Author Topic: Sniff . . da' darn "mellar-drama" continues!! (Read 35626 times)

elagache · « **Reply #90 on:** May 01, 2015, 11:28:27 PM »

Dear WeatherCat subscribers to this darn "mellar-drama,"

Well I was getting close to declaring victory over this problem when . . . . .

Still, the outage was shorter than previous ones:

This is also the longest I've gone with out a problem in a long time. It is almost 2 weeks. So I'm testing the remaining drive that is older just in case it is dying and is contributing to more EMI than it should. I'm going to also relocate the remaining drives still further way. Perhaps radio frequency interfering is truly the remaining obstacle to be overcome.

Thanks for your support!

Cheers, Edouard

Blicj11 · « **Reply #91 on:** May 02, 2015, 06:29:15 AM »

Holy sensor errors Batman! When is this ornery thing going to be identified? Sorry for your frustration.

elagache · « **Reply #92 on:** May 02, 2015, 09:46:55 PM »

Dear Blick and WeatherCat subscribers to this darn "mellar-drama,"

Quote from: Blicj11 on May 02, 2015, 06:29:15 AM

Holy sensor errors Batman! When is this ornery thing going to be identified? Sorry for your frustration.

Thanks for your sympathy!

I double-checked one backup drive and it is in good health. I need to check one more. I've moved the remaining drives into the same orientation of the first two that seemed suspicious. No problems overnight. Just have to wait and see . . . .

Cheers, Edouard

xairbusdriver · « **Reply #93 on:** June 02, 2015, 07:59:21 PM »

It's been a while since I've read anything about the major weather disaster in California, and I'm not talking about the water shortage... the last report from Edouard is now a month old! Can we safely assume that his hardware is now operating normally?

Or, has his problem infected more of the web, even <Apple> specifically?!!

elagache · « **Reply #94 on:** June 02, 2015, 11:30:07 PM »

Dear X-Air and WeatherCat subscribers to this darn "mellar-drama,"

Quote from: xairbusdriver on June 02, 2015, 07:59:21 PM

It's been a while since I've read anything about the major weather disaster in California, and I'm not talking about the water shortage... the last report from Edouard is now a month old! Can we safely assume that his hardware is now operating normally? Or, has his problem infected more of the web, even <Apple> specifically?!!

Alas, no the problem persists although it is less frequent. I'm certain now this is some sort of radio interference problem. I've caught it happening in the middle of the day and it is only the link from the console to the Weather Envoy that is failing. The console never experiences a failure. The next thing to try is a USB extension cable to see if I could locate the Envoy further away from whatever is the problem. It might be the case that I have some sort of electronics that is slowly dying when when it finally kicks the bucket my problems will go away. Something is generating radio frequency interference and there are just to many suspects to easily try to get a handle on the problem.

Oh well, . . . . Edouard

xairbusdriver · « **Reply #95 on:** June 02, 2015, 11:52:17 PM »

Sorry to rub salt into your wounds!

Quote

I'm certain now this is some sort of radio interference problem.

Portable wireless house phones? Cross talk with cables around the hardware? I have a pertty good sized 'rats nest' behind my stuff... I think I may just buy some stock in Reynolds Wrap... and don't ever watch NASA TV!

elagache · « **Reply #96 on:** June 03, 2015, 09:26:12 PM »

Dear X-Air and WeatherCat subscribers to this darn "mellar-drama,"

Quote from: xairbusdriver on June 02, 2015, 11:52:17 PM

Portable wireless house phones? Cross talk with cables around the hardware? I have a pertty good sized 'rats nest' behind my stuff... I think I may just buy some stock in Reynolds Wrap... and don't ever watch NASA TV!

I'll need to explore the matter when I have more time. At the moment it happens infrequently enough that I can live with it. As such, I'll continue to focus on the critical path stuff I need to do first.

Cheers, Edouard

elagache · « **Reply #97 on:** December 27, 2015, 09:56:09 PM »

Dear WeatherCat subscribers to this irregular darn "mellar-drama," . . . . .

There has been perhaps a breakthrough event in this "cold case" . . . . .

I have been seeing a slow increase in interruptions between my console and my Weather Envoy. In a seemingly unrelated event, I discovered that the hard drive that is attached to my Mom's iMac for Time Machine backups wasn't working properly. I attempted to reformat the drive and . . . . da' patient didn't recover from the procedure.

