version 2.0 25 January 1998: 7 days graphs + UVI computation
Francis Massen, LCD
As can be seen from the chart
the technical backbone of Meteo_LCD is a net of old faithful 80286 Bull Micral and one 486
Z-Station computers. All software is exclusively DOS based, the Lan hard- and software
being Dlink's DE220CT Ethernet cards and the Lansmart Peer-to-Peer NOS.
A major (if not dominant!) role is played by the AUTOMITE Pro scheduler from the
Pendulum Group Inc. This marvellous scheduler can play back any sequence of keystrokes,
with all the needed wait times. A Graesslin DCF77 radio-controlled
("atomic") clock is used for making the hard on/off switchings to bring the
whole system into a well defined state at every hour.
Extracting the necessary data and making the "near-live" graphs is a multi-step
procedure:
Every hour at xx:02 (less frequently at night(!) and late afternoon) the DCF77
clock powers down the meteo computer for 10 seconds, to assure that the system is always
in a well defined state. At xx:15 the Automite scheduler downloads all new data
from the last download on. These "fresh" data are appended to a file called
TODAY.DAT. From TODAY.DAT extract a subset TODAY_X.DAT (temp, Solar Rad., UVB, Ozone...),
and extract from LCD_UV.DAT a subset of the last 7 days. All files are now copied
over the LAN to the modem server and ISDN servers. The modem server runs in host mode
waiting for a call (Telix Hostplus is used; access is restricted to qualified
collaborators), the ISDN server makes the uploads to our ISP. All data file management is
done with macros of Semware's famous
E editor.
At xx:25, a second copy of Automite running on the ISDN server starts the following
sequence of events:
Printing the graphs into a HPGL file is the only method we found to obtain coloured graph
files. The capability to convert HPGL --> PCX is a rare feature which we found only
in the extremely well done Printgl software.
If you have implemented similar features, or if you just want to give your opinion, we
appreciate all comments and suggestions!
Back to Home-Page | Please make all comments (and compliments!) to francis.massen@ci.educ.lu |