WeatherLink "hangs" but only under V VP

This week I am trialling running WeatherLink 5.7.1 plus WD 10.37f using Virtual VP hooked to a Weather Envoy / Logger (original VP system). VVP ver 1.1.4.22 and N8VBvCOM. Silicone Labs driver CP210x ver 4.40.1.0. Win XP Pro SP 2.

At two apparently random times (5 AM Tuesday, then Midday Thursday) WeatherLink has stopped reading data from the Envoy/Logger. WD is completely unaffected.

The WeatherLink log shows no errors, just that logger downloads and website uploads have stopped.

WeatherLink is still running, but constantly using 47% CPU (about 10% max is normal during uploads, 0% at idle). I’ve had WL running as a service (under FireDaemon), so it was impossible to tell if it was ‘not responding’ or exactly what it was trying to do. Restarting WeatherLink resolved the issue for a time.

Virtual VP still showed a green light for WeatherLink, but ‘last heard’ and ‘last sent’ as 5 hours ago (or whatever time). The log for V VP only shows entries like:

31/08/2007 06:06:06:846 PreCondition - TVirtualVp.ReceiveLoop: PreCondition 1 failed

Which seems to coincide with WD synchronising the clocks each morning; and:

31/08/2007 09:00:33:846 Warning - VpConsole: Far too long since last loop = 8.422, last command= Get Live Sensor Data

Which happen from time to time, but don’t ever coincide with WeatherLink “hanging”.

Without V VP, WeatherLink has worked flawlessly for a couple of years (apart from occasionally not recognising the USB logger after a reboot).

I have had V VP set to “Restart Davis USB Data Logger” all along (so including when these “hangs” occurred).
I have since set WeatherLink to ‘interact with desktop’ (still as a service) so I can hopefully see more of what what might be going on if it happens again.

Any other suggestions as to where to look or what might be happening?

Thanks for your help. :slight_smile:

OK, so it happened again last night at 11:00.

WeatherLink had ‘frozen’ downloading the data from the Envoy/Logger.

As you can see from the screenshot below, it wasn’t actually frozen, it had just choked on the download (for 12+ hours!!). When I clicked ‘cancel’, the rest of the upload progressed as per normal. It has been through several download/upload cycles since then without a hitch. (No need for any resets, restarts or anything.)

Again, nothing in any logs (VVP or WL) corresponding to the time of the problem. I should emphasize that this problem only ever happens to WL when it is operating through VVP.

Does this help the diagnosis, or just make it all the more baffling? :?


It happened again this-morning. I’ve attached a screenshot of VVP to show what WL last did -

“Sent response for Get Archive Data Since”

plus the log file - as can be seen nothing at 10:00am when this occurred.

WL hung at a slightly different point today - Transferred 0 of 2, rather than yesterdays 1 of 2.

Once again, Canceling the download fixed the problem instantly, but it hardly makes for a hands-off solution.

sigh


I have the same exact problem. I am also running WxSolution, WeatherDisplay, and WsWin32 and WeatherLink is the only program that hangs. This problem seems to recurr every two weeks or so.

I am using a Vantage Pro II (serial version) with Windows XP (up-to-date service packs).

Thank you,
Fred.

The best thing is to email me the following two files from the VirtualVP folder:
log.txt
archivecache.dat

Babyz, looking at the screen shot of the VVP log has me a little concerned about what’s going on with your system. The amount of “far too long” messages is not what I would like to see. This happens when VVP is expecting to receive live data (LOOP data) from the console, but it never arrives. This is an indicator that something might be bad in the connection, or if you have USB, in the driver. The other two things that can cause these communication dropouts are related to the console being a single tasking operation. Anything that makes the console busy means that communication stops. One thing would be if the wireless reception was bad, and it’s resyncing and generally spending a lot of time working on that. The other (and more common) is if you’re interacting with the console through the console buttons. For instance, if you press the forecast button on the console, the console will stop sending data to the computer until the forecast has finished scrolling across the console display.

