Help with 6510SER USB comminication

[Doug_in_Texas]

Sorry if this question has been posted before and answered. I have searched for over an hour in the posts and can't find an answer. Any help or direction to the answer would be appreciated.

Installed the Weatherlink, I have the datalogger, 6510SER and what seems to be a serial port to USB converter. Got it all hooked up, plugged into the USB port. But when trying to configure communication on the software, when I pick serial, it doesn't find it as I don't have a serial port. When I choose USB it says it isn't there either.

Help, what do I do???

[mackbig]

You should choose serial in weatherlink. 

Your serial to usb converter should have drivers.  Once installed, there should be a comm port show up in your device manager.  You need to point WL to that comm port once setup.

Andrew

[Doug_in_Texas]

all I got from Davis is the serial and usb converter hardware and a Weatherlink 5.9.2 CD
I installed WL, but don't see any driver CD.

[johnd]

The only USB adapter that Davis do AFAIK is the part 8434. Is that what you have? If so then the CD will be in the packaging (between the interleaving in the card IIRC).

But you can download a copy from:

http://www.davisnet.com/support/weather/downloads/software_driver.asp

There's also a Win7 one under 'Drivers' at:

http://toolbox.davisnet.com/downloads/

It is important to follow the installation instructions carefully, eg to have the logger disconnected when you're actually doing the driver installation

[Doug_in_Texas]

the adpaters don't have any numbers on them. it all came in the same box when I ordered the 6510SER and WL software.
came with a gray little box - one end is a male serial port, other end is a USB. It also came with aobut 6 feet of phone connecter, and it came with a little blue adaptor that is a serial port female on one end and phone connecter on other end.

Also have tried the utility program on WL, to do a virtual serial to USB. It says I have no device connected.

What a pain. Thinking now I should have just bought the USB version and not the serial to USB version (but the latter is what numerous peope advised) Kind of hate to do that as I already spent over a $100 on this one.

[dalecoy]

the adpaters don't have any numbers on them. it all came in the same box when I ordered the 6510SER and WL software.
came with a gray little box - one end is a male serial port, other end is a USB. It also came with aobut 6 feet of phone connecter, and it came with a little blue adaptor that is a serial port female on one end and phone connecter on other end.

Also have tried the utility program on WL, to do a virtual serial to USB. It says I have no device connected.

What a pain. Thinking now I should have just bought the USB version and not the serial to USB version (but the latter is what numerous peope advised) Kind of hate to do that as I already spent over a $100 on this one.

Did you purchase this set of things from Davis?  If not, from whom?  [I don't recall seeing that Davis sells an adapter, but I could be mistaken]

If the adapter doesn't have any identification, I would be very suspicious.

I personally recommend the serial logger, but almost nobody has recently had problems with the USB logger.  Perhaps you can exchange it?

[johnd]

[I don't recall seeing that Davis sells an adapter, but I could be mistaken]

This is what I assumed the OP was referring to:

http://www.davisnet.com/weather/products/weather_product.asp?pnum=08434

(which is the standard Davis offering for a serial-to-USB adapter, although that web page is very clumsily worded now I come to look at it. But it is the 'official' part for connecting a serial logger to a PC's USB port, albeit that Davis are just reselling a (?) Chinese adapter with a Prolific chipset).

Very likely the OP just hasn't looked hard enough for the 'missing' CD but all the necessary info for working around that is in my previous post.

[dalecoy]

Thanks, and I see that the OP says here that it came from Davis.

all I got from Davis is the serial and usb converter hardware and a Weatherlink 5.9.2 CD
I installed WL, but don't see any driver CD.

We're also assuming that the OP is using a Windows PC.  [please tell us what version of Windows, if that's it]

I'm just not reading carefully enough today, it seems. 

[johnd]

We're also assuming that the OP is using a Windows PC. 

A non-Windows version wouldn't be v5.9.2 (unless they were trying to load a Windows CD on to eg a Mac)

[Doug_in_Texas]

it all came from Davis when I bought the Vantage Pro. It came with the the WL software program, which I bought about 2 years ago. Just now getting around to hooking it up to computer as I feared it would be a pain like it has turned out to be.

