Home Weather Station

Bill Arnold

1974
Staff member
Messages
8,622
Location
Thomasville, GA
I'm looking for a decent wireless weather station at a reasonable price ($100-$150). I've had a LaCrosse WS-2317 for several years that still works, but the software crashes Win7. Never had a problem on previous OS versions. There is no update for the software that I've been able to find. I've set it up in several different compatibility modes and have it running as Administrator. I'd like to go with the Davis, but don't want to invest that much in a unit. Any recommendations?

Thanks!
 
Bill, Have you considered running a vmware or virtual box on windows 7? Can install xp or vista as a virtual machine and the software won't know any different. Sounds more difficult than it is, but really isn't any harder than re-installing an OS if you have a copy of one of those to the virtual pc. The vmware and virtualbox software is free.

https://www.virtualbox.org/

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
 
Bill, Have you considered running a vmware or virtual box on windows 7? ...

I was wondering if I could set up a virtual machine as you describe. I'll look into those and see what happens.

It's always been amazing to me that no matter what Microsoft says about new OS's, they always manage to screw up something. I had no issue with the weather station software running on anything prior to Win7!!!!! So much for all of its improvements! Unfortunately, my previous machines with previous OS versions all died. :dunno:
 
I've used virtual box and it really works great for some things. I was able to make a live copy of my old xp computer and access when I found out i had forgotten to pull some much needed software over.

IT's worth a shot! (cheaper than 150 or 300 bucks!)
 
Just curious. Is the weather station a serial connected device? If so, are you using a serial to usb adapter with it?

Yes, on both. Could that cause this problem? I had read that a Serial/USB adaptor could create an issue with data handling, but all data is being transferred as it should be.
 
Bill i have had several experiences with these serial to usb adapters. Given their cost its well worth trying a few different brands. I cannot say one particular brand has solved all my issues. In many cases they pretty much no name brands.
What version of windows 7 are you running? I have had no problem getting old programs to run on windows 7 pro. I only did it after looking into my processor and ensuring it was compatible with the features that allow one to run the windows Xp virtual machine.
I dont know which way you want to go but that is another option you may want to look at if you have other legacy software.

Touch wood so far i have been able to get everything old i wanted to run.

As to Weather stations well i have the unit Davis unit that you indicated you wanted to avoid. I have not yet installed software to speak to the console unit that comeswith the Davis station. But the station itself has given me no issues at all. Sofware is on my long to do list. :)

Best of luck getting your issue sorted.
 
Yes, on both. Could that cause this problem? I had read that a Serial/USB adapter could create an issue with data handling, but all data is being transferred as it should be.

Well you said it "crashes win7", which to me sounds more like a hardware conflict than software. I assume you were getting a blue screen or something is locking up to the point windows isn't responsive? If so, then I'd point the finger at the usb/serial device or it's drivers and perhaps the weather software conflicting with those.

You might search for a different driver to see if it resolves the issue...

http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/79631-windows-shuts-down-when-using-usb-serial.html

Edit: If you need help finding drivers, let me know who makes the usb/serial adapter and the model number and we'll see what we can come up with.
 
I'll try to catch up with the questions now.

HP p7-1108p running Windows 7b Home Premium (64bit)
AMD A4-3400 APU
6GB RAM

Cables To Go 26886 USB To DB9 Male Serial Adapter

LaCrosse Heavy Weather software

The software will link to the base unit, begin retrieving the data and display it on screen. Next, it retrieves stored data records (I have it set to record a set every hour). If I shut it down after retrieving the stored data, there's no problem. If I let it keep running, I get a blue screen and it says it's creating a mini-dump. If I'm not here when the blue screen kicks up, the computer reboots.
 
pretty much all usb/serial converters use either the ftdi or prolific chip set to do the heavy lifting. You probably just need a current driver for win 7. You can get a generic prolific one at http://www.prolific.com.tw/US/CustomerLogin.aspx and a generic ftdi one at http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

Looks like that adapter uses the Prolific PL2303HX Chipset (according to google results), so go to http://www.prolific.com.tw/US/CustomerLogin.aspx

Login as user "GUEST" with a password of "guest" (no quotes on either)

Click on the Support tab at the top.

Click on the link for PL2303 USB to Serial Drivers.

Download/install the latest Windows 7 drivers and see if that helps. You may have to un-install the current drivers to get these to install.


I'm assuming that the adapter is probably the issue. If you're still having issues I'll see if I can walk you through getting the mini-dump from the crash so we can see what it is logging as the error.

Edit: If we find the adapter is the issue and not resolved by new drivers, the next step would be to get an adapter with the ftdi chipset instead. I've seen several posts about windows 7 crashing due to bad drivers, but more with the current chipset you've got. For what it's worth I had a gps device that I just loaded the PL2303 drivers on a windows 7 computer and haven't had any issues with it yet, but haven't ran it through the ringer either.
 
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