Problems with station communication: USB locks up completely

[AllyCat]

Hi,

This is not a problem I've experienced myself (yet?), but perhaps it's worth cross-linking to this post in the "Homebuilt" section, since it reports some information coming directly from the manufacturer.

IMHO, it does seem a rather "strange" modification, but it might be worth a trial by anyone "comfortable" with electronics hardware, if they are still experiencing USB lockup issues.

Cheers, Alan.

[odintheterrible]

Greetings one and all ...

This IS an issue that I can identify with as it DID happen to me from the outset of installing my Fine Offset based station.

The 'fix' for this which is supported in the Cumulus software settings, "Synchronise Fine Offset Reads" does appear to work as since I selected this option, I have not experience any further lock-ups.

However, before I discovered this, I wrote to the manufacturers and actually got a reply ... in which they admitted that there was a problem with the later models of the system which they knew about ... and which they had made a suggestion on how to resolve the issue.

I won't duplicate my original post as it's quite lengthy due to the pictures, but if anyone is interested, then I suggest you look at the original post which can be found here: https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=10510

Like I said, I found the setting in the Cumulus software whilst waiting for this so have not had the need to try it out ... but it may help someone.

Good luck

[StuartB]

I thought I had sorted out the USB lockup on my first install, on WinXP. I had initially installed Easyweather, but then didn't use again as I was then going to be using Cumulus.

I initially suffered from lockups every few days until installing what was then a beta version of Cumulus, which had the option synchronize Fine Offset reads. Then no more lockups!

Recently I migrated to Windows 7. I followed the FAQ for migration of the Cumulus folder and I could then see all my old data settings etc and I ensured that Cumulus (now not beta) had the Synchronize Fine Offset Reads ticked.

I am now getting lockups, every 6 to 14 days.
The station itself remains responsive to touch screen commands and the data on it remains up to date, but the data within Cumulus remains constant, and if I view a Select-A-Graph then I can see flat lines when the station/software has locked up.

I did ensure that the USB settings weren't going to sleep under Power Management.

Once I did notice that the station lockup coincided with another USB plug being inserted into the adjacent socket but sometimes it is locking for no reason.

I have done a full reset on the weather station too.

Just wondering if I have missed a step - for example should I have installed Easyweather on Windows 7 even though I will not be using it?

In my station settings within Cumulus, I have data logging set to 1 minute, a tick under Synchronize Fine Offset Reads, EasyWeather interval is set to 0.000 with no dat file specified.
Stuart

[steve]

You don't need Easyweather installed. If you zip up the diags folder and attach it, I can check that Cumulus is actually doing the synchronising. Beyond that, I have nothing to suggest that you haven't tried already.

[jim-easterbrook]

The station itself remains responsive to touch screen commands and the data on it remains up to date

When my stations lock up the console appears to be responsive, but you can't view stored records. Normally touching the memory circle starts the '+' and '-' buttons flashing and you use them to step back through the stored data. When it's locked up touching the memory circle produces a beep but no flashing '+' and '-'.

[StuartB]

You don't need Easyweather installed. If you zip up the diags folder and attach it, I can check that Cumulus is actually doing the synchronising. Beyond that, I have nothing to suggest that you haven't tried already.

OK Steve here are the files. The 24th-29th Oct were locked up and another lockup started late 3rd Nov.

Cheers
Stuart

[steve]

It seems to be doing the synchronisation, but you are getting quite large drifts on the clocks; often over 20 seconds per day, if Cumulus is calculating it correctly. This is likely to stop the synchronisation code working correctly.

[StuartB]

Thanks Steve. Wonder if the batteries on the station need changed - they seemed to be lasting a long time for rechargeables and it isn't clear if the station is getting power from the USB in their place.

Or do you mean that the PC clock is drifting?

Stuart

[steve]

Good question. It can only compare the console and sensor update intervals with the PC clock, so all it can say is that they are drifting relative to each other.

[StuartB]

Hi Steve.

Are you referring to the differences between sensor and station clock in the diag file?

I've just restarted Cumulus and both station and Windows say the time is 23:38.
The diag file just created says

04/11/2013 23:38:46.150 : Read today file: Date = 04/11/2013, LastUpdateTime = 04/11/2013 23:38:00, Month = 11
04/11/2013 23:38:46.161 : Sensor clock 11:04:52
04/11/2013 23:38:46.161 : Station clock 11:23:00.

I've had a look at the diag files from the old XP install and there is a similar difference there.
e.g.
11/09/2013 18:28:07.515 : Read today file: Date = 11/09/2013, LastUpdateTime = 11/09/2013 17:14:00, Month = 9
11/09/2013 18:28:07.515 : Sensor clock 17:43:43
11/09/2013 18:28:07.515 : Station clock 18:02:58

Not sure what the sensor clock is, I thought the sensors would just broadcast the data and the station would timestamp it.

