Advice for new Davis VP2 Owner Please

[Madcodger]

Well, I just found out that Santa is bringing me a Davis Vantage Pro 2 wireless for Christmas, which I've wanted for a couple of years now but was too cheap to buy for myself. So, now I have to figure out how to interface it with Homeseer, and thought I'd ask my friends on the board for advice, if you don't mind.

I know there is a VWS plugin but it seemed as if some folks were having trouble with it. I also know Rupp and others used Weather Display, and Davis of course touts their own WeatherLink software. But which, or some other, is best?

I plan to do three main things with the station and related weather info:

1) Make the data available on the net for anyone that wants to see it, so friends and relatives can access it without going to my Homeseer site.

2) Make the data available to Homeseer so that various events can make use of it.

3) Add in a webcam so that people accessing the site for #1, above, can see the weather in our backyard. Again, I don't necessarily want them accessing my Homeseer site.

So... What's the latest advice on weather software that will do each of these with HS and a Davis VP2? And while I'm at it, what about melting snow / ice off the rain guage?

Thanks in advance for your ideas and thoughts.

Joe

[lhfarm]

First, you are going to love the Davis station. I went thorough 2 other stations before I gave in a couple of years ago. Rock solid.

Everything you want to do is built in to Weather Display. It comes with the scripts to populate HS devices and you can do anything you want with them. I just added all the weather station data to my HSTouch forecast page. It builds Web pages that it also FTPs to my ISP Web site.

As far as the ice/snow question, there are a bunch of guys on the Weather Display forum who would love to discuss that.

Have fun!
Barry

[lpitman]

Most applications and plug-ins offer a trial period. My suggestion is to test drive the applications available and judge for yourself which one you are most satisfied with, then test the plug-ins available for that platform.

It doesn't cost anything to trial.

[Uncle Michael]

So, now I have to figure out how to interface it with Homeseer, and thought I'd ask my friends on the board for advice, if you don't mind. I know there is a VWS plugin but it seemed as if some folks were having trouble with it. I also know Rupp and others used Weather Display, and Davis of course touts their own WeatherLink software. But which, or some other, is best?

Joe,
I hope you don't mind if I piggy back on your request with what may be a stupid question. Specifically, the information from Davis seems to imply that Weather Link is required to interface to a computer. Am I misinterpreting? Can VWS, for instance, collect data from the Vantage Pro 2 directly without Weather Link?

[neiltimms]

Joe,
I hope you don't mind if I piggy back on your request with what may be a stupid question. Specifically, the information from Davis seems to imply that Weather Link is required to interface to a computer. Am I misinterpreting? Can VWS, for instance, collect data from the Vantage Pro 2 directly without Weather Link?

Mike, i use VWS with my Vantage Pro 2. I do not even have Weather link installed. It works perfectly for me. I use the free VWSCSV plugin to get the data into HS.

[Madcodger]

Thanks for the replies, gents, and no problem at all w/ piggybacking, Mike.

Neil - I assume, though, that you need some type of interface hardware, correct? Must that be the Davis data logger, or are their alternatives?

Also - Assuming the Davis data logger interface is needed, does anyone have experience with the USB vs. serial version? I'm considering going to a small form factor HS machine in the near future, and already need two serial ports so would prefer to use USB if it works reliably with HS.

[lhfarm]

I don't have experience with the USB version, because at the time I got my station, users were recommending that you go serial. That has been a couple of years, but I'd do a search of the many weather forums, just to see what is going on. I've run the station on a USB-serial converter without any problems.

Barry

[neiltimms]

Neil - I assume, though, that you need some type of interface hardware, correct? Must that be the Davis data logger, or are their alternatives?

Yes, i think you will need the davis data logger with any of the software to get the data from the station to the PC. I do not know of any other way of doing this.

[Rupp]

Yes you must have the data logger to access the data stream. I've had the serial data logger for nearly a year and a half along with Weather Display and it's been up as long as 94 days until our recent brown out that took the PC off line for 3 hours. This station is so stable that I've forgotten how I even set it up.

[Madcodger]

Thanks, gents. Counting down the days!

Joe

[Madcodger]

So, another dumb question...

My HS PC is in a utility closet on the basement level. But I'd rather hook up the Davis receiver with the data logger upstairs, near another PC that I use (I want to see the screen, etc., even if I do have it all fed into HS). Will Weather Display, or VWS, or WeatherLink (something) allow me to "feed" the data to the HS machine via my network with this setup?

And if one of these software packages will allow it, does anyone know if one or all of these will run on Vista 64 Bit? The PC I'd like to use runs that...

Thanks,

Joe

[lhfarm]

I have Weather Display (and the weather station) on my kitchen machine and that drive mapped on my HS machine. No problems.

Barry

[Madcodger]

I have Weather Display (and the weather station) on my kitchen machine and that drive mapped on my HS machine. No problems.

Barry

Thanks, Barry.

Great to know, as that's exactly what I want to do.

Joe

[Kbevo]

Davis newbee...

Everything you want to do is built in to Weather Display. It comes with the scripts to populate HS devices and you can do anything you want with them...

I have Weather Display (and the weather station) on my kitchen machine and that drive mapped on my HS machine. No problems. Barry

In this configuration, where do you install Weather Display? I assume WD would need to run on the kitchen machine? Do the scripts also build the devices on the HS machine (in addition to populating them)?

What format (CSV?) is the WD data created on the mapped Kitchen drive?

Thanks
Gary

[lhfarm]

In this configuration, where do you install Weather Display? I assume WD would need to run on the kitchen machine? Do the scripts also build the devices on the HS machine (in addition to populating them)?

What format (CSV?) is the WD data created on the mapped Kitchen drive?

Thanks
Gary

I've since replaced my kitchen machine and moved the weather station and WD to my HS box. All I had to do for the change was point HS back to the local drive. But to answer your question, yes, I had my Davis station attached to the kitchen PC and Weather Display installed on that box. The HS interface scripts create the devices the first time you run them and yes, they are CSV files.

Barry