Topic: Davis VP2 Data storing and Computer Software

[Dr Bob]

I currently have to run VWS (my software) 24 hours a day to keep accurate records with the current hardware I am using.  I have read that the Davis machines will store the data for some time, which can later be read by the software so one doesn't have to run the software 24 hours a day.  Is this true?  What are the disadvantages of stopping the software on the PC for a period of time but keeping the Davis running? What data is lost, if any?

I'm wondering about periods where I am away from home for a week or so at a time.  I usually shut down my computers during those periods.  I am running Virtual Weather Station currently though I am having problems with the Peet Brother's Ultimeter and wish I had bought a Davis instead.

Thanks!

..........Bob

[wuhu_software]

I currently have to run VWS (my software) 24 hours a day to keep accurate records with the current hardware I am using.  I have read that the Davis machines will store the data for some time, which can later be read by the software so one doesn't have to run the software 24 hours a day.  Is this true?  What are the disadvantages of stopping the software on the PC for a period of time but keeping the Davis running? What data is lost, if any?

I'm wondering about periods where I am away from home for a week or so at a time.  I usually shut down my computers during those periods.  I am running Virtual Weather Station currently though I am having problems with the Peet Brother's Ultimeter and wish I had bought a Davis instead.

Thanks!

..........Bob

Bob,

Are you going to sell the Peet Bros to purchase the Davis? If so, make sure you buy the Davis with all of the features you want, like UV sensors or fan aspiration. Adding these features later is expensive.

Here are the details on the logger (USB or serial version):

Archive Interval : User-selectable from the following intervals (in minutes): 1, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60, or 120

Data Logger Archived Data : The Data Logger stores up to 2560 archive records (one 52-byte record per archive interval) for later transfer to your computer. The archive records are stored in 128K of non-volatile memory; protecting the data even if the console loses power. Maxima, minima, averages, and totals are taken over the archive interval.

The data contained within each record is:

struct  WeatherRecordStructEx
{
    short year;
    char month;
    char day;
    short packedTime;
    char dateStr[16];
    char timeStr[16];
    short archivePeriod;

    float outsideTemp;
    float hiOutsideTemp;
    float lowOutsideTemp;
    float insideTemp;

    float barometer;
    short barometerTrend;

    float outsideHum;
    float insideHum;

    float rain;
    float hiRainRate;

    float windSpeed;
    float hiWindSpeed;
    short windDirection;
    char windDirectionStr[5];
    short hiWindDirection;
    char hiWindDirectionStr[5];

    short numWindSamples;
    short numExpectedSamples;

    short solarRad;
    short hiSolarRad;
    float UV;
    float hiUV;

    float et;

    float extraTemp[3];
    float extraHum[2];
    float soilTemp[4];
    float leafTemp[2];

    float soilMoisture[4];
    float leafWetness[2];

    float heatIndex;
    float THWIndex;
    float THSWIndex;
    float windChill;
    float dewPoint;

    float insideDewPoint;
    float insideHeatIndex;
};

[Dr Bob]

Are you going to sell the Peet Bros to purchase the Davis? If so, make sure you buy the Davis with all of the features you want, like UV sensors or fan aspiration. Adding these features later is expensive.

Thanks.  Yes, if I do decide to get the Davis, I will sell the Peet Brother's.  It's nice, it's just I'm having a problem with the data stream from the serial port.  I'm still waiting for them to respond to my email last week.  I'll call them if they don't respond and see what's up.  Of course, this is the type of problem where the software guys blame the hardware, and vice vers! 

And yes, I remember reading somewhere else about getting all the sensors for the Davis when you first buy it as adding them on is expensive!  Thanks again!

............Bob

[wuhu_software]

Are you going to sell the Peet Bros to purchase the Davis? If so, make sure you buy the Davis with all of the features you want, like UV sensors or fan aspiration. Adding these features later is expensive.

Thanks.  Yes, if I do decide to get the Davis, I will sell the Peet Brother's.  It's nice, it's just I'm having a problem with the data stream from the serial port.  I'm still waiting for them to respond to my email last week.  I'll call them if they don't respond and see what's up.  Of course, this is the type of problem where the software guys blame the hardware, and vice vers! 

