WEATHER DISPLAY HELP MANUAL
3rd June 2001
Minimum System Requirements to run Weather Display:
Windows 95 operating system
486 Type CPU
16mb Ram
Allow 6mb hard drive space for initial files, then about 10mb per month after that for data storage.
800x600 screen resolution is best, with at least 256 colours (more the better).
A compatible weather station and serial cable with a free com port.
- Downloading the file from the internet:
Go to
And then click on save file, and choose a location where you are going to download the file to, and remember that location.
Once the download is complete, then you can run the installer program, wdisplay32.exe
Before you run the installer though, exit your current version of Weather Display first. Make sure you install it into the same location as you last did (the installer remembers this, the next time you do a new download). No data is lost, so there is no need to save and files/data. If you are using a firewall, test a FTP upload, in case the ftp version has changes, and so then you will need to tell the firewall to let it through.
- Initial/first time setup
When the installer has finished, click on finish to have Weather Display run for you .
If it is your first time running the program, then it will say it is doing a 32 bit conversion – that is for a upgrade from version 7.39, and this will only occur once.
Once the program has finished loading, then the first thing you want to do is choose the language to use (see under setup, language- English is the default), then the units – i.e US units if you live in the USA . Click on setup, then units to do this
Then choose the com port that your weather station is connected to. Click on setup Comm Port to do this. (Don’t worry about the com port release times, unless you want to let Davis Weather link get access to the station at some point in time to download data from the Davis Datalogger). Davis owners also need to select their rain gauge resolution type.
Next you will want to select the appropriate weather station type.
The default is the WM019/WX200. Click on setup again, then weather station type, then choose the type you want.
For Davis weather station owners, you will also need to select the data logger baud rate.
The Full version is for when you have a rain gauge, humidity sensor etc. The wireless WMII is the same as the WMII full version (as far as weather display goes)
For Ultimeter owners, there are a few things to setup. Make sure your weather station console is in datalogging mode at all times (check this after your restart weather display). If you have a U2000 older than 3 years or so, then you may need to choose the “no average speed in the data” under Ultimeter data setup. You can also choose whether you have a humidity sensor or rain gauge.
A WMR-918H is actually a WMR-968, so try that station type
ELV/Conrad/WS2000/WS7000 or The La Crosse or WMR900h users (these are all the same type of station), you will also need to do some more initial setup. Click on view, WS2000/WMR900H /Dallas 1 wire data information. Then set the outdoor temperature sensor to use – choose from the list once you have a sample data – click on get data to get one. Also set the loggin interval to 5 minutes . Click on set names to allocate names to the sensors to appear with the data in this window. You can also allocate a temperature/humidity sensor to use as your soil sensor, and have it displayed on the main screen above the wind speed dial.
Dallas 1 wire station owners also need to do some additional setting up. You need to use this same part of the program to check that it has found the ibuttons OK. Also on this setup page, you can see the additional temperature sensor and the humidity sensor/temperature readings (if you have one). Dallas wire station owners also need to setup the wind direction ibuttons. Click on view, Setup Dallas 1 wire wind direction and rain to do this. If you have a ini.txt file that was created by Weather 204 and the create list program provided by Dallas Semi, then you can import that file to set the wind direction, rain/wind ibuttons. Then check that the windspeed ibutton ROM id has been correctly identified. If not, then see what was reported under view, WS2000/WMR900H/Dallas 1 wire data information, and you can change the ROM id if it is wrong, and then click save.
If you have a extra temperature sensor, then the ROM id for it should be displayed here as well.
- Setting offsets/start up rainfall
Weather Display stores its own rainfall totals separate from the weather station. So you need to set this up for the first time use. Click on setup, Offsets and rainfall to do this.
Then select the amount for today’s rain, yesterday’s rain, monthly rain and yearly rainfall.
Note: for US units, the equivalent amount in inches is displayed. Click on Yes to set these amounts. If you are just increasing the amount, then that amount is added on straight away, and close the window down with the X in the top right hand corner when you have this set
For the barometer, weather display uses the raw pressure value from the weather station.
