Domoticz

After WU announcement, that existing API keys would continue to work until December 31, 2018, we noticed that even after this date the keys were still working, but it was unsure for how long.
Today, March 6, 2019. WU API key died.
In the log I found: WUnderground: Error: this key is not valid due to exceeding rate plan.
Other scripts, which are dependent on Weather information from WU will also stop functioning, such as Moon Phase.
In this case you will get:
Error: (Moon Phase) 'onHeartbeat' failed 'KeyError'
Error: (Moon Phase) ----> Line 171 in '/home/pi/domoticz/plugins/MoonPhases/plugin.py', function onHeartbeat
Error: (Moon Phase) ----> Line 109 in '/home/pi/domoticz/plugins/MoonPhases/plugin.py', function onHeartbeat
End of an area, but fortunately plenty of alternatives.

With the discontinuation of the free API key from Weather Underground, who do not own a private weather station and share their weather data with WU, the question rises, what is the best alternative.

Weather underground uses the data of so called "private weather stations" (PWS). In totally approx. 250,000 stations and so you have probably one or more stations in your close neighborhood. However the number of sensors of those PWS's are mostly limited. You get very accurate data from the normal sensors, like temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed and wind direction.
Other weather service probably will be less accurate, as they are further away.
WU gave us 500 free calls/day. Domoticz polled their API once every 10 minutes and so used 144 calls/day, which is within the limit.

Domoticz hardware support out of the box, beside the discontinued WU, Accuweather, Darksky and Open Weather Map.
Suppose that we want an update every 10 minutes, which means 144 calls/day or 4464 calls/month, we should look what the others can offer.
AccuWeather gives us 50 free calls/day and that is insufficient, unless you accept an update every half hour.
Darksky gives us 1000 calls/day, which is twice the number of free calls we got from WU, while Open Weather Map gives us 60 calls/min, which equals 86,400 calls/day and is more than enough for the average user. They all offer the same amount of sensors as WU did.
The accuracy maybe less than what we were used to.

If you used the plug-in Moon Phase you have to look for an alternative as well, as this plugin uses WU to get data for the moon phases.

For Dutch we have some other alternatives as well, as there exist a plug-in "Buienradar".
Buienradar uses the 10-minute network of the Royal Dutch Meteorological Office (KNMI).
This network is updated every 10 minutes; so polling it faster is useless. The Buienradar plug-in polls also the API every 10 minutes.
I noticed however that they have changed their API from XML to JSON, 4 days ago. What will be the effect on the plug-in.

KNMI itself does not provide API's. Meteoserver at https://meteoserver.nl/real-time-KNMI-weer-API.php gives you 500 free calls/month.
That is by far not enough!
A better alternative is: http://weerlive.nl/delen.php. This will give you 300 free calls/day.

You can write a script to collect these data or use Node-Red (from the same company that closed down the WU api) and push it to Domoticz.

Another extensive weather service with 250,000 free calls/month is HERE.
See: https://developer.here.com/documentatio ... rview.html
They give you also astronomical data, like the previous mentioned moon phases.

With my apologies to all those other services, I did not mention, I hope this brief overview will help you with your decision to find a WU replacement.

IF you are the owner of a PWS which uploads it's data to WUnderground, there is an solution to continue with applications requiring data from WUnderground linked to an API-key.

Victoria from IBM has arranged a new API key for me. I have tested it and it works fine!
Do you know what needs to be done to get the data back in domoticz?

I just changed my hardware "Weather" from Weather Underground to Darksky and change the cridentials. I kept all my history from wu.

DewGew wrote: ↑Friday 08 March 2019 12:16 I just changed my hardware "Weather" from Weather Underground to Darksky and change the cridentials. I kept all my history from wu.

Thx DewGew but I have my own PWS and want to see my own data in domoticz. Since the API call has been changed, a developer will probably have to do something about it in domoticz?

To check on alternatives for WU-readout, (re)installed OWM under Domoticz Hardware.
Valid API-key, etc., but after running for approx. 1,5 hour the read-out stopped.
Just puzzled: what could be amiss?

according to: link

The free AccuWeather APIs Limited Trial period expires 6 months from the time of initial App creation. Each developer is limited to 500 calls per day. At the conclusion of the trial period, developer api keys will no longer be valid.

