20010531: decoding model output data in McIDAS (cont.)

>From: "Wayne Bresky" <address@hidden>
>Organization: Cornell
>Keywords: 200105161402.f4GE2Jp07535 ADDE

Wayne,

re: is startxcd.k running

>I did not send the entire process list.  The startxcd  process
>is indeed running.

OK.

re: how did you activate DMGRID

>That is correct.  Actually, I typed two commands:
>
>DECINFO EDIT DMGRID GRIB ACTIVE CONFIG=GRIBDEC.CFG
>DECINFO SET  DMGRID ACTIVE

The first DECINFO above was not necessary, but it should have done no
harm.

>One other thing I neglected to mention.  The following line was
>commented out in HRS.CFG and I uncommented the line:
>
>PORT=/dev/ttyC3
>
>Should this line be commented or uncommented?

This should be commented out.  The first three entries in HRS.CFG should
look like:

FILE=STDIN           # Standard in; used for feed from Unidata LDM

#PORT=/dev/ttyC3      # port tty name
SPOOLENG=32          # size of the spool file to use in megabytes

All of XCD was designed to read from serial ports.  This suites sites
that have NOAAPORT data ingestion systems that can be accessed by
serial ports for the various services.  The _great_ majority of Unidata
sites are getting their data through our IDD via an LDM.  In this case,
the binary ingester process ingebin.k will be fed model data through
STDIN, not through a serial port.

Your umcommenting of the PORT= line in HRS.CFG may, in fact, be your
only problem in ingesting/decoding model data.

re: turn on GRID decoding with DECINFO and then let startxcd.k start DMGRID

>correct

Good.  I just wanted to make sure that I understood exactly where you were.

re: is the dmgrid.k executable (located in ~mcidas/bin) viable (e.g., non
zero in length; can find all needed shared libraries; etc)

>Yes, it is.
>-rwxrwxr-x    2 mcidas   unidata    215132 Feb 14 14:49 dmgrid.k*

OK.

re: do you have a REDIRECT for GRID5* and GRID6000

>The GRID5* redirect exists
>GRID5* /var/data/xcd
>but I do not see one for GRID6000.  Is this critical?

It is needed because of the change in AVN grids that occurred in April.
The 7.705 addendum has an updated EXAMPLE.NAM that included this REDIRECTion.

If you do not have a REDIRECTion for GRID6000, it will be written into the
first writable directory in the user 'mcidas' MCPATH.  If things are setup
as I say they should be, this would be $HOME/workdata (where HOME is the
home directory for the user 'mcidas').

re: is there a valid REDIRECTion for HRS.SPL

>Yes, I see the redirection for HRS.SPL
>HRS.SPL /var/data/xcd
>but, the file doesn't exist
>ls: /var/data/xcd/HRS.SPL: No such file or directory

I am betting that this is due to your uncommenting the PORT= line in HRS.CFG.

re: what about GRIBDEC.PRO

>I see the GRIBDEC.PRO file but all it has in it is the following
>
>more GRIBDEC.PRO
>Ryº

It will only have one 4-byte integer word in it.  By the way, the way
to list out contents of binary files in McIDAS is to use LWU:

LWU LIST GRIBDEC.PRO

The output is like a combination of 'od -d', 'od -x', and 'od -c'.  This
is a very useful command for power McIDAS users.

re: what does the contents of DMGRID.ERR look like

>I've been looking at this file for a few days.  Here's a partial listing
>
>01151  065344 DMGRID       Starting: GRIB decoder
>01151  065414 DMGRID       Starting: GRIB decoder
>01151  065444 DMGRID       Starting: GRIB decoder
>01151  065514 DMGRID       Starting: GRIB decoder
>01151  065544 DMGRID       Starting: GRIB decoder
>01151  065614 DMGRID       Starting: GRIB decoder

OK, the decoder is being restarted often.  This is due to it exiting
probably because of the PORT= line issue.

re: logins

>At the present time, I only know the root password (recall I am taking
>over for Jim Marco).  So I've just been using su mcidas and su ldm to
>become those users.  I should probably change the passwords, but I haven't
>done it just yet.

OK, the login may not be necessary after all.  Try changing HRS.CFG back
to what it was in the distribution and see what happens.

re: successfully setup ADDE access to the NEXRAD Level III products

>Yes, I have.

Very good.

Tom