I’ve run into strange problem with my Davis VP2 and WD 10.37S147 (Win10).
On starting WD has begun to sit for about an hour before displaying the data logger download progress dialog and starting to log live data.
Before the data logger dialog appears the WD interface is still responsive (menus open, options can be selected etc).
The problem is that live data occurring in this waiting period is lost.
I’ve power cycled the PC and the VP2 console, checked the USB cabling and reseated the data logger but with no joy. The Silicon Labs virtual COM port device driver had not changed. I’ve tried updating the driver to the latest version but the problem persists. I’ve been running WD 10.37S147 since March.
The VP2 is 9 years old and I’m wondering if the data logger has developed a hardware fault.
I don’t have a data logger and have never had one but have you tried resetting the logger. There may be a corrupt old record stuck in it that’s confusing the way WD reads the data.
You can clear the data logger archive by going to: Control Panel > Data Logger > click on the “Clear Archive Now” button.
Also, make sure the logging interval is set to 1 minute and the baud rate on the console matches what’s set in Control Panel > Station Type & Settings > Davis tab - I have mine set to 19200, which is the default.
If none of this works, when you start WD, go to Action > Extract data from Davis VP Data Logger and you shouldn’t loose any data.
Lastly, have a look in View > Station Setup / Data Reports > Program Debug Info and see if there are any clues in there why the data logger download is taking so long.
I’ve been working through the suggestions but with no success so far.
I did establish that I can communicate directly with the datalogger using the PuTTY terminal emulator and a copy of the VP2 Serial Communication Reference Manual. This allowed me to examine the data records stored by the logger but I haven’t had the opportunity to complete this work.
I was just about to migrate WD from a Windows 10 PC to a new Windows 11 PC when this problem started. The Windows 10 PC had started to get a bit flakey so I’ve migrated regardless (upgrading to WD 10.37S149 in the process). Unfortunately, the problem has migrated too so I’ll continue to investigate it and post what I find.
I think the problem is with your Davis console/datalogger. I would hard reset both the console and datalogger. Remove mains power from the console, then remove the batteries and remove the datalogger. Wait 15 minutes then re-insert datalogger, re-install batteries, connect mains power to the console. Re-program the console. Verify if the problem persists.
I have also had problems with Weatherdisplay lately.
Within the last two weeks WD has stopped receiving data from my Vantage Pro 2 station twice.
The WD screen freezes on my computer and I am unable to access the “Setup” tab or the “Save & Exit” tab.
Data from the station is being received by the Davis console and my WLL. and the logger looks fine.
No idea why WD delays the missed data import. I would suspect the datalogger as the culprit but I don’t know how to prove it. WD does do a check before the import starts…not sure how WD does it, probably with the logfile, to see if there has been at least 3 minutes since WD received data. If not 3 minutes WD reports “time period to short” and will skip the import. Run your logfile thru the logfile checker to verify no issues. WD writes to the logfile once per minute, so each days logfile should contain 1440 lines.
Davis download info is stored in the wdisplay.ini and is stored every 10 minutes I believe in there when WD is running or is updated when the backup runs or the program is saved and closed
When you start WD it looks in the ini file for the Davis download info to see how old the data if and if it needs to import data to update things
[Extract the vp data at startup]
last setup width=551
last setup height=559
last setup top=104
last setup left=104
loggin interval=1
send ok dely=500
data pad out=1
clear vp daily=no
set vp time daily=no
use=yes
I don’t know if this has anything to do with it but make sure the time on the console is within a minute or 2 of the pc running WD. Normally a pc is NTP timed and the consoles seem to really wander after years etc. I had issues years back when the times were mismatched.
I check the monthly data log files when they are complete. Prior to this month I regularly saw a small number of missing records (typically <10) per month, occurring mostly as single missing records . As this loss amounted to a couple of hundredths of one percent I’ve never worried unduly, guessing it was caused resource conflicts when the PC got busy. For the current data log I’m now seeing 40-59 lost records whenever I restart WD.