The below solution is based on APRSIS32 Windows application and La Crosse WS2357 Weather Station, which contains the following modules:
a central unit, which gathers and displays all the weather data and allows interfacing with a computer;
a main external unit, which measure the outside temperature and humidity, centralize the weather information from the other two external units via cables and send the collected data to the central unit, via radio (433 MHz);
the other two external units: an anemometer and a rain meter.
The central unit can be connected to a computer by using a RS-232/USB serial cable. For this purpose, the manufacturer provides two serial cables: one RJ11 to 9 DB female connector (for computers which still use the RS-232 serial interface) and one USB to 9 DB male, which, connected with the first cable, creates the serial link for an USB computer port.
To connect the weather station with a Windows XP computer, you have to use the provided small disk, marked with UNITEK, which contains the serial drivers. Without connecting the USB serial cable, put the disk in the CD drive and look for the folder "Y-105 & Y-109 USB to Serial Adapter". Go to the "Windows" sub-folder and run the "PL2303_Prolific_ DriverInstaller_v___.exe" file. Then, connect the USB serial cable to the computer and check, in Windows Device Manager, if the serial port is correctly installed, without errors.
As alternative, you can download the requested drivers from the following link:
https://ipv4.unitek-products.com/product/usb-converter?view=product&id=131
Now, the WS23xx series are pretty old and same the software applications which are able to read the collect the data via the serial port. For this reason, these applications can use only small values for COM ports. In the above configuration, if the COM port assigned for your USB serial cable is a two digit number, look in Device Manager for a single digit unused COM port and re-assign it to the USB cable.
For Windows 10, no drivers installation is necessary. Once you connect the USB serial cable in the laptop, the system will automatically install the necessary drivers.
[Windows 7, Windows 8: not tested, yet.]
The application software bundled in the WX station package is called Heavy Weather, useful to read and display, in a friendly way, the data from the central unit. But, for the main purpose, the APRS WX Station, it is completely useless, because there are not common elements to interface these two applications (Heavy Weather and APRSIS32).
In APRSIS32, a weather station can be added as a WX object if is provided a text file, called Wxnow.txt and generated by Cumulus application. The format of this file can be find here: https://cumuluswiki.org/a/Wxnow.txt
Fortunately, the last versions of Cumulus software are able, also, to read weather data from WS23xx stations via USB serial cable, so first, you have to download the version 1.9.4 of this application from this link: https://cumuluswiki.org/a/Software.
At the first run of the application, will be displayed de main Station Configuration window, where the following settings must be performed:
In Station Type section: select WS2300 option
In Davis type section: select Serial
In Serial Port section: set COM port field to the value assigned earlier to the Prolific USB serial port
In Settings section: check Ignore La Crosse clock and Use data logger buttons
As soon you press the OK button, the software will start to read the data from WX station and, after short time, will create in the application folder a Wxnow.txt file. This file will be updated periodically, depending on the value selected in the Station Configuration window, in Data log interval section.
These are the basic settings for the Cumulus software. Check if the Wxnow.txt file was generated in the application software, then open your APRSIS32 application and continue with the creation of WX object in Configure menu and Objects sub-menu. Select New Weather option and answer with Yes when you are asked if the object will be created at the Screen Center. Next, you will be asked to specify the location of the Wxnow.txt file. Select the Cumulus application folder and continue with Open button.
In the next small window, called Object, fill the field near WX APRS symbol, with the desired callsign and SSID. By default is set to your main APRSIS32 callsign-WX, but you can change it (SSID -13 is also used for WX stations). The APRS symbol is fixed, cannot be modified.
Then, select an interval value. If you leave it on zero, the collected WX info will be never sent to the APRS network. Check Via -IS and Via RF, according with your current APRS setup. If you use a RF channel, fill the RF Path field with the appropriate string: WIDE1-1 or WIDE1-1,WIDE2-n.
Finally, check the Enable box and press OK button. The WX data will be sent via Internet or RF, according with the above selection (Via -IS or Via RF).