Very strange.
If you follow the link you get the message as shown above.
However if you click the above link and then click Packages & Pricing you get different information.
The number of free calls/day is limited to 50, compared to 500, as shown above, and the expiration time of 6 months is not mentioned.
However, regardless of which is true, the conclusion is that it is better to use another weather service as a replacement for WU.

I have an own PWS and I also generated a new api key on the site of weatherunderground.

https://www.wunderground.com/member/api-keys

I added in the tab hardware the weatherunderground option with the following setting:.

Data timeout= disabled

API key= 436fdbb093214facafdbb0932******
Location: IZHNOOTD6

I checked the API key with the link of weaterunderground and get a positive result.

{"observations":[{"stationID":"IZHNOOTD6","obsTimeUtc":"2019-03-13T19:45:15Z","obsTimeLocal":"2019-03-13 20:45:15","neighborhood":"Moerbeihof14","softwareType":"EasyWeatherV1.2.2","country":"NL","solarRadiation":0.0,"lon":4.39968395,"realtimeFrequency":null,"epoch":1552506315,"lat":52.04552078,"uv":0.0,"winddir":313,"humidity":75,"qcStatus":1,"imperial":{"temp":46,"heatIndex":46,"dewpt":39,"windChill":44,"windSpeed":5,"windGust":7,"pressure":29.19,"precipRate":0.00,"precipTotal":0.11,"elev":-6}}]}

I do not get any devices in domoticz and in the domoticz log I will get the following message: 2019-03-13 20:58:24.486 Error: WUnderground: Error: this key does not exist

I hope somebody can help me with this problem.

@spex

Most probable for Location just a small addition pws: needed.
See the layout below suggested for your location-input.

Location: pws:IZHNOOTD6

Got an new key from weather underground, I own a PWS.
Put the key in place of the old own bycopy past, no error posible.
Til 6 of march link worked perfectly.
Helas no weather information from my own station in Domoticz….
2019-03-16 11:33:29.815 Error: WUnderground: Error: this key does not exist.
Anyone else got a better result?

@Toulon7559

Also tryd the addition with pws but still get the same result.
Maby it has something to do with the new API key of Wheater Underground...?

Does someone have the new API key working in Domoticz?

Toulon7559 wrote: ↑Thursday 07 March 2019 17:50 IF you are the owner of a PWS which uploads it's data to WUnderground, there is an solution to continue with applications requiring data from WUnderground linked to an API-key.

can you say more?

@spex

Perhaps kicking open door, and minor detail, but critical for the setup with the old API-key:
pws: should be put directly in front of your WU-Ident, not pws

As WU-PWS-uploader, with this information-layout filled-in, in combination with the old API-key, today (17th of March) I still can read my WU-info by means of Domoticz without any problem.

On the other hand, WU clearly tells that the new API-key will only work with the new APIs .....

Well mine did stop 6-3-2019, with my (old) API key for my own pws that still uploads every day to WU. The new key does not Works.........

Same happened here. My old API worked until a couple of days ago.
I got a new API key but that does not work with domoticz.
Waiting for some smart guy to adjust the domoticz weatherunderground plugin to be able to use the new api key

Eddie

eddieb wrote: ↑Tuesday 19 March 2019 17:45 Same happened here. My old API worked until a couple of days ago.
I got a new API key but that does not work with domoticz.
Waiting for some smart guy to adjust the domoticz weatherunderground plugin to be able to use the new api key

Eddie

Also here the same happened, The new API does not work with Domoticz, but in a url line of a browser it does work, so something in Domoticz is not compatible with the new API key format.

Hans

FYI, the latest commit (https://github.com/domoticz/domoticz/co ... dc152817d7) is related to the new API, we just have to wait to be published onto the beta.

Hi,
this is great news ! I am looking forward to get this working
they are also doing some migrations @weather.com now. the pws page changed and not all is working right now ...

Eddie