Topic: WS2813

[AbuMaia]

Hi guys, first post.

I picked up a WS2813 last week at Costco, then went online to get the manual, only to get a 404 when attempting to go to the address printed in the instructions. Luckily the 2812 instructions still applied. Thankfully LaCrosse has finally added it to their website now.

So far, I am happy with the setup. I'm finally broadcasting to WU, CWOP, and PWS (nearest "official" weather site is 30 miles away, and the only other PWS in town is online only one hour per day, if that).

I have a few questions for those who have been using LaCrosse equipment for a while:

• How well do the sensors withstand hail? I'm rather nervous about the solar panel in the anemometer.
• Is that supposed to be some sort of radiation shield on the T/H sensor? Would it be overkill to find or build something a little more effective for it?
• What is your general opinion about LaCrosse sensors?
• Is there a battery alarm on the display, or do I have only HeavyWeather to rely on for that info?
• Is there any kind of hacking potential here? I'm thinking solar panels for everything.

Thanks in advance for any info/tips/advice you can give me ^_^

[DanS]

Hello and welcome to the forum! I've been running 2 LaCrosse stations for a few years. One of them is a ws2810 and it appears the display is similar to your 2813. Saying that leads me to believe your battery indicators may be the same, that is, there are indicators for each of the sensors in the same window area as the sensor is displayed. The wind sensor battery indicator is located in the upper right of the wind display area. They all remain blanked out until a change (drop) occurs. Never had hail so can't speak for the ruggedness. The solar panel is pretty rigid and mounted with several screws around it. It would take quite a bit of force and a direct hit to do something to it. If you open your wind sensor for some reason, check and seal everything well because some folks have complained that they will leak.

Adding solar panels to everything (with rechargeable batts) is doable and would not be very difficult if you have some technical know how. From what I've found on the wind sensor and the console display LaCrosse uses voltage regulator chips on the batt supply input so you have a little room to play with battery/panel voltage range.

My opinion of the sensors is pretty good. They use the SHTxx type sensors for temp and humidity (hence the Swiss accuracy claim). I recently had to replace one, not because of LaCrosse error, because a tiny insect "modified" mine.

[AbuMaia]

Thanks for the info. I have another question to add to the list:

I live in an area that gets snow in winter. What should I do with the rain gauge? Can it stay out during winter, or should I bring it in? I'm considering adding a small incandescent light bulb inside it this winter to keep it slightly warm, to melt any snow that lands in it so it can measure it. Will this method work?

[DanS]

It should be o.k. to leave out through the winter. Several members on here added various types of heaters to theirs, from heat tape to lamps. Here's one of many threads covering it.   http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=3000.msg22470#msg22470

Dan

[xykotik]

Welcome AbuMaia!

In this and another thread, you mention that you are uploading to WU and CWOP with your 2813, and that the 2812 instructions downloaded from the LaCrosse website worked for you.

I'm thinking about getting the 2812 for my father-in-law.  I downloaded the setup guide (the LaCrosse, not the HeavyWeather software) and saw how to export to .txt and .xls, but didn't see anything about WU and CWOP.  Are you using HeavyWeather or something else for your uploads?

[AbuMaia]

I'm using WUHU to get the data out of HeavyWeather and up to WU and CWOP.

[xykotik]

I'm using WUHU to get the data out of HeavyWeather and up to WU and CWOP.

Excellent!  That's just what I needed to know.

[karajabola]

I'm using WUHU to get the data out of HeavyWeather and up to WU and CWOP.

Does anyone know of any Mac solutions that will do this?  Thanks

[DanS]

I'm using WUHU to get the data out of HeavyWeather and up to WU and CWOP.

Does anyone know of any Mac solutions that will do this?  Thanks

Haven't seen anything for the LaCrosse WS-28xx series. Several out there for the WS23xx series though.

[xykotik]

Well, searching "LaCrosse 2813" at the yahoo_wuhu group a search seems to indicate that you need "some" sort of serial connection to use WUHU.  Here's a photo of what you get in the box.  Bottom-center is the USB wireless transceiver which is presently plugged into a hub on my desk.  No wires to be had anywhere.  (Range is atrocious from temp-station to console, and again to USB xcvr)

According to the HW instructions, since the console showed "333" at power-up, I downloaded and installed V1.5.4 software.  It has some quirks, but I feel familiar enough with it now tha I want to get it on WU.  I already have a station ID ready to go, just trying to figure out how to get it there now.

