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SOLO

Users manual

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 1 30. Sep. 2016

I n d e x

Physical installation

Accessing the data

2.1.

Main web page

2.2.

Single Line Data files

2.3.

ScopeDome data file

2.4.

AAG CloudWatcher “Master”

2.5.

Data logger (USB pen)

Configuration

“Hidden” features

4.1.

Push notifications

4.2.

Changing DNS server address

4.3.

Rolling back to an older version

Other interesting facts about the Solo

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 2 30. Sep. 2016

Thank you for your purchase of the AAG CloudWatcher “Solo”!

The “Solo” has been designed to improve the overall usefulness of the AAG CloudWatcher,
monitoring it, adjusting the heater, and constantly publishing information accessible in a
variety of ways.

Physical installation

The “Solo” has to be installed indoors.

The installation cannot be more easy:

unplug your CloudWatcher from the power supply (if applicable)

using the same power supply, power the “Solo” - any of the two plugs will
do

with the included (short) cable, join the other jack plug in the “Solo” with
the CW

Attach the SubD-9 (serial) from the CW to the “Solo”

and, of course, connect the Solo to your local network using a standard
RJ45 cable (not supplied)

… that's it. In a few seconds the “activity” LED in the “Solo” will start blinking (slowly),
showing it is communicating with the CloudWatcher

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 3 30. Sep. 2016

Accessing the data

Now that the “Solo” is up and running, and connected to your local network, it will fetch an IP
address (automatically, using DHCP, as standard in the vast majority of networks) and start
publishing information in a variety of ways.

There is a separate document explaining the procedure to enable your Solo being accessed
from the internet.

2.1)

Main web page

From your web explorer, now you can type: “

http://aagsolo

” (in the address bar,

not in

Google!), and you'll see the main “Solo” page:

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 4 30. Sep. 2016

There are a few things worth explaining in this page:



in the

upper left side, the current readings are displayed. Hovering the mouse pointer

over the icons will display the reading numerically.



at its

leftmost side, some buttons:

–

stop / start auto update (will refresh every 60 seconds if enabled)

–

reload data now



in the

upper right, a log pane with recent information



covering the rest (and main portion) of the page, the graphs with information covering
the current day and the day before.



Also at its

leftmost side, some buttons:

–

stop / start auto update (will refresh every 60 seconds if enabled)

–

reload data now

–

show / hide yesterday's data

–

show / hide the three color background (matching the 3 levels of each
reading)

–

show / hide a dotted line at the current “unsafe” setting

–

choose between metric and imperial units

Last, in the lower right side of the page the language can be changed, for the moment Auto,
English and Spanish are available.

This page can be made accessible from the Internet; the way of doing so varies from router
to router, but basically involves setting up a “NAT” rule for incoming connections at a given
port to be redirected to the “Solo” – and of course the “Solo” needs to have a fixed IP
address. You can check our running unit at:

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 5 30. Sep. 2016

http://aagsolo.lunatico.es:10800/

2.2)

Single Line Data files

Some programs and drivers (at least CCDAutopilot and CCDCommander in remote mode, and
also our own and Chris Rowland's ASCOM safety monitor driver), just need to access a file
with weather data formatted in a specific way.

The “Solo” does publish this file, and thus you can add weather safety just accessing it from
the network. Browse the network to the “aagsolo” computer (by the way, user “

”, password

“

cloudwatcher

” ):

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 6 30. Sep. 2016

Forget the “tmp” folder, and go to the “AAGSolo” one:

There are quite a few files, but it is “aag_sld.dat” (meaning AAG Single Line Data) the one
we're looking for.

There's also a file called “aag_sldc.dat”, being the same but with a comma “,” separating the
decimal numbers. I've check that at least CCDAP, if installed in a machine with a locale using
that comma to separate decimal numbers, needs this file.

So, you just have to make your automation software (or ASCOM driver) point to this shared
folder. Important, depending on the Windows version, you may have to connect to the
“aagsolo” from the Windows explorer at least once at the start of every session.

