Anybody here have a Davis Instruments weather station?

Received recently, works locally, having some difficulty maintaining
link to the Weather Underground (www.wunderground.com) website
apparently related to keeping time synch.

Couldn't find a group that seemed to have the subject; Davis appears not
to have a forum of their own for some inexplicable reason so thought I'd
see if anybody here has any experience or knows of a more suitable
forum. (Did find one web-based that looked useful but half-dozen failed
attempts at registering ran me off... )

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On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:15:15 -0600, dpb wrote:

Anybody here have a Davis Instruments weather station?

Received recently, works locally, having some difficulty maintaining
link to the Weather Underground (www.wunderground.com) website
apparently related to keeping time synch.

Couldn't find a group that seemed to have the subject; Davis appears not
to have a forum of their own for some inexplicable reason so thought I'd
see if anybody here has any experience or knows of a more suitable
forum. (Did find one web-based that looked useful but half-dozen failed
attempts at registering ran me off... )
You don't say what station you are using or what software. I assume
it is a Vantage Pro 2 and you are using WeatherLink. There are lots
of forums out there covering these devices. The Davis site, itself,
has a lot of information. Make sure you go the correct site, though.
www.davisnet.com is their site. www.davis.com is NOT. One forum I
use is the Yahoo vantagepro group. It is active from time to time,
but not in the last few weeks.

Regarding your actual problem, I use a number of weatherlink features
including uploading to my own website, but I have never tried
uploading to weather underground.

On 1/9/2012 2:26 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:15:15 -0600, wrote:
....

You don't say what station you are using or what software. I assume
it is a Vantage Pro 2 and you are using WeatherLink. There are lots
of forums out there covering these devices. The Davis site, itself,
has a lot of information. Make sure you go the correct site, though.
www.davisnet.com is their site. www.davis.com is NOT. One forum I
use is the Yahoo vantagepro group. It is active from time to time,
but not in the last few weeks.

Sorry, mea culpa...

Vantage VUE w/ Weatherlink

Regarding DavisNet, this is the link I found...

http://www.davisnet.com/support/weather/

It has a FAQ section which didn't seem to address the question other
than pass the buck. I didn't find any user interactive forum link; did
I miss it?

If there are some other forums I'd appreciate any link(s) you're aware
of. As said, my search found only one and it's signup/registration page
defeated my patience. It did have a number of similar related
queries on the link w/ Wunderground but not the specific symptoms quite
that I'm seeing.

I'm not terribly interested in posting a page of my own I think altho I
supposed that would be a possibility I have no interest in keeping up
anything and was just looking for the link for the grandkids who are far
away to see what the farm conditions are and it's the site I typically
use otherwise...

--


Regarding your actual problem, I use a number of weatherlink features
including uploading to my own website, but I have never tried
uploading to weather underground.

On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:36:35 -0600, dpb wrote:



If there are some other forums I'd appreciate any link(s) you're aware
of. As said, my search found only one and it's signup/registration page
defeated my patience.
How about WXForum.net? Which one did you try? There are also forums
for some of the competing software like www.weather-display.com. They
sometimes discuss other software (although it usually what they
dislike about it).

On 1/9/2012 2:50 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:36:35 -0600, wrote:



If there are some other forums I'd appreciate any link(s) you're aware
of. As said, my search found only one and it's signup/registration page
defeated my patience.
How about WXForum.net?...

That was it...I could never get past all the registration folderol.

--

On 2012-01-10, dpb wrote:

That was it...I could never get past all the registration folderol.

It occurs to me, Wunderground, which I assume you are referring to,
has some rather stringetnt requirements, not jes letting any ol'
tom/dich/harry become an included station. We have an iffy station
listed on Wunderground which is sometimes online and other, not. Not
reassuring and not sure why Wunderground keeps them.

That said, I hope you get it sorted out, as I think the more stations,
the better. I also hope yer station equipment holds up. For the
price, I've heard some rather discouraging feedback on Davis and am no
longer enamored with that option. For ppl considering an equipment
purchase, a rather unlikely, but not suprising, review source is ham
radio fans. Check it out:

http://tinyurl.com/7rxwwfj

Good luck,
nb

--
vi --the root of evil

On 1/9/2012 7:05 PM, notbob wrote:
....

It occurs to me, Wunderground, which I assume you are referring to,
has some rather stringetnt requirements, not jes letting any ol'
tom/dich/harry become an included station. We have an iffy station
listed on Wunderground which is sometimes online and other, not. Not
reassuring and not sure why Wunderground keeps them.

AFAICT there's no restriction by Wunderground regarding uploading any
station that has a compatible software link. Those are "PWS" stations.
There are some reqm'ts to get on the NOAA MADIS network, but I've not
yet futzed around to see just what it takes there.



That said, I hope you get it sorted out, as I think the more stations,
the better. I also hope yer station equipment holds up. For the
price, I've heard some rather discouraging feedback on Davis and am no
longer enamored with that option. For ppl considering an equipment
purchase, a rather unlikely, but not suprising, review source is ham
radio fans. Check it out:

http://tinyurl.com/7rxwwfj



The problem I've had w/ staying connected to Wunderground seems to be
totally related simply keeping an absolute time synch; get even a few
seconds behind and Wunderground doesn't show the data on the upload as
current if the minute hasn't flipped when it's time--the data goes into
some archive that I've never figured how to get to rather than the
current view and the station looks like it's not responding even though
the communication is continuing.

