Cumulus Support

Hello, - 3 issues - I had been looking for a solution to solve a recent error with Cumulus which seemed to add a very large erroneous rainfall figure (about 580mm) in addition to any actual rainfall recorded on my Davis Vantage Vue each time I connected the console to my laptop which runs Cumulus. This is not recorded in the console.

I was about to ask the forum for advice on this issue by sending a copy of my Diags folder. DUNDERHEAD mode set in and I foolishly changed the name of the first of the 9 Diags files from 'Cumulus.~og' to 'Cumulus.001' which I thought it was last time I looked. That file has now disappeared.

Cumulus will not open now. Any suggestions? (other than telling me NEVER to change file names in future!)

How can I open the Diags folders? Windows File Association Helper is pretty UNhelpful.

I'm using Cumulus v1.9.4

The files in the zip you've attached are all very old, so aren't any help. The best thing to do would be to delete all of those files and then start Cumulus. After it's been running for a while, zip up the diags folder and attach it to another post.

Hi Steve, I've deleted the diags files, but I still can't get Cumulus to start.

Peter Woodward

I can't be of much help, I'm afraid, without anything to go on. What happens when you try to start it - any error messages anywhere? Are you sure it isn't already running? Have you tried rebooting your PC?

Steve is the expert and I can't compete with him, but as someone who has used Cumulus 1 for many years, perhaps I can make a few suggestions...
With Cumulus 1, a corrupted weather diary file (data\log.xml) could stop it starting, so try renaming the weather diary file (e.g. to data\logTEST.xml in case you've messed up that, and it is just that stopping Cumulus from starting. I have tested and can confirm if that file can't be found because of the rename, Cumulus 1 will start and it will create a new file.

I guess corruption of other files in the data directory might also cause problems, but I would expect Cumulus to start then give an error. Just in case you could try creating a new folder on your W10 PC, installing a fresh copy of Cumulus there (rename the executable as "CumulusTest.exe" if you want to, the exact name is irrelevant), and check it starts. Obviously it will ask for settings again (unless you have created a CumulusTest.ini (i.e. using same name as executable) in that same new folder with same contents as your old Cumulus.ini). It will create new data files, but this will prove Cumulus can run! If it runs, stop it, the old data files can be copied into the new folder, and then a restart should restore you to your correct previous working position albeit in a different directory position.

PAW wrote: looking for a solution to solve a recent error with Cumulus which seemed to add a very large erroneous rainfall figure (about 580mm) in addition to any actual rainfall recorded on my Davis Vantage Vue

For rainfall correction, there are extensive answers within the FAQ in Wiki that cover most possibilities.

PAW wrote:This is not recorded in the console.

To me, this suggests a non-zero "YTD Amount" on the station settings screen, or a rainfall multiplier that is not 1 on the calibration screen. Both screens are accessed in Cumulus 1 Configuration menu.

PAW wrote:How can I open the Diags folders? Windows File Association Helper is pretty UNhelpful.

For reading the diag files, don't change the names, or the extensions, they can be read with any text file reader/editor, but for safety you might wish to take copies before you attempt to read them, to ensure you can't corrupt the versions Cumulus is using, and you should also note that Cumulus only keeps 10 files each with the file-name matching the current executable name, but each with a different extension; it does delete the older files automatically. If you rename the executable since that name forms the file name, Cumulus will ignore any files created by a different executable name to the current name.

steve wrote:I can't be of much help, I'm afraid, without anything to go on. What happens when you try to start it - any error messages anywhere? Are you sure it isn't already running? Have you tried rebooting your PC?

Thanks Steve, I've rebooted the laptop several times. No error message - just doesn't open either from desktop links or from cumulus.exe. I'll try sfws's suggestions and let you know.

Thanks again.

I have just found that Cumulus will open, initialise and download data but only if I open as ADMINISTRATOR in Windows. Any idea why this should be?

PAW wrote:I have just found that Cumulus will open, initialise and download data but only if I open as ADMINISTRATOR in Windows. Any idea why this should be?

You installed it into Program Files?

No, it's installed outside the Program Files hierarchy - directly in C/.

Could perhaps be a permissions problem with the Cumulus folder(s).

Thanks for all your suggestions and comments. I have installed a fresh copy of Cumulus1 and copied data etc from the old version as described.

All seems to me OK now - time to make a donation!