And yes, I remember reading somewhere else about getting all the sensors for the Davis when you first buy it as adding them on is expensive!  Thanks again!

............Bob

Bob,

What kind of problem are you having with the serial communications?

[Dr Bob]

Bob,

What kind of problem are you having with the serial communications?

Actually, I'm having two different problems.

First, when it rains, my Ultimeter 2100 console accurately reflects the rain, as does VWS.  Both the software and hardware agree.  However, at or just before midnight, for some reason VWS changes the minimum value in the rainfall data of the daily BIN file so that it equals the maximum value.  This means that VWS reads ZERO rain for the day when I click on <settings><rainfall>. Something in the data stream to the serial port from the Ultimeter's console is being read by VWS and is reseting the data.  According to the Peet Brother's web site regarding the serial port, "some" consoles apparently lack the "daily rainfall value" in the data stream.  They suggest contacting them "if this presents a problem."

I don't know if that *is* the problem or not.  Frankly, I think the console is resetting itself just a wee bit before midnight, that then gets read by VWS and the data is changed.  I can easily correct the BIN file to read correctly the following day, but this gets old.  For awhile, all was working fine.  Then, for an unknown reason, it began corrupting the rainfall data again.  Peet Brother's has yet to respond to my two emails I have sent them (last one today.  I'll be patient).

The second problem is an intermittent IRQ conflict (I believe) with my mouse.  Upon booting up, the mouse curser goes crazy, begins running around the screen at lightning speed, randomly opening "start" and all sorts of other things.  I am unable to control the curser.  Disconnecting the serial port, which the Ultimeter is connected to, stops the problem.  It starts again when I reconnect the serial port.  I must make sure I disconnect the serial port *before* I boot the computer, or this problem may happen. The mouse is a Logitec USB wireless that otherwise has worked fine.  I would certainly like to run an IRQ conflict checker, but all is fine when the Ultimeter is not connected and unfortunately, I have no control over the mouse to be able to run the program when I have the conflict.  Strangely, it doesn't happen *everytime* I boot, but often enough.

This should probably be posted under the hardware section including the Peet Brother's hardware . . .

At any rate, the Davis is looking pretty good about now!! 

...........Bob   

[SLOweather]

The second problem is an intermittent IRQ conflict (I believe) with my mouse.  Upon booting up, the mouse curser goes crazy, begins running around the screen at lightning speed, randomly opening "start" and all sorts of other things.  I am unable to control the curser.  Disconnecting the serial port, which the Ultimeter is connected to, stops the problem.  It starts again when I reconnect the serial port.  I must make sure I disconnect the serial port *before* I boot the computer, or this problem may happen. The mouse is a Logitec USB wireless that otherwise has worked fine.  I would certainly like to run an IRQ conflict checker, but all is fine when the Ultimeter is not connected and unfortunately, I have no control over the mouse to be able to run the program when I have the conflict.  Strangely, it doesn't happen *everytime* I boot, but often enough.

This isn't an IRQ problem, but a serial mouse problem. When Windows boots, it polls all serial ports and looks for a particular response that indicates that there is a serial mouse on that port. If it finds one, it uses it and marks the port as in use,

Any device that continuously streams serial data can occasionally send the right characters at the right time during boot and be detected as a mouse. I've had this problem with an amateur radio TNC at home, and seen it with a serial shipping scale for a customer at work.

There are commands that can be entered in the boot.ini file that are supposed to stop this from happening, but I've never had any luck with them.

A Davis station will not cause this problem because it, in essence, doesn't speak unless spoken to. It doesn't send data unless a program requests it.

[ryan hothersall]

On the subject of data recording, the La Crosse station that I am using at the moment records some data to a file yet does not record min/max temp etc as well so unless I manually record that data and reset it will overwrite that data.

I will end up with the Davis eventually as it looks like it records the min and max temps unlike the La Crosse.

[Dr Bob]

This isn't an IRQ problem, but a serial mouse problem. When Windows boots, it polls all serial ports and looks for a particular response that indicates that there is a serial mouse on that port. If it finds one, it uses it and marks the port as in use.

