Topic: WL 6.03 does not create reports and images.

[meteothes.gr]

Hi to all,

I've recently (one month ago), replaced my old( 12 years) Davis VP2 plus daytime fan aspirated weather station, with a new VP2 plus with 24h aspirated radiation shield and a new serial datalogger of course, because the old one (2005) is incompatible with the consoles produced after year 2009.

The problem is, that after the replacement, WL 6.03, although it retrieves all data from the datalogger successfully, it cannot run the scheduled jobs. The application initiates the profile, but after a second stops and dies!

If I switch to the old console-datalogger, it is runnin fine! 

I wonder if there' any incompatibility between WL and new console-datalogger. The new console's firmware is 3.63 US and it has not been released yet by Davis!
I asked them about, and the support told me that a new firmware will be released shortly, but for the time being it is placed only in recently produced hardware.
The old console, has firmware 1.90. I don't know if whether this is a firmware issue or an incompatibility of the "ancient" WL 6.03! 

Any ideas about a resolution to this issue?

Thanos

[eyecue]

It bothers me that Davis appears to not be interested in updates or improvements on software and firmware.  There has to be issues that they know about.. Microsoft updates a lot and nothing impacts WL ???  That being said what version and operating system do you have on your computer?  How deep down the rabbit hole into windows troubleshooting do you want to venture?

[meteothes.gr]

Well, after some investigation, I found out that the problem comes from Virtual Vantage Pro, which I use to update WL and WD simultaneously!
VVP is getting outdated and cannot catch up with newer weather hardware like Davis dataloggers and consoles.

If I connect WL directly to physical serial port COM1 it works! It has probably something to do with the way VVP gets and delivers data from the datalogger to WL!
The author of VVP is not available for a long time, so this issue cannot be fixed for now.

My main weather software is WD, but I use WL to get NOAA reports for my weather page. I think that WL is better in these reports than WD is!

If anyone knows a workaround to fix that issue, please help. Otherwise, I'll have to do it manually until VVP gets fixed! 

Thanks,

Thanos

[johnd]

It bothers me that Davis appears to not be interested in updates or improvements on software and firmware. 

WL603 is now a mature product and, as the OP has discovered, it is rarely - in itself - the cause of any obvious problems nowadays. I think what you're talking about more are potential major upgrades to WL. As has often been speculated here and elsewhere, there are signs that Davis may be thinking of taking all processing/presentation into the cloud. Maybe the future for local data handling is limited or in the hands of third-party programmers. Look at the browser interface for EM to see where all the Davis software development has been focused for the past many months. I think this one is public:

https://www.weatherlink.com/bulletin/9722cfc3-a4ef-47b9-befb-72f52592d6ed

(Hit the X in the top right to remove the right sidebar and give more of a full-screen effect.) NB This is just showing data from a standard VP2 Plus. There are lots more sensors that can be added to the display if fitted to the EM system, for instance we have a single integrated 60cm soil moisture probe that shows temp, moisture and salinity at 6 different depths

I'm not sure how far you can delve into the data and features without individual access. If anyone is interested  I'll have a play with our EM account when I have time and see how far you can get from the outside. Actually I think you can play with the chart. And of course there will be comparable presentations available in due course via smartphone apps (Mobilize is already there, but is customised for specific applications at present.)

[dalecoy]

Well, after some investigation, I found out that the problem comes from Virtual Vantage Pro, which I use to update WL and WD simultaneously!
VVP is getting outdated and cannot catch up with newer weather hardware like Davis dataloggers and consoles.

If I connect WL directly to physical serial port COM1 it works! It has probably something to do with the way VVP gets and delivers data from the datalogger to WL!
The author of VVP is not available for a long time, so this issue cannot be fixed for now.

My main weather software is WD, but I use WL to get NOAA reports for my weather page. I think that WL is better in these reports than WD is!

If anyone knows a workaround to fix that issue, please help. Otherwise, I'll have to do it manually until VVP gets fixed! 

Thanks,

Thanos

Well, let's see - if I'm reading this properly, you have two consoles, each with its own serial logger, and both of them receive data from the same new VP2 ISS.

So, hook both of them up to your computer directly and simultaneously, and use WeatherLink reading from one of them, and WD reading from the other one.  Get rid of VVP.

If your computer doesn't have two serial ports, then a serial-to-USB converter would make that work.

[meteothes.gr]

No, I have one console connected to COM1 and I update two weather programs, WD and WL at the same time!

So, I use VVP which creates two virtual COM ports to feed the two programs. I use this setup for many years, but
lately, Davis made hardware changes to the serial datalogger, and VVP can't read it under certain circumstances.

The strange thing is, that WL reads without any problem data from the console, but it cannot create NOAA reports and images and ftp them to the server!
It starts the profiles at the scheduled time, but after two seconds it stops without any error message, just disappears!

I'm looking for an alternative to VVP but I have not found anything yet. VVP was tailor made for that!

Thanos

[dalecoy]

Oh, sorry I misunderstood.  I'm curious about what happened to your old console and serial logger.

[meteothes.gr]

Well, I replaced my 12 years Davis VP2 plus - daytime FARS,  because the ISS electronic board was out of order and beyond repair (the transmitter stopped the transmission).
I couldn't find a replacement board, because it's very old (2005) and out of production! The console though and the datalogger are still operational.

All the other parts are fine and some of them have been replaced recently (like anemometer daytime Fan and rain gauge cone). The console and datalogger can be used as spare parts, because the radio is compatible with the new one (US model).