It does not look like the 8434 part on the Davis site, but it is what they sent me. And effectively it is the same it takes a serial port and switches it to a USD and then has a phone line insert so it will plug into the data logger.

I have Win7.

So anyone got any ideas what to do??? short of calling Davis?

[dalecoy]

Oh - the software is not exactly current.

OK, try this:
Unplug your USB adapter.
Reboot your computer.
As johnd said, go to http://toolbox.davisnet.com/downloads/ and download the Win7 driver.
Also download WeatherLink 5.9.2a (read the notice which says: "This beta version does not install the Silicon Labs VCP USB driver.  This eliminates WeatherLink installation failures on some PCs."

Remove all power from the console (AC and battery), take the logger out, wait 30 seconds, put the logger back in, and power up the console.  Connect the logger to the blue adapter and that to the USB adapter, but don't plug the USB adapter into the computer yet.

Install 5.9.2a
Install the driver listed above.
Reboot the computer
Plug in the USB adapter, which is connected to the rest of the stuff.

Now, go through the WeatherLink setup.

If that doesn't work, we'll try a little testing using the loopback plug.

[Doug_in_Texas]

thanks dalecoy, I will try that on Sunday, and let you know. right now it is time for a scotch

[Doug_in_Texas]

Dale,
OK, when I went to install the 5.9.2a, I was given a message that said download version was 5.9.0 and that I already had a newer version and would not install. I did download and install the driver, and did everything else you said. Still a no go, it won't see the device, the device manager says it can't find the driver eiether. The WL untility says it doesn't see a device.

By the way, the blude USB converter does have Davis name on it, so pretty sure it is thiers. Surely someone must know something about it.

So now what? time to order the USB part and forget trying to get this serial thing to work on a USB ?

[beaudog]

Have you read this?

I kinda think you may need to delete all and start over.
http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=13725.msg136862#msg136862

[Doug_in_Texas]

after reading that post, even more confused. uninstall and reinstall and leave unit plugged in or not plugged in? Plus I am using the serial port with USB adapter.

I may just have to resign to not being able to use a software program with the Davis. or maybe try another program, but the problem seems to be that the computer doesn't see the console. Maybe the datalogger is bad. I have unpluuged the USB, plugged it back in, powered console off/on. Just don't know.

My hobby is getting frustrating, but sure would like to have the data saved, view graphs etc, as the console is limited in that.

[johnd]

It will work fine once you have the driver and software properly configured. No need to think about getting a USB logger - that will still potentially have the same issues (maybe more). All USB devices need their driver properly installed/configured and until you achieve this then no downstream software will work.

What does the Ports section of Windows Device Manager on your PC say (with the USB adapter connected)?

[dalecoy]

By the way, the blude USB converter does have Davis name on it, so pretty sure it is thiers. Surely someone must know something about it.

Presuming you meant "blue", that is not the USB converter.  It's just the thing that connects with the "telephone wire" to the serial logger in the console.

Did your stuff come with a "loopback plug"?  That's a short piece of telephone wire with a telephone connector on one end.  If so, let's try using that for a while.

Dale,
OK, when I went to install the 5.9.2a, I was given a message that said download version was 5.9.0 and that I already had a newer version and would not install.

Yes, you will have to "uninstall" the previous installation of WeatherLink. 

Also, with the USB converter plugged in, in the "Device Manager" on your W7 computer, click on "Ports" and tell us everything it says there.

[Doug_in_Texas]

Dale, yes, blue is the tele wire to serial part.
ok, I uninstalled WL 5.9.2, then reinstalled the one from the davis site. I doenloaded the the driver file, opened it and clicked the exe file, so it installed, not sure where. Then I powered off consol, etc like you said, rebooted, plugged back in USB, went thru set up, stll says it can't find the device.

ok, under device manager under Ports it says: Communication Port (com 1)
There is also a USB line that says device not working.

Yes I have a phone connector with a shot peice of phone wire with a little red plastic cap on it.

I await instructions.

