As it happens, I expressed a wish on the weewx-user group a day or two back to have something like this, but for a Fine Offset WH1080 and with no idea than anything like this existed. I hadn't read of any other brands having USB port problems; does the Acurite also do the same lockups?
The parts are not familiar (I am not *au fait* with electronics, almost never use a soldering iron, sadly) but if I had instructions for what to do step-by-step* I'd be willing to take a crack at doing this to bypass using a WH1080. I think there'd even be a market for it! *Ideally with a YouTube video However, I've also just caught up with the content in the wiki about using a powered hub to reset a console with no batteries *and* seen this https://www.yepkit.com/products/ykush which was given a "works for me" testimonial. I'm wondering what your replacement looks like finally. All in all, I feel the ideal replacement for the console would be a small sealed black box with an antenna (more practical from dust POV and higher wife acceptance factor in the bedroom than bare circuit boards). Is is possible that the same device would work for both Acurite and Fine Offset just with changes in parameters? That would be great. I too would be interested in adding a solar/UV sensor, and an ability to add that easily would swing things in favour of your approach rather than the USB hub fix. So... yes, this is certainly interesting!
