Vantage Vue Console logger pinout

[af4ex]

Yup .. the Digi-key link works. I don't know how I checked it before.

Do you know if it is also possible to get the cable and connector that goes into the FTDI basic breakout 3.3V?

Thanks,
Jordi.

Adafruit makes a USB cable with a builtin 3.3v FTDI chip for $20.
http://www.adafruit.com/products/70

Just clip off their header receptacle and replace with the DigiKey plug. I haven't tried this but it looks like it might work (if you're not going to use the XBEE's).

John/af4ex

[neulos]

Thanks,

I understand that this is the same item as the one in sparkfun:

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9717

5V power and 3.3V I/O. That's right because we are not going to use the power, right?

Jordi.

[af4ex]

Thanks,

I understand that this is the same item as the one in sparkfun:

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9717

5V power and 3.3V I/O. That's right because we are not going to use the power, right?

Jordi.

Yes, it appears that this SFE cable is identical to the Adafruit cable, and a few bucks cheaper, because SFE considers the 5v power to be a 'mistake'.

But as long as you don't try to power an XBee (3.3v) it should work as a 'wired' serial interface.

[Gulfcoast]

Is there a cable in the world that will plug right into the VP2 console and the computer without a bunch of wiring?  Looks like the VP2 console has about 20-pins...  Thanks

[Bushman]

No commercially available plug - you have to make your own.

[Gulfcoast]

That sounds simple, but knowing which wire (and how many wires) to solder on a plug might get a little complicated, for the average guy.   

[af4ex]

@Gulfcoast
> ...might get a little complicated, for the average guy...
Yes, that's true, but all the information you need, pinouts etc., can be found on pages 1 and 2 of this post. Requires some experience with soldering and building small electronic circuits.

It's the Davis 20-pin connector, with its 2mm spacing, which complicates everything. I'm designing a plug-in board which will solve this problem, but have been sidetracked with other projects, so not much progress has been made yet.

John/af4ex

[hswaters]

Ok so I went to sparkfun and they have this cable already made up.

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9717

Will this work for the Davis vantage vue? I expect the connector on the non usb end may need to be modified but other wise is this the correct setup?

[af4ex]

Yes, this is the same cable we've been discussing with Jordi in the previous recent posts. It exposes the Gnd, Serial Input (Rx) and Serial Out (Tx) lines, which need to be connected to the 20-pin Davis output (using the Digikey connector described above).

From page 1 of this post:
"Using DeKay's pinout diagram for navigation, one of the connectors (blue and green) hooks the USB Rx/Tx to the console Tx0,Rx0 pins. The other connector (red and black) hooks up to the gnd pin (leaving the red wire available for XBee connection later)." [These colors refer to the colors in my cable described on pages 1 and 2 of this post]

You may not have to cut the wires. Just release the pin header sockets using the instructions here (http://www.ladyada.net/learn/chumby/serial.html) and insert them over the DigiKey connector pins. Probably need to use heat-shrink tubing to keep them from shorting out. The Sparkfun cable is the same one 'Lady Ada' (aka Limor Fried, the gal who runs Adafruit) is selling.

From LadyAda's photos, looks like the Tx wire is orange and Rx wire is Yellow. Remember to invert these: Tx goes to Davis RxD0 and Rx goes to Davis TxD0!

If you or Jordi can get this to work, it will be a definite improvement over the method I used, for only a few more dollars investment.
 

[af4ex]

@me
> From LadyAda's photos, looks like the Tx wire is orange and Rx wire is Yellow ...

Yup. The Sparkfun cable has the same color scheme:
http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/DevTools/FTDI%203.3V%20IO%205V%20Vcc%20Cable.pdf

[neulos]

I just ordered the Sparkfun cable. For the connector I'll check first in a local electronics shop and If it is not available I will try to find a seller in Europe that doesn't charge 25$ for shipping (too much for a 2$ connector). I'll let you know when things are (hopefully) working.

[af4ex]

Yes, $25 is a lot of money for shipping a $2 item. You might want to check out the Samtec part that I researched back in March.
ESQT-110-02 Series ('elevated' which means it has nice long leads which will extend further than the regular board mounted variety)
http://www.samtec.com/ProductInformation/TechnicalSpecifications/Overview.aspx?series=ESQT

I think they're located in Taiwan, but have offices in Europe. Perhaps you could talk them into sending you a free sample. 
http://www.samtec.com/aboutus/worldwide_locations.aspx

[ride-with-jesse-james]

Admitted noob here. I have followed all the directions to create the cable from the console to the FTDI from Sparkfun and got the VCP to recognize the FTDI  on my Mac, but since I am not much of a comm expert, I am running into problems getting any software to recognize the console. Do I need to pass some other information to the console through my terminal in order for the software to recognize it?  I am trying to use Lightsoft Weather Center and it sees the usb to serial connection, but does not find the Vantage Vue.  Am I missing something?  I am not interested in using the XBee option as this will be connected to a computer directly.