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 7 30. Sep. 2016

2.3)

ScopeDome data file

Accesing the network in the same way, we can find a special file for the ScopeDome software,
namely “scopedome.csv”:

… just select this file in your ScopeDome software, Config, Cloud Sensor Config (Current
Cloud Sensor Status File Name)

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 8 30. Sep. 2016

2.4)

AAG CloudWatcher “Master”

The “Solo” also behaves as a CloudWatcher Windows application in Master mode, so you can
connect other instances of the Windows software, running as Remote, to the “Solo”.

Note:

to change your current Windows software from Master to Remote, you'll have to run

a small utility called “AAG_ResetParameters” included in your current software. Browse your
hard disk to the installation folder, typically C:\Program Files\AAG_CloudWatcher or
C:\Program Files (x86)\AAG_CloudWatcher, to find it. Reset all parameters (please take note
of your current K-factors and Limits settings before doing so!), and running your software
again will ask “Is this a Master or Remote installation”

Browse the network again to the aagsolo machine (reminder, user “pi” password
“cloudwatcher”), and you'll find the AAG_CWNetData.dat file:

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 9 30. Sep. 2016

This is the file your “remote” AAG programs will need to operate. Selecting, from those
applications, the folder containing it will allow them to run.

As said before, depending on the Windows version, you may have to connect to the “aagsolo”
from the Windows explorer at least once at the start of every session.

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 10 30. Sep. 2016

2.5)

Data Logger

A new (for version 1.4) and useful feature of the Solo is its ability to record a CSV file in a
user supplied USB stick. You just need to insert, in one of Solo USB ports, a suitably
formatted USB memory stick (suitably formatted means FAT – other formats may work if you
know what you're doing...).

Once the stick is inserted, the Solo software will detect it, mount, and start adding
information to a CSV file (userdata.csv) in the base folder of the stick – so you just have to
insert the stick for the logging to start.

However, to remote the stick, you have to “unmount” it (similar to the Windows “safely
remove” operation) – there is an option in the configuration pages to do so.

Final note: the software will append information to the file if it exists; if you have already
taken the file in your computer and want to start afresh, just delete it from the USB stick
before inserting it again in the Solo.

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 11 30. Sep. 2016

Configuration

To access the configuration pages, please, again in your web browser, type:

https://aagsolo/config/

notice the “

” after http – this means it is a secure protocol. You'll get a warning, or maybe

several, about the site not being secure. You are in your local network, so please trust you're
accessing your “Solo”. You'll be asked for user and password, in this case the user is “

solo

”,

the password the same as before, that is, “

cloudwatcher

”.

The reason for this warning is we're using a custom certificate that allows all information to

be encrypted, for safety, but the certificate itself is not registered in a certification authority;

that's a more complex and expensive step unneeded here.

Once you've agreed to proceed to the site, you can access three pages:

–

configuration

, where you'll be able to setup your “Solo” in a very similar

way to the CloudWatcher Windows software.

–

system details

, where you can make some adjustments, set the time /

date, network configuration, change the default password

(“cloudwatcher”),

reboot the system (just in case), and also shutdown it.

–

For the shutdown process, and given it will take you a trip to the observatory
to start it again, you'll be challenged to confirm your selection.

–

USB status

, it may be unmounted, as shown, or mounted. Clicking the

button will check the USB status again (if unmounted) or unmount it prior to
a safe removal (if mounted)

–

Last,

update the system

. From here you can check if there's a new version

and, optionally, update to it.

1 Please note the password you can change here is the one to access this configuration section of the web. It

does not affect the password used to access the files using the Windows network.

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 12 30. Sep. 2016

Just a few notes about the configuration – please consult the online documentation for the
Windows program for more specific data.

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 13 30. Sep. 2016

–

timezone

: you have to select your time zone so the readings are accurate and match

your local time, for the automation programs. The data in the web pages will match
the local time of the place you're connecting from.

–

load previous / default configuration

: options to let you recover from errors or

tests.

–

max rain graph / max light graph

: defining the upper limit of the graphs, so they

look pretty. The other graphs (cloud, temperature, wind speed) adjust themselves in
the current data range.

–

Ambient and IR temperature offsets

, used to compensate for the electronics

heating and other factors; the offsets will be substracted from the raw readings of the
sensors.

