I noticed there's a thread similar to this currently active in the forum, though my issue appears to be for totally different reasons than the other person's Vue/USB logger communications problem - so I'm starting this thread instead.
I have a Vantage Vue installed at a remote location (see this thread for details:
http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=13240.0) that I'll only be accessing about once per month from November through March, and more frequently from April through October. I set up a laptop at the site in order to run VirtualVP, Cumulus, and WxSolution 24/7 in real time. I also use WeatherLink with a 30-minute archive interval to access up to 53 days of backup data in the logger in case anything goes wrong with the laptop.
I installed the Vue on 9/16 and the on-site laptop with all of the software on 9/30. When I first set up the software, I had trouble getting it (WeatherLink first, then VirtualVP) to recognize the station (plugged in via the USB logger) - both programs couldn't even find the station at first. Eventually, despite the fact that I changed nothing, both pieces of software did find the station, and were able to connect to it. I set it up with VirtualVP and kept Cumulus, WxSolution, and WeatherLink running with it. All ran perfectly, 24/7 every day, right through the last time I visited the site in October (10/30) - but once I got back on-site for the first time again today, I noticed that the laptop was off; I turned it back on to find that records cut off on 10/30.
I found out today that the power was shut off in the house later in the day on 10/30 (after I left) by the plumber, who blows out the pipes each year when the house is closed for the winter and is usually supposed to turn the power to the house off as well. This year, we left a note on the circuit board specifically telling the plumber to keep the power on (for the 24/7 dedicated laptop), but it seems that he ignored the note. So when I got back on-site today, I noticed the power was off and the laptop battery, of course, had long since died - this all happened on 10/30, coinciding with my records cutting off that day.
So today, back on-site, I put the house power back on, turned on the laptop, and opened VirtualVP. The USB logger was still plugged into the same port it always had been, and I had changed absolutely nothing since I was last at the house on 10/30 (when everything was working fine, and had been for an entire month). Yet when I hit "connect," VirtualVP could not find the station on the specified virtual COM port. I decided to open WeatherLink and used its AutoDetect feature to find the virtual COM port in case the computer had changed it for some reason, but WeatherLink also could not find it. I tried both of the other two USB ports on the laptop, and, again - neither VirtualVP nor WeatherLink could find the station, despite the fact that the USB logger was securely plugged in on both ends, and despite the fact that the exact setup I was using had worked flawlessly for an entire month!
I tried restarting the computer a couple times and did the above process again - no dice.
Luckily, I had my main laptop with me today (which I also installed WeatherLink on back in September, just in case the laptop at the remote site were to crap out), which has two USB ports. I tried plugging the USB logger into the first port - and WeatherLink could NOT find the station! I then tried the second port, and WeatherLink finally found the station. Two laptops, five USB ports, and only one was able to connect to my station! ALL of the USB ports on both laptops work perfectly; I tested the two USB flash drives I had with me on all of the ports, and both drives worked on all of the ports. If it wasn't for that one port allowing me to connect to the station, I wouldn't have even been able to retrieve the past several weeks' worth of data from the datalogger.
I'm absolutely flabbergasted - I can think of no reason why the exact same setup would just not work. I never even had a USB dropout when I had the logger connected to the laptop 24/7 in October.
So, these are my questions:
-When I first set up the laptop at the remote site and connected it to the station on 9/30, why did VirtualVP and WeatherLink have trouble finding the station - despite the fact that the virtual COM port was right and the logger was securely plugged in (I know I had the settings right, since eventually it worked)? In retrospect, I wonder if this should have been a warning sign for the possibility that the logger/laptop combo had problems.
-Why can't VirtualVP or WeatherLink find the station now, using the exact same settings that allowed them to connect to the station from 9/30-10/30?
-The dedicated on-site laptop is 5-6 years old. My main laptop (which I was able to use to get the data off the datalogger today when the older laptop refused to connect) is 2.5 years old. Could the older laptop's age, for some reason, make it harder for it to connect to the datalogger? What about my main laptop - why was WeatherLink unable to find the station when it was plugged into the first USB port, while it did find the station when it was plugged into the second? Why would it find the station on one port and not the other? Shouldn't it just find it regardless?
-Has anyone had this problem, and/or does anyone recommend any specific fixes? I did not have much time on-site today and am back home now, but I will be able to try any suggestions when I return to the site in December. Additional info that may be of help, though probably not:
-I originally/accidentally selected the "USB" option instead of "Serial" when I set up the logger on WeatherLink in September, though I used the program Davis includes to change this to "Serial" so that I could use third-party software. This seemed to go perfectly smoothly, and I never had a problem related to this.
-There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Vue console - it works perfectly.
-The house is not heated, since it's a summer vacation house. As such, it gets cold inside - but the coldest it has gotten in the house since the station has been there is 43 degrees, in early- or mid-November. Could that temperature have somehow impacted the laptop's USB ports or the logger's USB cable? It certainly does not seem to be the case, since the USB ports still worked perfectly when I attached the flash drives to them and the logger's USB cable did work when i plugged it into the second USB port on my main laptop.
I realized that's a ton of text and that I'm coming across as pretty frustrated! I am, though I'm thankful that I can at least continue to download the data from the datalogger onto my main laptop (via that one USB port that recognizes my station) - so even if this problem doesn't get resolved, I will be able to continue to have continuous data in WeatherLink. Cumulus and WxSolution are nice to have as well, though the WeatherLink archive is my first priority and I'm very glad that I can continue to retrieve that data.
Thanks in advance for any help on this issue.