Author Topic: Moving to new computer - can't install WL (Read 4693 times)

W3DRM · « **on:** July 21, 2015, 12:03:54 AM »

My old Acer netbook has finally given-up the ghost and is pretty much dead. I am now in the process of moving all of my weather software over to a new laptop but have run into a bit of a snag. I can't find my original CD that WeatherLink came on. I haven't used it for many years and who knows where it may have gone? I can still get to the files on the old netbook, if that may be a solution.

Anyway, I tried to install WL 5.9.3 but get a message saying I have to install the original software first since 5.9.3 is only an update and not the full installation. Does anyone know what I can do to get past this issue? I'm dead in the water until I get this issue resolved. I have sent Davis Support an email asking them what I can do.

Any ideas???

Mark / Ohio · « **Reply #1 on:** July 21, 2015, 12:24:59 AM »

I just bumped the old thread telling how mine is still running and then I see this.

I think I just moved the WeatherLink directory and did a repair to get it working when I went to the netbook. I think I still have my CD here someplace.

W3DRM · « **Reply #2 on:** July 21, 2015, 01:05:46 AM »

Thanks Mark! I'll give that a try. Won't be until tomorrow as I have to get up early in the morning for some volunteer work I'm doing in town. Hope to have time in the afternoon.

My old Acer is slowly going downhill. I upgraded to Win7 some time ago and it seemed to help out the performance. I also upped the memory to 1GB and added a 320GB hard drive. Now the touchpad and mouse buttons don't work at all. Have to use an external mouse. Some of the keys also work intermittently. So, I made the decision to get a more powerful laptop. I wound up getting an HP Envy with a i7 Intel processor in it and boy, does it fly compared to the Acer!

Will let you know how your suggestions work out with WL.

PaulMy · « **Reply #3 on:** July 21, 2015, 09:54:02 AM »

You could also call Davis and they may be kind

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=18418.msg177838#msg177838

Good luck,
Paul

ValentineWeather · « **Reply #4 on:** July 21, 2015, 10:03:00 AM »

You may want to try this. Be aware it could have something attached also that's bad. Or it may not work without the original version still. Worth a look if Davis won't come through. Just tell them you lost the original disk.

http://weatherlink.software.informer.com/download/

W3DRM · « **Reply #5 on:** July 21, 2015, 11:39:15 AM »

Thanks for all the replies guys! I have obtained a copy of the needed files and all is well once again with WL. Can now continue on with my migration to a new computer.

BTW, still haven't heard anything from Davis support about this. Will post here if they give me a written solution that others can use in this type of a situation.

W3DRM · « **Reply #6 on:** July 22, 2015, 11:06:26 PM »

Am coming right along with the migration of my website from the Acer One Netbook to a new HP laptop. $\:D/$

Ran into a problem with the virtual ports that VirtualVP uses. The old N8VB_vCOM virtual serial port drivers would not work on my Win7 Ultimate system. So, after some research, I found VSPM which is apparently only available to licensed amateur radio operators. It installed quickly and easily. The setup was also a piece of cake. Once I set up the virtual ports, and started StartWatch, the software began collecting data and downloading packets from the VP2 data logger. I've been down for 3 to 4 days so it looks like it will take a while to catch-up on the data downloads. I'm at 1568 records from the VP2 and still counting at a rate of about 1 record every second. Seems awfully slow but, don't know of any way to increase the speed.

Next step is getting my webcam back on the air. I am contemplating switching from Image Salsa to another webcam handler but that will be after I get IS running again with a single camera. Then it will be on to installing a second and hopefully third camera which is why I really need to move on to some other webcam software. I do like the built-in capability of Image Salsa to directly add VWS tags to the image which no one else really has, that I know of.

EDIT: Wahoo!!! it finished at about 1640 records. Everything started working just as before (albeit much much faster now on the new laptop). Now to the webcam...

Mark / Ohio · « **Reply #7 on:** July 23, 2015, 12:03:28 AM »

Sounds like your making good progress!

