DSI-01 Serial Interface for Davis VP, VP2, Vue and Envoy availability

[SLOweather]

NOTE: DO NOT ORDER THIS INTERFACE IF YOUR CONSOLE MANUFACTURING CODE
STARTS WITH AA  (VANTAGE PRO 2) OR MA (VANTAGE VUE) OR GREATER
OR  THE CONSOLE FIRMWARE IS 3.0 OR GREATER!!


edited 3 Dec 2012 by SLOweather



I have several interfaces assembled and boxed and ready to ship. Availability is limited until I receive more parts and can build up more stock. Please PM or email me for the ordering URLs, so I don't get over sold. Ask about international shipping. I've successfully sent these to the UK, AU, NZ and other locales.

Also, based on inquiries, I've added a 25' cable option.

Current holiday pricing is $30.00 USD for the interface board, 7' cable, and modular-DB9 serial connector.

Substitute 25' cable $7.50

USPS Domestic Priority Mail Flat Rate Shipping $5.20

USPS International Priority Mail Flat Rate Shipping $17.00

[meteo.quimper]

Hi

Great work !!! Can you tell me if it possible to update the firmware of the console with your interface ? not with the direct pc install but with the separate .bin file (http://davisnet.com/support/weather/downloads/software_direct.asp?SoftCat=2&SoftwareID=203) because i need to translate the forecast located in the firmware in french and to send the translated firmware in the console.

Best regards

[SLOweather]

I have done the direct PC firmware update with this interface. I don't believe that it's possible to perform an update with it which requires the Davis Updater, although I've never tried it.

[johnd]

I don't believe that it's possible to perform an update with it which requires the Davis Updater, although I've never tried it.

Chris, it sounds like you may not have used the updater? If you check the 6311 documentation at:

www.davisnet.com/weather/products/wx_product_docs.asp?pnum=06311VP2

you'll see that you actually have to remove any logger before using the updater. The 6311 pack contains a 'link program adapter' which plugs direct into the console socket . (If you think about this makes sense, because not everyone with a console will have a logger and so Davis needed to provide some way of updating the console firmware without forcing users to buy a logger.)

[SLOweather]

Yeah, I used the updater several years ago to do the update which enabled the follow-on direct PC updates. Actually, I rented it from Davis and then sub-rented it to a bunch of other Davis owners so we all paid only a few $$ for the use of it.

I thought meteo.quimper was asking if my serial interface could be used to perform an update which otherwise requires the Davis updater.

[johnd]

OK, sorry I misunderstood. You were actually wondering whether the non-'Direct PC' firmware version might install (but presumably only to a console with recent enough firmware to support the Direct PC update)?

How would this work? You'd surely need some analogue of the 'Direct PC' packaging to feed the F/W to the console wouldn't you?  But maybe I don't understand well enough how the F/W update process runs?

[meteo.quimper]

Yes, i want to update a console with recent firmware (1.90) without the direct-pc firmware, because i can only translate the forecast (english -> french) in the FLASH.BIN file (direct modification inside the VP2_1_90.exe don't work)...

[Ginny]

I just want to give a shout out that this DSI-01 Serial Interface is great.  Works, easy, and saved me a ton of money.

I really wanted the Davis Vue for Christmas, but buying the data logger just put it over my husband's budget.  I got this from SLOweather and it worked like a charm.  Got the system up and running yesterday.  Used an old laptop running XP and had a serial port.  I can't say how pleased I am.  Thanks SLOweather.

Ginny

[JACK10562]

For those of you without a serial port, unless I'm mistaken, you should be able to incorporate an inexpensive serial to USB adapter for under $10(US)that will more than likely allow this solution to work very nicely with a 32 bit virtual serial port driver such as N8VB vCOM. For 32 or (64 bit unsigned) you could try com0com.

[dogdad]

Ditto what Ginny and Jack10562 (and others) have said about the DS-01 itself, and it working with serial/USB converters. 

