La Crosse 2306 Setup with Cumulus

[dids04]

Hi all.

Haver just purchased my first weather station and have setup with Cumulus as this seems the best available.

I am having some difficultly though in my data results as all results posted to my webpage seem to be based on the hour. i.e. every record is at ??:34 am or pm.

It appears therefore it is only taking hourly snapshots but I have checked all the settings and cannot work out why ??

my web page is as follows and as you can see every record seems to be the same minute of the hour which cannot be a coincincidence.


http://users.tpg.com.au/dids04/weather/



Any help appreciated. I'm curently using Windows 7 64bit.


I note user Matt.j5b also uses the same so if you can assist, I would greatly appreciate it.



Regards


Steve

[steve]

Those entries are from data downloaded from the station logger at start up, and you have your station logger set to an interval of one hour.

[Matt.j5b]

Hi dids04

I do have the WS2306

Just like Steve said you downloaded it from the logger with a one hour interval. On your site all your data is from those one hourly recordings and also today, but today I ran Cumulus a bit which resulted in more in the data. It is best to set the logger to more frequent than one hour because you get more data, unless you want to run Cumulus all the time.

To change the logger interval, use the Heavy Weather software that comes with the station. In the software click on "show history" and then in the new window "change settings" and there you can change it. I use 5 minutes because I mostly run off the logger,so I plug the station in twice a day to do that. But 10 minutes is all right if don't want average wind speed. You get 29 hours with 10 minutes and 14.5 hours with 5 minutes before you need to plug it in.

Hope that help, enjoy your La Crosse and welcome.

[dids04]

thanks for the responses.

I have been unable since setup to install Heavy Weather.

I had this originally installed before Cumulus when it worked however after installing this, i now get an error at start.

I do have another pc I have heavy weather loaded onto so i'll try and make the adjustments there.


Does Heavyweather need to be installed simultaniously with cumulus to work effectively or is it just a convenient add on?

[Matt.j5b]

Heavy Weather is basic software that comes with the sofware that does not do much. It allows you to change the station logger interval, but once that is set, Cumulus will download from the logger just fine. You don't need Heavy Weather to actually run Cumulus, it works just right. I just simply change that interval with Heavy Weather and Cumulus downloads the data from the software. And when running Cumulus set the interval in the Cumulus station settings to the same as the logger so that you can get the same interval in the log file while Cumulus is running.

[steve]

My recommendation would always be that you run the software supplied with the station to begin with, make sure it's working properly, get it set up how you want it, and then install Cumulus.

I don't know why you can't run HW since installing Cumulus. The Cumulus installer doesn't install anything outside the Cumulus folder, no drivers, no registry changes. It doesn't write to the station's memory; I deliberately avoid this, which is why unfortunately you can't change the logger interval using Cumulus.

[dids04]

All Good Now. Thanks for your advice guys.


Matt, further to the 2306, i'm interested to know how you went about how/where you setup your Thermo/Hygro Sensor.

I've tried a few places but temperatures still aren't matching local reports (Have a BOM site only 4 kms away) so know that is pretty accurate.


I have started researching Stevenson Screens and the positive effect they would have on results.

What was your solution ??

[Matt.j5b]

Well it not meant to be in the rain, so I have put it under the eaves. Without using some sort of screen, I found it impossible for my station to get good readings. Your best bet in under cover, in a shield or under the eaves or the like on the south side as you don't get as much heat. If you get heat near and/or onto your sensor it will read high. However for me, that was not possible because my wind and rain units had to be on the north side which affects the temp readings. So I have under the eaves, way from the heat so only records half a degree C over, but overnight are warmer than it should do. Before I got this station in September of last year I was and still use another La Crosse station and I apply adjustments to that and I make my own real readings, but I also use Cumulus in conjuction with that. More details here: https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=7096 .

How much are they out by, what is the max difference. Is this for the daytime or overnight. If overnight wrong ,it not exposed enough but if its daytime its too much heat. For me I could not get enough exposure to the overnight readings. I have no experience in screens, I have not looked into that, but my measurements are accurate enough. Remember that you should aim to get your readings close to the bom, but understand that its a home weather station and will not be as accurate as the bom, don't worry if out only a little bit.

Hope that helps, ask if want to know more.

[GraemeT]

Hi dids04,

Does Heavyweather need to be installed simultaniously with cumulus to work effectively or is it just a convenient add on?

You can have the two programs installed simultaneously, but you CAN'T run either if the other is running - they'll fight over the serial port.
You must first quit Cumulus, then run Heavyweather to change logger settings, then quit HW and restart Cumulus.

[dids04]

Thanks Graeme.


Got both working now.

Wasn't that I couldn't use both at once (I noticed in other posts that shouldn\t occur) but rather the heavy weather map would not start due to an error)

Eventually managed to unistall and re-install with success.


Everything appears to be in order now (i note the date of the history in heavy weather is one day behind however when transferring into cumulus it appears ok ?)


Thanks for the response.

[GraemeT]

I'm glad to hear it's working.

My advice is not to bother with HW at all unless you need to change settings in the station.

Cumulus will take care of everything else.

[Matt.j5b]

Along with what Graeme said.

I had no trouble with installling/ using HW and I don't bother with HW, Cumulus works just fine, apart from changing the logger recording interval in HW, which I have changed it only twice from 10 minutes to 5 minutes. Good to see you got it working.

Edit: And of course you don't run HW at the same time as Cumulus, they can't work together and it should be. I connect via a serial to usb adapter to connect to a usb port, and my adapter cannot access both programs at the same time (I learnt that by opening both accidentally, and the other one could not access the serial port because the other one was using it).

[GraemeT]

Matt and dids04,
Just a comment re- usb to serial converters.
Most LaCrosse weather stations won't work reliably with them. I tried 3 different adapters and threw them all in a box of spare bits.

Your best bet is to connect to a 'real' serial port for trouble-free operation.

Since going serial over a year ago I've had only 3 or 4 erroneous readings - one was a cocky doing acrobatics on a guy wire, one was a magpie crashing into the guy wire and one was moisture in the remote unit's battery pack. That leaves one 3.7mm rainfall amount I'm not sure about, and it could have been batteries.

[Matt.j5b]

I know the adapter can be trouble and a real serial would be better.

For me I had little trouble with my adapter,I hope it stays that way. I only get strange reads sometimes. But when it happens the station min and max also records it.

[yv1hx]

...snip...It doesn't write to the station's memory; I deliberately avoid this, which is why unfortunately you can't change the logger interval using Cumulus.

Steve,

This could change in the future? My LaCrosse some times change the data logger interval by herself to the default value, so I have to keep an eye on it once a while.

Maybe Cumulus can set the station's data logger interval after downloading the memory contents during the startup to reflect the logging interval defined in Cumulus?

If this is possible I will open a enhancement request ticket to keep in mind.