OS says “empty response” from local weather service (after update)

@bekesizl: If you haven’t had any issues with your old WiFi setup, it’s maybe worth to use your previous WiFi setup again. Maybe everything is working with the old setup? It might be interesting to know if this solves the issue!

bekesizl: Compiling the OpenSprinkler isn’t to complicated. You have to follow the instructions given in the OpenSprinkler Support section. Some hints are also given in the forum thread: Error building firmware from source.

If you change the CHECK_WEATHER_TIMEOUT parameter in main.cpp to 1 hour as described above there is a good chance that you see the “Empty Response” answer only once or twice per day. In this way you can probably use your own local weather service for the OpenSprinkler Water% calculation.

I’m not sure what causes the issue. I’s maybe some timing problem due to the longer data travel time if WiFi repeaters are in use. Maybe the OpenSprinkler team can give some hints on what causes the “Empty Response” in detail.

I’ve continued troubleshooting my OpenSprinkler setup. The OpenSprinkler App uses the Get Controller Variables /jc?pw=xxx command to receive the OpenSprinkler information. Please see Firmware 2.1.9 API Document for details. Executing it within a web browser results in:

{“devt”:1642771880,”nbrd”:1,”en”:1,”sn1″:0,”sn2″:0,”rd”:1,”rdst”:1642778976,”sunrise”:483,”sunset”:1014,”eip”:1469124457,”lwc”:1642771835,”lswc”:1642771835,”lupt”:1642771832,”lrbtc”:99,”lrun”:[0,0,0,0],”RSSI”:-49,”mac”:”60:01:94:70:87:60″,”loc”:”49.47432,10.94365″,”jsp”:”https://ui.opensprinkler.com/js”,”wsp”:”weather.opensprinkler.com”,”wto”:{“h”:100,”t”:100,”r”:100,”bh”:65,”bt”:69.8,”br”:0,”pws”:”IFRTH65″,”key”:””},”ifkey”:”bu9J7THcINuUAoUYzayc77″,”mqtt”:{},”wtdata”:{“wp”:”DS”,”h”:82,”p”:0.1,”t”:34.8,”raining”:1},”wterr”:0,”curr”:0,”sbits”:[0,0],”ps”:[[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0]]}

if running the Fritz!Box capture feature.

or in:

{“devt”:1642760267,”nbrd”:1,”en”:0,”sn1″:0,”sn2″:0,”rd”:0,”rdst”:0,”sunrise”:483,”sunset”:1014,”eip”:3232281121,”lwc”:1642760237,”lswc”:0,”lupt”:1642760239,”lrbtc”:99,”lrun”:[0,0,0,0],”RSSI”:-45,”mac”:”60:01:94:70:87:60″,”loc”:”49.47432,10.94365″,”jsp”:”https://ui.opensprinkler.com/js”,”wsp”:”weather.opensprinkler.com”,”wto”:{“h”:100,”t”:100,”r”:100,”bh”:65,”bt”:69.8,”br”:0,”pws”:”IFRTH65″,”key”:””},”ifkey”:”bu9J7THcINuUAoUYzayc77″,”mqtt”:{},”wtdata”:{},”wterr”:-4,”curr”:0,”sbits”:[0,0],”ps”:[[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0]]}

if not running the Fritz!Box 7590 capture feature.

The error code of the last response from the weather server “wterr”: -4 describes the network problem as “received empty return”. The “wtdata”: {} is not populated if compared to the successful result. However, there are also cases where the “wtdata”: {} is populated correctly and the last response from the weather server is “wterr”: -4, especially if interfacing my Local PWS weather server!

{“devt”:1642833002,”nbrd”:1,”en”:1,”sn1″:0,”sn2″:0,”rd”:1,”rdst”:1642843770,”sunrise”:481,”sunset”:1015,”eip”:3232281121,”lwc”:1642830714,”lswc”:1642827112,”lupt”:1642791088,”lrbtc”:4,”lrun”:[0,0,0,0],”RSSI”:-52,”mac”:”60:01:94:70:87:60″,”loc”:”49.47432,10.94365″,”jsp”:”https://ui.opensprinkler.com/js”,”wsp”:”192.168.178.39:3000″,”wto”:{“h”:100,”t”:100,”r”:100,”bh”:65,”bt”:69.8,”br”:0,”pws”:”IFRTH65″,”key”:””},”ifkey”:”bu9J7THcINuUAoUYzayc77″,”mqtt”:{},”wtdata”:{“wp”:”local”,”h”:97.26,”p”:0.05,”t”:32.1,”raining”:0},”wterr”:-4,”curr”:0,”sbits”:[0,0],”ps”:[[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0],[0,0,0]]}

This is somehow strange and not understandable? I have also performed a factory reset of the OpenSprinkler and the Fritz!Box router without any success in solving the issue.

Any ideas what went wrong or how to go on with the investgation?

@bekesizl: It’s still freezing at night times in Germany and I’m not running OpenSprinkler right now to water the garden. It might be interesting, if the issue still exists with a wired Ethernet connection. Unfortunately, my OpenSprinkler V3.0 hardware model doesn‘t allow to attach an Ethernet module.

I‘ve also a backup system consisting of an ESP32 module, using Weather Underground weather reports to calculate the water level according to the Zimmerman method. The calculating result is send to the OpenSprinkler, running in manual mode. So, it’s a good idea to use such a workaround.

What I can think about is, that the “Empty Response”- issue is caused by some timing problem within the Arduino WiFi library function. I don’t know if this is the case and how to continue with the investigation?

However, for the time being my Local Weather Service runs with three or four data losses per day and can be well used to control the OpenSprinkler garden watering.