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Weather Software => WeatherLink/weatherlink.com by Davis Instruments => Topic started by: Randall Kayfes on November 16, 2010, 01:31:33 PM

Title: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: Randall Kayfes on November 16, 2010, 01:31:33 PM
Here is a beta fix to take care of WeatherLink lock-ups - freezes that sometimes occurs when uploading to CWOP and/or Weather Underground:

http://toolbox.davisnet.com/downloads/Weather/software/beta_5_9_2/ (http://toolbox.davisnet.com/downloads/Weather/software/beta_5_9_2/)

We are not sure when it will go into production, however we have not heard of any complaints using it so far.  Save your original WeatherLink executable in a folder so you can rescue it if you need to revert back to it.  Download the above beta file and extract/drop it into your weather link folder (this file is the actual WeatherLink executable not an install file).  Use WeatherLink just as you did before

(Let's make this a sticky until Davis publicly releases the final version).

Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: HopeMaineWx on January 25, 2011, 04:49:11 PM
Since installing this BETA my WL has yet to freeze up in over a week. I was dropping almost daily. Thanks for the info!  \:D/ =D>
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: xykotik on January 28, 2011, 11:08:44 AM
In case the DAVIS software engineers are lurking, I thought I should add my name to the SUCCESS list for 5.9.2a beta.

WL worked great for weeks until I signed up for CWOP, then it would hang at least once/day requiring a WL restart.  It has been three days since installing 5.9.2a and that issue has not returned.
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: Randall Kayfes on January 28, 2011, 10:34:54 PM
Just for the record mine has been running non-stop except for two WinXP updates since November of 2010.
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: kenokin on February 09, 2011, 03:11:27 PM
After months of futile searches I *finally* ran across this thread.  5.9.2a has been running for me for over a week now.  Previously it would hang within one day, or two days at the most.

YAY!

Ken
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: JACK10562 on February 19, 2011, 02:40:58 PM
It's not that big of a deal, but I noticed there are no active "help" files available in WeatherLink with this beta.
The HELP drop-down itself opens, but this is the error message I get below when clicking any HELP choice.
I can go into the default directory and manually open the file, WeatherLink 5.9.2.chm

About WeatherLink... works ok

Also, Console Diagnostics, under reports is grayed out in the beta.
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: Randall Kayfes on February 27, 2011, 08:21:34 PM
My help files work perfectly...

My Diagnositics works great as well...

Remember Diagnostics needs the bulletin shut down to be available. I can see your bulletin is up and running in screen shot, just shut it down and all should be good. 

The help files were not changed at all.  The exe is drag and replace only so if the original help files are not in the same directory they will not show.
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: JACK10562 on February 28, 2011, 10:45:24 AM
Thanks for the update. I'll check it out!
I completely forgot having the bulletin open precedes certain other functions on the toolbar from being active.
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: winxwxguy on March 08, 2011, 09:46:26 PM
Hello,

New to the forum here.

I've had a Wireless Vantage Pro II with data logger running on a Windows 64-bit OS for over a year now.  I had WeatherLink IP 5.9 from Dec. 2009 until Feb. 2011 when I got frustrated with the weekly lockups of the software freezing all data processes (WU, ftp to my personal site, ARPS).  In addition, the WeatherLink web site never worked with my setup and I've pretty much given up on that.

On February 15th I downloaded WeatherLink 5.9.2 and everything worked for an hour or three, then I started receiving "Error reading data from Station" errors on my ftp processes.  The WU and ARPS transfers worked fine, and the WeatherLink website suddenly started working, but my ftp processes, the most important to me, FAILED.  In addition, for the first time I lost data from the "Browse Records" menu item and can not recover them (they don't show up in the monthly bulletins or charts).  I'm hoping to resolve this problem if the records still exist on the station.

I uninstalled WeatherLink 5.9.2 and went back to 5.0 but I was still getting the "Error reading data from Station" and my ftp process weren't working.

