LaCrosse WS2350 USB and strange readings - Probably Solved?

[Vathek]

Hi to everybody,
I'm in the meteo affair just from two or three days but perhaps I've managed to solve the common problem with LaCrosse 2350 with USB adapter and cumulus 1.9.0.

My LaCrosse used a FTDI USB adapter for which I downloaded last driver 20808.

Despite this from time to time the station was sending exceptional values (like 180km/h or 300mm of rain, or +40C / -20C temperatures).
I suppose this is the common problem with lacrosse and cumulus, right?

Well, in the driver settings I tried changing some parameters:
- Size of transfer: 64 bytes (both send and receive)
- Latency: 255 msec
- Timeouts: 500 msec (both read and write).

At this point Cumulus it's a bit slow during start and shutdown but it never reads strange values anymore (it's been two days with no strange values anymore)

So if someone has same problems could try the above values, maybe it could be a good solution
(Without buying a PCI - SERIAL adapter)

[mikeh]

Hi,

I think Vathek may be on to something.

Having sorted out temperature sensitivity problems on the base station of my WS 2357 [replaced under guarantee!], I downloaded Cumulus. I'm still learning about it, but what became obvious was the usual problem with the serial/usb interface and Cumulus: in the first hour of operation, a windspeed of about 850Km/hr and a temperature of 58deg were recorded. This sort of thing had happened occasionally with Heavy Weather software - perhaps once or twice every couple of weeks.

I followed Vathek in downloading the latest driver, and changing the parameters as he suggested: since I did so, there have been no blips in the last 12 hours or so.

So, crossed fingers, the problem appears to have been minimised: we'll wait and see. Given luck, it'll save installing a serial port in my computer.

Oh, and by the way, in my brief experience, Cumulus is impressive: especially compared with Heavy Weather.

[AndyH]

Oh, and by the way, in my brief experience, Cumulus is impressive: especially compared with Heavy Weather.

And then some!!!! Heavy Weather is rubbish and to be supplied with the weather station is very poor performance.

[Vathek]

Well, I'm happy to know the workaround works not only for me...

However I noticed that sometimes (let me say about once in a couple of week) I still see a strange reading.
(At the moment I had a couple of -30°C temperatures in two months)

I tried to extend time parameters of the usb driver to the limits but it seems to be no real differences.

Anyway it's important to know that the problem of (seldom) strange readings it's present also on heavyweather, which means that the problem is not mainly related to the software.
I also noticed that strange readings are present in the station itself so they're not totally related on rs232-usb communication conversion.

So if we can have the same error rate on cumulus we can be happy.

The final real problem is how to purge the strange readings, which is not very difficult using file editor (which is present in the cumulus toolbox 3rd party application).
Using cumulus 1.9.1 beta today, after the second -30°C spike, I set the spike removal for temperature to 20°C (so if there's a step of +/- 20°C in temperature it will be filtered out, maybe this is enough)

Another curious thing is that strange readings seems to be to the extremes values of the lacrosse, so they could be easy to filter out (even without spike removal features). Is it the same for all of us?


P.S. EDIT
I also would like to know if the problems disappears when connecting the station to a PCI-SERIAL interface card, without using USB...
This is interesting because I found a link (at moment I don't remember it) where the author has changed all the wires of the WS2300 with a shielded ones and he doesn't get strange readings anymore.
The author says that it seems to be a station problem related to electromagnetic interference grabbed by the wind and thermohygrometer sensors...

I'm guessing if maybe USB creates that sort of interference, while old embedded motherboard serial connections (or internal PCI-Serial cards on newer motherboards) doesn't ... ?!?!

I'm also guessing if everyone of us has its own set of "black sheep" readings... so that in my case I seldom read -30°C while other of you read -20°C, while other ones read +180km/h or 300mm/hr of rain... and so they're not full-scale-value spikes but random-fixed-value spikes related to the same electromagnetic interference.
(So it would be good to have a set of user-customizable values to filter out)

Please let me know what case is it

[steve]

Another curious thing is that strange readings seems to be to the extremes values of the lacrosse, so they could be easy to filter out (even without spike removal features). Is it the same for all of us?