[af4ex]

Admitted noob here. I have followed all the directions to create the cable from the console to the FTDI from Sparkfun and got the VCP to recognize the FTDI  on my Mac, but since I am not much of a comm expert, I am running into problems getting any software to recognize the console. Do I need to pass some other information to the console through my terminal in order for the software to recognize it?  I am trying to use Lightsoft Weather Center and it sees the usb to serial connection, but does not find the Vantage Vue.  Am I missing something?  I am not interested in using the XBee option as this will be connected to a computer directly.

Most of us are letting our software (Cumulus, WuHu, etc) take care of the communications over the serial connection. Unfortunately I know very little about the Mac, but I'm sure there must be some free or affordable weather software which is Davis compatible.

But for testing and debugging, you should be able to communicate directly with the Davis console using a terminal program. Again I'm not familiar with the Mac, but perhaps something like 'minicom' is available there.

Don't forget to set your terminal up for 19.2K baud. That's the default for the Davis consoles. If the console is in 'streaming' mode, you should see a stream of weather data pouring out onto the terminal screen.

You can turn the streaming on and off with 'STRMON' and 'STRMOFF', respectively. There are many other commands too, but I've never had to use them. I run Cumulus, which automatically talks to the Vantage Vue and sends my reports to the CWOP/APRS network. I didn't have to do anything to get this to work. Cumulus just assumes that I'm using WeatherLink.

You might check out DeKay's original posting in his blog, where he first published the console logger pinout, and how he figured it out. Somewhere in there is a link to the Davis serial interface manual which describes all of the serial interface commands:
http://madscientistlabs.blogspot.com/2011/01/davis-weatherlink-software-not-required.html

Hope That Helps,
John/af4ex

[DeKay]

Admitted noob here. I have followed all the directions to create the cable from the console to the FTDI from Sparkfun and got the VCP to recognize the FTDI  on my Mac, but since I am not much of a comm expert, I am running into problems getting any software to recognize the console. Do I need to pass some other information to the console through my terminal in order for the software to recognize it?  I am trying to use Lightsoft Weather Center and it sees the usb to serial connection, but does not find the Vantage Vue.  Am I missing something?  I am not interested in using the XBee option as this will be connected to a computer directly.

Jesse, don't know if this will help you, but be aware that the console is a bit fussy as to the serial port setup.  Have a look at this comment that I made on my blog regarding comm port setup.

[hswaters]

I purchased the SparkFun cable http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9717 and before I tried to connect anything I checked the pins on the cable and on the console.  The RX and TX on both the console and the cable have 3.3 volts.  I was expecting one end or the other to supply the signal voltage and the other end to not have any voltage.   Did I get the wrong cable?  Is what I am seeing normal?  Am I looking at the wrong pins on the console?    On the console I turned it upside down and the words EXPANSION are right side up and the connection runs length wise left to right.  I assumed that pin 1 is on the right bottom.  As for the xbee connector to solder the wires to I have not found one around Houston any place yet.  I guess I may have to order one.

[af4ex]

@hswaters
>  The RX and TX on both the console and the cable have 3.3 volts.
>  I was expecting one end or the other to supply the signal voltage
> and the other end to not have any voltage.  

It's normal for digital circuits to use 'pullup' resistors to keep the lines high until a signal is applied. This keeps the line from 'flapping in the breeze' with no signal. The resistor is large, 10K or so, so it's easy for the signal pins to pull these lines back down to low.

> Did I get the wrong cable?  Is what I am seeing normal?  
> Am I looking at the wrong pins on the console?  

You've got it positioned OK, with pin 1 on lower right. Verify that pin 15 (GND) is zero volts and pin 13 (VCC) is 3.3v.


> As for the xbee connector to solder the wires to
> I have not found one around Houston any place yet.

(As a reminder for all who might be reading this) remember that there are two ways to do this interface, wired and wireless:
1) Wired. All you need is the Sparkfun 9717 cable (or equivalent [I built my own cable!]), which has the builtin USB-to-Serial converter chip (FDTI etc), and some kind of connector to plug into the bottom of the console. Sounds like hswaters is going to build his own (see Page 1 of this post) using an XBee socket ($1 from Sparkfun). Tricky to build but works fine (if you have the skills to build stuff like this). Or you could order the ready-made plug like Jordi did, which will cost some more, but will be much easier to build.

