Topic: WMR968 Problem Communicating with Virtual Weather Station

[mrascott]

Dear All,

This is a bit of a bizarre problem and I wonder if anybody else has experienced it (and hopefully found a solution).

I have been running my WMR968 for many years via a serial cable linked to an XP box running Virtual Weather Station with no problems.  I have recently changed the computer to a Windows 7 64bit laptop that acts as my home server.  VWS installed fine and I copied my data from the old machine to the new.  As the new laptop does not have a serial port I bought (from eBay - I'm in the UK) a serial to USB cable and got the drivers installed and that seems to be working fine.

The problem is that the communication between the WMR968 and VWS only works when I touch the screen of the weather station.  So when VWS loads it cannot communicate with the base station or any sensors until I touch the screen of the base station - then it gets a connection and reads the data correctly, once.  It doesn't update until I touch the screen of the base station again and then sends another signal and updates VWS.  This is obviously not ideal!

I have played around with all the COM port settings and unistalled and reinstalled the driver for the serial to USB cable several times.  The cable obviously works as does the weather station but why doesn't it send the data automatically like it used to on my old XP box?  There is definitely mains power getting to the base unit as the screen illuminates when I touch it.  I have also disabled all the various sleep options in Windows to keep the laptop awake.

This is very frustrating... I'm thinking that my options are:

1) get a new base station with a USB port (which one would work with my existing sensors? - I've just got the standard sensors)
2) get a whole new weather station
3) get a new data cable
4) reinstall VWS
5) reinstall Windows
6) revert to my old XP box (although this was actually an exercise in trying to save electricity by running a new eco-friendly laptop instead of an old desktop machine)

Any help or advice would be greatly received.  My feeling is this is a cable or cable driver related problem, the driver is PL2303_Prolific_DriverInstaller_v130.zip the latest (claims to work with Windows7 64) driver from Prolific.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Matt

[sam2004gp]

There is no OS Weather unit that has a USB port on them that will work with those sensors.  Is there a reason you had to change to Win7.  Perhaps you need to get a dedicated weather station computer and run everything on that.  I run mine on a dedicated Pentuim II 300MHZ with WIN-XP SP3, 384mb ram and it runs like a charm.  It also updates my site as well. 

P.S.  Plus alot of times those old machines still have serial ports on them.

[mrascott]

Thanks for the reply.

I wanted to change the computer for several reasons.  Apart from the power savings of changing from an 'always on' desktop to laptop there are advantages for having Windows 7.  As I also use the machine as a server for documents, music, movies etc. to other PC's in the house there are some nice features if everything is running Windows 7.  (Easier for my wife to get to shared folders etc! and indexing of such shares works better).  Also the old machine was just getting old and won't last forever.  Of course I could revert to the XP box but think that I must be pretty close to getting my 968 to work on the new setup?

Was thinking maybe I just need some sort of device that will touch the screen of the weather station every minute or so to send data across to the computer?

[sam2004gp]

....
Was thinking maybe I just need some sort of device that will touch the screen of the weather station every minute or so to send data across to the computer?

Perhaps you can find an un-employed "hamburger helper" to do that for you.   

[mackbig]

Strange.  You need a drinking bird like on The Simpsons, King-Size Homer episode.

Sounds like a console issue, the power "surge" that is created by touching the screen is somehow waking it up. Of course it worked on the old pc....

Andrew

[mrascott]

Yep, that's what I'm thinking (surge thing!?)  Maybe I'll find a different mains adaptor in case the old one is sending slightly too few volts or amps or watts or something to the unit?  I've reset the unit twice btw and still get the same issue.

Downloading 'King-Sized Homer' for reference 

Matt

[mackbig]

You wont regret it...  just thinking about it makes me want to go home, dial in via VPN and put on my moo moo

Dr Nick is classic in helping homer become obese, "and remember, if you're not sure about something, just rub it against a piece of paper. [Rubs a drumstick on a sheet of paper, which subsequently turns clear in the center] If the paper turns clear, it's your window to weight gain! [Looks through paper and waves] Bye bye, everybody!"

Andrew

Downloading 'King-Sized Homer' for reference 

Matt