When I upgraded to Win7 I switched to eterlogic drivers for Virtual VP. Took me a little bit to get sorted out but once set up they have not given me any trouble since.

W3DRM · « **Reply #8 on:** July 23, 2015, 12:31:06 AM »

Quote from: Mark / Ohio on July 23, 2015, 12:03:28 AM

Sounds like your making good progress!

When I upgraded to Win7 I switched to eterlogic drivers for Virtual VP. Took me a little bit to get sorted out but once set up they have not given me any trouble since.

Yes, all is running just fine now except that I can't get Image Salsa to bring up the webcam. It sees it and shows it in the preview pane but won't insert it into the image canvas. I must have a setting wrong somewhere. Will worry about it tomorrow.

I am blown away by the speed things are running at too. There is a huge difference between the Acer and the HP machine. Everything happens immediately and without hesitation when I open a file or do some poking around the system. So far, I am a very happy camper. I also haven't had any restarts by StartWatch for VWS (or any of the other programs running) which was an almost constant thing on the Acer. VWS rarely ran for more than 15 to 20 minutes without it hanging or crashing. Will see what it looks like in the morning before I make any really rash statements though.

And, almost forgot - still no response from Davis regarding my question about losing my WL CD...

W3DRM · « **Reply #9 on:** July 24, 2015, 07:20:22 PM »

Got an email response from Davis with a link to their latest full version of WeatherLink yesterday. Turns out I don't need it but at least I have a link in case anyone else may run into the same situation. Just let me know and I'll PM you the link. Davis asked that I not share it since it is the full version of the software.

Anyway, I found some other issues with my new installation. I kept consistently losing USB connection after about 10 to 15 minutes of operation. I am using a Serial to USB adapter (Dynex, DX-UBD89) on my VP2 data logger which is a serial version. When I installed it on the new laptop, Win7 detected it and loaded a driver. Turns out that driver was not a standard Prolific driver designed for the adapter I had. It also set the port speed to 9600 baud. I found a driver on the Dynex website and installed that one. While working on the Driver, I also discovered that the port was set to power-off after some period of time. I disabled that piece and changed the port speed to 19200 to match the data logger. Somehow it was working with mismatched port speeds.

Have now rebooted and restarted everything and am now watching to see if anything goes awry after these changes. So far, after about 20 minutes all looks good.

I only have one more issue. That is with Image Salsa. No matter what I do, it always pops-up a window asking me to select the video source. I've tried everything I can think of to get rid of this but so far, no luck. I've tried saving both the portfolio and canvas as well as "Save All" without any luck. This really impacts the ability of StartWatch to automatically restart routines since it pauses until I select the video source.

If this doesn't work out and become reliable again, I am seriously thinking about switching to Weather Display and getting rid of VWS and Image Salsa altogether. I hate thinking about doing that though as I suspect it will be a very steep learning curve. Does anyone know if there are any scripts or built-in functions in WD to covert from VWS formatted data files to WD structures? I have close to 10 years of data that I really don't want to lose or have to manually convert to another format. I'm getting to old for that stuff...

Mark / Ohio · « **Reply #10 on:** July 24, 2015, 08:24:41 PM »

Quick thought on Image Salsa, do you have it in C:/ or C:/Program files? Might try installing to C:/ if you haven't already.

Mark / Ohio · « **Reply #11 on:** July 24, 2015, 08:34:07 PM »

Another thought. I set exclusions to the active monitoring of all the weather related software in my Avast av. I also had fits with the Avast firewall when I first started using it. I think Windows firewall and Windows defender which I had to manually disable after installing Avast we're not playing well together.

Mark / Ohio · « **Reply #12 on:** July 24, 2015, 10:52:46 PM »

One more wild thought...

Assuming your notebook has a built in camera, try disabling it in device manager. Maybe the internal camera is confusing it.

W3DRM · « **Reply #13 on:** July 25, 2015, 12:50:35 AM »

Quote from: Mark / Ohio on July 24, 2015, 08:24:41 PM

Quick thought on Image Salsa, do you have it in C:/ or C:/Program files? Might try installing to C:/ if you haven't already.

