Topic: Serial to USB for La Crosse WS-2315

[KB3NRY]

Hey all!

I'm pretty new to the whole weather station thing and trying to learn.  Weather has always been something that is interesting to me.  Anyway, I have a WS-2315 and I'd like to upload the data to my computer and eventually, hopefully, get it on the internet.  I need a USB to serial cable that will work with my Windows Vista laptop and the weather station.  (I think Vista shouldn't be a problem at this point, but I thought I' mention it in case it could be.)  I know that many cables aren't compatible.  I actually have a USB to Serial cable that works for 2 other devices (Amateur and shortwave radios), but it will not recognize my weather station when I try plugging that in.  The Heavy Weather software says to plug the system in and it will automatically recognize it and start receiving data, but it never does for me.  I've tried setting it up to the correct COM port and all, but I have had no luck.

Does anyone know a specific cable that will work with this station.  I don't think I saw one on La Crosse's website.  I'd rather not have to keep buying and guessing to get on that will work with this station.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

[wuhu_software]

Hey all!

I'm pretty new to the whole weather station thing and trying to learn.  Weather has always been something that is interesting to me.  Anyway, I have a WS-2315 and I'd like to upload the data to my computer and eventually, hopefully, get it on the internet.  I need a USB to serial cable that will work with my Windows Vista laptop and the weather station.  (I think Vista shouldn't be a problem at this point, but I thought I' mention it in case it could be.)  I know that many cables aren't compatible.  I actually have a USB to Serial cable that works for 2 other devices (Amateur and shortwave radios), but it will not recognize my weather station when I try plugging that in.  The Heavy Weather software says to plug the system in and it will automatically recognize it and start receiving data, but it never does for me.  I've tried setting it up to the correct COM port and all, but I have had no luck.

Does anyone know a specific cable that will work with this station.  I don't think I saw one on La Crosse's website.  I'd rather not have to keep buying and guessing to get on that will work with this station.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Vista may complicate finding a good USB to serial converter / driver combination.

I have had good luck with the IOGear adapter based on the Prolific PL-2303 chip set under Windows 2000 and XP.

Here is the adapter at newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812107906

Whether or not the latest drivers from their website offer reliability under Vista I do not know.

If this is a desktop model, I would recommend avoiding the USB to serial adapters altogether.

You can add a PCI serial card for probably under $30 with a couple of real ports.

[KB3NRY]

Thanks for the help.  Unfortunately, I only have a laptop right now or I'd definitely go with PCI serial card.  I'll look into that adapter.  If anyone else have any that have worked, let me know.  I know those adapters can be found for cheaper than that.  I don't mind paying for quality though, but I will search around a little more.  Thanks for the help.  If anyone else has any suggestions, let me know.  Thanks.

[hewy]

Radio Shacks RS232 seriel to USB cable works like a charm!
And it doesnt cost you an arm and a leg.
I've been running my WS2315 for over a year now
with out a single  problem.

[crazydaveiowa]

I cannot report such good luck on the Radio Shack Serial to USB patch cord.
I was attempting to utilize a Dell B-130 laptop and got the bluescreen of death anywhere from an hour to six hours into each use.
VWS worked great until then, as did Heavyweather.
Probably maybe just an older machine not handling the driver (?)

[ChrisW]

My experience with Serial to USB connectors is that the one supplied with the LaCrosse is the only one that does NOT work with anything newer than Windows 98.
Purchase a new one from Maplin,RS, ebuyer or your local store and bin the LaCrosse one.
All the ones we use at work are quite happy with LaCrosse.
It took me nine months to solve this - in the end with the help of this forum.
Vista may be a different problem though

[tinplate]

I sell a fairly inexpensive Serial to USB adapter that uses the prolific chipset. I've tested it with Vista. Vista auto-detects it, and it works well with it. I've tested it with the Vantage Pro station, but I haven't tested it with the LaCrosse, though I think it would work.
http://shop.softwx.com/USB-to-RS232-Adapter_p_2-13.html
Steve
SoftWx

