Topic: VP2 Firmware Version 1.6

[dalecoy]

On March 9 (it says) Davis released Version 1.6 firmware for the VP2 console.  4 different packages, of course.

Note: although "released" on March 9, the firmware is dated January 8.

Note 2: Although there is no warning in the instructions, the update will "destroy" any barometer calibration, and you'll have to re-enter that.

Note 3: I don't know what else may be reset.

[tinplate]

I just installed the new firmware.

No, it does not change your barometer calibration. What it does is change the way the sea level pressure is calculated. It now calculates the mean temperature differently, so that hourly pressure changes that were an artifact of the old way they did the calculation are now gone. But it takes a little while (under an hour) to accumulate enough data for the calculate to work properly. This only happens right after you upgrade the firmware.

So don't go calibrating your barometer immediately after upgrading. Give it an hour to settle in.

Steve

[dalecoy]

I just installed the new firmware.

No, it does not change your barometer calibration. What it does is change the way the sea level pressure is calculated. It now calculates the mean temperature differently, so that hourly pressure changes that were an artifact of the old way they did the calculation are now gone. But it takes a little while (under an hour) to accumulate enough data for the calculate to work properly. This only happens right after you upgrade the firmware.

So don't go calibrating your barometer immediately after upgrading. Give it an hour to settle in.

Steve

Interesting.  When my console restarted, it was showing a barometric pressure of about 25.1 psi.  That sure looked wrong to me.

My station altitude is 7320 ft.  In the past, it has not been sufficient to just enter that station altitude.  

Are you saying that I should go back into the barometric (Set Barometer) panel, and enter zero for the Sea-level barometer, in order to erase the previous calibration?  Or what?

[In any case, it sure would have been appropriate for Davis to say something in the installation instructions about this.  Seeing a reading of 25.1 sure led me to believe that I needed to do something.]

[ncpilot]

When my console restarted, it was showing a barometric pressure of about 25.1 psi.  That sure looked wrong to me.

Damn man! Get out of that hyperbaric chamber!! 25.1 PSI??

   

I know, you probably meant inches, right?... sorry, couldn't resist...

[tinplate]

After doing the update, my pressure dropped too. But it recovered over the next hour.

I think the best thing to do if you adjusted it after doing the upgrade would be to just recalibrate it to match a nearby Weather Service station.

Steve

[dalecoy]

After doing the update, my pressure dropped too. But it recovered over the next hour.

I think the best thing to do if you adjusted it after doing the upgrade would be to just recalibrate it to match a nearby Weather Service station.

Steve

 Yeah, I meant inches.    

Immediately after the update and seeing 25.1, I set it to the same value that it had been 5 minutes before (from the Browse window).

[dalecoy]

Also, my web site now says that the low barometric pressure today was 24.392

Since there's no way to just clear that one value, I'll have to clear a lot of other lows.

I presume that anybody else who installs the update will have similarly and artificially wrong "low baro pressure" values - although not perhaps as extreme.  But the values will also propagate to low monthly and annual baro values.  

My belief is that this is caused by Davis not having a good way to test their firmware at any altitude much above where they are located (close to sea level).  My station altitude of 7320 seems to reveal this.  This is the second rather extreme problem of that nature.