Hmmm, it is in C:\Program Files(x86)\ImageSalsa\

Will give it a shot tomorrow night. No time tonight to work on it.

Thanks for the suggestion! Will also look at your other suggestions.

W3DRM · « **Reply #14 on:** August 05, 2015, 10:28:57 PM »

Seem to be battling several problems on different computers lately but here is my update on the migration of VWS and associated programs to my new laptop.

I have reinstalled all programs so they all run from C:\... rather than \program files. That did seem to help a little bit.

Using StartWatch, I wound up starting WeatherLink immediately after VVP then VPLive, VWS and Image Salsa last. That also seemed to reduce the amount of restarts that VWS was performing via StartWatch. However, after running for about 10 to 30 minutes I would lose the connection with VWS and it would just sit there but StartWatch never detected any problems.

So, about the same time earlier this week, I started having problems with Google Chrome bringing up strange websites that I hadn't selected. I then switched from Chrome and went strictly to Firefox as my default browser and suddenly, I noticed that after starting-up Startwatch, all of my weather programs began running without any problems, including VWS. My weather stuff has been running continuously for most of the day today with no shutdowns of VWS at all. I'm happy but at the same time, a bit puzzled why all of a sudden things are working as they should be.

I'm not going to mess with anything for a while and just watch to see what happens.

I still am thinking of completely dumping VWS and WL and going strictly with Weather Display for my weather applications. The only question I have is why am I still running WeatherLink? I really don't know any longer since it has been so long since I've done anything with it. Do I really need it or can I simply eliminate it and run only WD for the source of all of my weather data and inputs to my website?

cospringswx · « **Reply #15 on:** August 06, 2015, 12:53:03 AM »

I just run WD. I have the cd for WL but never installed it. I came with the data logger package.

Cutty Sark Sailor · « **Reply #16 on:** August 06, 2015, 05:18:32 AM »

Don, Don't run WL and VWS at the same time. I 'set station console" with WL, then close it. Try just running VWS, etc without WL.
That's my procedure.

Mark / Ohio · « **Reply #17 on:** August 07, 2015, 08:22:44 PM »

Just upgraded to Win10 and was having trouble with StartWatch being able to start and monitor some programs and turning UAC off in the registry seems to have solved it.

LFWX · « **Reply #18 on:** August 09, 2015, 07:12:24 PM »

Quote from: W3DRM on August 05, 2015, 10:28:57 PM

The only question I have is why am I still running WeatherLink? I really don't know any longer since it has been so long since I've done anything with it. Do I really need it or can I simply eliminate it and run only WD for the source of all of my weather data and inputs to my website?

Here are two things to consider before getting rid of WL:

1) Data Archiving - I have VWS launch WL each day at 11:55 pm to archive new data and create new NOAA reports. No matter what software I use, I will always have copy of my data in the original format. Does WD have the ability to launch WL?

2) Graphing - As outdated as WL may be, it still has excellent graphing abilities. Anything from 1 year down to 1 hour, multiple parameters shown at once, overlay of different years (or months/days/hours) of data.

True, you don't need it run a website, but don't get rid of it completely!

Examples attached.
July 2015 (THW, Rain, Dew Point, Temperature)
This year, so far, overlayed with last year.
Every Christmas Day (2008-2014)

ocala · « **Reply #19 on:** August 09, 2015, 07:42:24 PM »

I agree 100% with number 2. No software I have seen compares with WL graphs. I use Cumulus because it's rock solid and I upload to PWS.com but once a week I fire up WL to download everything.

Mark / Ohio · « **Reply #20 on:** August 10, 2015, 12:32:26 AM »

I still prefer the WL graphs for use on my website. Also use it to let me know when the other software has suffered a data burp as it has always been the most stable.

Van · « **Reply #21 on:** November 16, 2015, 06:17:24 PM »

If any one can help me with a link to the weatherlink software (not the upgrade) it'd be appreciated. I emailed Davis support but have yet to hear back and can't find the cd.

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Author Topic: Moving to new computer - can't install WL (Read 4693 times)