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
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 3/20 19. Jan. 2021

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:
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 4/20 19. Jan. 2021

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/
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 5/20 19. Jan. 2021

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:
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 7/20 19. Jan. 2021

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.
SOLO - Users manual v. 2.5 10/20 19. Jan. 2021