That's exactly what happens!  It's not a problem as long as I disconnect the Ultimeter console while booting and as you mentioned, some times it doesn't happen.

You have *no* idea how long I fought this before figuring it out.  I had installed Vista and soon the problem began.  I tried everything, then due to many other problems, reformatted my drive and reinstalled XP, which I am still using.  Suddenly I had the problem again with XP, then it dawned on me the only connection I had between XP and Vista was the weather station.  I felt like such an idiot! 

A ham, huh?  W4DFW here.  I just emailed US Tower regarding my 89 foot crank up that is being delivered in July.  I'm going to wait till then to get the Davis I think, as I want to try and put the anemometer up on the tower part way rather than up the mast on top of my roof where the current one is. 

..........Bob

[wuhu_software]

Bob,

What kind of problem are you having with the serial communications?

Actually, I'm having two different problems.

First, when it rains, my Ultimeter 2100 console accurately reflects the rain, as does VWS.  Both the software and hardware agree.  However, at or just before midnight, for some reason VWS changes the minimum value in the rainfall data of the daily BIN file so that it equals the maximum value.  This means that VWS reads ZERO rain for the day when I click on <settings><rainfall>. Something in the data stream to the serial port from the Ultimeter's console is being read by VWS and is reseting the data.  According to the Peet Brother's web site regarding the serial port, "some" consoles apparently lack the "daily rainfall value" in the data stream.  They suggest contacting them "if this presents a problem."

I don't know if that *is* the problem or not.  Frankly, I think the console is resetting itself just a wee bit before midnight, that then gets read by VWS and the data is changed.  I can easily correct the BIN file to read correctly the following day, but this gets old.  For awhile, all was working fine.  Then, for an unknown reason, it began corrupting the rainfall data again.  Peet Brother's has yet to respond to my two emails I have sent them (last one today.  I'll be patient).

The second problem is an intermittent IRQ conflict (I believe) with my mouse.  Upon booting up, the mouse curser goes crazy, begins running around the screen at lightning speed, randomly opening "start" and all sorts of other things.  I am unable to control the curser.  Disconnecting the serial port, which the Ultimeter is connected to, stops the problem.  It starts again when I reconnect the serial port.  I must make sure I disconnect the serial port *before* I boot the computer, or this problem may happen. The mouse is a Logitec USB wireless that otherwise has worked fine.  I would certainly like to run an IRQ conflict checker, but all is fine when the Ultimeter is not connected and unfortunately, I have no control over the mouse to be able to run the program when I have the conflict.  Strangely, it doesn't happen *everytime* I boot, but often enough.

This should probably be posted under the hardware section including the Peet Brother's hardware . . .

At any rate, the Davis is looking pretty good about now!! 

...........Bob   

Bob,

My guess is that the rainfall tracking is a VWS issue not a Peet Bros issue. The console does transmit the "daily rainfall" that will be reset after midnight (console time). If the Peet Bros console's clock is slower than the PC, VWS might get confused depending on how it is tracking the rainfall data. In any case, this is probably a VWS issue, not a Peet Bros issue. You might look around in the VWS forum to see if that issue has been addressed.

That is an interesting situation with XP being confused at startup. I guess I am not too surprised as this is Microsoft that we are talking about.

What you might be able to do is either use a higher serial port number (COM3 or higher) or add more serial ports. My guess is that the serial mouse legacy support would only work on COM1 or COM2, but it is possible that it may use higher port numbers under control of the serial.sys driver. If you add say a USB to serial converter (choose wisely) or a seperate PCI serial card with it's own driver, you might be able to avoid that situtation.

You might also try modifying the boot.ini as suggested.

Serial Mice versus Cameras w. RS-232 Control.

Under Windows NT, the auto configuration performed while booting sometimes identifies certain cameras with RS-232 controls as a serial mouse. Any COM port used for such as camera becomes unavailable to an application such as XCAP.

