Windows 7 COM port

[RichardM]

Firstly apologies if this has been asked before.

I have been running Cumulus successfully for many years on my Windows XP laptop but that gave up the ghost and I am now using a x64 PC loaded with Windows 7 Professional. I now want to use my Davis Vantage Vue (with a Davis Data Logger) on this PC and that is the start of the problem.

I have no problems loading Cumulus onto the PC but when I then go into Configure and put in all the details of the station I get to the box where you have to put whether it is Serial or USB. Well in fact it is USB but I have had to put the Silicon Valley CP210dll (USB to Serial) fix onto the PC to get the Weatherlink to work in the first place. I have a blurb sheet of how to configure Cumulus and that states that I have to tick the Serial box and then enter the COM port number. This is where the problem begins as I cannot find out how to see the COM ports on Windows 7 so could not find the number. I have since downloaded a programme (Cports x64)that does show me the COM ports and their numbers but there is nothing to identify the COM port that I want. There is nothing for 'Davis', 'Weatherlink', or 'CP210', so I am stumped as to what I can put in as the COM port number.

So I thought I would ask to see if anyone else has had this problem and wonder how they got around it.

Any help would be appreciated

[Jim Brown]

I would reccommend that you load weather link on the PC and then run WL setup. It will find and identify the correct com port. You can then close WL and use that comport with cumulus.

[steve]

The virtual com port should appear in device manager as 'USB Serial Port (COMn)', where 'n' is a number, under 'Ports (COM & LPT)', as described in the FAQ: http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/FAQ#How_do ... Cumulus.3F

If you can't see it there, then you have an issue with the driver.

Jim's suggestion is a good one if you're having problems; if WL can't drive the station in serial mode, then Cumulus won' be able to.

[RichardM]

Thank you for your replies. Firstly I already have Weatherlink up and running on the PC, so are you saying that I need to do it again? It might well find the COM port that it is using but would I be able to see it?

Second point
I have now gone back into device manager and have found this, which appears to be the the serial to USB control port and this is called USBXpress which says 'Universal Serial Bus controllers' Port_#0005.Hub_#0004. I have tried using '5' in the Cumulus COM port field (which only takes a single digit) and it still does not pick up the data from the data logger (Sorry would do a screen print for you to see but cannot find a way of doing so on this forum).

Any further ideas would be appreciated

[RichardM]

When I try the COM port number I get an error message Error -32701 does this mean anything to anyone?

Richard

[steve]

It means that the Davis DLL which Cumulus uses is unable to communicate with the console. Are you definitely using the correct COM port number in Cumulus? Is the speed set to 19200 in Windows? Are you able to communicate with the console with Weatherlink using the same COM port?

[steve]

I don't think that this:

'Universal Serial Bus controllers' Port_#0005.Hub_#0004.

means that the COM port is 5. You need to find a COM port in Windows device manager as described above.

You seem to be saying that you do already have Weatherlink working with the console - in serial mode? If so, you need to use the same COM port number in Cumulus that you are using in WL. "USBXpress" is the USB mode and if you have it in that mode, Cumulus won't be able to use it. Have you seen and followed the entry in the FAQ about how to get it working?

[RichardM]

Hi Steve

OK, this is what I have done so far. Have gone into the 'help' on the Cumulus configuration and found this passage

USB This setting should let you use your VP2 in USB mode. However, support for this in the Davis DLL seems to be broken. You will therefore need to install the CP210X virtual serial port drivers and use the station in serial mode. Note that if you have been using Weatherlink in USB mode, it will have set the station into "USB express" mode, and before you can use Cumulus, you will need to first run Weatherlink and change to serial mode via the virtual COM port.

On running and checking Weatherlink, although I have the CP210 serial to USB converter, I find that the station is actually in USB mode, which seems stranger!!

Following the passage above I have tried to change the USB to Serial in Weatherlink and have tested all theCOM ports but then it cannot find the Vantage Vue weather station. In the passage above it says to set it to Serial and Virtual COM port but I cannot find any way to do that. I can only set it to a numbered COM port and then neither Weatherlink nor Cumulus work.

Hope this makes some sort of sense

Richard

[steve]

On running and checking Weatherlink, although I have the CP210 serial to USB converter, I find that the station is actually in USB mode, which seems stranger!!

This is the cause of the problem. Somehow you have set the station into USBxpress mode. Some people seem to find it difficult to get it into serial mode after that, for some reason. If following the FAQ - http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/FAQ#How_do ... Cumulus.3F - doesn't help, then I think you will have to try uninstalling all of the Davis software and drivers, and trying again.

[RichardM]

Thanks Steve will try what you suggest. Watch this space ........
Richard

[RayProudfoot]

Richard,

This screenshot shows my entry in Device Manager on XP.

DeviceManager.jpg

As you can see COM6 is assigned to the Silicon Labs driver. Effectively my Davis VP2.

In WL - Setup - Communications Port you should have Serial selected, not USB even though your station is connected via USB. You shouldn't have Cumulus running when you do this of course. Enter the COM port number and WL should be able to 'listen' to your station.

You may have to reboot after making any changes in Device Manager before they're picked up. That caused me some grief until I realised.

[RichardM]

Did all that and still when I try to configure the Wearherlink it tells me that there are no COM ports in use. Tried auto detect and that failed to find the CP210 as well. Guess I will just have to give up on using Cumulus, which is a shame as it is so much better that the station software.

Richard

[RayProudfoot]

Hi Richard,

It must be very frustrating for you. It has to be possible to run WL and/or Cumulus in Serial mode under W7 because so many people will be doing it now.

I did all this over 3 years ago so my memory is a bit vague on the specifics. Did you reboot after installing the CP210 driver?

Have you tried entering every COM port number from 2 through to 16 in WL? I remember doing something along those lines until it recognised one of them. Sorry I can't be more specific. It's one of those things that sitting in front of the PC and trying things is a lot easier than trying to describe solutions.

[RichardM]

Hello Ray.

Yes I have tried all the COM ports, 1 through 18 with no result.

I reinstalled Weatherlink and the CP210 and then went through the Weatherlink set up routine again and the only way I can get the Weatherlink software to work is if I set the communications to USB. If I set it to Serial then nothing happens at all. I purposely didn't load the CP210 to USBXpress, but to USB to UART, but still nothing (also downloaded the most recent version).

It is all very frustrating as I had it on my old laptop (XP) with no problems and that was through CP210 set to serial. I have checked all the setting from my laptop and everything else is the same (as far as I can see), so I am running out of ideas.

One thing though, where has everyone put the CP210 routine - I put it in Weatherlink and that didn't work. so tried it just as a program but that didn't work either. For some reason it just doesn't show on any of the COM ports. I get the feeling I am missing something simple but cannot think what that might be. Very annoying !!

[RayProudfoot]

Hi Richard,

You don't say what version of WL you're running. I'm on 5.9.3 but I notice on this link 6.0.2 is available. http://www.davisnet.com/support/weather ... _sftwr.asp

It might be worth trying that version if you're not already on it.

Regarding the location of the CP210 routine I have installed it in WeatherLink\Support\Drivers. There are 2 DIRECT USB folders and 2 USB to UART ones. I don't think it really matters where you install it.