So you need to set a pressure offset. This number is in hpa – there is a conversion for US units (i.e inches) as well – for your reference. Note the offset is absolute – i.e if you want to adjust it, and you want the pressure to increase by 1 hpa, then the offset need to be 1 hpa higher.
You need to set the offset until the pressure shown in weather display is what the Mean Sea Level Pressure is for your lacation at that point in time. You can get this information from a nearby Airport or the local newspaper (you may need to fine tune over a period of time) – i.e you pressure reading needs to be similar to your nearest official weather station at a the same time of day – ideally done in light winds/fine weather when there is a large high pressure in your area.
On this page, you can tick if you want weather display to synchronize your PC clock via the internet (you need to have the FTP program set up for this – i.e the ISP selected or the cable modem option selected). The time sync occurs very 6 hours, at 30 minutes past the hour
Alternatively you can use the clock offset , which is added/subtracted every hour if your PC clock looses/gains time (weather display does not use the time from the weather station)
4. Daily reset time
You can choose either midnight reset (default) or 9am reset (used in Australia and New Zealand). See under setup, values reset time option. At either midnight or 9am the daily high/low data will be reset, and yesterday rain will be set.
5. Start when windows starts
If you want weather display to start when your computer starts up (weather display is designed to run all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), then click on setup, start when windows starts, then click on yes. Alternatively you can copy a short cut to weather display into the windows start up folder. A sort cut to the program is placed on your desktop and into the start menu via the installer.
6. Loging of data
Logging of data is on by default, to a log file, updated every minute. These logfiles can be found under the folder logfiles in the wdisplay directory.
For the month of may 2001, the name of the log file is: 52001lg.txt
There is also 52001lg2.txt, this is for soil temperature (if you have it) and for the daily high/low temperatures
See under setup, log files recording for options, including having a comma separated log file (.csv extensions) for use with excel or other spreadsheets. You can even have weather display produce a custom log file, using the variable tags as found in the file owntemplate.txt , or see the section custom web page in this help
7. Importing log files
You can import log files produced by other software- just select which software type
For the Davis log files, you need to import the file called download.txt , produced by Weather link. The 32 bit weather display conversion is for if the automatic conversion for first time upgrade from version 7.39 was not successful
If the 32 bit conversion when upgrading from 7.39 to 7.4+ does not work correctly, then you can convert the log files one at a time using the option “convert weather display log files to graphs”.
8. WM918/WMR918 forecast Icon
If you set this to display, then the icon that appears on the programs screen will be the forecast icon from the station (and will appear in the summary.gif file). Note: It does not work with the WMR968 at this stage.
If you select do no display, then I will not be visible at all.
If you select auto update, then you can have the icon updated via input daily weather, or have it updated from a downloaded metar (see the section on Metar downloads)
9. Registration/Purchase of the software
Weather Display as you download it is fully working, apart from a random nag screen, when it will stop receiving data from the weather station, until you click on OK. It also has a trial period of 30 days, after which time it will not work anymore. You can still register it after this time, by getting the registration number to me when I receive payment, and then entering it into a program you can download from here:
To purchase the software, see the link to Order on the weather display web site, on the left hand side, or go here:
You can purchase with Visa/Mastercard/Dinners or similar (not Amex at this stage), via the secure online World Pay server. You can even choose from 5 currencies which one to purchase in , and the conversion will be done at the current exchange rate conversions for you. Then email the registration code that appears in the top box when you click on register in weather display to :
Once I have received confirmation of payment, which is by email, I will email you back the new registration code, which you enter in the lower box, and then click OK.
Note: the code is case sensitive
Customers in Germany, please go to :
Customers from Switzerland please go to:
10. Weather wunderground/Weather for you setup and Internet connection setup
The first thing you need to do is set up the Internet Service provider (Dial up networking), or select cable modem/permanent connection option if you are permanently connected to the internet. Click on setup, then click on setup FTP/Internet/Reboot/pager, then select the connections Tab (across the top – there are some arrows, < and > in the top right hand corner you can use to scroll through all the setup pages).