–

And last,

the “unsafe” limits

; here you can specify the limit exceeding which a

reading will be considered unsafe. This is a difference from the Windows software,
where you had only 3 options (matching the 3 ranges) for setting unsafe.
So, for instance, you can define wind speeds 0 to 5 Kmh to be calm, 6 to 25 to be
windy, and above that to be very windy, but set the unsafe wind limit to, say, 20 Kmh.

The System page is very straightforward, only worth noting is the Network configuration:

… here we can specify if we just want the address of the Solo to be obtained automatically
for our router (full automatic), avoiding any problem, or if we prefer to also specify a static
(fixed) address, which is useful to make the Solo accessible from the internet.

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 14 30. Sep. 2016

“Hidden” features

There are a number of interesting things the Solo can do that lack proper support in the
configuration pages, for the moment, but still can be accessed.

4.1)

Push via Pushbullet

If you want the Solo to send push messages to your smartphone, PC, or whatever, now there
is support for this using Pushbullet, a great and free system.

You'll need to open a Pushbullet account; then you'll have the option to install a client or you
can check your notifications in the website; the client program is available for many
platforms, and quite useful IMHO. With your account you'll have a key, a long string of
characters, that identify your Pushbullet account.

To activate the sending of messages when the weather changes from UNSAFE to SAFE (and
vice versa), just open your internet explorer, chrome, or whatever and type:

https://aagsolo/cgi-bin/cgiSetPBKey?your-pushbullet-key

Please note the "s" in "https", and replace the "your-pushbullet-key" for the actual key.

To disable it:

https://aagsolo/cgi-bin/cgiSetPBKey

Suggestion: activate it only in imaging nights.

4.2)

Setting DNS servers

If your Solo has problems accessing the internet (you will most probably notice when trying
to check for updates), you can set your correct DNS servers, as provided by your ISP, using
this cgi (web program):

https://aagsolo/cgi-bin/cgiSetDNS?ip.of.your.dns

... you can set up to two DNS:

https://aagsolo/cgi-bin/cgiSetDNS?ip.of.your.dns1&ip.of.your.dns2

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 15 30. Sep. 2016

Tip: to find out your current DNS, open a windows command prompt and type “nslookup”:

… as shown above. The Address shown is your current DNS server (for your PC), and you can
safely use it for the Solo, so it would be, for that address:

https://aagsolo/cgi-bin/cgiSetDNS?194.224.52.36

4.3)

Rolling back to a previous version - or to a future one

In case some version goes wrong in the future, we hope not, you'll be able to force the
system to download and install any specific version:

https://aagsolo/cgi-bin/cgiForceVersion?version_number

To reinstall this current version 1.2, for instance, that would be:

https://aagsolo/cgi-bin/cgiForceVersion?12

… notice we don't use the dot between the numbers.

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 16 30. Sep. 2016

Other interesting facts about the “Solo”

✔

The “Solo” is based on the Raspberry Pi model “B”, and has a really friendly power
consumption of approx < 2 W.

✔

Inside the box there's a SD card acting as the hard disk of the device. It is mounted in
“read only” mode, meaning that:

•

there's no problem at all unpowering the unit, the SD card will never become
corrupt. It is only written, for a very short while, after configuration changes or
a system update.

•

It will take a while (minutes...), after powering the Solo, for it to retrieve the
correct time and date, please be patient!

•

Also, the SD will not “worn out”; these cards had a limited number of write
operations, so being read only will extend its life almost indefinitely.

✔

You can get the last reading from the CloudWatcher easily to use in a program or a
personal web:

http://aagsolo/cgi-bin/cgiLastData

✔

In a similar way, you can get the historical data for up to 48h:

http://aagsolo/cgi-

bin/cgiHistData

✔

The system is quite hacker friendly; you can,

under your responsibility, login via ssh

and tweak the web pages or whatever. For ssh connections, the user is “pi”, the
password “cloudwatcher”.

✔

… and, as always, your suggestions are most welcome.

____________________________

SOLO - Users manual v. 1.4 17 30. Sep. 2016

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