Cumulus hangs shortly after midnight...

[duke]

I recently bought a dedicated weather PC instead of down loading a couple of times a day to my regular pc. On the whole it works flawlessly but about every 10 days or so it hangs shortly after midnight. I don't believe this is a time related issue as my PC does not do time updates.

I also run startwatch and when Cumulus hangs SW shuts it down and restarts it only the first case of Cumulus actually never shuts down and the second case can then not access the station (VVP & WL shut down and restart fine). Any ideas?

OP SYS Win7 64, log files from Cumulus and SW attached.

Regards,
Duke

[steve]

It's getting an error from the Davis DLL when it tries to read the data (i.e. the DLL is saying it can't read the data from VVP). So it closes the connection, waits 1 second, and opens the connection again. This is apparently successful, so it carries on. But it gets another error back from the DLL when it tries to read the data, so the whole cycle repeats...

26/08/2011 00:21:00.696 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 26/08/2011 00:21:00 raindaystart = 286.399993896484 rain counter = 289.200012207031
26/08/2011 00:21:02.256 : Error in bardata, length = 0
26/08/2011 00:21:10.415 : VP2: LoadCurrentVantageData_V, error = -32701
26/08/2011 00:21:10.431 : VP2: Closing connection, result = 1
26/08/2011 00:21:11.476 : VP2: OpenTCPIPPort_V, res = 0
26/08/2011 00:21:17.825 : VP2: LoadCurrentVantageData_V, error = -32701
26/08/2011 00:21:17.825 : VP2: Closing connection, result = 1
26/08/2011 00:21:18.855 : VP2: OpenTCPIPPort_V, res = 0
26/08/2011 00:21:25.266 : VP2: LoadCurrentVantageData_V, error = -32701

You don't seem to have set VP2SleepInterval, so you could try setting that (read the advice in the readme.txt file). I don't think that will stop this happening (as it seems to be a problem at the VVP end) but it might mean that the process is easier to kill. How do you actually kill it so that you can start a new instance?

[duke]

It closes fine when I close it manually it's just for some reason startwatch can't kill it although it thinks it has and then starts another Cumulus.

I'll have a look at the sleep interval and set that.

Any thoughts as to why it only happens between 00:15 and 01:00 and why WLINK doesn't suffer when this happens? Could it be port related

Duke

[steve]

Any thoughts as to why it only happens between 00:15 and 01:00 and why WLINK doesn't suffer when this happens?

Cumulus doesn't do anything different at that time, so something else must be behaving differently. WL doesn't use the same method for connecting (they don't use their own DLL) so that probably explains why it doesn't suffer. Perhaps it's something that WL does that causes the problem.

There are definitely issues between VVP and the Davis DLL, or there were when I last tried it. I had to give up using VVP because of the problems (and I wasn't using TCP/IP connections).

[duke]

Thanks for your help Steve, I think I'll try the following while also sending an email to softWX.

1/ Add the sleep interval

2/ try pairing the comm ports rather than TCP/IP

3/ If problem persists shut down WLINK.

Cheers,

Duke

[steve]

It's interesting that ajcm in this thread - https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=5783 - is also having regular communication problems and is using Virtual VP. But I haven't changed the code in Cumulus for a very long time, all it does is call the Davis DLL.

[duke]

He is having the problem once a day, although I have not checked the log I beleive mine is less than once a week. Also it's happened in builds before 1007 and in current build so I don't think that's the issue.

I have just added the sleep interval and just looking for the VVP.ini and log files but can't find them - strange.

Duke

[duke]

On a slightly different note, is it possible to display the graph screen at the same time as Cumulus?

I only run WLINK along side Cumulus because I like to see the strip chart at the same as Cumulus (and because I can full screen WLINK for my weary eyes)

Duke

[steve]

On a slightly different note, is it possible to display the graph screen at the same time as Cumulus?

You mean leaving it open permanently? I don't think that would cause any problems.

[duke]

I hadn't realised you could run the graph screen at the same time as the main screen .

When I've opened the graph screen in the past it's always hidden the main screen so I assumed it was one or the other because. For some reason when I open the graph screen it does not bring up a separate tab in the task bar which would normally allow you to switch betwenn the two screens.

With the graph screen open is it possible to have the graphs update automaticly? I opened it at 20:00 last night and it has not updated.

Duke

[steve]

With the graph screen open is it possible to have the graphs update automaticly? I opened it at 20:00 last night and it has not updated.

They should do this - and I'm sure they used to. Someone has just raised an enhancement request asking for this, which surprised me as I knew they already did it. I'll investigate, but as the graphs are third-party components, it may turn out to be a bug that I can't do anything about.

[steve]

I've just tried leaving the graphs window open on two machines, one running Windows 7 x64 and the other Windows Home Server, and both update the graphs while the window is open. I'm afraid I have no idea why it doesn't seem to work for you. What span of time do you have them set to?

[duke]

I had to restart the weather server yesterday (network problem) and tried the graphs again this morning and all works well now

Duke

[duke]

Unfortunately the sleep period didn't work as it hung again last night and SW could not close Cumulus.

I now just have Cumulus running to eliminate it as the cause (sure it's not) and over the next few weeks I'll add SW, VVP, & WL and see what gives.

Duke

[duke]

Well Cumulus has been running for 10 days after ditching VVP .

However, when I came to check all was well this morning I found Cumulus hung. I had to use the task manager to close it and the message was "graphs are not responding". After ditching VVP I obiously can't run WL anymore so I now run Cumulus with the graph window open side by side. Works well normally. Hopefully just a one off blip. Diags attached. Happened around 04.50.

Regards Duke

Thanks for the graph task bar button Steve .