Anyone here connecting using WUHU and a similar LaCr setup?

[Weather Display]

the problem is with the data protocol of the wireless dongle USB data transfer stick
no one knows how to decode the data stream (its a HID USB device)
to be able to get around using the easy weather created currdat.lst file
(i.e problem for the Mac is there is no Mac verion of easyweather , the software that comes with the station)
have a 2800 here myself

[xykotik]

the problem is with the data protocol of the wireless dongle USB data transfer stick
no one knows how to decode the data stream (its a HID USB device)
to be able to get around using the easy weather created currdat.lst file
(i.e problem for the Mac is there is no Mac verion of easyweather , the software that comes with the station)
have a 2800 here myself

So it's not just a matter of periodically scraping the currdat.lst file?  It must not be as easy as that, if it crossed MY mind after YOU (a wx coder) already mentioned it.  It sounds like you are getting data for WD through the direct serial, rather than the currdat.lst file then?

[edit] Has anyone done that?  Scraping the currdat.lst file?  If someone has, please share.  Otherwise I am going to mess around with that, maybe make my own flat-file, like the ones you can export from HW.[/edit]

[AbuMaia]

Well, searching "LaCrosse 2813" at the yahoo_wuhu group a search seems to indicate that you need "some" sort of serial connection to use WUHU.  Here's a photo of what you get in the box.  Bottom-center is the USB wireless transceiver which is presently plugged into a hub on my desk.  No wires to be had anywhere.  (Range is atrocious from temp-station to console, and again to USB xcvr)

According to the HW instructions, since the console showed "333" at power-up, I downloaded and installed V1.5.4 software.  It has some quirks, but I feel familiar enough with it now tha I want to get it on WU.  I already have a station ID ready to go, just trying to figure out how to get it there now.

Anyone here connecting using WUHU and a similar LaCr setup?

Yup  

I have the USB dongle plugged into my ancient WinXP computer, running both HeavyWeather and WUHU at the same time, as is required for the 28XX series. Start HW, get it synchronized with the console, then start WUHU and point it towards the currdat.lst file. Mine was in Documents and Settings, All Users, Application Data. Then you can tell WUHU where to upload the data to.

Edit: WUHU reads from the currdat.lst for the 28xx series.

[Weather Display]

xykotik, WD uses the currdat.lst file
as I do not know the data protocol of the data stream from the dongle (HID device)

[xykotik]

xykotik, WD uses the currdat.lst file
as I do not know the data protocol of the data stream from the dongle (HID device)

Well, I will have to try them both (WUHU and WD).  That's why I asked.  I'm way too lazy to duplicate your efforts 

Yup 

I have the USB dongle plugged into my ancient WinXP computer, running both HeavyWeather and WUHU at the same time, as is required for the 28XX series. Start HW, get it synchronized with the console, then start WUHU and point it towards the currdat.lst file. Mine was in Documents and Settings, All Users, Application Data. Then you can tell WUHU where to upload the data to.

Edit: WUHU reads from the currdat.lst for the 28xx series.

Then I should stop worrying about it and just try it.  I'll download the thing and go with it.  Simple as that?

[DanS]

My ws2810 runs that way, WuHu reading the HW currdat.lst file and uploading. My ws2310 is running direct serial and another WuHu reading this and uploading it also.

[Weather Display]

in WD,in the weather station type setup,  its called the heavy weather import, where you select the currdat.lst file
(you can find out where that is in heavy/easy weather via the show me the history.dat/currdat.lst file)
(sometimes its in a hidden directory, c:\ProgramData )

[xykotik]

Well, it WAS quite simple.  In fact, I would have to say it was much simpler than hooking up WeatherLink to WU when I did that way back when.  It took about one minute to install to the default location, and less than that to configure it for WU with successful uploads immediately following.  I did turn off rapidfire, since I'm only polling every 30 minutes anyway.  It's just experimental at this point.

I got to validate the ease of install, since I've been fighting a trojan since yesterday morning.  I ended up uninstalling everything I had done in the past month in the process, which included WUHU and HW.  Once I got the nasty sorted out, I put stuff back on.  HW and WUHU were installed AND configured in moments.  This will make it a snap to install at my FIL's at Christmas.

Since everything seems to be working, I had better disable the uploads for now.  I registered the station in WU for it's ultimate location, which is on the leeward side of the Cascade mountains 150 miles from here, and presently about 20F lower than here.

Thanks for all of the assistance.  This gift is ready to go.