My DS-01 worked perfectly right out of the box, and also thru a generic serial/USB converter.  Sorry, but I can't find any info/name anywhere on the converter, and it just shows up as a 'Prolific" device in Device Manager.  IIRC, the Prolific chip series seemed to be better than some other configurations, but don't quote me on that.

Kudos Chris!

[SLOweather]

Thanks for all the kind words!. Yes, indeedy, the interface works with Serial/USB adapters. In fact, I do all my testing of built boards and cables with an ATEN serial/USB adapter.

I'm sending a DSI-01 off to Austria right now....


Chris

[mike_b]

My DSI-01 works great through an Edgeport Serial/USB converter. It's nice to have the option of a reasonably priced interface to connect my weather station to the computer. Thanks Chris!

[lmolson]

So this should bridge the connection if I already have a Davis Vantage Pro, serial to usb dongle, and Virtual Weather Station software?  No additional software or hardware needed?

[JACK10562]

Drivers for the dongle might be the only thing you need, and you may have to assign a different port to the USB-to-Serial Com Port properties in Windows Device Manager.

[hexxeh]

i am trying to contact SLOWeather for availability on these serial adapters, and cannot find him throughout pm's. as he says on first post, we can contact him also by mail, but i cannot see the mail address on his profile. can anyone inform me of that on PM?

ty alot

 

[SLOweather]

PM received and sent Dimitris.

Keep in mind that your PM arrived in my mailbox at 1:02 AM local time and I was fast asleep.

I'll edit my profile and unhide my email.

Chris

i am trying to contact SLOWeather for availability on these serial adapters, and cannot find him throughout pm's. as he says on first post, we can contact him also by mail, but i cannot see the mail address on his profile. can anyone inform me of that on PM?

ty alot

 

[ayde_bury]

Just a quick note to say thank you and that the module arrived with me in the UK this afternoon.

Even with the £11.83 of UK customs charges this is still a very cheap method of getting my Vantage Vue online - now comes the scratching the grey matter for Com port baud rates etc under a Windows 2008 server

and an hour later, we're up and running on Weather Underground - what an excellent piece of equipment the DSI-01 is 

[ayde_bury]

Also adding to my previous post about the DSI-01, I was able to update my Vue firmware to the most recent version using this - great work and no more low battery message

[SkiMedicKC]

  Received my DSI-01 over the weekend, and tonight had a chance to get things running.   Pulled an old "WinXP" computer out of the attic, bought a wi-fi dongle, downloaded Cumulus, and within 30 minutes was posting to CWOP and WU.  

Now to create a full website...  should be fun!!

[moehoward4]

No joy here for me    Installed it this morning and it ran great for about 75 minutes and then froze every thing... VVP, VPLive, Cumulus and VWS and the console. Drivers for the USB-Serial cable(Prolific) seemed to be OK. I went for a 2nd try and again, worked for about the same amount of time with the same results???? So I went back to my Davis logger till I figure this out.  ANY suggestions ......?????

[SlowModem]

No joy here for me    Installed it this morning and it ran great for about 75 minutes and then froze every thing... VVP, VPLive, Cumulus and VWS and the console. Drivers for the USB-Serial cable(Prolific) seemed to be OK. I went for a 2nd try and again, worked for about the same amount of time with the same results???? So I went back to my Davis logger till I figure this out.  ANY suggestions ......?????

You should consider trying one software at a time to see if one of them is what's locking it up.  Sounds like some kind of conflict somewhere.

[moehoward4]

  : :oops:Yeah, I did kinda go right for the 'gustos'. Thanks, Greg...I'll just have to take more time to get going, WAS NOT thinking.    Jack

[moehoward4]

    DUH   I was being a creature of habit and trying to download archive from WL....ain't gonna happen...I totally forgot that you can't get memory from something that doesn't have memory. It's been running now(VWS, Cumulus and VPLive) for over 3 hours with no hang ups. I'm not the brightest bulb in the box sometimes.     Jack

[SlowModem]

 

[moehoward4]

I did this at 5AM and again at 7AM...had not had my 2nd or 3rd cup of 'WAKE UP' yet...........