FAQ - uajqq/weewx-belchertown-new GitHub Wiki

  • Q: How do I change my site title and page headers? I don't want to be called "My Weather Website"...
  • A: As of version 1.0, the skin has a lot of labels which are used for Translating the Skin. As a result certain Extras options which were all text are now under Labels so that they are more in line with the other text items which can be translated. Take a look in skin.conf and you'll find all the text items which can be translated under Labels --> Generic. My advice would be to copy the labels you want to change to weewx.conf under [Belchertown] so that they are not lost during upgrades since skin.conf gets erased and reinstalled on upgrades. Here's how you do that in weewx.conf:
    [Belchertown](/uajqq/weewx-belchertown-new/wiki/Belchertown)
        skin = Belchertown
        HTML_ROOT = belchertown
        [[Extras](/uajqq/weewx-belchertown-new/wiki/[Extras)]
            forecast_enabled = 1
            ... other Extras options here ...
        [[Labels](/uajqq/weewx-belchertown-new/wiki/[Labels)]
            [[[Generic](/uajqq/weewx-belchertown-new/wiki/[[Generic)]]
                home_page_header = "Belchertown Weather Conditions"
                twitter_owner = PatOBrienPhoto
                twitter_hashtags = "PWS #weewx #weather #wx"
                rain = My Custom Rain Label
                graphs_page_day_button = Today
  • Q: My units are wrong in the station observation or other MQTT enabled field.
  • A: You need to configure your MQTT extension to send the units you want. For example if you're using METRIC and your rain in MQTT is in centimeters, but you want to show rain as MM, you need to use the code below as an example:
[MQTT](/uajqq/weewx-belchertown-new/wiki/MQTT)
        [[inputs](/uajqq/weewx-belchertown-new/wiki/[inputs)]
                [[[dayRain](/uajqq/weewx-belchertown-new/wiki/[[dayRain)]]
                        name = dayRain_mm
                        units = mm
  • Q: My NOAA reports are blank.
  • A: If this is right after you installed the skin, give WeeWx an archive interval (or two, or three...) in order to populate this data
  • Q: I see errors like these:
    • No such file or directory '/home/weewx/skins/Belchertown/about.inc'
    • No such file or directory '/home/weewx/skins/Belchertown/records.inc'
  • A: You probably skipped the step Creating About Page and Records Page. Please give that a try.
  • Q: Do I have to use MQTT?
  • A: Nope! If you disable the MQTT option, then WeeWx will still create a website for you, it just will be done on the archive interval. WeeWx will still generate these pages for you if you have MQTT enabled, the benefit is that you do not have to reload the website.
  • Q: What MQTT broker should I use?
  • A: If you want to use a free one, there are a number of them out there and they all have different limitations. Check their terms to make sure it will suite your needs. Otherwise, you can install and run your own broker.
  • Q: Do I have to use forecasts?
  • A: You do not need to use forecasts, but it is recommended to use forecasts so you take advantage of the theme's design with icons and observations.
  • Q: Do I have to use earthquake data?
  • A: Nope! If you leave it disabled, it won't show on the site nor will any data be downloaded.
  • Q: Do I have to use the radar?
  • A: Nope! If you leave it disabled you'll just have a big blank box on the website. But windy.com provides a free animated radar, so why not include it? :)
  • Q: Do I have to use the graphs?
  • A: Nope! If you have it disabled we will hide those portions of the site. It comes packaged with this theme already though, so you can leave it enabled.
  • Q: Why does the skin take a while to generate sometimes?
  • A: This is because of the graph system. That file goes through your archive's day, week, month and year values, and all time values to generate the graphs. Depending on how big your database, and how slow your system is (like a Raspberry Pi) is this could take a little longer. If you want to speed it up you can disable the charts or upgrade to better hardware.
  • Q: How come the forecast's "Last Updated" time jumps when I load the page?
  • A: This is because the page loads with the default Python's format for your locale. When it connects to MQTT websockets, moment.js updates that timestamp to it's format of your locale. This locale format fragmentation is hard to avoid when using locale formatting.
  • Q: I noticed my graphs don't update right away on an archive period. How come?
  • A: Because the highcharts can take a few extra seconds, I've put in a 30 second delay on the graphs automatic update. This way it's loading the newest data.
  • Q: Do the charts on the Graphs page update automatically with MQTT?
  • A: No, only the front page is automatically updated. All the other pages are normal pages that need to be refreshed to see new information.
  • Q: How can I tell if the skin downloaded new forecast or earthquake data?
  • A: Check your system log file. You should see the skin output something along the lines of "New forecast file downloaded" or "New earthquake file downloaded". It will also display errors and what the error was if there was a failure.
  • Q: How come I'm seeing NAN in some areas?
  • A: This is because WeeWx hasn't gathered enough data from your station yet. Give it a few more archive intervals.
  • Q: How do I uninstall this skin?
  • A: sudo weectl extension uninstall Belchertown