Author Topic: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?  (Read 8760 times)

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Offline DaleReid

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #25 on: April 27, 2020, 11:47:05 AM »
I might, and since it was listed on their web site, which I can no longer find, I would assume that it could be distributed for free to a TWI owner for their use.


I'll let you know later today.
Dale
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Offline FDWxNet

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #26 on: April 27, 2020, 12:14:11 PM »
Dale,
So i was able to locate the file by using an archive web site. If anyone needs cable diagrams or manuals... I can more than likely find that too.

The only program I've not been able to locate is the LOG software.

Too bad TWI went out of business, I kick myself for not getting the newer LAN card before they went out. I still think this is one of the best stations on the market (well off now).  Does anyone know the reason behind their shutter?

Thanks again!


Offline DaleReid

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #27 on: April 27, 2020, 01:09:37 PM »
I'll see if I can find what you refer to as "log" software.  I never used their stuff to configure, always did it on the front panel.  I know that there were WPS-10 units which were basically stations with the boards in them without the display, and I assume some different firmware.

Is the program you're looking for called log or has log in the name?  And was it to read data, and write to a file on a DOS based computer?  Just so I know what I'm looking for.

As an aside, those doc files and pdf's were relatively small, so IF you've found them and have the time, I'm wondering if you can attach them and upload one or two at a time with messages to this thread?  I know pictures of some size, up to fractions of megabytes, come through.  I don't know if the owner of this board can be contacted to see if there is a way to store this without making the costs go sky high, so I'd check into it but you having done the hard work of finding and gathering the files, it would be  a shame to miss the opportunity to 'put the books on the shelf' for others to have access to.

I'm not sure why they went under.  I assume that even for a small volume place they just didn't have the cash flow to employ two guys, pay the utilities and so on.  Thank goodness their initial design work was solid and had but a few updates.  I can't imagine the cost of re-engineering a board, getting it produced and stockpiled.  Of interest would be what their sales volume was and I'll bet it almost all was repair and service rather than new units going out the door for the last 5 to 10 years, but that is all speculation on my part.

Let me know the name of the program if you can.  Dale
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Offline looney2ns

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #28 on: April 27, 2020, 02:47:36 PM »
Dale,
So i was able to locate the file by using an archive web site. If anyone needs cable diagrams or manuals... I can more than likely find that too.

The only program I've not been able to locate is the LOG software.

Too bad TWI went out of business, I kick myself for not getting the newer LAN card before they went out. I still think this is one of the best stations on the market (well off now).  Does anyone know the reason behind their shutter?

Thanks again!

Most likely the influx of the China made stations, they just couldn't compete.

You can get a Serial to IP converter board that will make it a lan capable device. Here is my journey in doing so to mine.
https://www.weather-watch.com/smf/index.php/topic,63314.msg507830.html#msg507830

This is like the board I used: https://www.ebay.com/itm/HLK-RM04-TCP-IP-Ethernet-Converter-Module-Serial-RS232-UART-to-WAN-LAN-WIFI/312118538635?hash=item48abb6f18b:g:jlAAAOSwBY5a4JnC
Its still plugging right along 4 years later. Not bad for less than $10, and little time.

I remember asking about the TWI lan board, and it was sky high priced. Like $300 or so. But it did have an embedded web page I think.
« Last Edit: April 27, 2020, 03:05:44 PM by looney2ns »

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #29 on: April 27, 2020, 03:37:36 PM »
Toonz:
Looks like ONE MORE thing to do, but would be an enormous boon to cut down on the limited distance to the station from where the computer is.  And tripping over already stretched to the max cables.

So, if it isn't too much for you to recap, can you tell me:

How does WD that you said Brian enabled to do so, see the station?  As just an IP address?  And what station type do you choose for the data stream to be in the sequence and units that WD expects?  I have a RainWise ip-100 running that worked out well as an IP address for WD to get data from, so I assume it is similar, but how do you tell WD the input stream to expect?

Does the unit operate in a continuous output mode or does it have to be queried to produce a string?

Looking at the photo of you putting the serial cable onto the board, there seems to be a DB9 'dongle' that you wired up.  Does this just act as a gender changer, or is there some specific pin to pin changes, and a jumpering inside one of the DB9 caps to get this to work?  Can you summarize the exchange you had with Niko (RIP, buddy) on the research and discovery you did to get this to work?

Finally, in the intervening 4 years, are there any things you'd do differently or just the same?  I'm curious as WiFi has gotten more market share that it would eliminate even more cable running hither and yon, but perhaps one giant leap then if that works for me a small step to put up a WiFi version if I can find one.

