WeatherCat and Mac OS 11 Big Sur

[Tony Lacey]

thank you for this ,which I barely understand, The last computer I really understood was three storeys high and had 8000 valves. but An expensive nerd will do this for me I hope. Presumably silabs will produce a more convenient updated usb driver eventually. It is a measure of how far I am behind on the technology that it has taken me 24 hours to find my own post on this forum.

[xairbusdriver]

The last computer I really understood was three storeys high and had 8000 valves

Why can't we still cal those switches/RAM "valves"?! Sounds much more familiar!

As for finding your own posts, try the forum menu labeled "My Messages". "Search" also comes in handy if you can remember some specific words in your post. You can also use the "Profile/Show posts" method.

You can now easily see why 8k valves are just not enough!!

[Blicj11]

You can now easily see why 8k valves are just not enough!!

8,000 valves seems plenty to me.

[mikemacv]

I deleted my post It seems I'm having the same problems with the USB drivers after upgrading my Mac OS Sierra  To Mojave  The file is in the right place but  then I looked in the SYS report it shows the Bridge in USB so I know the port is working if look in the extensions  nothing there But It is in the Extensions folder in the Library
Mike V

[xairbusdriver]

You might find the detailed instruction in the Not Working Under Big Sur thread, post #11 helpful, even though you are not using Big Sur.

[elagache]

Dear Mike and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

I deleted my post It seems I'm having the same problems with the USB drivers after upgrading my Mac OS Sierra  To Mojave  The file is in the right place but  then I looked in the SYS report it shows the Bridge in USB so I know the port is working if look in the extensions  nothing there But It is in the Extensions folder in the Library

It is best to start a new thread with a question like this.  Otherwise people might not understand your problem clearly.

In your case I would first make sure you have the latest drivers.  You can get instructions on how to download the latest driver at this entry in the WeatherCat Wiki:

https://wiki.trixology.com/index.php?title=Obtaining_the_latest_drivers_for_use_with_Davis_data_loggers

Before attempting to install the new driver, try running the shell script that comes with the installation package to remove any old drivers. 

Let us know if that gets you unstuck or if you need additional instructions.

Cheers, Edouard

P.S. Also keep in mind that under Mojave you need to authorize the extension before you use it.  This is also described in the Wiki page entry.

[ETA51]

I have the strobing gauges problem.  Migrated over from my 11 year old iMac to a new(M1) Mac Mini.  Running OS 11.0.1 and Weathercat 3.11 Build 26 (3.10.).  Do not appear to have any comms issues.  Davis Vantage Pro 2, comms to Mac via Ethernet.  Any advice would be welcome, as I am much more of a Led Zeppelin kind of guy vice a disco kind of guy and this strobing carb is giving me a headache!

[ColdnFrosty]

The issues with Banner Generator and flashing gauges remains in Big Sur 11.1 RC (follow-on to 11.01) which released today.

[Tony Lacey]

Regrettably I do not have the impressive knowledge displayed by some contributors to this thread. As I do not understand what the Silabs fix for big sur does ,I have not attempted it yet. Does anyone know if Silabs intend to produce a patch for this or is the fix suggested the only way to get my davis vantage pro system up and running again.?

[ETA51]

@Tony.  I'm no code warrior either, but i believe the slabs business has to do with a USB driver, i.e. you have your Vantagepro console, attached to your computer via USB.  I can say with certainty that if you use Ethernet instead of USB (which will require a dongle from Davis), that the lates version of Weathercat works with the latest version of the Mac OS, 11.0,1 (Big Sur).  When I say it works,  what I mean is that data successfully gets from weather station outside (wirelessly in my case) the Davis console, and from the Davis console to the to computer (via Ethernet).  The only issue I am seeing is that the default gauge panel in Weathercat intermittently drops gauges, as well as that window has a strobing background.  The data is there, just a wonky display which you can't look at for any length of time.  This is all on a new mac Mini running Apple silicon.

