Customer Reviews

Davis Instruments WeatherLink USB Software

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are just a home weather buff who occassionally uses the products, you will probably be very happy with this unit. But there are a number of issues with it for more robust users. The USB data loggers have a problem of dropping out and disconnecting from the computer running the Weatherlink software. Davis attributes this to static on the power supply and they suggest that if you have this problem you don't use the 120 power supply (which means that you cannot use the backlit display of the Vantage Pro Console) or go to a third party vendor and try an inexpensive coil suppressor, which I did and didn't work.

Another frustating factor with the software is that you cannot graphically display all of the various data paremeters on the main Weatherlink bulletin (graphic) page. Your only option is to create your own web page and set up the system to transmit data to the web page for display (even if the web page design is just for your own use).

On the good side, the Davis tech support people are great and really do try to help you if you have problems. Good but......

I own this item for a station deployed in south Florida, I purchased 2 more "Vantage Pro 2" units and need to push them to computers where the data can be stored and accessed. The sales "lady" on the Davis line was rude and talked to me like I was an idiot (I simply wanted to know if the USB connecter included the software). I really hate to give a company like this money, but it seems I have no choice.
On a side note, if you want to view/post your weather data to the web and have it look nice, try the Ambient Weather software, its much better than the stuff that Davis makes (you still have to buy this connector though)

There isn't much to say. The item works fine. It is a bit over priced. But it is essential if you are connecting your Davis Vantage to a PC.

This unit is necessary to connect a Davis weather station to a computer. It's easy to connect and makes available on a computer all the information from the weather station. It has a large memory so the computer doesn't have to be on all the time to save the information and everything can be set to automatic intervals to suit your needs and wishes. It's well worth the price and I wouldn't want to be without it.

Well, I've owned two data loggers, first one died. My goal is to upload weather data to my wunderground site. I own a Vantage Pro2 weather station. When it works, it works well. The problem is that whether it works depends upon, well I'm not too sure what it depends upon. Like a temperamental wife, it seems to be hormonal. I wish Davis would make a product that just worked, because both of mine haven't.

I purchased this along with the Vantage VUE weather station, both from Amazon. I didn't notice until I got to the point in the installation where I was to install the software that the WeatherLink software CD was cracked (received this way, probably damaged in shipping). From the Davis web-site, you can only download *upgrades* from previous versions of WeatherLink, so I emailed Davis Instruments' tech support and have not received a reply (in 4 business days). So I still have not successfully run the WeatherLink software.

Fortunately, the WeatherLink "upgrade" included the necessary USB->Serial driver and I was able to get third party software (WUHU) running to send updates to the Weather Underground, which is what I wanted anyway.

I'm happy with this interface's functionality (and very happy with the weather station), but this particular "option" is overpriced and the Davis Instruments' customer service/support needs improvement and they should have the software freely downloadable from their web-site. If you ever lose the CD, apparently you're hosed.

Update: I did actually get an email response from Davis Instruments technical support two business days after I submitted my request (my mistake above) and they provided me with a link to download the full installation program (so I'm increasing from 3 to 4 stars). The WeatherLink program itself is of pretty questionable quality (it looks like it was written in Visual Basic 2.0 or some other ancient development framework/IDE) and it couldn't find the console over the USB interface or the COM port assigned via the serial<->USB driver, so I'm just sticking happily with WUHU which works great and behaves like you would expect professional software to behave.

I'm a bit surprised that the PC connectivity is sold separately, it is an option I wanted for a weather station console. Installation and connection between the PC and console went well. The software does its job and brings the data to the PC, but the GUI seems more crude than most windows software you pay for, more like a shareware package. There is further instructions to follow, in order to install modules for uploading to weather sites/programs. Usually online resources and readme's. I'm currently sending data to Weather Underground and Weather bug. Also, a flier in the unite pointed to [...] which quality checks data and collects it for NOAA, a worthy place to contribute.

The software also provides daily and monthly breakdowns of all the data collected, indoors and out. In the long term, I expect that will be useful. While 5 min data are useful to see the weather systems pass, longer variations will be interesting with these.

I had an issue the other day, where the software could not find the hardware. I unplugged and reattached the USB connector, and even restarted the computer, and the same "Cannot FInd..." error occurred. While I was looking up the trouble shooting, I tried the software again and if found the console, without any intervention. It seems possible that I just need to wait for drivers etc to get restarted, but otherwise I didn't do anything really to fix that. There are also occasional drops of connection, during which time the data is not being sent to the internet sites. The console continues to collect the data, but it must be restarted and downloaded to the PC to catch back up.

These comments have two concerns : the vendor efficiency and the product.
I am fully satisfied with the performance of the Vendor. Indeed, living far from U.S., France, the product was delivered to me 4 days after ordering.
The product installs easily in the "Davis Vantage Pro2 console". The good side is that USB Port works fine immediately when connected to a computer. The bad point is that, only interested in the data link, I am still obligated to purchase the full package.
Using the data logger connected to a Linux PC, I have no comment to make on the software provided by Davis. Data are transmitted to the multi weather stations "wview" software. This one works fine most of the time. However I am disappointed at not being able to access the history of the last 24 hours I was hoping stored in the station.This involves leaving a PC permanently connected to the Data Link if you wish to have an exhaustive.
Reduction in the rating is due to the high price paid for a simple change of interface.

I bought this as a gift for my boyfriend, who is an engineer, and loves collecting data, so he could download data from his Davis Instruments 6250 Vantage Vue Wireless Weather Station. He enjoys charting the data, and seeing long-term weather trends in our area. Definitely worth having if you are a weather station junkie.

The weather link software was great, but better than that the seller was more than helpful with any questions I had. Nice folks.