Davis Survey

[Bull Winkus]

I got an email from Davis yesterday. It was a survey. They even offered to pay me for an interview. I assume that's because I keep such good company here on the Trixology forum. Lol!

Good opportunity to give their research department some feedback on their fine product and suggestions on improvements we might like. I mentioned the 1? resolution with their remote temperature stations and the rain gauge getting a little behind at rates of ~ 10 in per hour or higher.

Here's the link, in case your email's spam filter forwarded it to your bit bucket.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1elFauct1z1KQbZvXyYR36rQIitRYRX_qVwHg0V5_XWc/viewform?c=0&w=1

Now, back to work?
 

[elagache]

Howdy Herb and WeatherCat forum celebrities . . .

I got an email from Davis yesterday. It was a survey.

. . . . .

Here's the link, in case your email's spam filter forwarded it to your bit bucket.

My problem isn't finding the survey, it is finding the time to actually take the survey!

How is the wagon headlight upgrade project going . . . . don't even ask! 

Grumble, grumble, grumble . . . . . Edouard

[Bull Winkus]

Edouard, You're spending way too much time grumbling about your lack of time caused by da' Wagon Headlight Upgrade Project. Do you see the irony in this? 

September 21 is just around the corner. To be exact, there's 2 months and 11 days to go. Does this mean we have 2 months and 11 more days of irony?

 

[Felix]

I got the survey as well, Herb.

In the free-response section, I hit the two items you mentioned plus took them to task for their poor Mac software support. Obviously doesn't make any difference to anyone on this forum because we use WeatherCat but how about the Mac users who just bought their first Davis Instruments weather station and find that kludge of a piece of software when they open up the box. A good piece of weather software can do so much more than what Davis provides and makes the hobby much more satisfying.

And another irritant I hit was making Mac people who want to use Davis WeatherLink IP (which works flawlessly BTW) pay for software they'll never use. Why can't the hardware (the data logger) be made available separately for 75 bucks or something instead of ripping off Mac users for $190 (street price) including software which only runs on Windows. And it's very simplistic software to boot.

[xairbusdriver]

It is a bit lengthy, OTOH, there are several places to make comments which makes the data a bit more granular. I'm such a new user that some some questions hardly applied. I did knock the WeatherLink app; that's what they get for asking!

When I got through, I was offered the chance to take the survey again?! Perhaps it was simply another survey handled by Google... once was enough. I'm now making plans on how to spend my $100 certificate... I might give half of it to Edouard to help him hire an electrician... Nah...

[Blicj11]

I am posting a tangentially related comment (I like to use big words to keep Herb engaged). When you are resting up from upgrading the headlights on your Buick or need a break from trying to return your Webcam to the Company from Hell, here is a link to a 43-page, excellently written paper on an annoying design problem created by Davis. This is a deeply technical paper for geeks only but it does give some interesting perspective on Davis, as a manufacturer of weather hardware products that are generally considered to be a step up from entry level equipment.

http://meteo.annoyingdesigns.com/DavisSPI.pdf

[SeanA]

cheers blick...
being an electrical engineer and geek... it looks interesting...


Cheers
Sean

[xairbusdriver]

That is a great read,I'm thinking of recording it to a CD and selling it as a sleep aid...

 I was almost ready to start working on the hack until I read:

The steps below should be sufficient to get going within an hour or so:

An hour just to get "up to speed"? I'll bet Edouard won't take that long to get his head lights working with my gas/propane lanterns!

[Bull Winkus]

Very interesting, Blick. Davis is in a bit of a pickle over this, aren't they? Nasty beaners! Oh, ? I mean bean counters. Ninguna referencia to el pueblo del M?xico.

They really do need to drop the pretext, start making real innovations to their product, and stop trying to put one over on their customers, especially when it appears that their customer base might be a little more sophisticated, technically, than they are.

Good one. I enjoyed reading it. Well, most of it. Ok, ok, skimming it. I enjoyed skimming it.

[Felix]

Well, that was an interesting read...the author's colloquial writing style worked to keep my interest level up. Now I see the real reason why not upgrading Davis firmware was recommended on WXForum.