Splitting a FO signal

TideMan · Post by **TideMan** » Wed 24 Aug 2016 11:45 pm

I'm converting from Cumulus v1.9.4 on an old (and rickety) Win XP m/c to Cumulus MX on an RPi3.
What I'd like to do is to run both systems together for a while until I see that the new system works OK, then ditch the old one.
To do that, I'd need to split the signal from the FO console. Is that possible?

VTHokie74 · Post by **VTHokie74** » Thu 25 Aug 2016 12:53 am

I have never heard of splitting a USB device connection between two computers, which is what you are wanting to do. I think once you get your FO station working on the RP3 there would be no reason to go back. I moved my Davis station from a similar old Dell laptop running Windows XP to a RP3 almost two months ago and have had 100% up time other than two power failures at my house. I installed the start stop script so that CMX runs when the RP3 boots now.

TideMan · Post by **TideMan** » Thu 25 Aug 2016 2:53 am

Well, I just tried it using a USB hub, but it didn't work.
I lack the electronic knowledge to understand why.

jim-easterbrook · Post by **jim-easterbrook** » Thu 25 Aug 2016 7:25 am

The weather station doesn't passively emit a signal that the computer listens to, it's actively "interrogated" by the computer. Sharing the station (or any other USB device) between two computers would require the computers to cooperate to ensure they didn't both try and talk to it at the same time.

mcrossley · Post by **mcrossley** » Thu 25 Aug 2016 8:04 am

The only way to do this that I know of is to buy a second console. Two consoles will happy receive the transmission from a single transmitter (they are just passive receivers).

TideMan · Post by **TideMan** » Thu 25 Aug 2016 8:07 pm

jim-easterbrook wrote:The weather station doesn't passively emit a signal that the computer listens to, it's actively "interrogated" by the computer. Sharing the station (or any other USB device) between two computers would require the computers to cooperate to ensure they didn't both try and talk to it at the same time.

Thanks, Jim. I didn't realise that it was interrogated, rather than broadcasting its information.

philcdav · Post by **philcdav** » Sat 27 Aug 2016 7:30 pm

Try connecting each USB connection for 12 hours, shutting the 'other' unit down in between.

Cumulus downloads data from the console and catches up.

This certainly worked for me when i ran Easy Weather and Cumulus softwares.

You can't run them together from 1 USB connection but this worked for me.

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Splitting a FO signal

Splitting a FO signal

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