[coyotefred]

I sell a fairly inexpensive Serial to USB adapter that uses the prolific chipset. I've tested it with Vista. Vista auto-detects it, and it works well with it. I've tested it with the Vantage Pro station, but I haven't tested it with the LaCrosse, though I think it would work.
http://shop.softwx.com/USB-to-RS232-Adapter_p_2-13.html
Steve
SoftWx

Hey everyone,

I have the Lacrosse 2315CH and I've been trying to get it to work first with Heavyweather (which I don't particularly like and probably won't use) and Weather Display (which I like so far) using a laptop running XP Home.  I'm getting some erroneous readings--particularly high wind gusts (71.3 and 85.3mph) and small rain readings (.06").  I've been using the phone-plug-to-serial cable included with the station along with the USB-Serial adapter from SoftWx.  The software is getting reliable communication from the 2315, I'm just getting those occasional errant readings. 

Any ideas?  'Looks like some folks have replaced out that phone-plug-to-serial cable, as well as tried other USB-Serial adapters (e.g. Radio Shack--which model by the way...they have several on their website but none are particularly inexpensive).

Thanks for your help,
Coyotefred

[Albuquerque Weather]

GDay
If its communicating ok then it is probably same problem I had.
I did this mod to my La Crosse and it fixed it.
Check it out -
http://www.lavrsen.dk/sources/weather/windmod.htm

Ron

[Weather Display]

Hi
the 2310 is prone to electrical interference once connected to the PC
putting RF chokes/baluns around all the cables at each end or replacing the cables with twisted pair sheilded cable (eg CAT5) will fix the problem
(there is a web site that gives detailed instructions on how to do that, by Kenneth Lavrsen...do a google search, or someone might remember then url)

[coyotefred]

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I was just posting back that I had dug around and I believe my problem (errant wind and rain readings, particularly inexplicable wind readings of 71.3, 28 and 14.1mph) are due to interference allowed by the poor-quality cable provided with the basic lacrosse kit.  As explained in these posts

http://www.weather-watch.com/smf/index.php/topic,7526.0.html

http://www.weather-watch.com/smf/index.php/topic,7861.0.html

the solution appears to be (as was suggested) using Cat5 or otherwise shielded cable.  Or more creatively...giving the existing phone cable a good "twisting" with a drill?!  Apparently this creates some kind of shielding effect that has worked for some.  As for me, eBay has some decent prices on shielded Cat5e cable so I think I'm going to go that route and rewire using that.  Once I get everything installed I'll post back my results.

Thanks everyone!

Coyotefred

[ALITTLEweird1]

I got the same station, and you will notice a big difference after you change your cables to cat5. i havent had any probs after i changed mine.

[coyotefred]

Well I just finished switching over from the provided phone cable to this Cat 5E cable

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=130195012958

Unfortunately things went from bad to worse.  Now I'm getting no communication to the station at all.  When I first power on the display and plug in the cable from the thermo/hygro, I get a solid (not flashing) signal icon near the temp display area (that usually flashes when you are getting data signals).  After a few minutes that icon disappears.  Dashes are all that appears for outdoor temp/humidity data, wind, etc.

I soldered red to red, green to green, yellow (phone) to blue (CAT) and black (phone) to brown (CAT), not that I would imagine that mattered as long as the lines were kept consistent.  I used the existing phone cable ends (plugs) and left about 6" of those plugged into the thermo/hygro and then soldered the CAT5 on at that point.  The run of CAT5 from my display to the thermo/hygro is about 25'; from the thermo/hygro to the anenometer is about 35'.

I've tried different combinations of sensors hooked up to isolate any specific problems but it makes no difference.  Right now I just have the thermo/hygro sensor hooked up (no rain or wind) in an attempt to just get that going, but no luck.

'Anyone have any idea what the problem might be?  I assume the integrity of the cable is fine; I suppose the next step will be pulling it out through the wall again and testing with a multitester to make sure there are no internal breaks or anything...

Coyotefred

[DanS]

Hi.