It was a very old drive so no big surprise there. Still, I prefer to have a backup of all computers at all time, so I rummaged around and located another old drive that would pinch hit until a replacement backup drive arrived. This drive was on standby for my previous MacBook Pro which remains on standby should I have have any need for a portable computer. Since I was lazy, I simply rerouted the USB connection from my old MacBook to my Mom's iMac which are on the same table and turned on the reserve drive.

After doing this, I had even more trouble with communications failures between my console and my Weather Envoy, having two in 12 hours. After the second one, I became suspicious. The reserve hard drive was much closer to the Envoy - coincidence? I turned the drive off and planned to just run it once a day to back up my Mom's iMac until the new drive arrived.

This afternoon, I turned on the reserve drive and it . . . . didn't mount. This drive and the backup drive that had failed the day before were the same make, model, and capacity. They were most likely bought at the same time. I assume both drives were close to death and I just pushed them over the edge.

I haven't had any problems with the connection to the Envoy since turning off the drive yesterday. It is early, but it is a plausible explanation for what was going on. A dying hard drive might well generate the sort of radio frequency interference that would disrupt the connection between Davis components.

So stay tuned!

It appears that an arrest in this case won't be possible, but after all, that will save on legal costs!! . . .

Cheers, Edouard

Blicj11 · « **Reply #98 on:** December 28, 2015, 02:41:39 PM »

Interesting discovery. Let us know if this cures all that ails your patient.

Bull Winkus · « **Reply #99 on:** December 28, 2015, 04:54:42 PM »

What was the drive connected to? USB 2.0, Firewire, Firewire 800, USB 3.0, or Thunderbolt?

elagache · « **Reply #100 on:** December 29, 2015, 12:55:04 AM »

Dear Blick, Herb, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Quote from: Blicj11 on December 28, 2015, 02:41:39 PM

Interesting discovery. Let us know if this cures all that ails your patient.

It is only one day later, but so far so good!

Quote from: Bull Winkus on December 28, 2015, 04:54:42 PM

What was the drive connected to? USB 2.0, Firewire, Firewire 800, USB 3.0, or Thunderbolt?

It was an old Other World Computer drive connected via USB 2.0. I don't remember how old these drives were, but they had been replaced because they were too small at 250 GB.

Cheers, Edouard

Bull Winkus · « **Reply #101 on:** December 29, 2015, 04:08:02 AM »

Yep! I've still got some of those, too. Too small at 250 GB, that is.

,

elagache · « **Reply #102 on:** December 29, 2015, 11:22:16 PM »

Dear WeatherCat subscribers to this irregular darn "mellar-drama," . . . . .

Bummer dude! What appeared to be a promising lead turned out to be a dead end.

Even with two suspicious drives dead and waiting for the electronics pickup, I had two new outages in 24 hours.

That reminded me that using the higher numbered Davis device IDs were more likely to have this sort of problem. On the other hand, my temperature/humidity station is at ID #4 and never has had problems reaching my Weather Envoy even if it is about the same distance away and getting through about the same number of plaster walls with steel mesh support.

Based on that insight I decided to move all transmitter IDs toward the smaller numbers. Temperature/Humidity probe is now #1, ISS remains at #2, Console retransmits at #3. I hope that the difference between a Temperature/Humidity probe and an ISS will resolve any possible conflicts.

Keeping my fingers cross that this time things really work!

Cheers, Edouard

Blicj11 · « **Reply #103 on:** December 30, 2015, 12:50:40 AM »

Quote from: elagache on December 29, 2015, 11:22:16 PM

That reminded me that using the higher numbered Davis device IDs were more likely to have this sort of problem.

Interesting. Davis tech support told me to use the higher numbers in trying to sort out my issue in the companion thread. Does anyone have the actual frequencies used by each ID? I can only find the range used by all 8 IDs. I was told that very old wireless telephones can conflict with ID#4.

Bull Winkus · « **Reply #104 on:** December 30, 2015, 07:41:49 PM »

The range for all IDs, which you already have, is copied below from the ISS Installation Manual.

902 - 928 MHz FHSS for North America
868.0 -868.6 MHz FHSS for overseas versions: EU, UK, and OV

Old 900 MHz phones are a problem for it in the US, it appears.

The text below is copied from Wireless Vantage Pro2 & Vantage Pro2 Plus Stations.

The ISS and Vantage Pro2 console communicate via an FCC-certified, license-free, spread-spectrum frequency-hopping (FHSS) transmitter and receiver. User-selectable transmitter ID codes allow up to eight stations to coexist in the same geographic area. The frequency hopping spread spectrum technology provides greater communication strength over longer distances and areas of weaker reception.

So my guess: the individual channels are probably mapped digitally onto the same frequency using Davis's proprietary communications protocol.

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