[ColdnFrosty]

So there are three issues with Big Sur 11.x and WeatherCat:

1) If you are using the Davis USB interface between the Vantage Pro (I do not know about other Davis consoles) and a Mac, the SiLabs 5.3.5 driver will fail to install resulting in no communications between the Davis console and the Mac. SiLabs states on their web site the following:

"Dear all,
Thank you for your feedback. We almost finished updated our VCP driver to support Big Sur (before its RC release). However, there is dependency on Apple (for months) about signature of the driver. That why we still cannot public the driver for now. We are trying to solve this by contacting/pushing Apple a lot and will public the driver as soon as possible.
Regards,
Nam Dang"

You can read the entire thread here:

https://www.silabs.com/community/interface/forum.topic.html/cp210x_vcp_driver535willnotloadonbigsur1-ex5T

2) When you initially run the current version of WeatherCat on Big Sur 11.x, the Weather Station Gauges window appears. Anytime you click on the Tools->Gauges menu item, that window will flash rapidly.

3) If you select Tools->Banner Generator, the Banner Generator window will appear. You can create your banner, or if you already created one, you will see the window populated with current data. However, the banner is not generated and copied to a folder anywhere on the Mac. There is a failure recorded in the WeatherCat log file.

Regrettably I do not have the impressive knowledge displayed by some contributors to this thread. As I do not understand what the Silabs fix for big sur does ,I have not attempted it yet. Does anyone know if Silabs intend to produce a patch for this or is the fix suggested the only way to get my davis vantage pro system up and running again.?

[ColdnFrosty]

How do you like the M1?

@Tony.  I'm no code warrior either, but i believe the slabs business has to do with a USB driver, i.e. you have your Vantagepro console, attached to your computer via USB.  I can say with certainty that if you use Ethernet instead of USB (which will require a dongle from Davis), that the lates version of Weathercat works with the latest version of the Mac OS, 11.0,1 (Big Sur).  When I say it works,  what I mean is that data successfully gets from weather station outside (wirelessly in my case) the Davis console, and from the Davis console to the to computer (via Ethernet).  The only issue I am seeing is that the default gauge panel in Weathercat intermittently drops gauges, as well as that window has a strobing background.  The data is there, just a wonky display which you can't look at for any length of time.  This is all on a new mac Mini running Apple silicon.

[xairbusdriver]

So there are three issues with Big Sur 11.x and WeatherCat

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Silabs failure to install on Big Sur has nothing to do with WeatherCat. Any app that depends on the Silab driver would have the same problem. The solution is as simple as following the steps in a couple threads  that you thoughtfully wrote.

[ETA51]

So there are three issues with Big Sur 11.x and WeatherCat:

2) When you initially run the current version of WeatherCat on Big Sur 11.x, the Weather Station Gauges window appears. Anytime you click on the Tools->Gauges menu item, that window will flash rapidly.
 

My experience is slightly different with regard to this. For me, the Weather Station Gauges window flashes pretty much continuously regardless of what window is selected in Weathercat.  In fact, it also flashes regardless of what window is selected on the desktop period.  Right now as I type into Safari it is flashing.  The only time it does not flash is when I select a pull down menu from Weathercat in the menu bar.  It does look like the data is updating on the gauges and bar graphs though.  It shows good zero comms errors, sensor errors and 100.00% quality, and it looks like the "good data" number is updating, although that is heard to read with the strobing. I would also note that it sometimes reverts to a black background with only some of the gauges showing.

[ETA51]

How do you like the M1?

ColdnFrosty: Today is day 5.  Very happy with it so far.  Migration went smoothly with no issues, very few apps that would not run under Rosetta 2, (mostly old crap I never used anyway), I had to update MS Office (now a subscription model, or at least you have to sign in to use any of the apps with Office 2019, which I HATE), but I was running Office 2011.  Everything runs faster (to be expected, remember I was upgrading from a 2011 iMac).  Did I mention that everything runs exceptionally faster?  A little bit of a learning curve as well, as it came with Big Sur, and I was a few OS iterations behind on the old iMac.  I was little concerned about going to the first of a new generation and considered waiting until the upgraded the iMac to Apple silicon (I have a roll top desk, so monitor space is limited), but the old machine was getting long in the tooth, and I felt like a hard drive failure might bite me in the ass any day...so far, no regrets. [Knocking on the old oak of the roll top!]

Knowing what I know now, would i do it again?  Yes!