Weather Software > WeatherLink/weatherlink.com by Davis Instruments
Weatherlink > Data
JRHill:
Thanks for asking. It would/could be either. Problem is I can't tell which but I am leaning toward WLPC because of history. Both show updates are current to the time. As far as history I got tired of rebooting my computer to restore communications for upload (USB). This was 2010 or so. I finally gave up and took the configuration down*. The VP2 worked fine for my wife to know how to dress for the day where she lived and worked on site at a fed hatchery. I was 75% of the time away building our home for he future. When she retired I brought the system here and set it up and a new site location. But we didn't upload. By then the station was in need of a massive refurb. When it came back from Davis I added the UV/Solar. At that time, 2019, I installed WL and began uploading data to the new site.
In my opinion, Weatherlink (at the PC level) hasn't improved much. Dial up modem config still there? Weatherlink in the cloud does great, to the degree it receives the upload. Yes, yes, don't launch on me... there are a lot of machine / device things. But it is a far cry of the 2010 days. And here is my source of doubt.
Davis can pull $50/year for the cloud stuff but they could maybe update things? Maybe make things a bit more reliable and current?
* When I took the weather station down, around 2010, I got a call from a guy in Pendleton asking why? I told him I couldn't have my PC being rebooted constantly (worked from home). He offered to come to our place and install Cumulous because WL was so flakey. A known issue and they aren't investing any recourses to fix it and he wanted us back on line.
johnd:
Weatherlink for Windows is obsolete now, in the sense that Davis made the decision some years ago to stop any further development. The modern Davis solution is Weatherlink Live or the new Weatherlink console.
That said, there are still thousands of users of the USB logger out there, many of whom are uploading to weatherlink.com. And the great majority do not have have anything more than very occasional need to reboot the PC, provided they have taken care of any potential source of nearby interference that can cause USB issues.
Mattk:
WeatherLink for Windows is far from obsolete, it's about the only real solution in regard the Envoy configuration and this combination will really flag what Davis is really into regard their current apparent direction? Yes it may be old but it does actually work.
The USB logger was never a real success, serial logger yes and more so the WLIP but of course Davis couldn't extract anything from the WLIP once it was sold so they simply discontinued it, so much for their transparency. WLIP's work perfectly well, always have, no PC required but also no income stream to backup the new business models.
Certainly appears a lot of blind sided users gasping over the new console with their heads in the cloud, literally.
johnd:
--- Quote from: Mattk on March 26, 2023, 07:19:11 PM ---WeatherLink for Windows is far from obsolete...
--- End quote ---
Which word do you want to use then? Any further development of this program was terminated several years ago by Davis, other than the smallest of bug fixes. Sure, it still works OK (and provided you are happy with the very dated user interface it still works well for its limited set of features - you won't find me as a critic of WLfW functionality).
But sooner or later I suspect that it's probably going to bump up against a Windows or driver model update that causes real problems - Microsoft aren't going to stop pushing major Windows updates every few months. And it's pretty doubtful that Davis will then reopen WLfW development in that event - TBH I'm not sure that they even have any developers now with the relevant expertise to do that.
You only have to look at what has happened to Weatherlink for Mac, which is AFAIK now effectively unusable on recent Macs as a result of Apple removing support for 32-bit apps in recent MacOS versions and with no easy workarounds.
In my book that counts as obsolete, plain and simple, but use a different word if it makes you happy. YMMV but I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable recommending that any new user chooses WLfW as a long-term proposition when there are so many good alternatives from CumulusMX through WiFi Logger/Meteobridge etc to Weatherlink Live and Console depending on your preferences and prejudices. A Meteo-Pi Ethernet Logger plus CumulusMX is probably a good solution if you prefer the traditional wired logger approach.
Mattk:
--- Quote from: johnd on March 27, 2023, 05:43:05 AM ---
--- Quote from: Mattk on March 26, 2023, 07:19:11 PM ---WeatherLink for Windows is far from obsolete...
--- End quote ---
Which word do you want to use then? Any further development of this program was terminated several years ago by Davis, other than the smallest of bug fixes. Sure, it still works OK (and provided you are happy with the very dated user interface it still works well for its limited set of features - you won't find me as a critic of WLfW functionality).
But sooner or later I suspect that it's probably going to bump up against a Windows or driver update that causes real problems - Microsoft aren't going to stop pushing major Windows updates every few months. And it's pretty doubtful that Davis will then reopen WLfW development in that event - TBH I'm not sure that they even have any developers now with the relevant expertise to do that.
In my book that counts as obsolete, plain and simple, but use a different word if it makes you happy. YMMV but I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable recommending that any new user chooses WLfW as a long-term proposition when there are so many good alternatives from CumulusMX through WiFi Logger/Meteobridge etc to Weatherlink Live and Console depending on your preferences and prejudices. A Meteo-Pi Ethernet Logger plus CumulusMX is probably a good solution if you prefer the traditional wired logger approach.
--- End quote ---
And that thinking plays right into Davis's lap with an excuse to ditch the Envoy, won't they be loving that. Would appear some really don't understand how some systems are being used and some obviously don't care either.
As for Microsoft, well they are becoming one bad dictatorship and unfortunately some other organisations are just itching to follow suit, no longer do users have a choice in how they run their systems and Win11 will be even worse than Win10 in that regard.
It is way past time that users have a say in how they run their systems, forget all this garbage that most just want to turn it on and let it work and some totally forget that the so many good alternatives are currently alternatives because some companies couldn't be bothered to listen to consumers of the day and now scurrying to close the their own inadequacies and create more layers of locked down, top down control.
The current so called colored console certainly indicates there are not a lot of developers with the relevant expertise to do much at all.
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