My frustration w/ the Davis end is there seems to be no way to set the
clock that accurately; the firmware response is slow and seems also to
be variable and the only way to set that I've found is manually. So, I
can get it close enough on the right side and it'll function fine for
some period of time then drift seems to cause a time mismatch and it'll
never recover until reset the time on the Davis console. I ain't got
the patience to keep this up. Unless others have figured out a way
around the problem I'm seeing I can understand the large number of
unresponsive stations.

My son got this for me and did all the digging into it so I can only
hope he made a smart choice. He did a bunch of installations for a
research installation of some sort in the Raleigh area but they were
$10k/station kind of things; obviously out of the question for the
purpose here.

I'm going to have to move it; the silo and barn appear to be blocking
wind far more than I thought they would where I put it first (it was
convenient more than anything and I didn't want yet another pole
somewhere to have to go around so it's on a post on the loading chute at
the moment only about 100-ft away from the 60-ft silo.

When it dries out enough I can get the manlift down there w/o getting
stuck I may try sticking it on the top of the light pole down in the
feedlot; that'll be pushing the communications distance probably, though
as the elevator and Butler bin are in between. Amazing w/ all the area
out here there doesn't seem a good place to put it...

--

On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:26:35 -0500, wrote:

but I have never tried
uploading to weather underground.

I think you have to download to weather underground.

On 2012-01-10, dpb wrote:

as the elevator and Butler bin are in between. Amazing w/ all the area
out here there doesn't seem a good place to put it...

I think whatever you can do is good enough. Micro climates being what
they are, jes measure what you have and want to see. Definitely
locate the anemometer in the most optimum wind location, wherever the felt
wind is the most prominent.

nb

--
vi --the root of evil

On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:08:36 -0600, dpb wrote:

On 1/9/2012 2:50 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:36:35 -0600, wrote:



If there are some other forums I'd appreciate any link(s) you're aware
of. As said, my search found only one and it's signup/registration page
defeated my patience.
How about WXForum.net?...

That was it...I could never get past all the registration folderol.
For what it's worth, WXForum.net worked for me using IE 9.

On 1/10/2012 6:19 AM, wrote:
On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:08:36 -0600, wrote:

On 1/9/2012 2:50 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:36:35 -0600, wrote:



If there are some other forums I'd appreciate any link(s) you're aware
of. As said, my search found only one and it's signup/registration page
defeated my patience.
How about WXForum.net?...

That was it...I could never get past all the registration folderol.
For what it's worth, WXForum.net worked for me using IE 9.

It "worked" only too well for me. After about a half-dozen trials
trying to figure out what the silly-looking munged-on characters are
supposed to be only to be told my best guess wasn't it, I finally got
another step farther and then it didn't like something else. I gave up.

--

On 1/9/2012 10:31 PM, notbob wrote:
On 2012-01-10, wrote:

as the elevator and Butler bin are in between. Amazing w/ all the area
out here there doesn't seem a good place to put it...

I think whatever you can do is good enough. Micro climates being what
they are, jes measure what you have and want to see. Definitely
locate the anemometer in the most optimum wind location, wherever the felt
wind is the most prominent.

Well, depends on what you want. I see no point in it at all unless
values are at least reasonably accurate. We had 30-40 sustained gusts
to 60+ last Saturday and in the location it is sitting it registered
only in the 20's on average w/ one gust of 59 mph.

The wind was from the NW and while I figured was going to be far enough
from barn and silo to not be shielded too much, either it was or the
anemometer isn't up to W KS (altho is supposed rated to 100+ mph).

So, I'm going to at least try it some other place(s)...

BTW, for some reason the Wunderground link has survived overnight now
for some reason...guess we'll see how it does for a while.

I sent query to Davis time synch'ing and how they recommend
accomplishing same and why don't use a time-server in the firmware to do
it. See if they respond w/ anything useful in addition.

--

On 1/10/2012 6:19 AM, wrote:
On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:08:36 -0600, wrote:
On 1/9/2012 2:50 PM, wrote:
....

How about WXForum.net?...

That was it...I could never get past all the registration folderol.
For what it's worth, WXForum.net worked for me using IE 9.

Well, I tried again this morning. Only took another two tries before it
finally let me in. I don't know if it's just me or what, but I can't
decipher what those funky characters are supposed to be for love nor
money...

Thanks for the info; guess I'll find out if there's any joy to be had
there.

--

On 1/10/2012 12:07 PM, dpb wrote:
On 1/10/2012 6:19 AM, wrote:
On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:08:36 -0600, wrote:
On 1/9/2012 2:50 PM, wrote:
...

How about WXForum.net?...

That was it...I could never get past all the registration folderol.
For what it's worth, WXForum.net worked for me using IE 9.

Well, I tried again this morning. Only took another two tries before it
finally let me in. I don't know if it's just me or what, but I can't
decipher what those funky characters are supposed to be for love nor
money...

Thanks for the info; guess I'll find out if there's any joy to be had
there.

--

there's usually a button that will speak it aloud for you