Topic: Anything new in the Davis pipeline?

[jcutts]

With the Vantage Pro 2 going on ten years old now, is Davis working on anything new. Hoping my Weather Monitor 2 keeps going until a new product comes out from Davis.

[Bunty]

Maybe time for the Vue2.

[CNYWeather]

I was hoping also. Now I hope not. A new VP2 6163 & soil station is on the way to me.

[johnd]

Maybe time for the Vue2.

You've already got Vue v2 (or at least Vue v1.1, which is what it is since the 'M' revisions launched).

[Bill WJ0M]

When I called Davis last week about my Vantage Pro2 Plus, which is 9 years old, they told me the ISS unit was now digital, not analog, and they would have to upgrade the Console to digital and change the temp/humidity sensors, etc. to digital.  This may not be new NEWS but it's something to consider when you need replacement parts, depending how old your Pro 2 is.

[docbee]

If add-ons to Davis stations do also count as "Davis News" one can mention the "Ambientweather AirBridge" that collects RF data from the Davis sensors and pushes that into Internet weather networks and alike. Can be interesting when one wants to have the standard weather network feeding jobs done without being dependent on the PC and it does not block the Davis logger in the Console where the PC might by connected to do the more individual and local computing stuff.
Link: http://www.ambientweather.com/airbridgehome.html
From a technology perspective the AirBridge decomposes into the Meteobridge and the Meteostick. Meteosticks can also be acquired separately from smartbedded.com when you are in the EU (although we are already running short on stock on these).

[Bushman]

Cool!  Where can I get a Meteostick in N. America?

[docbee]

I am sure ambientweather will offer that as well. Please check again when Easter has passed to get their web site offering completed.

[docbee]

Ambient just informed me that they are also selling the pure Meteostick as "AirBridgeReceiver" (including a cradle): http://www.ambientweather.com/amairbridgereceiver.html
This link explains what the stick itself is able to deliver: http://www.smartbedded.com/files/manual-en.pdf

[blizzardof78]

I personally would like to see Davis come up with a much "nicer" and more "colorful" indoor display, sort of like what Rainwise of Texas Instruments offers.

[Bushman]

I personally would like to see Davis come up with a much "nicer" and more "colorful" indoor display, sort of like what Rainwise of Texas Instruments offers.

I use a 50 buck Android tablet viewing Meteobridge values.  Full colour.

[dendrite]

I'm probably due for a refurbing on my VP2, but I'm going to hold out a bit longer and see if we get anymore VP3 rumors/leaks over the next year.

[SLOweather]

Be careful what you ask for... you just might get it...

[Bunty]

I personally would like to see Davis come up with a much "nicer" and more "colorful" indoor display, sort of like what Rainwise of Texas Instruments offers.

 Seems like their current LCD technology is from the 1970s.

[blizzardof78]

I personally would like to see Davis come up with a much "nicer" and more "colorful" indoor display, sort of like what Rainwise of Texas Instruments offers.

 Seems like their current LCD technology is from the 1970s.

EXACTLY!! With the price they charge you would think you'd get something snazzier than the current LCD display. I mean on my Vantage Vue it's difficult to read at most any other angle other than straight on. And frankly the display looks boring.

[Aardvark]

I personally would like to see Davis come up with a much "nicer" and more "colorful" indoor display, sort of like what Rainwise of Texas Instruments offers.

 Seems like their current LCD technology is from the 1970s.

I had wanted to add the Vue console to my array to monitor some extra stations, does it monitor other stations or only the ISS?  Yes, a nice color monitor without the orange screen (with the lamp on)  it would be very nice.  it is hard to see it with or without the light.

EXACTLY!! With the price they charge you would think you'd get something snazzier than the current LCD display. I mean on my Vantage Vue it's difficult to read at most any other angle other than straight on. And frankly the display looks boring.

[SlowModem]

They could offer optional color touch consoles or whatever and it might  be a big seller.  However, I look at my console once/month or so, so that wouldn't be something I'd want to pay extra for.

[Aardvark]

I got something significant.  The weather Envoy8x uses the same datalogger that any of the consoles uses, yet it will track all 8 vp2 stations, but the regular console or Envoy will track only two temp/humid station etc, and the software is needy.

What I would like to see is a new console that has the same capabilities as the Envoy 8x on keeping tabs on all the stations and the weatherlink program updated to correspond to that.  Now that would be something to have and behold.

[johnd]

What I would like to see is a new console that has the same capabilities as the Envoy 8x on keeping tabs on all the stations and the weatherlink program updated to correspond to that.  Now that would be something to have and behold.

I'm not sure that's feasible. There are two issues: console display and software:

Physically you could do that now by transplanting an Envoy8X PCBA to a standard console - it would just slot in I think. But can you imagine a display that could cope with 8 ISS units or eg 8 anemometers? Actually that's not too tricky - you'd just need a channel switch so that the display only mapped to one channel at a time. But then it's catering for any conceivable combination of of transmitters on all 8 channels that would be more of an exercise. I think you'd maybe need a complete rethink of the display to being more like tablet screen that could display _anything_ that the display chip is programmed to deliver on eg a 1280x800 display.

As to software: WL simply can't be easily extended to cater for any combination of transmitters on all 8 channels. That's exactly why WDTU was invented. So that's the answer - just use WDTU. There's no reason right now why someone can't write some presentation software that reads the WDTU databases - I think Davis was leaving that as an exercise for the user.

[Aardvark]

sure it could be done, you redesign the console .  right now to view the other  sensors, you scroll through the temperature components, the humidity, the leaf wetness.

As the soil goes, when scrolling through those the corresponding temperatures go with the respective moisture.  You can receive all 8 stations . 

That is the way it is now, you don't want to see all 8 at the same time.  Essentially it would be the Envoy8x board with a LCD screen.

Nothing is impossible for someone with the skills to do it. 

[Bunty]

I personally would like to see Davis come up with a much "nicer" and more "colorful" indoor display, sort of like what Rainwise of Texas Instruments offers.

 Seems like their current LCD technology is from the 1970s.

EXACTLY!! With the price they charge you would think you'd get something snazzier than the current LCD display. I mean on my Vantage Vue it's difficult to read at most any other angle other than straight on. And frankly the display looks boring.

Well, I reckon for now the answer to dull LCD screens lies with colorful software displays, like Weatherlink, along with web site templates.

[LABob]

It's not just about color and pizazz, but flexibility. Right now it bugs me a lot that I have to choose between displaying solar radiation or yearly rainfall. Why can't I make yearly rainfall appear on another area of the screen? It seems like it would take so much MORE engineering effort to make the limited console display we have now than one that was based around a concept of widgets that could be arranged however the user likes (like the desktop of a computer, or the home screen on an Android tablet).

[kcidwx]

Even Nat Geo has a colorful display.

[Aardvark]

I wish the Weatherlink Software were more compatible.  You have 8 stations but you can only get information on the software for  a few of them, it makes no sense.  What you have to do is buy additional consoles, loggers or Envoys and set those to certain stations and poll them on the software.   And naming the stations specifically ,  you have to figure out you can go into the sensors configuration , the datalists and datasets and make the changes there. 

I guess that is why we have other weather software out there that fills in that void.  I have on board WeatherDisplay which is just perfect .

[W3DRM]

Perhaps this has already been said and I've just missed it...

Has anyone sat down and put together a document that states concerns about the shortcomings of what Davis is offering to their customer base? We can sit here and complain forever but it will never get to Davis.

Actually, it might be better if it were done in the tone of simply voicing a desire for enhancements/features you would like to see Davis consider for their current and future product offerings.