I wonder how long stuff is taking to get here from China now, with almost all those boards being sourced from over there?

thanks, one more project I will try if I can get through the many distractions that already face this old brain...
Dale
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Offline looney2ns

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #30 on: May 01, 2020, 03:16:18 PM »
Dale, I'll have to refresh my memory and get back to you. :?
There is no difference as far as WD is concerned in obtaining data with the IP method over a normal serial cable. Station push's the data each second.

I seem to recall you had the same issue I did with WD stopped picking up rain from the TWI. Did you get your issue solved? Is it still working with the latest version? I'm still running the test version that Brian linked to me.

Offline looney2ns

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #31 on: May 01, 2020, 03:52:07 PM »
Serial port setup in WD. Enter IP, and port, select inabled.

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #32 on: May 01, 2020, 07:36:42 PM »
Yes, either Brian tweaked something or the gremlins in my setup took flight, but without any major work on my part, all of a sudden things were just like old times.

Now we just need some rain to test it repeatedly.

Thanks for the setup screen shot.  I guess I shouldn't have been surprised with all the functionality Brian has worked into this program.

The only experience I've had was to have an IP for the Rainwise IP-100 and didn't know if there were generic interfaces or that each driver receiving the info had to be specifically tuned by him to have a chance at working.

Dale
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Offline DaleReid

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #33 on: May 01, 2020, 07:38:50 PM »
FDWxNet:
I have found a TWI-Cal disk and found a reader that pulled the program in, so I could post it or somehow make it available for you.  I have a web site with my weather stuff on it (ecwx.info) and wonder if I put it on there and sent you a link to it you could just download it from there and then I could remove it when you had successfully pulled a copy?
Dale
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Offline Sparky2990

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #34 on: September 22, 2020, 06:46:07 PM »
Realize this is an old thread but I would also be interested in downloading the TWI-Cal program.  My WR-25 is still going strong after 23 years.  It feeds a tiny server running wview software, something else that no longer has support: http://panneton.net/weather.  It will be a sad day here if it dies before I do!

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #35 on: September 22, 2020, 07:48:17 PM »
Glad to know the hardware is chugging along, and the DOS level software from back then is still OK for some of us.

I have the TWI disk but didn't upload since on of the members said he was archiving things for folks like you/us and did have it already.

I can't recall the link to it, but maybe this awakening on the thread will have him respond with a link.   If not post back.

I am still trying to find time to do a setup to transilluminate the temp/humidity board and get that for reconstruction.   The temp sensor is a piece of cake and the humidity sensor is still available but I'm not sure why the extra chip and all for it on board.  Like I've told other folks, when I get to it....  I know you're all waiting.

If you ever find your system ailing, PLEASE post a message, especially if you know what, other than the temp/humidity and the windspeed (for the original type of sensor) since I, for one, have a few stations that I've accumulated with trades, ebay, or have been given.  One of the techs at TWI when they were in operation told me that when he got a board and it wasn't the little diode blown and the fuse was ok, he just started swapping boards out (there are three levels, if I recall) and hope to get it working as long as you have a pretty plain Jane setup, no lightning detector, etc. 

I think that one of the reasons, among many of course, that they didn't sell much is that it was indeed so well built.  There are a few quirks to the hardware (especially the occasional runaway wind speed if using an RM Young wind monitor) and being hard wired, but gee whiz, I'm not putting as many years on my first unit as you are but it has to be at least 15 or 16 years old, used.

Thanks for tweaking the old thread and best wishes.  Just drop by again if you haven't gotten a link to the software and I'll find the disk and send a copy to  you.  Dale
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Offline DaleReid

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #36 on: September 22, 2020, 07:51:05 PM »
Sparky:
Nice time lapse!  That certainly wasn't in the TWI software, so can you tell us what you capture the image with, how you 'movie-ize' it and then how do you send it to your web site?

Do you keep generating the movie and upload or just send images to the web site and have software there stitch them into a movie to keep bandwidth usage down?
Dale
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Offline Sparky2990

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #37 on: September 22, 2020, 08:49:07 PM »
Hi!  My webcam is a Sunba 601-D20X that I have setup to send an image to my file server once per minute.  On my Raspberry Pi4 web server, I have a crontab that runs four times an hour to stitch those one minute images together into an mpeg video using this utility: cat *.jpg | ffmpeg -loglevel warning -f image2pipe -r 24 -vcodec mjpeg -i - -vcodec libx264 daily.mp4.  Then it just copies that daily.mp4 to the web image directory.  My web server is local so bandwidth isn't an issue, the files are all on my network file server; the web server uses NFS to access the files on the file server.  It takes the RP4 about 30 seconds to create each movie.  I move the webcam around as the seasons and weather changes.

