key),
a lon strin of characters, that identify your account.
To activate the sendin of messa es when the weather chan es from UNSAFE to SAFE (and vice
versa), just copy your token here, addin “pb-” if it is a pushbullet token, or “po-” if it is a
pushover one.
So if your key is “asdf123ljasd89j123j12”, and it is from Pushbullet, you'll have to type “pb-
asdf123ljasd89j123j12”. If it's from Pushover, “po- asdf123ljasd89j123j12”. No quotes!
Su estion: activate it only in ima in ni hts.
The rest of the pa e is truly self explanatory (date and time, reboot, shutdown).
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4) “Hidden” features
New features are added to an u ly pa e before oin “official”. You can access this pa e from
https://aa solo/ExtraConf.html
As of current version, 2.4, it allows the user to specify a fully static IP address (not the safe,
semi-static method in the normal confi uration pa e), and to return it to its normal, DHCP-
enabled state. Use with care. A wron IP address may render the unit network invisible. You
may have to replace the SD card in that case.
This is the current pa e:
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5) Other interesting facts about the “Solo”
✔The “Solo” is based on the Raspberry Pi model “B”, and has a really friendly power
consumption of approx < 2 W.
✔Inside the box there's a SD card actin as the hard disk of the device. It is mounted in
“read only” mode, meanin that:
•there's no problem at all unpowerin the unit, the SD card will never become
corrupt. It is only written, for a very short while, after confi uration chan es or a
system update.
•It will take a while (minutes...), after powerin the Solo, for it to retrieve the
correct time and date, please be patient!
•Also, the SD will not “worn out”; these cards had a limited number of write
operations, so bein read only will extend its life almost indefinitely.
✔You can et the last readin from the CloudWatcher easily to use in a pro ram or a
personal web: http://aa solo/c i-bin/c iLastData
✔In a similar way, you can et the historical data for up to 48h: http://aa solo/c i-
bin/c iHistData
✔The system is quite hacker friendly; you can, under your responsibility , lo in via ssh and
tweak the web pa es or whatever. For ssh connections, the user is “pi”, the password
“cloudwatcher”.
✔… and, as always, your su estions are most welcome.
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6) For more information
The Solo is a data visualizer for the AAG CloudWatcher. For more in-depth information, the AAG
CloudWatcher documentation should be checked. Specifically, some items we think are of special
interest:
Cloud detection, K-factors, calibration:
–Some notes on cloud detection
–Sky temperature model
Rain sensor heater settin s:
–Available in the online manual, here (same values as in the Solo confi uration)
And of course all the information that is published in the web pa e of the CloudWatcher.
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SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 20/20 19. Jan. 2021