Topic: Weather Caster by Airmar

[WXone]

Good day everyone.

I`m currently on a commerical ship in Greenland therefore, technical help is a bit hard at the moment.

I have a Airmar PB100 Weather Station (Anemometer with GPS). that is connected to a Furuno Combiner box then to my PC.

This system was installed and working fine with the Weather Caster Soffwear. Had to replace my PC and now it won´t work. I´ve downloaded the leatest softwear and also used the origional softwear but still for some reason it will not communicate with the Weather Station through the COM port.

Any sugestions?

Thanks in advance.

[wuhu_software]

According to this manual:

http://www.airmartechnology.com/uploads/installguide/PB100TechnicalManual_rev1.007.pdf

You should be able to use Hyperterm and type:

$PAMTC,POST*hh<CR><LF>

That should do a power-on self test of some kind.

See page 49.

That will do a power-up self test.

If you cannot get hyperterm to talk to it (make sure hardware handshaking is turned off), the odds of getting making the other software work are probably slim.

[WXone]

Everything is working fine. Blinking light on Combinator shows good signal
Used Hyperterm and it communicated fine with the unit. but was unsure how send code to unit to reset, but donøt think I need to do that as its working fine.

But still the softwear WeatherCaster will not connect through the COM port.
"No Sensor detected with current communication setting"

[wuhu_software]

Everything is working fine. Blinking light on Combinator shows good signal
Used Hyperterm and it communicated fine with the unit. but was unsure how send code to unit to reset, but donøt think I need to do that as its working fine.

But still the softwear WeatherCaster will not connect through the COM port.
"No Sensor detected with current communication setting"

In the communication setup, it appears that you can select "auto detect" or you must manually set up the baud rate, etc.

Did you select auto or manually configure it?

http://www.airmartechnology.com/uploads/installguide/17-460-01.pdf

[WXone]

I have selected both 'Auto' and 'Manual' COM4
Becuase I'm using a combinator the baud rate is set to 36400.

[wuhu_software]

You mean 38400? Did they have an option to turn off hardware handshaking in the software?

[WXone]

I have no idea what the hardwear handshaking is. Guess If I donøt know what it is, then there must not be the option to turn it off. Didnøt see it in the manual

Well just red a bit about hardwear handshaking, and looks like it has to do with TX and RX. There shouldnøt be much TX from the PC, just all RX from the Unit to the PC.

[wuhu_software]

Do you know how to go to the Device Manager to check the default serial port settings? There is a setting in there for hardware handshaking (under the flow control option). If the option is set, and the software is not turning it off, then that could be a problem.

Use the Device Manager (hit "Start", select "Run", type "devmgmt.msc" without quotes in the box then hit Enter or click Ok). In Device Manager file the "Ports" entry in the list then hit the + to expand the list of ports. Highlight the port you are using by left clicking on it, right click it then select "Properties". Click the "Port Setting" tab, the last option is flow control. Try setting that to none. Hit Ok to close the properties then run your program.

[WXone]

Well, that didn't work. It was already set to 'none'. However I did try the other settings and those didn't work. All the port settings are set to manufacture recomendations.

[wuhu_software]

If you have the unit talking in hyperterm, I cannot see any reason that it would not be communicating with the software.

Were there other files that need to be installed along with the application? The install notes mention some type of driver installation in addition to the application install. Did you go over the installation instructions in detail?

[WXone]

Yes, I had to install the dirvers... That part is working fine as well.

[wuhu_software]

The only thing that I can think of at this time is to download and install an application called Portmon that will allow you to monitor the traffic directed to and received from the serial port.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896644

You must first exit your applications, install and run Portmon. In the Portmon settings tell it which port to monitor then run the application. You can then see if the software application is attempting to send or receive anything from the port.

[WXone]

Ok, I have downloaded Portmon, and when I go to select the port to monitor, its greyed out and cannot select it.

[WXone]

Ok, got it working after all this time...lol

When Opening program have to select "Run as Administator" and wow it worked. Just found out I have a PB150 and not the PB100 like the user manual I have onboard...lol.

Now I got new issue I need to work out, was trying to update the firmware, but something went wrong, now its not working... Iøll paly with it.

[wuhu_software]

Bummer, you may have bricked it.