Offline Kev

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #38 on: September 23, 2020, 09:38:35 PM »
The link to all the files currently available is pinned at the top of this forum HERE - https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=39501.0
Heath ID-5001-C Advanced Weather Computer (1990)
Texas Weather Instruments WR-25 (1998)

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #39 on: September 23, 2020, 09:48:40 PM »
Thanks Kev.  I knew you were archiving all you could get ahold of. Thx. Dale
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Offline Kev

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #40 on: September 23, 2020, 10:11:39 PM »
You’re right Dale, and you were right that I’d see the thread update, haha. Came through on my email notifications. The TWI-Cal is uploaded with almost everything TWI had available. I know there’s a few items missing that need to be added, but not too many.

So good news! I finally have all the missing sensors to get my WR-25 functional thanks to looney2ns. I’ll be attempting a careful dissection of the humidity board to see about cracking the mystery and drawing up a schematic. I’m incredibly overloaded with work right now, but as soon as I have time (probably over the winter) I’ll dig into it.

I still need to run your rain gauge calibration too!
« Last Edit: September 23, 2020, 10:13:49 PM by Kev »
Heath ID-5001-C Advanced Weather Computer (1990)
Texas Weather Instruments WR-25 (1998)

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #41 on: September 23, 2020, 10:22:20 PM »
Yes, I know there is work to do, but the ability to keep these classic stations running will be helped with any material you can keep on line and up to date.

Good luck on the temp/humidity project.  I have had little time, believe it or not, to keep on it.  The temp sensor is a piece of cake.  Just across the terminals and out.

I don't know how the humidity sensor works, nor the reason for the DIP chip on the board, and with some traces under the chip, hard tofigure where they go.

Maybe we should make it a contest to see who can get an accurate schematic on how it works.
Dale
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Offline amino1958

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #42 on: October 06, 2020, 04:37:41 PM »
Hi All,

I have PLENTY of parts for the Texas Weather Instruments WPS-10 station and I am putting them on ebay for sale. We used to be an OEM for their weather stations and we are no longer doing that and getting rid of our inventory. I have brand new WPS-10 processor boxes - $50 each , and a few used sensors. Selling everything AS-IS at rock bottom prices.


Offline DaleReid

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #43 on: October 07, 2020, 08:39:55 AM »
Nothing new for a few weeks has shown up on eBay for TWI stuff.

What key words did you use when you listed, so we can search for your auctions?
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Offline amino1958

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #44 on: October 07, 2020, 09:33:04 AM »
Just looking at inventory today and hope it have it posted today or tomorrow. I will post an update here with details as soon as I do since there appears to be some interest.

 

Offline Kev

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #45 on: October 24, 2020, 08:14:37 PM »
Yes, I know there is work to do, but the ability to keep these classic stations running will be helped with any material you can keep on line and up to date.

Good luck on the temp/humidity project.  I have had little time, believe it or not, to keep on it.  The temp sensor is a piece of cake.  Just across the terminals and out.

I don't know how the humidity sensor works, nor the reason for the DIP chip on the board, and with some traces under the chip, hard tofigure where they go.

Maybe we should make it a contest to see who can get an accurate schematic on how it works.
Dale

Yes, same as the Heathkits they are well worth continuing to support for sure.  I'll be sure to add anything new to the folder I have posted as a sticky in this forum.  If you or anyone else come across anything new, let me know and I can add it.

Well it turns out that IC is an instrument amplifier.  All it does it amplifies the signal for the humidity sensor.  I successfully hooked up the humidity sensor on a short wire to the console, and it works perfectly.  So it can work wired straight through, problem is it's going to need that amplifier IC once you have it on a 50' or more line to outside.  All I need to see is the configuration of the traces of that amplifying IC on the board.  You mentioned there were a couple resistors on the board too, yes?

You're on with the contest Dale, sounds good, haha.
Heath ID-5001-C Advanced Weather Computer (1990)
Texas Weather Instruments WR-25 (1998)

Offline Sparky2990

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #46 on: November 13, 2020, 03:44:20 PM »
Can anyone point me to documentation on how to use a non-TXWX wind sensor with my WR25?  The bearings in mine are failing and I'd like to use a more robust sensor if possible.  Thanks!

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #47 on: November 13, 2020, 04:21:16 PM »
Sparky,
Of course with no technical support, this is my best guess.

From numerous visits with them over the years, it is my understanding that the basic board set, which was used in all their products and modified for high precision, bigger cpu, more sensors such as solar or lightning, the wind sensor was one of three, chosen when you bought a unit from then, or returned to have them do a board modification and a ROM firmware update.

