Can you help trouble shoot Sharper Image Internet Weather Station EC-WS115?

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for taking the time to look into this ;)

But what procedure do you recommend for applying your executable? Is this meant to substitute for the installation package (such as the downloadable NIS01_INSTALL_2380.exe)? If so, should the original software be uninstalled first? Or is yours to be run as a sort of patch on top of the original product? I did the latter, and see no change in the problem (at 11:28pm on June 7 [NY time], the Forecast screen on my PC shows 10:32pm Nov 8). By the way, that is 213 days going forward in 2012, or 155 days going backward to Nov 2011, inclusive of both dates.

Judging by the string of replies in this thread, there are many owners of the 5-Day Forecast device who would benefit from a step-by-step guide for applying your temporary fix. I, for one, would be quite grateful.

Thanks Stefan! I tried your fix and it works!

Ah, I've figured it out:

The time response coming from server2.netinfostation.com is:

13390343 1339034354 01:59:14 Jun-07-2012.

We've already concluded that the second value is the epoch, which sets the date and time to the application. Now... the first number is supposed to be an offset in seconds. Yes, I know it's just the first eight digits of the epoch, that's why the app doesn't work ;-)

The number above works out to about 155 days. The actual offset should be like 0.9 (probably some delay measured based on the processing of the request).

I've found that server1 does give the correct time response. So I've hacked the executable to make it connect to server1 instead of server2. You can download it (at your own risk, of course... and don't blame me for the bad weather!) from:

http://www.fraservalleysoftware.com/download/5-day forecast.exe

Now what does that mean? There's some very confusing difference between server1 and server2 in the time response. On purpose? Who knows. Did the URL for server 2 used to be redirected to server1, but now because of the move it isn't? Who knows... But at least I expect my fix to help everybody out till the guys at Forecast finished their "move" :-)

Stefan Viveen

Fraser Valley Software

Hope, BC Canada

Hi Stefan:

   I wasn't clear in my message.  I gave you an additional  website that allows you to put in any epoch and it converts the value to a date or vice versa.  I used the epoch you specified in your messge to get the WS date.  I thought you wanted a different converter.  Here's the URL for it

http://www.esqsoft.com/javascript\_examples/date-to-epoch.htm

1338593037 the value you gave us converts to Fri Jun 1 19:23:57 EDT 2012 local time

My thoughts are that we are seeing data that is buffered or a constant in the WS software on our own PC.  Since the WS time gets incremented I'm at 11/8 5:43 pm about 2 hours 30 minutes off of correct time.  I concede that their story is lame but since there is not much one can do, it will get fixed when it's fixed.  I had people on my crew who could build a server from scratch it less time then they are taking to repair it.   

I worked on the IBM 650, a Bendix with paper tape input, and an  RCA Spectra.  The first machine I coded you had 32 bits and coded in binary.  I woud do about 15 instructions a day.  I worked with Rear Admiral Grace Hopper from the Navy early developer of Cobol.  By the early sixties I was coding in BAL (basic assembly language).  My first Burroughs machine was the B200 and it had all of 4800 characters of core so you coded using overlays to bring in chunks of programming as needed.  Now I feel really old.

Mine has not worked for over a week.  I check it every day and the date seems to advance, but the time is still not correct.  I have tried changing locations (for the weather station) and still no luck.  I'm in Peoria, IL.