If you do not have a permanent connection to the internet, then click on Get ISP’s. Then select the one you want to connect to (there most likely will only be one) from the list in the top left hand corner. Then the Username and Password should get filled in automatically. If your dial up networking does not have the password being saved, then a box will appear asking you enter the password for your connection to the internet (same password as you would normally enter when you connect to the internet.
For Wunderground/Weather For you setup, click on view, then Wunderground setup or Hamweather setup. The clock on the link to go to the sign up page, or click here for wunderground setup:
or here for the Ham weather/weather for you setup, click here:
Then enter in the Station ID and password you are provided with into Weather Displays setup page
Then select the times to upload the data, then turn the switch on ( so it shows green), then try a test by clicking on Test. Then you should be able to see your data when you click on view data. You can select the cloud type to include in the data, or you can include the weather conditions from the Metar you are downloaded and have selected ( see the section on Metar download in this help file).
11. FTP setup/FTP program options
There are a number of internet capabilities you can do with Weather display without the need to have a web page/ FTP server to use.
Tick start with FTP program visible for debugging so that you can see what is happening.
Untick this option so that the ftp program does not pop up over the top of everything.
Tick start minimized (but not in system tray, which is down by the clock, to have it appear on the task bar in a minimized state ).
Tick produce a log file if you want to view the last log file – which you can do under view, ftp error log file, then click on view full log file.
Hit cancel on re-establish connection is a good idea, but minimize connection box when connected applies only to Win 95
Time out in minutes for when a slow connection is the overall time out.
FTP connect time out and Mail connect time out should be Ok at the default settings
If you don’t want to have Weather Display run its own FTP program, because you are using a Weather display on a server, then untick Use Weather Displays own FTP, and you can enter in the box below a .bat file for weather display to execute instead to copy the files to where needed, or you can select the location of where to produce the files under the Tab Files, and click on the button in the top right hand corner, called set web files location
If you still want weather display to do other functions, such as send data to wunderground or download Metar’s etc, then tick Still use ftpupd.exe for everything but normal uploads
If you want weather display to update a web page on the internet , say at your home page, then you need to set up the FTP server, Username, and password, as provided by your Internet Service Provider or your home page service.
The remote directory is the most tricky part to get correct, as you need to get the placement of any / needed correct. Don’t forget to turn the master switch on, so that it is green. Click on OK to save the settings at any time, then go back to the setup screen again.
Next you will want to select the times that your web page is updated under Upload times.
If you want the files updated/uploaded every minute, then tick Update every minute. The daily averages/extreme files are updated at the times specified, and you can set these to update at a more convenient time . The actual averages/extreme files are updated at either 5 minutes past midnight (if you have the midnight reset time selected), or 5 minutes past 9am (if you have 9am reset time selected – see under setup, reset times), regardless of the time you set for when the files are updated to your web page. If you untick do daily uploads of averages/exteme, then the files will neither be created or uploaded.
Next you will want to set up the web page settings – click on the files tab to go there:
To set the file that will be uploaded to your web page, and be part of the URL, enter that under weather station filename. Note: no spaces, but you can use – or _ and don’t include .html or .htm
This file name will have .htm put on the end of it automaticly – you can have it use .html if you want – see that option (use .html instead of .htm).
If you are uploading a web cam file (the file name must remain static – see web cam upload option to setup this up), then add in the title of the web cam that you want to appear on the web page (e.g. “my backward”)
If you want a wallpaper /background image to appear on the web site, then you enter the name of the wallpaper or image (jpg or gif only), but this file must be on your FTP server. You can upload it to the server – see manual upload, or use another FTP program.
Title of Web page: This will appear on people’s bookmark of you URL, on the browser window, and on the Table title on the web page. Special status message: use this as a quick and easy way to let people know the status of the weather station.
Next choose which files/images you want updated/uploaded
The real time graph upload is the one you can see under view, real time graph (or right mouse click on the graph in weather display to see this option – in fact, right mouse clicking on most of the screen in weather display gives you some popup options, and a left mouse click will also go straight to some screens).