Wunderground - fails to update since Sep 5 2019 - solution found
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My Rainmachine has been consistently failing to update WUnderground local stations since 9/5/2019. There were no changes to settings for last year or so.
Following some other posts I tested the direct URL in the browser and the station I am pinging work just fine:
This got me thinking as Rainmachine WU set up on my sprinkler doesn't have any API specified in the API box at all which had been working fine to date but maybe something changed?
So I tried the same URL without API key (I removed the "&apiKey=abc12defg3456789h01ijkl234m567n7" part") and I got error... If I plug any bogus value in apiKey then it works. Apparently WU made some change to their service and now requires a key in the URL (even a bogus one, so long it is there) as otherwise it throws an error.
Rainmachine, as would logic dictate, appends apiKey to URL if it is specified and skips this argument if it is not specified so it makes sense that it would send what is an invalid URL to WU service.
The solution is to specify anything in the "API KEY" box (so long it has the correct length for API Key, any value with 32 characters will work) in the WU settings page and the Rainmachine starts working fine with WU again.
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Very interesting. I have 2 rainmachines. Since Sept 5th, my 8 port device has been unable to get observer data from Wunderground. The blank apikey had worked fine since Wunderground ceased to support free apikeys. My 12 port device continues to get observed data with a blank api key. I just tried the fake 32 character apikey on my 8 port, and it still doesn't work. It gives a different error, but I think that is because Wunderground interprets a non-blank apikey as a request for forecast info as well as observed data. The fact that the date of the change (Sept 5th) is the same as yours seems to suggest the same issue, but your solution doesn't work in my case...
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Thanks Julius. I just tried that, but still get "Error: no forecast or station data received." In the weather settings it also no longer lists the IDs of the nearest stations which may, or may not, be significant. I entered the IDs of the two nearest stations separated by a comma, but so far no luck. I'm running 4.0.999 firmware
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Shouldn't the Wunderground apikey be 16 characters, not 32? Either way, I'm not getting any joy using a blank apikey or a 16 character one. I'm baffled that the 12 port continues to work with a blank key, but I can't get any observed data on my 8-port. I really need to adjust my watering based on observed weather. Without this, the rainmachine product loses most of it's benefit for me.
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https://photos.app.goo.gl/F49cTh6oUcdX9t6YA
Dunno, this is a screenshot of my current setup that works.
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Thanks for the photo. It gave me an idea. I see that you have a large number of alternative stations listed in the "use nearby stations" list. So, I added the complete list of my nearby stations (10 of them) to my config. I did this with a blank API Key. It has now received observed data for the first time since Sept 5th. Note that I didn't add a fake API Key. Very strange. Up to this point I only listed 2 alternative stations. Maybe those 2 stations are slow in responding and it times out? I can view them through Wunderground on the browser just fine. Very strange... Thanks for working with me on this.
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My Wunderground PWS data started showing the "no station data received" error in early October after working fine for since the RM firmware update to workaround IBM killing free API keys. After pulling my hair out trying to get it working and I logged into my WU account and found that I have an API key available again?!?!?! Plugged the API key into RM and I am back to a green "Success" for WUnderground. Interestingly, on the API key tab on WU, there's a link to a Google doc that describes the API for PWS owners. Is the API for PWS owners back? Is this fluke? Who knows? Strange.
In the meantime, I am tired of all the WU nonsense over the past couple of years and will probably migrate to a weeWX+RTL+Raspberry Pi solution to cut out the unreliable WU middleman.
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think WU have updated the API -
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://api.weather.com/v2/pws/observations/current?" on this server.
Reference #18.3615da8b.1578548646.4f7d9f55
No APIKey value gives
{"metadata":{"transaction_id":"##############"},"success":false,"errors":[{"error":{"code":"CDN-0001","message":"Invalid apiKey."}}]}
and no APIKEY at all gives
{"metadata":{"transaction_id":"##############"},"success":false,"errors":[{"error":{"code":"CDN-0004","message":"Missing apiKey."}}]}
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Although I do have an API key on my account for my PWS, WUnderground still didn't work all the time, not sure what actually fails.
Now looking at this discution I'm starting to think that my key never actually mattered. So I've browsed to their website/my station and looked at the network calls in the browser.For all stations they use this key: 6532d6454b8aa370768e63d6ba5a832e no matter if you are logged in or not. This key seems to work fine for me now !
So your URL would be: https://api.weather.com/v2/pws/observations/current?stationId=KCTWESTH45&format=json&units=e&apiKey=6532d6454b8aa370768e63d6ba5a832e
WUnderground service seems very badly designed, and because of that finding an alternative with less reliance to an online service seems to be a good idea.
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Thank you Adrian. I checked this morning, and both my Rainmachines (which had been getting data from local stations fine with no API Key for the past several months) were once again failing to update - the last successful update being earlier this morning. I updated both with the API Key you list above, and now both are working again. I really don't know what is going on, but thanks to folks like you we can keep this working. Thanks again.
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Thank you, Adrian.
By mistake, I found a workaround to get your own API key, for free :)So, here it is: as a WU user - you can add a weather station (presumably yours) for Free. After that, you can generate your API key automatically.
All you have to do is to log in into your WU account and go to "Member Settings - My Devices" add a weather station, choose one from the big list, I choose NetAtmo (because I have it, but it doesn't matter) and save it. Then go to "API Keys" and generate your key. Use that key on RainMachine WU parser.Hope this helps!
Mark -
Just replying here that Adrian's solution appears to be working for me as well.
Though under the API key box i get an error message: "FAILED! Please try again."
However on my Active Weather Services page in the app i'm getting "OK" for both NOAA and Wunderground. My assumption is that it is working despite the API key error message because before trying this solution I got an OK for NOAA but an error for Wunderground.
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Mark's solutions works. To reiterate...
You must have a WU account first.
Then: Member Settings - My Devices
Pick a weather station you plan to buy one of these days. [May take you years to make up your mind]
Then go to "API Keys" and generate your key and carefully copy it. You'll need it later.
Log into your RM web account and go to settings/weather
Paste your new API key into the API field
Just above, you'll see a list of your closest active station IDs
Carefully, copy/paste 3 or 4 station IDs into the Use Nearby ... Be very careful to separate the IDs with commas AND NO spaces.
Key Save
Key refresh lower left.
Mine didn't seem to take instantly. I refreshed and exited/reopened RM and waited awhile.
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I actually did buy an Ambient Weather station and signed up with WU a couple of days ago to post my station along with getting my generated API. Seems to be working with my Pro16, but in order to Avoid any error messages, I also had to add another local weather station along with my own.
My preference would be to have a direct connection to my station via Ambient Weather instead of Weather Underground. I know that there are workarounds posted in various forums here, but it would be great if RainMachine could provide a more direct connection to Ambient like they do with other services. Any chance that could be implemented in a future upgrade?
Thanks.
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