Cumulus Support

I have purchased a new adaptor fitted with FTDI chipset. Worked straight out of box with no intervention other than setting COM port. http://www.usbnow.co.uk/p48/USB_to_RS23 ... _info.html

any real advantage to this ?. as I never seem to have issues with USB.

scientistuk wrote:any real advantage to this ?. as I never seem to have issues with USB.

It's not for USB stations, it's for serial stations (like the WS2300) where the PC doesn't have a serial port.

ah ok

I have given up as of last weekend on the La Crosse WS 2350 and its continuous connection stuff ups. Yes you get the famous serial to USB adaptor which works for up to ten minutes and the the "live" exterior data goes off line until you unplug the serial cable.

I thought the WS 2350 with heavy weather was going to be an enjoyment...NOT Even with Cumulus it crashes and good luck with Vista and clearing the blocked COM ports it creates for no reason. Oh and when the Serial to USB decides to not connect, you disconnect and reconnect a couple of time before it suddenly decides to talk to you computer. Worst piece of hardware//software incompatibility I ever known

My solution....told the wife that I would look after my Christmas present and I have bought a Davis Vantage Vue plus the USB data logger.

La Crosse cannot be seen to reliable if the Heavy weather has been in "Beta" version for how many years ! How come they have not created a direct USB version.

In my other life working for free on astro telescope drivers, we often have people with USB to serial convertor 'issues'. Our recommendation is always to go with a unit based on the FTDI chipset, these work without any problems in every case so far - they have a larger internal buffer and normally have better drivers. The Prolific based ones seem to be very variable in quality of hardware and drivers, and the chipset itself is inferior (but much cheaper).

One other thing people can check is that even modern motherboards usually have a serial port header on the MoBo - it's just that they have no physicaly connection to the outside world.

I have installed 4 MoBo's around here recently - 3 ASUS and one GigaByte - all reasonably mid-high end boards (the latest on the server with USB3 - even though I have no USB3 devices!) - and ALL of them have a serial header. Get a header to serial cable and viola! On board working serial port on the back of the PC case in less than 5 minutes.

No messing around (just ensure COM1 is activated in the BIOS), restart the OS and even under Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (both 64 bit OS's) the serial ports are all working like a charm. The server has the weather station, Windows 7 connects to my blood-glucose meter.

Yes, my most recent AMD64X2 MB has a serial header. The only box I have that doesn't have any serial is the Mac laptop.

Yes Serowe. I build computers using mostly Asus MBd's and all have the Serial. I only hook it up if required by the customer. Some even have a Parallel Port header onboard.

I have just had the ame problem with my Davis Vantage Pro data logger. Brought a new computer running on Windows 7 and it seems that most new computers seem to come without a 9 pin serial port. I brought a cheap cable off e-bay but no way would it work even with the latest drvers. I then came across an adapter on the internet for a 9 pin adapter. It put another £30 o top of the price of the computer but it solved the problem, downloaded the drivers that you have to get from their website and plugged it in and it worked first time. Here is a link to the site where you can get the details of the adapter from.
It is well made and solves the problem of np 9 pin socket for you data logger.

http://www.easysync-ltd.com/

Paul Newhall Weather Station

What you have bought, though, is a USB to Serial converter. As mentioned before many motherboards already have a serial 'header' on the mother board - specialist computer shops usually stock these header cables to enable you to connect the serial port up.

BUT the header needs to be enabled in the BIOS before you can use it - it doesn't matter what drivers you install, unless the BIOS has enabled the serial header, it ain't gonna work no more Jack They are NOT enabled by default on any of the motherboards I have worked on or installed for clients.

Cost for these connector cables and serial output planewould be under $10 (convert that to pounds for an average price)

The adapter works on an FDTI CHIPSET and gave no problems instaling and getting it to find my data logger. So I was very happy with the product. The stupid thing that I found is that the new motherboards don't even have connections on the board to put a 9 pin comport on the motherboard, it sems that the folks that make them are going backwards as still an awful lot of people still use 9 pin comport connection. I think we should all set up a protest to the makers to put them back on the computer it would save all this hastle.
Paul
Newhall Weather Station

weatherwatcher wrote:The stupid thing that I found is that the new motherboards don't even have connections on the board to put a 9 pin comport on the motherboard, it sems that the folks that make them are going backwards as still an awful lot of people still use 9 pin comport connection.

Paul, I think you are misinformed on that - I recently bought 4 different size/type computers (no Apple in my home/office) and ALL of them had/have a serial port header on the mainboard (motherboard) - one of the mainboard was even produced a few months back (according to the information on that board)...

weatherwatcher wrote:The adapter works on an FDTI CHIPSET and gave no problems instaling and getting it to find my data logger. So I was very happy with the product. The stupid thing that I found is that the new motherboards don't even have connections on the board to put a 9 pin comport on the motherboard, it sems that the folks that make them are going backwards as still an awful lot of people still use 9 pin comport connection. I think we should all set up a protest to the makers to put them back on the computer it would save all this hastle.
Paul
Newhall Weather Station

What motherboard do you have then?

I just picked a new motherboard at random - a http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/pro ... id=4174#spGigabyte GA-780-D3L (rev 4.0) and this one even has a serial port on the back panel...

The motherboard is an Asus P8H61-MX. Not opened the back up but the user manual doesn't show any avialable slots to add a 9 pin socket to the board
Paul.
Newhall Weather Station