A simple solution is to leave the camera powered off or disconnected while booting. Alternately, in Control Panel, Services or Devices, the ''sermouse'' service can be set to manual. Alternately, the boot.ini file can be edited adding:

    /NoSerialMouse              disable detection on all COM ports
    /NoSerialMouse:COMx         disable detection on COMx ports
    /NoSerialMouse:COMx,y,z     disable detection on COMx, y, and z ports

to the end of any or all boot descriptor lines, such as:
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(7)\WINNT="Windows NT ..." /NoSerialMouse

[Dr Bob]

Under Windows NT, the auto configuration performed while booting sometimes identifies certain cameras with RS-232 controls as a serial mouse. Any COM port used for such as camera becomes unavailable to an application such as XCAP.

A simple solution is to leave the camera powered off or disconnected while booting. Alternately, in Control Panel, Services or Devices, the ''sermouse'' service can be set to manual. Alternately, the boot.ini file can be edited adding:

    /NoSerialMouse              disable detection on all COM ports
    /NoSerialMouse:COMx         disable detection on COMx ports
    /NoSerialMouse:COMx,y,z     disable detection on COMx, y, and z ports

to the end of any or all boot descriptor lines, such as:
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(7)\WINNT="Windows NT ..." /NoSerialMouse

Uhm . . . I'm pretty confident about my ability to unplug the console when I boot up, which pretty much takes care of the mouse issue.  I'm a wee bit less so about modifying the boot.ini file.   

I have been going back and forth with the software writer of VWS and he seems convinced that it's a Peet Brother's problem.  Something about hardware guys blaming the software guys and vice versa!! In the mean time . . . 

...........Bob

[Sigdigit]

make sure you buy the Davis with all of the features you want, like UV sensors or fan aspiration. Adding these features later is expensive.

I agree, but getting everything at once is REALLY expensive.  Depending on your needs, in my opinion the solar radiation sensor and FARS are really the only two add ons needed, at least in my case.  The data used by the solar radiation sensor is far more useful, at least for my weather station, as they are used to calculate ET values, heating/cooling degree days, and THSW values; As far as I know, the UV sensor is only good for producing a UV value, which can be obtained from somebody's elses nearby PWS, if you really need it. Also, the solar radiation sensor is a fraction of the price of a UV sensor.

[Dr Bob]

Depending on your needs, in my opinion the solar radiation sensor and FARS are really the only two add ons needed, at least in my case.

I see info regarding the solar sensor on the Davis web site, but I'm not sure what a FARS is.  I don't readily see that term on their site.  What are you referring to??  I agree with your assessment regarding the UV sensor. 

...........Bob

[WeatherBeacon]

Depending on your needs, in my opinion the solar radiation sensor and FARS are really the only two add ons needed, at least in my case.

I see info regarding the solar sensor on the Davis web site, but I'm not sure what a FARS is.  I don't readily see that term on their site.  What are you referring to??  I agree with your assessment regarding the UV sensor. 

...........Bob

FARS = "Fan Aspirated Radiation Shield".

From Davis:

Temperature and humidity sensors are enclosed in our patented, solar-powered, 24-hour fan-aspirated radiation shield. Shield combines fan aspiration and passive shielding to minimize the effects of solar radiation.

The Davis model 6163 has it, for example.

Regards,

Kevin...

[Dr Bob]

My guess is that the rainfall tracking is a VWS issue not a Peet Bros issue. The console does transmit the "daily rainfall" that will be reset after midnight (console time). If the Peet Bros console's clock is slower than the PC, VWS might get confused depending on how it is tracking the rainfall data. In any case, this is probably a VWS issue, not a Peet Bros issue.

I now have to agree with you.  Just in case anyone reads this searching on Peet Brother's hardware, I'll follow-up. 

I obtained a DOS utility from the Peet Brother's web site that allowed me to capture the serial output from the Peet console.  I ran the utility last night just before midnight and then a minute or so after and was able to confirm that the Peet hardware does not change the daily rain amount until precisely midnight and not one second before.  The console outputs the time of day as well, and I was able to confirm the rainfall amount was reset to zero, but not until the clock struck exactly midnight. Additionally, I spoke with someone with support and he confirmed the serial data stream has essentially been the same for the past 10 years or so without any changes.  I've heard this before elsewhere.

I've contacted Ed, who wrote VWS (we've been going back and forth about this) with this new information, so maybe he can look within VWS and determine what the problem is. 

...........Bob