Vantage Pro2 Agent

The Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 is a weather system + monitor used to acquire and readout weather data. The Vantage Pro2 monitor is connected to the laboratory computer via usb cable and data is sent though that connection. Here is the VantagePro2 Operations manual.

usage: python3 agent.py [-h] [--port PORT] [--serial-number SERIAL_NUMBER]
                        [--mode {idle,init,acq}] [--sample-freq SAMPLE_FREQ]

Agent Options

--port

Path to USB node for the Vantage Pro2

--serial-number

Serial number of VantagePro2 Monitor

--mode

Possible choices: idle, init, acq

Starting action for the agent.

--sample-freq

Sample frequency for weather data collection

Configuration File Examples

Below are configuration examples for the ocs config file and for running the Agent in a docker container.

OCS Site Config

To configure the Vantage Pro2 Agent we need to add a VantagePro2Agent block to our ocs configuration file. Here is an example configuration block, where we do not specify the port. Note: One should first add the serial number of the VantagePro 2 device to the udev file and create SYMLINK. The Vendor ID is “10c4” and the Prodcut ID is “ea60” for the Vantage Pro2. Here, we associate the vendor and product ID’s with the SYMLINK ‘VP2’. So, we’re setting the serial number argument as ‘VP2’:

{'agent-class': 'VantagePro2Agent',
  'instance-id': 'vantagepro2agent',
  'arguments': [['--mode', 'acq'],
                ['--serial-number', 'VP2'],
                ['--sample-freq', '0.5']]},

An example block of the udev rules file for the VantagePro 2 follows:

SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{idVendor}=="10c4", ATTRS{idProduct}=="ea60",
        SYMLINK="VP2"

The agent will attempt to find the port that the Vantage Pro2 is connected to based on the serial number.

Note the ‘–freq’ argument specifies the sample frequency that the Vantage Pro2 Monitor collects weather data. The Vantage Pro2 and weather station can sample weathervdata at a maximum sample frequency of 0.5 Hz. The user can define slower sample frequencies if they so desire.

Docker Compose

The Vantage Pro2 Agent should be configured to run in a Docker container. An example docker-compose service configuration is shown here:

ocs-vantage-pro2:
  image: simonsobs/socs:latest
  hostname: ocs-docker
  command:
    - INSTANCE_ID=vantagepro2agent
  volumes:
    - ${OCS_CONFIG_DIR}:/config:ro

Description

Out of the box, one just needs to connect the weather station to the Vantage Pro2 monitor, and the monitor to the lab computer via usb.

The Vantage Pro2 monitor and weather station records many different types of weather data:

Barometer trend, the current 3 hour barometer trend.
- -60 = Falling rapidly
- -20 = Falling slowly
- 0 = Steady
- 20 = Rising slowly
- 60 = Rising rapidly
- 80 = No trend available
- Any other value = The VantagePro2 does not have the 3 hours of data needed to determine the barometer trend.
Barometer: Current barometer reading (Hg/1000)
Inside Temperature: Temperatue in Fahrenheit (up to 10th of a degree)
Inside Humidity: Relative humidity in percent
Outside Temperature: Temperature in Fahrenheit (up to 10th of a degree)
Wind Speed: Wind speed in miles per hour
10 min average wind speed: 10 minute average wind speed in miles per hour
Wind Direction: From 1-360 degrees
- 0 = No wind direction data
- 90 = East
- 180 = South
- 270 = West
- 360 = North
Extra Temperatures: VantagePro2 can read temperature from up to 7 extra temperature stations. However, they are offset by negative 90 degrees fahrenheit. So, a value of 100 is: 100 - 90 = 10 degrees fahrenheit.
Soil Temperatures: Four soil temperature sensors, in the same format as the extra temperatures format listed above.
Leaf Temperatures: Four leaf temperature sensors, in the same format as the extra temperatures format listed above.
Outside Humidity: Relativie humidity in percent
Extra Humidities: Realtive humidity in percent for 7 humidity stations
Rain Rate: Number of rain clicks (mm per hour)
UV: “Unit is in UV index”
Solar Radiation: Units in watt/meter^2
Storm Rain: Stored in 100th of an inch
Start Date of Current storm: Gives month, date, and year (offset by 2000)
Day Rain: Number of rain clicks (0.1in or 0.2mm)/hour in the past day
Month Rain: Number of rain clicks (0.1in or 0.2mm)/hour in the past month
Year Rain: Number of rain clicks (0.1in or 0.2mm)/hour in the past year
Day ET: 1000th of an inch
Month ET: 1000th of an inch
Year ET: 1000th of an inch
Soil Moistures: In centibar, supports 4 soil sensors
Leaf Wetnesses: Scale from 0-15. Supports 4 leaf sensors
- 0 = Very dry
- 15 = Very wet
Inside Alarms: Currently active inside alarms
Rain Alarms: Currently active rain alarms
Outside Alarms: Currently active outside alarms
Outside Humidity Alarms: Currently active humidity alarms
Extra Temp/Hum Alarms: Currently active extra temperature/humidity alarms
Soil & Leaf Alarms: Currently active soil/leaf alarms
Console Battery Voltage: Voltage = ((Data x 300)/512)/100.0
Time of Sunrise: Time is stored as hour x 100 + min
Time of Sunset: Time is stored as hour x 100 + min

Agent API

class socs.agents.vantagepro2.agent.VantagePro2Agent(agent, port='/dev/ttyUSB0', sample_freq=0.5)[source]

Agent to connect to single VantagePro2 Weather Monitor Device.

Parameters:

sample_freq (double) – frequency (Hz) at which the weather monitor samples data. Can not be faster than 0.5 Hz. This value is converted to period (sec) for time.wait(seconds)
port (string) – usb port that the weather monitor is connected to. The monitor will communicate via this port.

init(auto_acquire=False)[source]

Task - Perform first time setup of the Weather Monitor Module.

Parameters:: auto_acquire (bool) – Automatically start acq process after initialization if True. Defaults to False.

acq(sample_freq=0.5)[source]

Process - Start data acquisition.

Parameters:: sample_freq (float) – Frequency at which weather data is sampled. Defaults to 0.5 Hz.