Odd Comms Problem - Repeated Data and No Comms Error For Hours

[Naby]

I still occasionally receive comms errors where I have to quit WeatherCat, unplug my weather station's USB cable, plug it back in, and then restart WeatherCat to resolve. It's mostly just annoying and it happens once every few weeks. I'm not sure if I'm having a new problem or a different symptom of this same problem. Last night a little after 8 I received an admin email stating that there was a comms error, attempting to reset. Six minutes later I received an email saying that the reset was successful. It took me another hour an a half to get the time to check everything out. When I did I found that Weather Underground was still not receiving the correct data. I performed the procedure mentioned above, which resolved the problem, and then I starting looking in to how long I had been having an issue. What I found was odd. Starting a little before 3pm my weather station data was not being correctly reported. The temperature nose dived and then started trending back up. In fact, the data that was reported from about 2:50 pm until 9:53 (when I performed the rest procedure) seems to be an exact duplicate of the data my station collected between 7:49 am and 2:44 pm. I do not see this same issue in the WeatherCat data, although the lack of smoothness in the graph for this period of time seem to suggest that all was not normal.

So I have several questions: 1)Why didn't I get any comms errors before 8 pm? 2) Why was I still having problems after WeatherCat performed a comms reset? 3)Why did Weather Underground receive duplicate data from earlier in the day?

I've attached a screen shot of my Weather Underground graphs with a WeatherCat temp graph overlaid. You'll see that the temp trends look exactly the same for those two time periods.

Thanks,
Chris

[elagache]

Dear Chris and WeatherCat station troubleshooters,

I still occasionally receive comms errors where I have to quit WeatherCat, unplug my weather station's USB cable, plug it back in, and then restart WeatherCat to resolve. It's mostly just annoying and it happens once every few weeks.

I looked back over your previous postings and I don't remember if you ever did install ferrite clamps on your USB cable.  If you haven't maybe it is time to bite the bullet and do that.  I've never had communication errors since switching to the Weather Envoy, but I think it is prudent "insurance."

Cheers, Edouard 

[Naby]

Yes, I did install a ferrite, several in fact. I believe that I did everything you recommend including completely wiping my computer out and installing everything fresh (this was precipitated by an imminent hard drive failure).

Any ideas on this problem?

Thanks,
Chris

[elagache]

Hi Chris and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Yes, I did install a ferrite, several in fact. I believe that I did everything you recommend including completely wiping my computer out and installing everything fresh (this was precipitated by an imminent hard drive failure).

Any ideas on this problem?

No I don't and you might need Stu's help on some of your questions.  However, given that you have done everything to reduce errors from your data-logger, that sure sounds like a potential culprit.  How old is your station?

It might be time to set aside some time and give Davis technical support a call.  It isn't easy to get thorough, but once you have one of their technicians they are knowledgeable and helpful.  I'm still trying to sort out a problem with my station, but I've called them twice and both times I got good information.

Sorry, that's the best I can do . . . .

Edouard

[Naby]

Thanks for the reply. I've had the station since June of 2013. I didn't get the data logger until Christmas that year which is when I also started using WeatherCat. I've had comms problems the entire time.

I'll consider calling Davis. How apt do you think they'll be just to tell me that it is a software/computer issue that they don't support? My understanding is that poor computer to console communication with Davis weather stations is a known issue. That leads me to believe that there is little good support to be had from Davis, otherwise the issue would not be so widespread. I could further argue that Davis would also be working on a permanent solution or already have one developed were it an issue they were taking seriously. The data that the console gathers and sends to my computer is minuscule compared to many other applications and serial/USB is a longstanding robust format. There must be something fundamentally wrong in the way that Davis designed their communication hardware that causes these issues.

Even so, there still seems to be some odd things occurring. I don't buy that this most recent problem is a simple comms error as I typically experience (most recently this past evening). Hours of data were repeated and I didn't receive any warning from WeatherCat for hours. Either the console sent repeated data to my computer, if that is even possible, or a software glitch (which may not be the fault of the software itself) ignored the current data being reported to it and sent old data to the internet.

[WCDev]

David have a FAQ on the problem at: http://www.davisnet.com/support/weather/faq/index.asp?ProdFam=15&submit=Get+Information (scroll down to the section titled 'I'm using WeatherLink with the USB connection. At times I lose communication with the PC software.')

With regards to the repeated data, turn on 'Copy log entries to console log' in WeatherCat's 'Advanced' preferences. If you see the problem again check the console log (Applications->Utilities->Console.app) - there'll likely be some messages logged from WeatherCat which will help diagnose the issue.

[Naby]

David have a FAQ on the problem at: http://www.davisnet.com/support/weather/faq/index.asp?ProdFam=15&submit=Get+Information (scroll down to the section titled 'I'm using WeatherLink with the USB connection. At times I lose communication with the PC software.')

With regards to the repeated data, turn on 'Copy log entries to console log' in WeatherCat's 'Advanced' preferences. If you see the problem again check the console log (Applications->Utilities->Console.app) - there'll likely be some messages logged from WeatherCat which will help diagnose the issue.

Thanks, two new things to try. I have ferrites all over the USB cable but not the AC adapter line. I'll give that a shot first and then try batteries only. I think I have the log option on but I'll double check.

Thanks for the reply.