THIS executable I tried yesterday and it has been working great!  Everything except for the Davis WeatherLink site, but at this point, I could care less about that.  It's only been a day, but usually I'd be locked up by now (not to mention that the ftp process works).  I'm cautiously optimistic, thank you for providing the beta version.

I do have two questions which I don't know if I should start a new thread on.

1.)  Is it possible to recover the data from the Console?  I've read something that it might just be a corrupted wlk file.  Or is the data lost?  I can get approximate records from WU, so no huge deal, but I'm curious.

2.)  Can I run another software package and display weather data from my Vantage II to various different locations?  I'm sick of the bug filled WeatherLink.  What is Virtual Weather Station?

Anyway, thanks for the link.  I'm making a Web Site for my web design class and I like having clean, reliable data to display!

Kevin
Winchester, VA

Here is a beta fix to take care of WeatherLink lock-ups - freezes that sometimes occurs when uploading to CWOP and/or Weather Underground:

http://toolbox.davisnet.com/downloads/Weather/software/beta_5_9_2/ (http://toolbox.davisnet.com/downloads/Weather/software/beta_5_9_2/)

We are not sure when it will go into production, however we have not heard of any complaints using it so far.  Save your original WeatherLink executable in a folder so you can rescue it if you need to revert back to it.  Download the above beta file and extract/drop it into your weather link folder (this file is the actual WeatherLink executable not an install file).  Use WeatherLink just as you did before

(Let's make this a sticky until Davis publicly releases the final version).


Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: Randall Kayfes on March 12, 2011, 01:17:27 AM
1.)  Is it possible to recover the data from the Console?  I've read something that it might just be a corrupted wlk file.  Or is the data lost?  I can get approximate records from WU, so no huge deal, but I'm curious.

It depends on your archival interval and how far back you want to go....
1 Minute 1.7 days (42 hours, 40 minutes), 5 Minute 8.8 days, 10 Minute 17.7 days, 15 Minute 26.6 days, 30 Minute 53.3 days, 60 Minute 106.7 days, 120 Minute 213.3 days.  To get the missing data back would require getting the bad data out first....

2.)  Can I run another software package and display weather data from my Vantage II to various different locations?  I'm sick of the bug filled WeatherLink.  What is Virtual Weather Station? 

Check out the software section of this forum and you will quickly learn everyone has their personal favorite software!
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: JACK10562 on March 12, 2011, 05:24:18 AM

2.)  Can I run another software package and display weather data from my Vantage II to various different locations?  I'm sick of the bug filled WeatherLink.  What is Virtual Weather Station?



I think one answer you're looking for, to get started, is Virtual VantagePro (http://www.softwx.com/weather/virtualvp.html). VVP allows up to 4 simultaneous weather software connections to a single Vantage pro console (or envoy) without interference. I think you might find your buggy Weatherlink software behaves much better "talking" directly with VVP, rather than indirectly to the console via LAN.

Virtual Weather Station (http://www.ambientweather.com/puviwestined.html) is a weather program Ambient Weather sells, it has quite a lot of functionality.

My current personal favorite for what I do is Cumulus (http://sandaysoft.com/) It has a very small footprint and it's free (shareware). 

Another simple and free program by the folks at VVP is VP live (http://www.softwx.com/weather/vplive.html).
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: Randall Kayfes on April 05, 2011, 09:34:08 AM
I Have been using WL 5.9.3 for several days with zero issues so maybe the 5.9.2 beta has seen an end to it's usefull life....
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: xykotik on April 17, 2011, 10:51:39 AM
I got my dedicated WX laptop fixed and running WL 5.9.2.0 yesterday, then went to davisnet to get the 5.9.2a.  I saw the 5.9.3 and thought I'd give it a try.

