Topic: Can't get VirtualVP to work

[junianby]

I Can't get VirtualVP to work. It keeps hanging on getting data from my station. What am I doing wrong???

[tomcj2]

What type of station?

[junianby]

Davis VP2 Plus

[Mark / Ohio]

More questions:   

Does it hang and then show disconnected?

Do you have any other software still running monitoring the same port?

USB or Serial version of data logger?

[tinplate]

Email me the log.txt file. (support at softwx.com)

You can try shutting down VirtualVP, deleting the archiveCache.dat file, and then restarting VirtualVP..

Also, if you have Vista, you might try running VirtualVP as administrator and see if that makes a difference.

Steve
SoftWx

[junianby]

it is usb and i shut down vws and it still hangs. it shows that it is still connected and i'm running vista on my pc.

[junianby]

Steve, I got VVP to start loading data from the console. How long does it take and how do I know it is ready to connect to my weather software?

[tinplate]

When VirtualVP first starts, it downloads the console archive data. A progress window pops up while this is happening. The length of time that takes depends on how much archive data there is to download. It should take under 15 minutes in the worst case. After that, assuming everything is configured correctly, it should be ready to accept connections. In the main display, on the right hand side, you should see green indicators by the ports that are available for connection.

Steve
SoftWx

[junianby]

Steve,I had VVP downloading the data for 2 hours and it still won't connect to the weather software. Also I forgot to tell you i'm running Vista 64 bit.

[tinplate]

Also I forgot to tell you i'm running Vista 64 bit.

I'm still trying to set up a test environment for this, but based on my research, I think the problem is the virtual COM port driver. Something new in Vista 64 bit is that you kernel level drivers have to have a digital signature before the operating system will recognize them. There are three free virtual COM port drivers I've tried (but not on Vista 64). N8VBvCOM is the one I recommend, as I know that it's solid. But it may have this driver issue on Vista 64-bit. Another of the free drivers is more explicit about this problem, and they said it costs money to get the digital signature, but they were willing to do that even though their software is free (nice of them). Microsoft never replied to their requests for information on doing it. So they are rewriting their driver as a user level driver. Here are the three free virtual COM port drivers:
N8VBvCOM
http://www.softwx.com/windows/startwatch.html
Eterlogic
http://www.eterlogic.com/Products.VSPE.html
com0com
http://com0com.sourceforge.net/

and some I haven't tried yet
http://curioustech.home.insightbb.com/xport.html

VirtualVP just needs a virtual COM port driver that makes end to end connections between two programs possible. It doesn't care which driver it is. In my tests, VirtualVP worked with N8VBvCOM, Eterlogic, and com0com. If any of those drivers work on Vista 64 bit, then theoretically VirtualVP should work. But as of yet, I don't have a test environment set up to try it.

Steve
SoftWx

[info]

i am having same problem with wd .  and weather link .
i called davis today . They tech. was great . He says my system works right and thinks my family use the computer for internet an cause the data log to overload .Which cause wd to lock up . same thing happens with weather link  .
The Davis tech also says  " there weather links  will not work on vista 64 bit system"
You might want to call them
Info