[Doug_in_Texas]

and just to confirm, I should be choosing serial, NOT USB during the WL walkthru setup, right?

[johnd]

ok, under device manager under Ports it says: Communication Port (com 1)
There is also a USB line that says device not working.

Is that 'USB line' under the Ports section or under the USB section?

If the 8434 driver is correctly installed (and the USB adapter is connected) then there will be a line specifically under Ports which says something about 'Prolific' and with a COM port number after it. Until you can see this line then there's no point in looking at the WL software because it won't work.

You need to focus totally on getting the USB driver for the 8434 adapter installed - the WL software is irrelevant until you can achieve successful driver installation. You are installing under an administrator account and with the adapter _not_ connected?

[dalecoy]

Yes, it should be a serial device (in WL).  For convenience, you can use that short cable plugged into the blue thing - it's a "Loopback plug".

Dale, yes, blue is the tele wire to serial part.
ok, I uninstalled WL 5.9.2, then reinstalled the one from the davis site. I doenloaded the the driver file, opened it and clicked the exe file, so it installed, not sure where. Then I powered off consol, etc like you said, rebooted, plugged back in USB, went thru set up, stll says it can't find the device.

ok, under device manager under Ports it says: Communication Port (com 1)
There is also a USB line that says device not working.

Yes I have a phone connector with a shot peice of phone wire with a little red plastic cap on it.
I await instructions.

With the USB plugged in, go to device manager.  Right-click on the USB device that says it's not working, click on "Properties", and write down what it says, to tell us later.  Cancel that, right-click again, and choose "Uninstall".  Complete that operation.

Trial #1:  Leaving the USB plugged in, reboot the computer.  Look in device manager, see if there is another com port (good).  If that's the case, try WeatherLink again.  If there's not another com port (other than com1), is there again a USB device that's not working.  If so, do the uninstall again, then go to Trial #2.

Trial #2:  Remove the USB device, reboot the computer, install that driver software again, then plug in the USB device.   Wait for any "installing device driver" messages to finish.  [If asked, tell Windows to check the internet for device drivers, etc.]  Check the device manager.

If neither of those things works, I'm probably out of ideas, except "Call Davis in the morning".

Added: yes, that's essentially what johnd said.  Trial #1 is to see if the already-installed driver works. 

[beaudog]

Hmmm  I don't think that you cn have two com ports open on that computer without some sort of port spliter or virtual comport software.

What does it show is on com1 ?

Try disabling com1.

Here is what mine looks like.

[dalecoy]

Hmmm  I don't think that you cn have two com ports open on that computer without some sort of port spliter or virtual comport software.

There's not usually a limitation as to number of com ports (technically up to something like 256, and as a practical matter a dozen or so).

[johnd]

Hmmm  I don't think that you cn have two com ports open on that computer without some sort of port spliter or virtual comport software.

Please don't confuse the issue. It's perfectly possible to have any (reasonable) number of COM ports on a PC and - provided they're correctly configured - have several of them in use. (Strictly speaking, there's conceivably an issue if multiple _physical_ COM ports may be trying to use the same interrupt at the same time, but that won't be the issue here because any COM port associated with an adapter will be a virtual COM port and not a physical one.)

But where you will definitely hit problems is where more than one software package is trying to access the SAME COM port at the same time, but again that isn't relevant here - the 8434 would typically come up as eg COM3 or COM5 - it's a bit unpredictable on any given PC, but doesn't really matter. This is the situation you're probably thinking of.

However, your post has made me think of one glaringly obvious point that I'd overlooked. If COM1 is present then it could suggest that there's a physical COM port on the PC. Does the PC in question have a physical serial port? (It might not - it could be something like a modem). But if it does have a serial port then forget the USB adapter and plug the blue adapter into the serial port. Problem solved!

[Doug_in_Texas]

Thanks Dale and John and all.

Tried 1 and 2, neither worked. Still have an unknown device. maybe since the part I have is not the 8434 and thus the driver is not working for it.

I don't have a serial port. I think the thing on my com is my wireless network hub.

so unless someone has an idea that the loopback thing will work, I guess I am calling Davis on Monday.

Thanks again for all your help