It seemed to be working, with uploads to my website and WU and no freezes of the WL software, but since early this morning, I get "Error finding APRS Host" in my log during my CWOP profile time.  The other uploads are working still.  I haven't tried resetting the software yet, in case it's an anomaly on the server side (which all of them are up according to the cwop website).
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: dalecoy on April 17, 2011, 11:07:51 AM
What's your server setting?
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: xykotik on April 17, 2011, 11:24:25 AM
cwop.aprs.net 14580 -1 vers WL 5.9.2

Before I reinstalled WL 5.9.2 on the laptop, I copied the entire WeatherLink folder from my "temp" server (which has been running 5.9.2a flawlessly for months) then installed 5.9.2 (from CD) and verified all profiles were working before upgrading to 5.9.3.  No other changes were made, and all profiles worked fine (including APRS) until early this morning.  Now all still work except for APRS as mentioned above.

The laptop is "clean" with only a fresh load of XP Pro and drivers directly from the Dell website, plus manual loads of SP2 and SP3 and about six passes at update.windows.com and the usual Adobe junk so I could read the davisnet bulletins.
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: dalecoy on April 17, 2011, 01:26:54 PM
Temporarily, try using port 23 instead of 14580?
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: xykotik on April 17, 2011, 07:37:45 PM
I will try that.

FYI, I didn't reset it all day, but it DID successfully send a few packets to CWOP early this afternoon.  Nothing for last 1.5 hour.  (That's the sort of thing I was looking to see.)
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: xykotik on April 17, 2011, 09:02:03 PM
Still spotty after changing the port.  Before I go to bed tonight I'm going to roll-back to 5.9.2a-beta and see what happens, unless there are other suggestions.

Here is my daily QC page showing the gaps
http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/qchart/D6891 (http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/qchart/D6891)
(probably only valid today, April 17, 2011)
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: dalecoy on April 17, 2011, 10:07:40 PM
If it's "spotty" using 14580 and also spotty using 23, this doesn't sound like a problem with WeatherLink, nor does it sound like a problem anywhere on your computer.  And 5.9.3 was working fine for a while and then stopped being able to connect to CWOP - so I doubt that rolling back the WeatherLink version will fix it - although if it suddenly starts working, you might assume that.

The symptoms look to me like a "connectivity" issue somewhere between your house and the servers.

Are you familiar with using "tracert" (traceroute)?  You could try using that to see the path and delays between you and cwop.aprs.net.

Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: xykotik on April 18, 2011, 12:29:22 AM
Did several tracert of cwop.aprs.net in the span of about 10 minutes.

Changed my configured APRS server in WL to fixed IP 70.57.237.99 (cwop.fuller.net) and had a successful xfer on next scheduled APRS upload.  =D>

Changed my configured APRS server in WL to fixed IP 165.91.140.46 (cwop1.tamu.edu). WL crashed (tell microsoft) after choking on next scheduled APRS upload.  #-o

Relaunched WL.  "Error opening APRS socket" in log.  Same crash on next scheduled APRS upload.  ](*,)

Relaunched WL and configured for cwop.fuller.net (FQDN this time, not IP). Success on next two scheduled APRS uploads.  \:D/

But wait...  WL crashed on the third scheduled APRS upload, just like with the tamu.edu server.  Same log entry.  :-(

Relaunched WL and made no other changes so far.  It has uploaded sucessfully to APRS a few times since.

So, either cwop1.tamu.edu needs to tighten up their nameservers or Davis needs to allow for a little more delay in their connection timeout.  (My vote is for the first.  Whom do we contact?)  Meanwhile, I'm leaving it configured for cwop.fuller.net for now and hope it doesn't crash.  I'd change it back to cwop.aprs.net but then it is a dice-throw which server it tries, based on the DNS for aprs.net.  At least then it still uploads to my website and WU without crashing.

Thanks for your help dalecoy, although it would have been quicker for me to roll-back.  :roll:
At least this is closer to the cause of the problem.  I wonder if tamu.edu was causing the 5.9.2a (pre-beta) problems from the beginning?

[edit] Crashed again.  Reconfiguring for cwop.aprs.net and going to bed. [/edit]
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: dalecoy on April 18, 2011, 10:29:11 AM
Hopefully, somebody will jump in and say how to report this routing problem to (aprs.net?).

