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National Weather Service Data Import Applicationby Custom Computer Systems www.davidhagemann.com This application downloads a data file from the National Weather Service's FTP site and parses the data to retrieve the Temperature, Dew Point, Humidity and Pressure values. It has the ability to command these values to Analog Data Objects in Johnson Controls, Inc. Metasys system. You can select from different Update Frequencies but the data is only as current as the NWS data file is. As of October 2004, the National Weather Service updates these data files once an hour. This application must be install on a Metasys Operator Workstation that has the ability to do an FTP download of a file from the National Weather Service website (tgftp.nws.noaa.gov).
The list of available State and Location combo boxes are loaded from the file CityCodes.txt which is found in the directory this application has been installed in (default "C:\Program Files\NWS Data"). This file was imported from the National Data Service website. Note - I have found that not all locations actually have files to retrieve. You can edit the file CityCodes.txt to eliminate the unusable sites or add future locations if you so desire. Update Button - Clicking this button will retrieve the data for the selected location and command the Metasys Analog Data Objects. It also resets the Next Update to the value in the Update Frequency. When you select a State, the Locations combo box is filled with the locations in that state. Select a location and click the Update button. You have your choice of Deg F or Deg C to be commanded to the Metasys System\Object Names. The System\Object Names are the names of the Analog Data Objects in Metasys that will be commanded with the values listed to the left of them. If you do not want to command a System\Object name, just remove the name. If the text box does not have a \ in the box, the command for that value is not issued. Update Frequency (min) - This combo box allows you to select the update frequency of this application. The choices are 0, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes. A value of 0 is no automatic updating. Next Update (min) - This gives you an estimate of when the next automatic update will occur. Update Count - Tracks the number of times the data has been updated. If the Start Application In Systray checkbox is checked, when the application is launched it will run in the systray. To see the display above, you need to go to the systray icon and double-click it or right click and select Open NWS Data Import.
The sun icon above is the NWS Data Import application running in the systray.
Right clicking on the icon in the systray gives the following choices. Open NWS Data Import - This option displays the application. Hide Window - This option hides the application. It is still running in the systray. About... - Displays the about screen . Close - This will close the application and prevent the updating of the Metasys Analog Data objects. You will be warned as show below.
Setup
Setup Instructions1. Select a state from the State combo box. 2. Select a location from the Location combo box. 3. Click the Update button to verify the ability to retrieve the data. 4. Enter the Analog Data objects System\Object name if you want to command the value listed. 5. Select the Update Frequency desired. (Note - Currently the data is only updated once an hour typically between 10 minutes before to 10 minutes after the hour.
If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact david@davidhagemann.com. Other contact information can be found at www.davidhagemann.com.
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