The choices were Texas Weather Sensor, R M Young sensor (the 5016 I believe) and the Texas Electronics type sensor, of the last version (was it a 114 or something like that?), and each was NOT interchangeable with the other.

I had most of mine changed to RMYoung (one came that way off eBay) and still have two with the TWI sensor package as the board-level wiring.

I asked either David or the other tech was went on with the mods (they charged me $90 plus shipping back then) and the best he'd say was some 'components' on the mother board were changed, a few jumpers, and a new firmware chip with code to do the wind speed and direction.  They wouldn't divulge more no matter how sneaky I was in trying to find out.

I know the Young wind monitor uses an AC 3 pulse per revolution signal for wind speed and a standard potentiometer for wind direction. Their wind head uses an optical encoding, with pulses from a chopper disk for wind speed (sort of like the Heathkit ID-4001 and ID-5001) and the Grey Coding scheme (I think) for the wind direction, again very much like Heathkit.

The Texas Electronics earlier devices used a reed switch for pulse per revolution for speed, and the very expensive potentiometer for the direction, and that one could NOT be used for connection to the TWI boxes, since I had one and they said it wasn't a supported version.  They needed the optical type, so much along lines the their device or the Heathkit type from what he alluded to, but again didn't go into details on the differences.

It sure would be nice if someone that had all the schematics and service notes would release them into the public domain for those of us trying to keep these things running to fix or modify what we could.  If the ROM goes, I think that the whole thing will have reached the end of the line. 

Nice stuff, good readouts with good visibility,and while wired vs. wireless, I have three running here right now and hope they keep going longer than I do.

Let us know if you uncover anything different, and if I've recorded something wrong here, please chime in with corrections to my note here.   Dale
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Offline Sparky2990

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #48 on: November 13, 2020, 05:17:30 PM »
Thanks, Dale.  From what you say and what I can discern from published specs, there's no easy replacement for the TWI WR25 wind sensors which came with my system 22 years ago.  TWI sent me replacement bearings for their sensor back in 2011 and I've just been getting by with a small dab of oil to prevent it from squeaking until now.  My fear is that it's probably so brittle now from many years of our high altitude UV exposure that I may break it trying to disassemble it.  It would be a shame to retire my WR25 just because the wind sensor died!  If I'm reading prices correctly, an RMYoung wind sensor costs more than an entire Davis Vantage Pro 2 station! 

You mentioned the Heathkit ID4001 -- I built one of those in 1980.  Lightning zorched my first one but I was able to find a replacement until another close lightning strike finished the second one, too.  That's when in 1997 I bought my WR25 to replace it.

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Has Texas Weather Instruments gone out of business?
« Reply #49 on: November 13, 2020, 06:13:51 PM »
I keep thinking one of the reasons that TWI went out of business is that their stuff was built so well it seldom needed replacing.  I have two units that don't work, one I owned originally and got tickled by lightning.  The other I bought for almost nothing off eBay and was not really functional, but paid so little for it that it wasn't worth complaining to the seller who had no way of testing it.

That said, I have a lot of units that aren't on the air just because of no wind or humidity sensors.  Seems a shame, but what can you do.

As I'm many times older than my TWI stuff, I cannot recall but there was a wind sensor that looked exactly like the TWI units, but I've not seen that in awhile and cannot recall what off-brand it was, and there is no way to know if it would be compatible or not.

TWI actually built a bunch of stuff, including the displays and guts for a school project that was in the east part of the US, and I see the light oak finished display boards for sale on eBay now and then, but without the guts to run them, completely useless.

I have no doubt that some genius with Arduino or Raspberry Pi could take any wind direction and speed sensor and have it do a conversion and send the data to a TWI console, but I see little chance of that happening, what with the limited call for it, and it would have to be a labor of love, not profit.

I don't have the humidity sensor board fixed or traced out yet, so I don't know if I'll ever get to it,  but I might try to find out what signals (they aren't multiplexed in any way) come down the wires from a TWI sensor, and that might help others with the desire to do something weird and wild bring it forth.

I recall the bearings, and wonder if there ar replacments from McMasters/Carr or even if the  bearing set for a Heathkit ID-4001/5001 would fit?

Nonetheless, I have found an oil that is for clocks and such that is very good, doesn't get stiff with age or weather, and might be a chance to keep your unit running.  Is your sensor easy or relatively so to get to?  Did you disassemble the whole plastic head and lube it, or just put a drop on the shaft and let it run down in?

Keep trying.   Dale
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