2) Wireless. (See Page 2 of this post) You'll need 2 Xbee transceivers, one of them a ready-made Sparkfun Explorer (or equivalent) and the second one will be a home-made board, similar to Explorer, but with a custom connector to that very unique connector on the bottom of the console.

Hope That Helps,
John/af4ex

[neulos]

Hi,

I just got my FTDI cable and tried it but didn't work. I connected ground, Tx and Rx cables (taking care to switch Tx and Rx). I used "sudo minicom -s" in Linux with 19200 8N1 configuration. I didn't get any reply. I also consider the posibility of a driver issue, so I have to test it with Windows, downloading the driver and using hyperterm.

There's one thing that puzzled me: I configured local echo on and didn't see any of the keys I pressed on my screen.

Any ideas?

Jordi.

[af4ex]

@neulos
> I used "sudo minicom -s" in Linux with 19200 8N1 configuration. I didn't get any reply.

Hmm, that is strange. I suspect it might be minicom. I've had similar issues with it. Try another Linux terminal program, such as "screen", which converts your xterm window into a serial comm window.

[neulos]

@neulos
> I used "sudo minicom -s" in Linux with 19200 8N1 configuration. I didn't get any reply.

Hmm, that is strange. I suspect it might be minicom. I've had similar issues with it. Try another Linux terminal program, such as "screen", which converts your xterm window into a serial comm window.

John,
You were right: it was minicom. I've tried with "sudo screen /dev/ttyUSB0 19200" and is working nicely. I have used screen for other purposes and I didn't realize that it could be used in this situation.

btw, do you know how tu turn on local echo in screen?

Thanks,
Jordi.

[af4ex]

Glad to hear you got the serial working.

I'm not a big fan of minicom, so not sure how to turn on the local echo (or 'half duplex'). Here's the man page. Talks about toggling echo with 'A' command.
http://linux.die.net/man/1/minicom

Not a 'user friendly' program, IMHO.

[af4ex]

@neulos
> btw, do you know how tu turn on local echo in screen?

Oops, I read your post too quickly, thought you were asking about minicom. ('screen' is not great name for a terminal program, or any app for that matter. Too vague and hard to search on Google).

Did a quick check of the linuxhelp page for 'screen' and did not see any instructions for half-duplex etc.
http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2005/01/screen-window-manager-for-console.html

Once you get your serial connections working correctly, you won't really need the echo.

[hswaters]

Well my connectors came in today and I have the Davis Vantage Vue talking to my pc (Cumulus).  I Wish I had found the right connector before ordering the one I did but with some solder and my antique Dremel tool I made a useable connector.  Anyway I ordered three of the little buggers just in case things did not go very well and I totally destroyed one, partially mangled the second and the third is in a little box for some possible use later.  After getting the cable rigged and plugging it in I installed Cumulus and told it to look on port 16 and when I finished the setup it was reading data as if it had been done by a pro.  Now I have to get the data to wunderground and on the same page as my webcam, figure out if I am going to get a netbook to run it all and various other things.  I may later build the wireless thingy mentioned in some places on this thread as I do like to have the console on my desk by my "main pc" but I don't want to dedicate it to running a cam and the weather station. 

This is the cable I used
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9717


This is the connector I should have used, (I think, someone please correct me if I am wrong)
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=ESQT-110-02-G-D-760-ND

[af4ex]

@hswaters
> Well my connectors came in today and I have the Davis Vantage Vue talking to my pc (Cumulus).  

Congratulations! Good to have another home-brewed interface "on the air".

> I Wish I had found the right connector before ordering the one I did but with some solder
> and my antique Dremel tool I made a useable connector.

Same experience here. The important thing is that it works.

> This is the connector I should have used, (I think,
> someone please correct me if I am wrong)
> .... name=ESQT-110-02-G-D-760-ND

That is the 'elevated' part made by Samtec. I haven't tried any of these commericial sockets, but I think it would work. But you might have to trim the pins a bit on this elevated part, if the pins protrude out of the case too far.

[Andiadm]

First of all I would like to thank DeKay for his excellent work.

I made my solution in such a way, that it does WiFy: this little small excellent module

called RN-174 is happy if you connect GND, 3.3V, RX an TX. Setup is a little tricky (you need to make an Adhoc connection to config the SSID and 19200 Baud Rate) but then it works like a charm. The Eval-Kit should resell in the US at around $80 (I am fom Germany, so no clue about your prices ...) and the module itself for something like 30$. So if any of you folks around are good in designing & manufacturing a PCB, go ahead.

The wireing I did using these

They have the 2.0mm pitch and you only need to remove the little nose at the side and it fits quite well.