Not connecting to Vantage Vue

[Woobag]

I have used WeatherCat for several years on my iMac most recently using Catalina.

I now have an M1 Mac running Big Sur and I cannot connect to my Vantage Vue. I am using a StarTech USB-C to serial adapter and the driver is showing in the ports list.
I'm not sure what to do next.

Any help will be much appreciated,

Simon

[elagache]

Dear Simon and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

I have used WeatherCat for several years on my iMac most recently using Catalina.

I now have an M1 Mac running Big Sur and I cannot connect to my Vantage Vue. I am using a StarTech USB-C to serial adapter and the driver is showing in the ports list.
I'm not sure what to do next.

There are two potential issues.  Do you have the latest Silicon Labs driver?  Information on that can be found on the WeatherCat wiki:

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

According to Silicon Labs, the latest driver was released on March 31 of this year.

Other users have been successful in using Davis hardware on Big Sur.  Here is a thread that is a few months old with some user experiences:

https://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=3253.0

Let us know if this is enough information to resolve your connection problem.

Cheers, Edouard

[Woobag]

I have downloaded the latest Silicon Labs drivers but still no luck in connecting to the Vue.
The serial convertor I am using is this -StarTech 1 Port FTDI USB to Serial RS232 Adapter Cable with COM Retention. I wonder if anyone has used this lead successfully?

Thanks for the advice so far,

Simon

[elagache]

Dear Simon and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

I have downloaded the latest Silicon Labs drivers but still no luck in connecting to the Vue.
The serial convertor I am using is this -StarTech 1 Port FTDI USB to Serial RS232 Adapter Cable with COM Retention. I wonder if anyone has used this lead successfully?
. . . .

My apologies!  I think I misunderstood your Davis Vantage Vue hardware setup.  So do you have something like this Davis serial data logger?

https://www.davisinstruments.com/products/weatherlink-windows-serial-port

I didn't realize that you could still get a serial data logger for from Davis, so I assumed you had a USB hookup.  So how were you connecting to your Vantage Vue on Catalina?  My guess would be that the only drivers you might need are for your StarTech serial adapter.  Did you have to install any software drivers on Catalina?  Many USB to serial adapters do not require any special drivers at all.

However, if you were using a software driver, there could be a problem because the driver might not run on an M1 powered Mac.  Could you tell me more about your setup on your previous Mac?  That might help us diagnose your issues.

Cheers, Edouard

[Woobag]

I am using a serial logger. I have had my Vantage Due for many, many years!
Previously I was using a StarTech adaptor ICUSB2321F. However, Big Sur will not install the driver for this adaptor. StarTech know about this and are trying to find a workaround.
I am now trying a different adaptor as described in my last post. According to StarTech this is natively supported by OS 11. 0 (Big Sur) and does not require drivers.
However, WeatherCat does not recognise it as a Com port. If I download the driver from StarTech then it recognises the com port but will not connect.

Hope this makes some kind of sense,

Simon

[elagache]

Dear Simon and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

I am using a serial logger. I have had my Vantage Due for many, many years!

Okay, I simply thought that Davis had discontinued the serial logger before they introduced the Vantage Vue.  I don't remember when the Vue was introduced, but it was definitely after 2009 since before that I didn't have any Davis hardware.

Previously I was using a StarTech adaptor ICUSB2321F. However, Big Sur will not install the driver for this adaptor. StarTech know about this and are trying to find a workaround.
I am now trying a different adaptor as described in my last post. According to StarTech this is natively supported by OS 11. 0 (Big Sur) and does not require drivers.
However, WeatherCat does not recognise it as a Com port. If I download the driver from StarTech then it recognises the com port but will not connect.

Now I understand more clearly your predicament.  Indeed your best bet would be to find a serial adapter that runs on Big Sur without any need for drivers.  Clearly that isn't as easy a task as it should be.  I don't know what your location is, but you might try buying yet another driver if you can locate one that is inexpensive.

You could wait for StarTech to hopefully fix their driver to run on Big Sur, but obviously, you aren't downloading data in the interim.  What is your data logger interval set to?  Here is a list of the days stored in the Davis data-logger depending on the interval:

https://wiki.trixology.com/index.php?title=Capacity_of_the_Davis_data-logger_to_store_weather_data_depending_on_the_chosen_sampling_interval

I don't know how much longer you can go without starting to lose data.

If you really don't want to lose data, you might consider switching to another data logger design that would get around this problem.  There is the Davis USB logger and the WiFi data logger which is available from a 3rd-party:

https://wifilogger.net/

Yes, that is more expensive, but that might be the only options you have if you want to get your station back in operation quickly.

Beyond that, I'm afraid this forum probably won't be of much help to you.  There are very few WeatherCat Davis users still using a serial data logger.  I'm afraid you have tapped out our knowledge base.

Do let us know if you manage to get this problem solved so we can help the next person with a similar problem.

Thanks in advance, Edouard

[Woobag]

Edouard, thank you so much for all your help. I am not losing any data as it is still running on my old Mac at the moment.

Regarding the wifi logger option, will that connect to WeatherCat? I am keen to lose the serial interface and update to something more modern!

I will let you know how I solve this,

Simon

[elagache]

Dear Simon and WeatherCat faithful,

Regarding the wifi logger option, will that connect to WeatherCat? I am keen to lose the serial interface and update to something more modern!
. . . . .

The WiFi logger should work fine so long as your WiFi network provides good connectivity between your console and your computer.  The instructions for configuring it are basically the same as for the discontinued Davis IP data logger.  The only differences would be associated with the name of the product.  There are instructions on how to do this on the WeatherCat Wiki:

https://wiki.trixology.com/index.php?title=How_to_setup_the_Davis_WeatherLinkIP%E2%84%A2_data_logger

Where are you located?  If you are located in the United States, I believe Scaled Instruments is the exclusive distributor for that data logger:

https://www.scaledinstruments.com/

Here is a link to their product listing for the data logger:

https://www.scaledinstruments.com/shop/shop-by-category/data-loggers/wifilogger2/

If you are outside of the United States the preferred distributor is: Prodata Weather Systems

https://www.weatherstations.co.uk/

Hopefully one of those two outfits can supply you with what you need.

I will let you know how I solve this,

Please do!  We will be interested to hear how you resolve these issues and migrate your WeatherCat installation to your new M1 Mac!

Cheers, Edouard 

[Woobag]

I now have WeatherCat working on my M1 iMac! I purchased a WifiLogger which works a treat.

However, I have an odd problem. I have set up a desktop to show the gauges I require together with a wind graph. When I open up a new desktop WeatherCat displays on that one too.
Every new desktop that I open has all the WeatherCat display on it.

Not sure what is causing it. I might just delete all the gauges and graphs and start again, just one at a time to see if it still happens,

Simon

[xairbusdriver]

Glad to hear of your success!!

I have set up a desktop to show the gauges...
Every new desktop that I open has all the WeatherCat display on it.

Are you talking about "Spaces", a part of Mission Control? I've never used MC nor Spaces, but I think you can set what you want in each Space. If you have Mission Control in your System Prefs, check that. If you don't see Mission Control in the System Prefs window, use the "View" and select it from the dropdown list. You can also get the Help window by typing "Spaces" or even "desktop" in most any "Help" search bar.