I noticed you mentioned that you soldered the cat5 wires green to green ... as long as you're consistent and wonder if the connection is straight through not flipped as needed. That is, if you hold the two ends (rj11 plugs) so they have the clip tabs facing down and the exposed connector wires facing up, both plugs in the same direction, then the correct wiring should be the outer left conductor on one goes to the outer right on the other. ex: 1234 - 4321. Make sense?
Hope it helps. Cheers,

Dan

[SLOweather]

I'm not quite following your color matchup, since Cat5 doesn't have a red wire or pair. Perhaps you meant orange.

I don't know how the LaCrosse wired are laid out. However, to gain the inherent benefits of Cat5, you should be using the wires in pairs. The color and matching white with color spot wires are twisted together in the cable, which creates some shielding.

So, use one pair for power and ground (say blue/white for + and blue for -) and another pair for the data. On a Davis ISS cable the inner 2 are a pair, and the outer 2 are a pair, one for power, one for data).

If you don't use the wires as pairs, you lose all the benefits of Cat5.

Well I just finished switching over from the provided phone cable to this Cat 5E cable

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=130195012958

Unfortunately things went from bad to worse.  Now I'm getting no communication to the station at all.  When I first power on the display and plug in the cable from the thermo/hygro, I get a solid (not flashing) signal icon near the temp display area (that usually flashes when you are getting data signals).  After a few minutes that icon disappears.  Dashes are all that appears for outdoor temp/humidity data, wind, etc.

I soldered red to red, green to green, yellow (phone) to blue (CAT) and black (phone) to brown (CAT), not that I would imagine that mattered as long as the lines were kept consistent.  I used the existing phone cable ends (plugs) and left about 6" of those plugged into the thermo/hygro and then soldered the CAT5 on at that point.  The run of CAT5 from my display to the thermo/hygro is about 25'; from the thermo/hygro to the anenometer is about 35'.

I've tried different combinations of sensors hooked up to isolate any specific problems but it makes no difference.  Right now I just have the thermo/hygro sensor hooked up (no rain or wind) in an attempt to just get that going, but no luck.

'Anyone have any idea what the problem might be?  I assume the integrity of the cable is fine; I suppose the next step will be pulling it out through the wall again and testing with a multitester to make sure there are no internal breaks or anything...

Coyotefred

[coyotefred]

Hmmmm....well it looks like I have shielded CAT5 and not CAT5E as advertised, since my cable looks like the one on the left here:

http://www.swhowto.com/images/CAT5_CAT5e_Cable1text_a.jpg

I was thinking exactly the same thing and originally used the wires in pairs.  But when I did that and then plugged the cable into the Lacrosse display, not only did I not get any weather readings, but the display had other issues.  Specifically, the "low battery" icon showed up (I had no batteries in the display unit) and when I pushed the "display" button to toggle through the weather data choices, the backlight wouldn't turn on.  At that point I used the CAT5 wires singly (using just the solid colors), at which point the low battery/backlight issues disappeared (but of course the lack of weather data was still an issue).

I'm not quite following your color matchup, since Cat5 doesn't have a red wire or pair. Perhaps you meant orange.

I don't know how the LaCrosse wired are laid out. However, to gain the inherent benefits of Cat5, you should be using the wires in pairs. The color and matching white with color spot wires are twisted together in the cable, which creates some shielding.

So, use one pair for power and ground (say blue/white for + and blue for -) and another pair for the data. On a Davis ISS cable the inner 2 are a pair, and the outer 2 are a pair, one for power, one for data).

If you don't use the wires as pairs, you lose all the benefits of Cat5.

[coyotefred]

‘Still having an issue with my 2315, although the situation has improved.

I checked all of my CAT5 cable runs and connections and everything looks fine. (NOTE: I just ran the CAT5 between the display and the thermo/hygro and between the anemometer and the thermo/hygro, not between the rain unit and the thermo/hygro).  I ended up just using the solid-color wires of the CAT5 (not the white-striped other wire that makes each a pair) because of the reasons explained in my earlier post.

