VP2 Console Dead

[wurzelmac]

Now let me tell you:

Yesterday morning I got some eMails from WeatherCat that tells me a sensor failure, a seems to be hung, a rebooting as precautionary measure. After restarting my Weather Mac mini and rebooting WeatherCat it tells me that no weather station could be found.  Unplugged the USB from the console, replugged it, restarted and rebooted. No station could be found.  Then I took a nearer look to the console and ... it hung! No response to pressing any button on the console. Unplugged it from both USB and power, removed the batteries and left it for about ten seconds. Then I plugged in the power cord again, only some flickering on the display and after that, nothing. Now it is dead, no response to anything. Dead after two and a half years... 

Luckily I own a second console that was placed in the living-room, so I was able to keep WeatherCat running and collect weather data with the *new* console.

Happy Davis, I have to buy a new console for the living-room now. 

Cheers,
Reinhard

[wurzelmac]

In addition to my previous post I have to say that the console is back to life. After disassembling the console and reassembling it works again, for what reason ever. Maybe there is a cold solder joint anywhere on the main board. So I am curious how long it will work. This one will it only make into the living room but not to the weather Mac mini any more...

Cheers,
Reinhard

[Blicj11]

Reinhard:

I am impressed with your re-assembly skills. Out of curiosity, how old is the console that you have apparently brought back from the brink of death?

[elagache]

Dear Reinhard, Blick, and WeatherCat D-I-Y types,

In addition to my previous post I have to say that the console is back to life. After disassembling the console and reassembling it works again, for what reason ever. Maybe there is a cold solder joint anywhere on the main board. So I am curious how long it will work. This one will it only make into the living room but not to the weather Mac mini any more...

I'm also curious, exactly how much did you disassemble that console?  It seems to me unlikely that there was a cold solder point, this would have shown up by now.  I suppose something could have moved because thermal expansion, but that's a stretch.  More likely there is a component that is on the edge of failure and by disassembling it you allowed it to cool or whatever so that it was once more able to operate.  Indeed, you cannot expect this console to last much longer.  So the question is do you replace it in advance to avoid the inconvenience of not having the weather information in your living room.

Cheers, Edouard

[Blicj11]

So the question is do you replace it in advance to avoid the inconvenience of not having the weather information in your living room.

Also, I don't know how, or if, this works in Europe, but I sent my old VP2 to Davis. They refurbished every sensor and updated the firmware, and shipped it back to me for $US 140 plus shipping. This was much cheaper than buying a new one.

[wurzelmac]

Hello Blick & Edouard,

? The console was only two and a half years old.
? I disassembled all that was fixed with screws.
? A new console is ordered, Edouard.

Until now the console is working except it is not able to see station2 (wind) and station3 (temp). The other console that is now feeding WeatherCat can see all my three stations. Is there a way to set the console to factory defaults? Powering off the console and removing batteries won't do it, every time I reinsert the batteries the console *knows* all my previous settings (time, lat, long, height, ...).

Cheers,
Reinhard

[WCDev]

Certainly sounds like it's on it's way out to me - I had a look in the VP2 manual, there's some troubleshooting there (http://www.davisnet.com/product_documents/weather/manuals/07395-234_IM_06312.pdf) with regards to display lockups on the console, but in your case it didn't recover even after a power reset.

I'd treat it with caution

[wurzelmac]

In the meantime I *think* I know whats going wrong with my console: Maybe the radio chip is damaged. At the moment the console gets no signal any more from the ISS, too. I found an interesting site (that didn't help me, though): http://madscientistlabs.blogspot.co.at/2010/12/davis-weather-station-hacking.html - but now I know where the radio chip is located on the main board. 

Cheers,
Reinhard

[Blicj11]

That was an interesting blog you linked to at madscientistlabs. Thanks for a good read.

[KeithC]

Reinhard,

If your console was displaying dashes in place of some of the weather data, and if a flashing "R" was at the bottom right corner of the screen, then it's possible your console was getting some frequency interference from another device somewhere, such as an older 900MHz phone or a baby monitor, etc. What you described happened to me and, after trying many many recommended fixes without success,  all I did was simply move my console 5 inches and my console came back to life for good. And that was months ago. That was one of the recommended fixes I had read about.

My point is that, quite possibly, when you moved your console to dissemble it, you might have moved it away from its interference and revived it that way.

[wurzelmac]

Hello Keith,

the console works since buying 2 ? years without a single failure. But for now it looks like the radio transceiver chip is not working any more. Hopefully the next one has not a *monday*-chip onboard. 
By the way: Anyone using an Envoy with WeatherCat? And if yes, how do you set the channels (the envoy is capable of stations #1 to #8 as I read in the documentation) if you use more than *just* the ISS? Only possible with WeatherLink Software or doable with WeatherCat, too?

Thanks in advance,
Reinhard

[wurzelmac]

Ok,
Envoy without WeatherLink Software useless. Really, Stu? Not possible to set up Envoy within WeatherCat?
 
Reinhard

[elagache]

Hi Reinhard and WeatherCat Davis fans,

By the way: Anyone using an Envoy with WeatherCat? And if yes, how do you set the channels (the envoy is capable of stations #1 to #8 as I read in the documentation) if you use more than *just* the ISS? Only possible with WeatherLink Software or doable with WeatherCat, too?

Control of an Envoy is on Stu's "do-to" list, but it hasn't been implemented yet.  So for now you still need WeatherLink.  WeatherLink is acceptable for that job although the user-interface is very . . . WeatherLink . . . 

Cheers, Edouard 

[wurzelmac]

Thanks, Edouard!
Then I have to wait on Stu, because I am not able to get WL running on Yosemite (an older Java is to be downloaded, ...).
Cheers,
Reinhard

(Anyone out there running WL on Windows? I have an old Windows machine but only the Mac-Version of WeatherLink, so if anybody could *borrow* me the Windows-Version...  )

[WCDev]

This is true - there's no support for setting up an Envoy within WeatherCat.

All I can suggest, if you can't run WeatherLink, is something like VirtualBox or Parallels to install an older version of the OS which will run it.