Thanos

[dalecoy]

... The console though and the datalogger are still operational.

OK, so you actually do "have two consoles, each with its own serial logger", as I previously stated. 

What was so wrong with my previous suggestion that you use BOTH of them, and eliminate VVP?

[ocala]

Very strange problem indeed.
Being that WL receives data from the console but won't FTP the selected jobs tells me it's a software issue. Having used WL in the past I can attest that out of the blue it will malfunction then start working fine again. Very aggravating.
I would try a couple things. Since you probably have the install disc for 6.03 I would try uninstall/reinstall and see if that does anything. Maybe WL needs a reset, for lack of a better word. Also if you can get a copy of WL 5.93 I would try that too.
I would also try to FTP something from WD. If it works that would eliminate the console as the problem.
Also check your internet and FTP settings in WL. They should not have changed but who knows.  Also what about other upload options, like do you send your data to WU, CWOP or any other place. Do those work. And finally what about your hosting service. Could something have changed on their end preventing the software from making a connection. 
I'm not very good at this stuff so this is just a shot in the dark. Hopefully you can get it figured out.

[meteothes.gr]

... The console though and the datalogger are still operational.

OK, so you actually do "have two consoles, each with its own serial logger", as I previously stated. 

What was so wrong with my previous suggestion that you use BOTH of them, and eliminate VVP?

I just want the same data for the two applications! Another issue is that, sometimes transmission is affected due to interference,
because both consoles are working at the same frequency channels!

I've tried this setup and after a while I found one console showing dashes in values transmitted by the ISS!

Thanos

[meteothes.gr]

Very strange problem indeed.
Being that WL receives data from the console but won't FTP the selected jobs tells me it's a software issue. Having used WL in the past I can attest that out of the blue it will malfunction then start working fine again. Very aggravating.
I would try a couple things. Since you probably have the install disc for 6.03 I would try uninstall/reinstall and see if that does anything. Maybe WL needs a reset, for lack of a better word. Also if you can get a copy of WL 5.93 I would try that too.
I would also try to FTP something from WD. If it works that would eliminate the console as the problem.
Also check your internet and FTP settings in WL. They should not have changed but who knows.  Also what about other upload options, like do you send your data to WU, CWOP or any other place. Do those work. And finally what about your hosting service. Could something have changed on their end preventing the software from making a connection. 
I'm not very good at this stuff so this is just a shot in the dark. Hopefully you can get it figured out.

WL 6.03 reads data from the console all the time, but fails to run the scheduled profiles! It starts at the scheduled time, but after about two seconds the job stops and disappears without any error message! It does not even create the files (NOAA reports or images) locally on the disk!

I don't know if it can ftp the files, because it never goes so far! WD which is working at the same time, also reading from VVP, does not have any issues!

If I close VVP and connect WL directly to physical COM1 it works! So, according to the facts, WL has problems working with VVP. I have Weathercloud's plugin installed in WL, which
uploads data without any problem...

Anyway, I'll do a fresh clean install of WL to check if it behaves differently. Thanks for the replies, I'll let you know how it goes! 

Thanos

[dalecoy]

I just want the same data for the two applications! Another issue is that, sometimes transmission is affected due to interference,
because both consoles are working at the same frequency channels!

I've tried this setup and after a while I found one console showing dashes in values transmitted by the ISS!

Thanos

Were the two consoles very close together?  That could cause the symptom you saw (technical reason, the intermediate frequencies [IF] interfered]

[johnd]

Anyway, I'll do a fresh clean install of WL to check if it behaves differently.

Reinstalling WL is very unlikely to make any difference.

But is there really any mystery here? It sounds very much like the newer console with newer firmware supports LOOP2 (and which WL probably expects to use if the console says that it's supported), but which VVP is unable to pass through. In other words, VVP connected to the newer console/logger will only work with software that doesn't take advantage of LOOP2. This is a deficiency in VVP which can't now be rectified.

There's no obvious reason why two consoles should not both work fairly close together except for one of 3 reasons:

1. The signal is weak and so one console finds it adequate but for the second it falls just below an adequate level - in other words individual variation in the console circuitry, antenna orientation etc (and hence also possibly sensitivity to exact positioning);

2. As dalecoy suggests, if the consoles are literally eg back to back it's conceivable that their wireless circuitry might be interfering with one another;

3. Depending on exact positioning, one console may just possibly be shielding the other from adequate exposure to the signal.

[meteothes.gr]

Anyway, I'll do a fresh clean install of WL to check if it behaves differently.

But is there really any mystery here? It sounds very much like the newer console with newer firmware supports LOOP2 (and which WL probably expects to use if the console says that it's supported), but which VVP is unable to pass through. In other words, VVP connected to the newer console/logger will only work with software that doesn't take advantage of LOOP2. This is a deficiency in VVP which can't now be rectified.

That's the answer to the question! VVP has the problem, because it can't handle LOOP2 with the new hardware! VVP has been doing my job for years, but now, either I have to go
back to the old console-datalogger or do the report job manually until I find another way to put things together! The author of VVP has been away for a long time and there's
no chance to rectify that issue!

I don't think that the option to downgrade console firmware is valid, because I think that the indoor barometer and temp/humid sensors are incompatible! That's something I read
when Davis announced the release 3x of the firmware. I did the upgrade to 3x in my old console and I got only dashes for the indoor barometer and temp/humid sensors. Rolled back to 1.90 and the sensors came back to life!

Thanos