Quote:
Originally Posted by deneb2  Hi Thermocline
I found a useful website with more experience of the W-8681 and it also has links to the Chinese manufacture (Fine Offset Electronics) with new software - perhaps this is where you found the version you tried. I downloaded the new version - looks the same as the old but is supposed to be more stable, and the 'about' points to Fine Offset, rather than Waters and Stanton. The website is: Watson W-8681 Wireless Weather Station
and the manufacturer: Fine Offset Eletronics Co.,LTD. |
This is my website (and how I found this forum). The software supplied by Waters and Stanton on my machine (Vista) lost elements from the window such as the wind direction and the actual window framing itself. I restarted it morning and evening and it never actually completely crashed on me but on my sons machine (XP) it hung the entire machine a number of times.
The new software appears to be more stable - the window remains intact without restarting it every few hours and my son ha no longer had it hang.
We have both seen ludicrously high rainfall reported when none has fallen at all and have both removed rainfall from the online reporting. My own rain guage was never very good - I'm convinced it under reported - so this is no huge loss to me.
As an entry level station it is barely acceptable but giving it the name "professional" is an absolute joke. I really can't recommend it at all - I've received several emails from DigitalHam visitors reporting problems and asking for help.
The "about" text just comes from the EasyWeather.ini file. As it writes the dat file to the program directory it is better to install it somewhere other than "Program Files" under Vista if yo wish to manipulate or use the dat file in other programs.