I no longer have the erroneous rain reading or the very high (71.3 and 85mph) wind readings I was getting before I replaced the supplied phone cable with the CAT5.  But I still have one remaining issue: an erroneous 28.4mph wind reading that shows up every 5-10 minutes.  This 28.4mph reading only shows up when the display is connected to my laptop; when the display is not connected I have no problems (and there are no problem if I leave the serial-USB cord/adapter connected to the display).  The 28.4 reading shows up using either Weather Display or Heavy Weather, so I don’t believe it is a software issue.  The 28.4 shows up both on the display itself and the software display on the laptop.

I have to think the problem is the USB-serial adapter.  The cable supplied with my unit was not USB-compatible, but rather has a DB9 serial plug.  I bought the SoftWX adapter to take the DB9 to the USB on my laptop.  I also tried an older DB9 to USB adapter I had laying around.  Using either one triggers the 28.4mph reading.

I suppose I could try another USB-serial adapter.  But I wonder whether I shouldn’t try using the serial port (DB25) of the laptop instead, using a DB9 to DB25 adapter like this to connect the display:

http://cgi.ebay.com/DB9-MALE-TO-DB25-MALE-SERIAL-ADAPTER-CONVERTER_W0QQitemZ380085756685QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCA_Cables_Adapters?hash=item380085756685&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

'Any thoughts/ideas?

[wuhu_software]

When you are connecting the console to the laptop, is the console power-pack plugged in to the same power strip or wall outlet as the laptop?

If you can, put them on the same outlet or power strip and let me know if that seems to cure the problem.

[coyotefred]

I wondered about this as well.  Actually when both were connected to the same extension cord/power strip, I not only got the 28.4mph erroneous reading but the "old" error reading of 71.3mph as well.  Then I tried with just the display powered by an entirely separate outlet then the laptop, but the 28.4mph error still showed up after about 4-5 minutes of apparently "correct" readings.

'A real stumper.... 

[coyotefred]

'Should have also mentioned that I'm getting a new error reading now and then as well...14mph.  So the odd erroneous readings I am getting most frequently are 14.0 and 28.4mph.  Then sometimes 71.3mph and 85.6mph as well.

I read some other posts on other sites talking about RF interference problems, but I believe this was only for folks using the wireless option.  Nevertheless I tried unplugging my cell repeater and wireless RF remote control booster to see if they might be the problem, but neither made a difference...

[wuhu_software]

Is the bogus wind speed combined with a bogus wind direction? I have seen that situation before. If so, you could use software to filter out the readings.

Another alternative is to buy a wind speed sensor like the Inspeed Vortex, then quit using the La Crosse wind speed sensor. You would still use the wind direction portion of the sensor if it is not reporting bad data as well.

[coyotefred]

Good question.  I'll check the wind speed direction issue tonight.  What filtering software do you use, or do some of the weather software packages allow for this?  I liked Weather Display during my trial period, but I didn't buy it yet until I could get a handle on this wind error issue...

[wuhu_software]

I use WUHU  It is Freeware.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wuhu_software_group/

[coyotefred]

'Am giving the WUHU software a whirl...H ow do I reset the Highs and Lows (e.g. to remove the aberrant wind reading before I TWEAKed the settings to exclude it)?  Thanks

[wuhu_software]

'Am giving the WUHU software a whirl...H ow do I reset the Highs and Lows (e.g. to remove the aberrant wind reading before I TWEAKed the settings to exclude it)?  Thanks

You can delete bad readings from the Weather Underground site by clicking your history page there, then click the 'Delete Specific Entries' at the bottom of the page. You can the delete readings on any given data. You cannot delete readings sent to other servers.

As far as editing your local history file goes, you would need a special editor. Although I have not tried this application yet, that is it's purpose:

http://www.hweditor.info/

If you have WUHU output the history, that is in Heavyweather Pro format, you can use the Heavyweather Pro application to edit the file. You would also use HW Pro to graph your history files.

If you need more help, post in the group, I will not be around for a week or so.