From ea11bb76a073d09ab2bf07fba1dbf6243574262f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: windcrusader <ibeatspam@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 24 May 2020 19:53:32 +1200
Subject: [PATCH] Fixed issue #556

---
 bin/weewx/drivers/ws1.py | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/bin/weewx/drivers/ws1.py b/bin/weewx/drivers/ws1.py
index 8b1e0c5d..3954cfa7 100644
--- a/bin/weewx/drivers/ws1.py
+++ b/bin/weewx/drivers/ws1.py
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ class StationData(object):
     def validate_string(buf):
         if len(buf) != PACKET_SIZE:
             raise weewx.WeeWxIOError("Unexpected buffer length %d" % len(buf))
-        if buf[0:2] != '!!':
+        if buf[0:2] != b'!!':
             raise weewx.WeeWxIOError("Unexpected header bytes '%s'" % buf[0:2])
         return buf