# Configuring Serial Weather Station Ports

Weather stations are connected through a computer serial port (RS232 or USB). The current directly-connected supported weather station models are the Peet Bros. series of weather stations, such as the Ultimeter 500 and Ultimeter 2000. Other weather stations compatible with these may also be used. Other makes of weather station may be usable if they have a software program that supports the WXNOW.TXT file interface.

To add a new weather station port, click the Add button on the Configure Ports tab. The port editing dialog will appear. Set the port type to Serial_Weather.

The other parameters you will need to specify for the weather station are:

- the name of the port to which the weather station is connected. On Microsoft Windows, this will be a COM port (COM1, COM2, etc.). On Linux, this will be a /dev/ttyS port (ex. /dev/ttyS0) or a USB serial port (ex., /dev/ttyUSB0). Similar device names will be used on other Unix derivatives. Note that on Linux and Unix systems, you will need the access right to access serial ports. Typically, this will be membership in a group owning the serial ports, such as dialout, tty, or uucp. You will also need the access right to write a lock file into the lock file directory on your system. Typically, this will be membership in the lock group.

  NOTE: The Fedora Core 15 distro of Linux has a known incompatibility with the RXTX library used by YAAC to access the serial ports, due to moving the lock directory to a place not known to the RXTX library. To work around this, ensure that the /var/lock directory's group is lock and has group write privilege, and that your account is a member of the lock group as mentioned above.

- The baud rate the weather station will be communicating at (typically, 2400 baud, though you may wish to configure your weather station for a higher speed). Ensure that the weather station is set to the same speed as you configure this port to.
- The make and model of weather station you are using.

The "Test Port" button provides a means of verifying that you have connected to the correct place; it opens a terminal window connected to the configured serial port so that you can manually test the weather station for the desired operation. To complete testing, close the terminal window.

Once you have the settings the way you want them, click OK.

You can check how well your weather station is performing by selecting the menu choice View -> Show Weather Status.