WeatherCat and Mac OS 11 Big Sur

[jsalba@mac.com]

Will WeatherCat 3.1.0 work under the new Mac OS Big Sur which is expected to be released shortly?

For my Davis Vantage Vue weather station to run on my iMac I use the SiLabs USB Driver which I believe is a kernel extension (kext)
I receive notices periodically that it will not function under Big Sur.

Thanks.  Jeff

[elagache]

Dear Jeff and WeatherCat faithful,

Since this is your first posting on the WeatherCat forum by all means welcome! 

Will WeatherCat 3.1.0 work under the new Mac OS Big Sur which is expected to be released shortly?

There has been no word from our fearless leader (Stuart Ball, WeatherCat developer) as to Big Sur compatibility.  Is anyone running the Big Sur beta and WeatherCat at the moment?

For my Davis Vantage Vue weather station to run on my iMac I use the SiLabs USB Driver which I believe is a kernel extension (kext)
I receive notices periodically that it will not function under Big Sur.

Which version of the Silicon Labs driver are you running?  You can get instructions on how to download the latest driver on the WeatherCat Wiki:

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

According to the Silicon Labs website, the latest release is version 5.3.5 released on February 25, 2020.  If you are running the latest version and are still getting warnings from macOS then presumably none of us Davis USB users can upgrade until Silicon Labs updates their driver.

Do let us know which version of the Silicon Labs driver you presently have installed.

Once more welcome!

Cheers, Edouard 

[WCDev]

Will WeatherCat 3.1.0 work under the new Mac OS Big Sur which is expected to be released shortly?

WeatherCat runs fine (at least here) - one of the underlying changes in WeatherCat 3.1.0 was to adopt the hardened run time which is necessary to run on 11. But we won't know for sure until the OS is released.

However, the OS is currently a mess IMHO, and drivers are in a worse state. I'd advise avoiding at least the first official release (or two) if you want stuff to continue to work.

Cheers,
Stu.

[xairbusdriver]

Another big welcome from me, Jeff!

One of the easiest ways to check the Silab version is to Option Click the Apple icon in the menu bar. You should see the “About This Mac” changed to “System Information...”. When that information window opens, look in the side bar, under Software and select “Extensions”. If you’re on 10.15, these titles may be slightly different. I’ still using 10.14 and I don’t even have my Mac mini in the house! It’s been in the AppleCare repair for over two weeks!!

[jsalba@mac.com]

Hey, thanks for all the thoughtful replies.

I am using SiLab Version 5.2.4 which works great with Mac OS Catalina 10.15.7.
The SiLabs revision history up to 5.3.5 didn't indicate to me anything about compatibility with Mac OS 11 Big Sur so I did not upgrade.

Thanks again, Jeff

[Steve]

I have SiLabs Extension version 5.3.5 loaded on my iMac running 10.15.7 (latest version of both.) I still get the occasional popup notification that it will not work with the next version of Mac OS. Same with the extensions on my Drobo, Logitech Harmony remote app, and something else I don't recall right now.

I don't plan to update to Mac OS 11 anytime soon.

[Weatheraardvark]

Apple has been releasing to developers regularly the new builds or fixes to their OSX.   I am guessing that since WC is  64bit it should do just fine.

Now if he isn't dealing with that, well...  someone probably will.

[ColdnFrosty]

Big Sur 11.0.1 Release Candidate just dropped today.

[Weatheraardvark]

my wife is needing a new laptop. her macbook air has 4g of ram.  need i say more, plus it is six years old.  So I am waiting for Apple to release their new computers with the apple silicon chip and big sur factor installed.  for me I will continue to lump along with my imac.   My wife is a college teacher and all her classes are online.   

In December once the semester is over, I am going to increase my modem speed, going for 940up  speed.  It involves Centurylink running a fiber optic to a modem. the after that is installed getting everything to switch over to the new setup.  A headache but really not required.  Of course then I could get my website back online.    or not

[xairbusdriver]

If you use Carbon Copy Cloner you've probably received a message from Mr. Bombich. He is suggesting that we wait until after

...several OS updates before making the upgrade. Early adopters inevitably find some shortcomings and bugs which are resolved in minor OS updates.

Perhaps after that, I would be willing to update to Catalina!

[Blicj11]

In December once the semester is over, I am going to increase my modem speed, going for 940up  speed.  It involves Centurylink running a fiber optic to a modem. the after that is installed getting everything to switch over to the new setup.  A headache but really not required.  Of course then I could get my website back online.    or not

We upgraded to fiber optic here and it has made all the difference in the world! Hope your upgrade goes smoothly.

[WCDev]

As far as I can tell, SiliconLabs have not yet updated their driver - this means it's very likely you will lose comms to the station on upgrade to Big Sur if you are running the USB data logger.
(Happy to be corrected here if someone knows something I don't)

Cheers,
Stu.

[WxOwl]

I have been running BigSur from the first beta up to the current pre-release beta version 11.0.1.  WeatherCat has been running just fine without any obvious problems through each iteration.  No problem with USB data logger and SiLabsUSBDriver 5.3.5 (2/25/2020), either.

Granted, I’ve not tested every conceivable feature of WeatherCat; however, when I installed BigSur, WeaatherCat picked up right where Catalina left off  with no intervention.

For those skeptical of new software, please note that the computer feeding my web site, WU, CWOP, and additional services is an old MacMini running High Sierra. 

David

[WCDev]

Thanks for the report David - good to know 

[ColdnFrosty]

Big Sur 11.0.1 RC here with SiLabs 5.3.5 on an iMac Pro. WeatherCat has no USB communications with the Davis Vantage Pro 2. It also has graphic issues when selecting Gauges on the Tools menu. The window just continuously flashed between the upper left corner default gauge and a black window.

It appears that although I installed 5.3.5, it is not loaded. There appears to be no way to load it. The Install process describes going to System Preference > Privacy & Security > General and allowing the loading of the driver. But no such prompt displays there.
 

I have been running BigSur from the first beta up to the current pre-release beta version 11.0.1.  WeatherCat has been running just fine without any obvious problems through each iteration.  No problem with USB data logger and SiLabsUSBDriver 5.3.5 (2/25/2020), either.

Granted, I’ve not tested every conceivable feature of WeatherCat; however, when I installed BigSur, WeaatherCat picked up right where Catalina left off  with no intervention.

For those skeptical of new software, please note that the computer feeding my web site, WU, CWOP, and additional services is an old MacMini running High Sierra. 

David