Looking at the exact time that today.ini is written to, on the XP install these were every minute, at between 0.5 and 1.1s past the minute, so not a drift but just a random variation.
For example
11/09/2013 19:11:01.093 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 11/09/2013 19:11:00 raindaystart = 449.100006103516 rain counter = 454.200012207031
11/09/2013 19:11:01.093 : Latest reading: CCC0: Data: 06 3A F4 00 61 90 00 C5 26 00 00 00 00 EA 05 00
11/09/2013 19:12:00.296 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 11/09/2013 19:12:00 raindaystart = 449.100006103516 rain counter = 454.200012207031
11/09/2013 19:12:00.296 : Latest reading: CCC0: Data: 07 3B F4 00 61 90 00 C6 26 00 00 00 00 EA 05 00
11/09/2013 19:13:00.515 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 11/09/2013 19:13:00 raindaystart = 449.100006103516 rain counter = 454.200012207031
11/09/2013 19:13:00.515 : Latest reading: CCC0: Data: 08 3B F4 00 61 90 00 C5 26 00 00 00 00 EA 05 00

The diag files under Win7 are very slightly later at 0.6 to 1.6s past the minute

03/11/2013 17:52:00.872 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 03/11/2013 17:52:00 raindaystart = 47.7000007629395 rain counter = 47.7000007629395
03/11/2013 17:52:00.872 : Latest reading: 1600: Data: 17 27 03 01 57 29 00 B5 25 00 00 00 0A 9F 00 00
03/11/2013 17:53:01.318 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 03/11/2013 17:53:00 raindaystart = 47.7000007629395 rain counter = 47.7000007629395
03/11/2013 17:53:01.318 : Latest reading: 1600: Data: 18 27 03 01 57 28 00 B6 25 00 00 00 02 9F 00 00
03/11/2013 17:54:00.952 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 03/11/2013 17:54:00 raindaystart = 47.7000007629395 rain counter = 47.7000007629395
03/11/2013 17:54:00.952 : Latest reading: 1600: Data: 19 28 03 01 57 28 00 B6 25 00 00 00 0C 9F 00 00
03/11/2013 17:55:01.620 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 03/11/2013 17:55:00 raindaystart = 47.7000007629395 rain counter = 47.7000007629395
03/11/2013 17:55:01.620 : Latest reading: 1600: Data: 19 28 03 01 57 28 00 B4 25 00 00 00 07 9F 00 00
03/11/2013 17:56:00.674 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 03/11/2013 17:56:00 raindaystart = 47.7000007629395 rain counter = 47.7000007629395
03/11/2013 17:56:00.674 : Latest reading: 1600: Data: 1B 28 03 01 57 28 00 B6 25 00 00 00 03 9F 00 00
03/11/2013 17:57:01.463 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 03/11/2013 17:57:00 raindaystart = 47.7000007629395 rain counter = 47.7000007629395
03/11/2013 17:57:01.463 : Latest reading: 1600: Data: 1C 28 03 01 57 27 00 B5 25 00 00 00 00 9F 00 00
03/11/2013 17:58:01.050 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 03/11/2013 17:58:00 raindaystart = 47.7000007629395 rain counter = 47.7000007629395
03/11/2013 17:58:01.050 : Latest reading: 1600: Data: 1D 28 03 01 57 27 00 B4 25 00 00 00 06 9F 00 00
03/11/2013 17:59:00.640 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 03/11/2013 17:59:00 raindaystart = 47.7000007629395 rain counter = 47.7000007629395
03/11/2013 17:59:00.640 : Latest reading: 1610: Data: 00 28 03 01 57 27 00 B6 25 00 00 00 0A 9F 00 00
03/11/2013 17:59:05.059 : Lost sensor contact!!!
03/11/2013 17:59:35.014 : 17:59:35 Station not responding
03/11/2013 17:59:45.023 : 17:59:45 Station not responding
03/11/2013 17:59:55.024 : 17:59:55 Station not responding
03/11/2013 18:00:00.880 : *** Data input appears to have stopped
03/11/2013 18:00:01.395 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 03/11/2013 18:00:00 raindaystart = 47.7000007629395 rain counter = 47.7000007629395
03/11/2013 18:00:01.395 : Latest reading: 1610: Data: 00 28 03 01 57 27 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF

That extract also captures the moment that the station then froze, and it's interesting that it was preceded by the Lost sensor contact!!! warning, though I do occasionally see that with no incident.

Looking at the exact time of earlier freezes there are a few just around 1800.
Stuart

[steve]

Not sure what the sensor clock is, I thought the sensors would just broadcast the data and the station would timestamp it.

The station doesn't timestamp data. Those 'clocks' in the diags file are the PC clock times when Cumulus last 'synchronised', i.e. the times at which the sensor data arrival caused an update, and the console itself updated the data to decrement the 'time since last logger entry'.

The drifts I mentioned are logged when Cumulus resynchronises, once a day. They are the differences in the PC clock for the newly-discovered update times compared to the expected times based on the times found at the last synchronisation.

[bridge]

I'm not sure if this problem is related or not. I have the WS-2080 and Cumulus v 1.9.4 running on a fairly old IBM Thinkpad. Lately, the console has been losing its connection to the software. Periodically, but more frequently recently, I would get the message "Fine Offset station not responding". First, I thought it was just the computer. A restart of either Cumulus, the console or the computer would fix the problem. But yesterday I tried all three and neither worked. Then, I plugged the console into my other laptop and it worked fine. Finally, I restarted my laptop and hooked the console in... voila, it was working again. Then today I started getting the message "Data input appears to have stopped". This is different then the message I was getting before. Nevertheless, I restarted my computer and now it's working, again (for now!). Is there a problem with the USB port on the laptop or with the USB cord or the console? Trying to figure this out. BTW, I tried taking out the batteries to see if the console would operate while Cumulus was telling me "Data input appears to have stopped" and it was still working. So, there was still power going through the USB but not data? Thanks for any help.

[steve]

If you can recover without resetting the console, then sounds like it's not the problem that this thread is about. It sounds more like a USB problem (port going to sleep?) or a different problem with the station.

[brettsweather]

My station is a WH3081. This is the second time it has done it. First time I reinstalled the program half a dozen times and lost all data. I don't want to have to do this again. If anyone can give me a cure for this it would be appreciated.

[steve]

Are you sure this is the 'USB lockup' problem? Have you tried the 'Synchronise Fine Offset Reads' setting?