Anybody using latest Silicon Labs drivers on Snow Leopard?

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat fans,

My ever reliable MacBook Pro has suddenly had two kernel panics in as many weeks.  In both cases there appears to be something related to the Silicon Labs drivers that connect to my Davis Weather Envoy.  In each case, the key "gripe" is something like this in the crash log:

Thu Jul 12 06:42:07 2012
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x226ec0): "thread_invoke: preemption_level 1, possible cause: blocking while holding a spinlock, or within interrupt context"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.15.3/osfmk/kern/sched_prim.c:1471
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x831735f8 : 0x21b837 (0x5dd7fc 0x8317362c 0x223ce1 0x0)
0x83173648 : 0x226ec0 (0x593ab8 0x1 0x593a78 0x226790)
0x831736c8 : 0x2275c6 (0xd84801c 0xd84801c 0x83173728 0x233203)
0x83173738 : 0x227654 (0x0 0x0 0x0 0x55855c)
0x83173758 : 0x221d42 (0x0 0x0 0x83173808 0x1387d91)
0x83173778 : 0x23514f (0x40f35e8 0x8 0x40f35e0 0x0)
0x83173818 : 0x22096a (0x40f35e0 0x1 0x66c98f8 0x310)
0x83173858 : 0x2209aa (0x410 0x1 0x831738a8 0x138cd08)
0x83173878 : 0x535bc1 (0x410 0x0 0x0 0x400)
0x83173898 : 0x1b378fb (0x410 0x64 0x831738d8 0x1b399c8)
0x831738c8 : 0x1b3799f (0xe59a604 0x64 0x831738f8 0x1b331e8)
0x831738f8 : 0x1b35739 (0xe59a604 0x83173920 0x64 0x1b3a410)
0x83173d38 : 0x1385fc0 (0xe2f7804 0xe2f7988 0x0 0x39c)
0x83173de8 : 0x15489f2 (0xd7d5800 0xd91a400 0x0 0x39c)
0x83173e48 : 0x1548b2b (0xd7d5800 0x7c06e470 0x81106 0x0)
0x83173e88 : 0x1549560 (0xd7d5800 0x0 0x83173eb8 0x53cbd6)
0x83173eb8 : 0x1548e9e (0xd7d5800 0x0 0x552ed0 0x2a0577)
0x83173ed8 : 0x553ec7 (0xd7d5800 0xd8d6f80 0x1 0x53638b)
0x83173f28 : 0x552ea6 (0xd8d6f80 0x0 0xffffffff 0xffffffff)
0x83173f88 : 0x552eea (0xd899440 0xd8a6780 0x83173fa8 0xffffffff)
0x83173fc8 : 0x2a179c (0xd899440 0x0 0x10 0x122cb944)
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace (with dependencies):
         com.silabs.driver.SiLabsUSBDriver(1.0.1)@0x1b32000->0x1b3bfff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(4.2.4)@0x137e000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily(10.0.3)@0x15b3000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.5)@0x928000
         com.apple.driver.AppleUSBOHCI(4.2.0)@0x1545000->0x1551fff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(4.2.4)@0x137e000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.5)@0x928000
         com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(4.2.4)@0x137e000->0x13b3fff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.5)@0x928000

Now I'm still running Snow Leopard on my Mac (long story  ) and in the past I've stuck with the drivers that worked with the version of the OS I was running.  If it ain't broke don't fix it - right?  However, undeniably this is a hint of broken.

Has anybody gone to the latest versions of the Silicon Labs driver while still running OS-10.6 (Snow Leopard)?

If so perhaps I should bite the bullet and upgrade my drivers.

Cheers, Edouard 

P.S. Stu, I assume you don't want to come anywhere near these logs . . . - right?

[The Grand Poohbah]

I am using the Silicon Labs CP210x Macintosh OSX VCP Driver v2.9 with Mac OS X 10.6.8 on a MacBook. According to the Silicon Labs web site, v3.0 is the latest version, but after reading the release notes it does not appear a major update to 2.9.

[elagache]

Dear Grand Poohbah and WeatherCat system tinkerers,

I am using the Silicon Labs CP210x Macintosh OSX VCP Driver v2.9 with Mac OS X 10.6.8 on a MacBook. According to the Silicon Labs web site, v3.0 is the latest version, but after reading the release notes it does not appear a major update to 2.9.

Hmm, golly wonder what version of the Silicon Labs driver I'm running . . . . .

So I look at the Read Me file for what I downloaded - it says: 2.1 (golly didn't know I was so far behind!!  )

So just to be sure, I dig my way into the bowels of my system and check the file itself - it says: 1.01!! 

However, the creation dates appear to be the same.  So it looks like Silicon Labs was . . . . shall we say a little sloppy in their release details. 

I just checked and 3.0 is claimed to be compatible with 10.6.  So as soon as I finish going through today's WeatherCat postings I'll bite the bullet and upgrade.  The release notes suggest they have fixed some kernel panic issuez so that's probably what my Mac is suffering from.

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat Snow Leopard users,

Just back from installing the 3.0 drivers and yes indeed da' Cat  found my Weather Envoy as usual.

So to answer my own question, you can use the latest (at the time of writing) Silicon lab drivers with Snow Leopard.

Cheers, Edouard 

[glenwood]

I am trying to download VCP driver v3.0 on mac lion.  I keep getting the report download failed. 

[elagache]

Hi glenwood and WeatherCat fans,

First, welcome to the WeatherCat forum!!

I am trying to download VCP driver v3.0 on mac lion.  I keep getting the report download failed.

What download link did you try?  I had to search around for a link but this link works:

https://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/Software/Mac_OSX_VCP_Driver.zip

Let us know if you are still having troubles downloading the driver.

Cheers, Edouard 

[glenwood]

Wow, thanks for the quick reply.
It is something to do with my mac.

When I click to download the link you gave me....my screen says "Failed to open page"  "Frame load interrupted".

There must be something on my computer blocking the download.

[Randall75]

Hi Glen
I just downloaded it from the link that Edouard gave


See attached


Hope this helps
 

[LesCimes]

Appreciate the forum info - helped me get WeatherCat up and running for the first time. No problems encountered. First installed the new Silicon Lab drivers posted above. Am going to let it run for a while before upgrading to Mountain Lion and jumping in to the newer development releases.

[Randall75]

Hi Michael
Glad to see back with us on WeatherCat forum good luck all the up grades