If there are some known fixed 'bad' values, then yes, I can filter them out. I do the same thing for some Fine Offset readings.

[mikeh]

Hi,

A brief resume of "spikes" since I installed Cumulus on 19 January.

Within 2 hours of installation, had a temp and a wind spike, so changed usb converter driver settings as performed by Vathek. Since then:

3 unambiguous temp spikes recorded on base station, so attributable to the LaCrosse effect.
Similarly, 2 Wind spikes.

1 likely LaCrosse wind spike
1 possible usb spike, but rather ambiguous.

So it seems that at least in my case, Vathek's workaround is indeed working.

[Vathek]

Ok, nice to hear it

At the moment I'm getting sometimes -30°C readings... but settings the spike removal threshold to 20°C the spikes are filtered out...

Anyway I tried again changing some parameters of the driver:

I've increased timeouts (both read and write) to 1000 msec... and let's see what happens
(Very slow start and stop of cumulus...)

I also change the various options so that I've checked only the last option: "modem control at start" is on... all others options are off.

I disabled the spike removal so I can check if -30°C readings happens again

[bankomat]

Hello Steve,

Weather Display program also had this problem. With the latest versions of the program you no longer have the problems of wind and temperature incorrect.

Thanks if you can solve this problem. Cumulus is a great program

[sunseeker]

Hi to everybody,
I'm in the meteo affair just from two or three days but perhaps I've managed to solve the common problem with LaCrosse 2350 with USB adapter and cumulus 1.9.0.

My LaCrosse used a FTDI USB adapter for which I downloaded last driver 20808.

Despite this from time to time the station was sending exceptional values (like 180km/h or 300mm of rain, or +40C / -20C temperatures).
I suppose this is the common problem with lacrosse and cumulus, right?

Well, in the driver settings I tried changing some parameters:
- Size of transfer: 64 bytes (both send and receive)
- Latency: 255 msec
- Timeouts: 500 msec (both read and write).

At this point Cumulus it's a bit slow during start and shutdown but it never reads strange values anymore (it's been two days with no strange values anymore)

So if someone has same problems could try the above values, maybe it could be a good solution
(Without buying a PCI - SERIAL adapter)

For those having problems with a USB adaptor ,after trying a couple of cheap ones with my LaCrosse WS2350, I followed the advice here and bought a quality adaptor. carried out the modificarions and have been successfully running my station without any problems or unusual readings for around six months. The only downside being as stated Cumulus can be a bit slow to start and shutdown.

[einzack]

I also would like to know if the problems disappears when connecting the station to a PCI-SERIAL interface card, without using USB...

several months ago I got a new PC and was able to purchase a PCI-Serial card and it is superb.
I have not had a erroneous value since changing to the serial adapter.
i cannot recommend changing to a serial port highly enough after struggling with the USB-adapters for so long.
if you can go serial, do it and do it now.

[Matt.j5b]

I have a good quality adapter and I get little trouble from it and only sometimes get unusual readings.

[Asidonense]

I bought a WS2350 for my wife for Christmas (2012) and when she discovered that it could be attached to a PC she wanted me to set it up. That's when I found out about the widely reported problems with USB adapters - the weird wind speeds, and extreme temperatures. Like other people I tried several different adapters and installed the latest drivers, with no luck. Yesterday, before seeing this thread, I decided to try tweaking the advanced Com port parameters. I changed just one. I doubled the Latency from the default 16 msec to 32 msec and I've had perfectly sensible readings for more than 24 hours now.

[mikechristelow]

Are you using wireless or wired connections from your sensors to the weather console?

If you're using wired connections you should seriously consider adding ferrite beads to the wires, including the wired connection to the weather console. Even with the tweaks to the COM port parameters you may well still get spikes and unusual readings - this is because the wired connections aren't shielded and highly susceptible to interference (they act as glorified aerials). Check out Maplin for the beads http://www.maplin.co.uk/clip-on-ferrites-32799