Cumulus Support

I am a newbe in this forum

I am considering to have the WS-2350 with USB connection (marked as NEW at La Crosse home) - it seems to be a fair compromise between low end units and Davis.

After reading many of the subjects in this forum, I am a bit concerned about the mentioned problem with RS-232/USB adapters (occasionally loosing data).

So - has La Crosse just included such an adapter or has the station been modified to be a true USB interface?

After been surfing around on the subject 'Weather Stations' a have seen quite a lot of weather station home pages, but far from one as Cumulus in terms of simplicity and good design - I am very much impressed.

I don't think the WS-2350 is new - in fact it seems to have been replaced now by the WS-2355? And that one also seems to have the USB/serial adapter interface.

I have to admit that I don't have any real experience of the La Crosse units, but I don't really understand what advantages they offer over the Fine Offset stations, given that they are twice the price?

Hi Steve and thank's your speedy replay.

It seems also to me that the current model is WS-2355.

I favor the Le Crosse model because I can cable the system together incuding the display and that the units can separated with up to 10 meters of cable (and probably more using better cable).

But I do agree - it's some what more expensive than Fine Offset's (58 percent WS-2355 and WH-1081 here in Denmark.

I will most probably go for the Le Crosse and then install Cumulus and se how it goes and subsequently report back to you.

I also need e bit of advice:
The idea is to make a small WEB server including a single WEB Cam as many other users of Cumulus have done - is your software what is needed to implement that (besides Windows off course)?

Best regards

Ole

Olejul wrote:The idea is to make a small WEB server including a single WEB Cam as many other users of Cumulus have done - is your software what is needed to implement that (besides Windows off course)?

I haven't made my webcam software available, because I've lost the source code, so I can't support it. I know that there are some reasonable free offerings out there, but I'm a bit out of touch with exactly what's available now as I'm not using a webcam myself just now.

I'm using the WS-2350 with a Belkin Serial to USB adaptor, and as far as I can tell, I have had zero problems with data loss due to the adaptor in 3 months of use.
Loss of data over the 60m of wireless transmission between outdoor sensor and base unit is however a problem. It can be good for many days then there will be a half or one hour gap.

One of my reasons to choose WS-2355, is the possibility to have wireless substituded with cabling.

I intend to use shielded Cat5 and use the 8 leads with 4 in parallel for ground, 2 in parallel for supply and rest for signal.

It's nice to hear your USB adapter seems to cause no trouble - that has bothered me a bit reading all the entries about that problem in the forum.

Best regards

Ole

I'm thinking of going to cable myself, not least to stop the missing data. Another feature is that the outside data only gets transmitted every 128 seconds via wireless, but every 8 seconds via a cable. I'm sick of seeing strong wind gusts blowing trees around, while my LaCrosse tells me its a gentle 10km/hr breeze! By the time the weather station decides it might be time to check the wind again, the gust has passed.
I'm not sure if 60m is too far to run a cable though.

Hi Gordon.

Look at http://www.lavrsen.dk/sources/weather/windmod.htm
It's a very clear description on how to use Cat5 cable.
The description is aimed for the wind sensor, but I don't see why it should not do the job between the sensors and the display - that's what I intend to do.
The crimp tool could be avoided by cutting the original cable and solder the leads together according the instruction.
Concerning 60 meters - it might on the high limit but it's worthwhile to give it a try.
Could be an idea to test with say 50 percent longer - if that works 60 meters would definately also do.
The higher update rate is a very important fringe benefit.
It would have been nice if the aneometer stored the maximum gust in between the data transmissions.

Thanks for that URL Ole, I'll give it a try

HI owner WS23xx

I have changed cable between PC & base station and base station & termo sensor with shielded cable.
Cable between ext. sensor and anemometer are flat black telephonic cable 6 wire - 35m !!! .
One or two errors / week ( OFL or 91,8km ).
Connection base and PC are serial. Not USB. I have original adapter from LaCrosse but I don`t like it.
PC are HP NC-4200 with docking station ( serial port ).

Mike