Steve
SoftWx

Thanks, Steve.

fcorey, I guess it’s sort of encouraging to know I’m not entirely alone :?

It may well be the USB driver. I’m using the latest one (Silicone Labs driver CP210x ver 4.40.1.0), but I guess that’s no guarantee! I’m also playing with the setup to eliminate the possibility of a dodgy USB lead.

Reception is always over 93% - usually 97%, so hopefully that is not the cause. I’m not sure if the reception percentage includes my leaf/soil station as well as the ISS, but the former is almost on top of the receiver (compared to the ISS), so I think it would have the best reception.

The logger is actually plugged into an Envoy, not a Console; no buttons to push so it should rarely, if ever, be ‘too busy’ to talk to the PC (except during the midnight updates).

We’ll get to the bottom of this somehow … :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Adam.

i have always recommended people to use the serial data logger
(and then get a good quality USB to serial convertor)
no more problems then

I hear you, Windy!

Davis offered to replace mine about 18 months ago “if this latest driver update doesn’t solve the issue”. But I let it slide because the issue I was having at the time did appear to be cured.

I’ve just emailed them again to see if the offer still stands.

And I don’t even need the USB-serial converter :slight_smile: (My ‘antique’ PC has serial ports; fortunately is was so bleeding-edge in all other respects when I built it (8 years ago!), that it still keeps up without breaking a sweat …)

Cheers,
Adam.

My understanding is that the reception value is based solely on the wind sensor. I don’t have any transmitters other than the ISS, so I don’t have personal experience with setups having additional transmitters (such as the leaf/soil station you have, or the anemometer transmitter). It seems possible that having more than one transmitter means more processing for the console/envoy. So maybe that is a possibility for data transmission drops from the console/envoy to the pc. Maybe someone that knows about this can chime in.

I’d have to check the manual, but I think there is a way to display more detailed reception info on the console that includes more info than just the reception value that’s calculated by comparing the number of expected wind packets to the actual number received (which is what the reception value is that’s displayed by weatherlink and all the other weather programs).

Steve
SoftWx

upgraded my linux pc, picked up a new MB…Asus (P5S-Mx SE)and behold it has built in a serial port, so i was pleased about that :slight_smile:

Your understanding of the reception values matches mine, Steve - the number of wind packets received vs number expected in a given time-frame expressed as a %. The “Console Diagnostics” tab under the WeatherLink “Reports” menu is the only other reception info I know of. It gives more detail, but may or may not include the leaf station data - any CRC errors and resynchs from the leaf station may well show up (the WL manual is a bit, err, light sometimes…).

Just now it reports thus:

Console Diagnostics 29/09/07 5:52p Firmware Version: 30/03/04 Total Received: 24881 Total Resynchs: 0 Total Misses: 859 Max in a Row: 378 CRC Errors: 739 % Good: 97% Console Battery: 4.48 V

We’ll see what it’s like in 24 hours (it resets at midnight).

Meanwhile, this-morning (09:15) I removed a 3m USB extension cord and plugged the cable from the Envoy/Logger into the USB hub in my LCD screen (by itself, the cable is → ← this much too short to reach the back of the PC!!). The extension was much longer than required (5.4m total length … oops :oops:), with most of its length coiled up behind the PC. A very silly arrangement in hindsight, but at the time I probably though “that’ll do for now, I’ll buy a correct length cable later”.

But so far (~9 hours later) the VVP log is still totally empty …
(So much so that I had to switch on ‘info’ just to make sure it was working!!)

We’ll see how long it lasts like this :slight_smile: No WeatherLink “Hangings” yet either, but we will have to wait a couple of weeks to be certain that issue is cured. I’m hopeful but a little skeptical as the hangings never coincided timewise with the errors in the VVP log. But fingers crossed :slight_smile:

Edit: Ah. Spoke too soon. Still no entries (at all!) in the VVP log, but WeatherLink just “hung” on the “Transferred 0 of 2” stage (about 8:05pm). I’ll leave it to sit while I have dinner to see if VVP logs anything. :frowning: