[wxqc] Noobie and software experiences

[Chuck Goble]

Joe,

I am a big fan of meteorology myself and I took the plunge last November 
and bought a Davis VP2 wireless standard model. I use both weatherlink 
and Weather Display. I have been using Weather Display since I bought my 
Davis VP2. It is been very stable for me. There have been issue's here 
and there but Brian (software writer) is on the forums to answer any 
issues you may have and you work with him he will usually have it 
resolved in a matter of hours. Very rarely that it takes him more than 
one day to fix any issue. Here is the link for the forum  
http://www.weather-watch.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=cbbb58d436a4e9dabc2cd534f24819fa& 
. There are quite a few people on this board that are knowledgeable 
about this software. I am not trying to sell the product but just help 
you out with you getting your CWOP and WU on line.

Chuck

Joe Morris wrote:
> Big fan of meteorology and used to be a skywarn spotter.  I've had a
> Davis WMII setup for years and only lately did I finally break down
> and the the data logger (w/WeatherLink software).  This was triggered
> by re-discovering Wunderground (KNCDURHA9) and being able to see a
> Google map of personal weather stations which I though was quite
> slick.  As I was digging for the right software and setup info, I
> stumbled across CWOP (KF4YSO) and was surprised to know that something
> like this existed.  All this time I could have sent data!  I got
> things setup last night and though I would share my experiences with
> what I went through, some good, and lots of bad.  I just have the one
> PC at home running WXP.
>
> WeatherLink
>
> This software just appears to be downright awful and it does not work.
>  CWOP setup was pretty easy.  WU setup I never got working.  Appears
> it could never authenticate with WU even after retyping all of the
> information several times.  As the software is running, it seems to go
> through an overly complicated process of grabbing data from the
> console, compiling it, formatting it and finally sending it on to
> CWOP.  The software was unresponsive when it was in the middle of an
> update too.
>
> Weather Display (trial version)
>
> This was a bit better and seemed to be much more lightweight by
> watching the stream of data rather than constantly downloading it.  WU
> and CWOP setup was pretty painless.  Although the barometer
> calibration took me forever to sort out before I finally got it to
> report the correct information--very confusing.  Tried some other
> functions to upload a web page and stuff and the ftp client kept
> deadlocking and sucking up all of my CPU time.  Worth $70?  Probably
> not if it's that buggy.
>
> Virtual Weather Station (trial version w/CWOP extension)
>
> This is definitely more sophisticated.  Did seem a bit odd that I
> needed to install a separate program just to send the APRS data, but
> it works.  Setup for WU was also painless.  I don't get the "raw
> barometer" graph that insists my pressure is 266", yet the digital
> readout is dead on.  I guess this software looks a little too fancy
> for me as it does have some broadcast quality features here.  $100
> seems a bit much to just send data via CWOP and WU.
>
>
> All I mainly want to do right now is send weather data to CWOP and WU.
>  Is there a cheaper way?  Not sure if I can tolerate the WeatherLink
> stuff (although, it's already paid for).  No huge desires to upload
> web pages or anything like that, but would be a bonus.
>
>