Of course, WeatherLink should not crash - so it's possible that changing versions would stop that behavior.  But obviously nothing in WeatherLink can repair the fundamental communications problem.

Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: xykotik on April 18, 2011, 06:14:46 PM
OK, so I rolled back to 5.9.2a-BETA this morning, and it has been uploading FLAWLESSLY to CWOP/APRS for the past 5+ hours using cwop.aprs.net and port 14580.  I'm leaving it like this.
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: dalecoy on April 18, 2011, 10:15:26 PM
OK, so I rolled back to 5.9.2a-BETA this morning, and it has been uploading FLAWLESSLY to CWOP/APRS for the past 5+ hours using cwop.aprs.net and port 14580.  I'm leaving it like this.

That's great, and I wouldn't change a thing, either.  However, out of curiosity, would you re-run the tracert test to cwop.aprs.net please?
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: xykotik on April 19, 2011, 12:28:02 AM
I made seven tracert passes in rapid succession...

No "Error finding APRS Host" messages in WL log, and APRS packets uploaded uninterrupted for nearly 12 hours now after rolling back to 5.9.2a_beta.
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: dalecoy on April 19, 2011, 10:16:18 AM
I made seven tracert passes in rapid succession...
  • tamu (same characteristics as yesterday)

No "Error finding APRS Host" messages in WL log, and APRS packets uploaded uninterrupted for nearly 12 hours now after rolling back to 5.9.2a_beta.

That's same with timeouts?

If so, you should report these results to Davis - they imply that 5.9.2a_beta is using a more generous timeout setting than the latest production version.
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: Randall Kayfes on April 21, 2011, 10:13:09 PM
Well I have been using WL 5.93 until Tuesday when my Win XP weather server died of hard drive failure.  The Win Vista (not my first, second or third choice but what I had laying around) replacement is using 5.9.3 and has been running flawlessly... FWIW
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: xykotik on April 21, 2011, 10:56:01 PM
That's same with timeouts?

If so, you should report these results to Davis - they imply that 5.9.2a_beta is using a more generous timeout setting than the latest production version.

Yes, the same with timeouts.  But interestingly enough, I am now seeing the large gaps (and "error finding aprs host") with 592a_beta and they are getting bigger and bigger.  It looks like only about a dozen packets have made it to aprs in the last 24 (should be about 144) to cwop 1, 2 and 3.  Another thread has started in the cwop forum by people recently noticing large gaps in their cwop data.  I posted several tracert's to that thread in case it may be useful there.

It may not be a 5.9.3 problem afterall, but it is inconsistent enough to mess with my troubleshooting. 
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: dalecoy on April 22, 2011, 09:38:16 AM
...  And 5.9.3 was working fine for a while and then stopped being able to connect to CWOP - so I doubt that rolling back the WeatherLink version will fix it - although if it suddenly starts working, you might assume that.

 :-)

The symptoms look to me like a "connectivity" issue somewhere between your house and the servers.

At least you now have other folks having similar problems.  And it's apparently only specific routings.
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: xykotik on June 18, 2011, 10:06:33 AM
I saw your updated reply, so here is mine...

Since patching my USB issues, I have been running quite smoothly all around.  I go into the log and see once-in-a-while where it couldn't connect to the aprs server, but WL doesn't freeze or puke.  Eventually (usually within 2-3 upload attempts at most) it will find a server that works, and accepts my data.  I'm sticking with 5.9.2a-beta for now.
Title: Re: WL & CWOP & WU Beta fix
Post by: Randall Kayfes on November 07, 2011, 11:27:48 AM
After running WL 5.9.3 on a Vista dedicated server (flawlessly) I moved WL to my main PC Win 7 64 bit and it ran smoothly for quite some time then it started timing out my router on a daily basis (router would have to be reset to regain internet access).  I then went back to WL 5.9.2a and observed that it had upload outages but at least the router stayed up.  I will continue to monitor.