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Random spikes corrupting all-time records

Discussion and questions about Cumulus weather station software version 1. This section is the main place to get help with Cumulus 1 software developed by Steve Loft that ceased development in November 2014.
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justincredible
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat 11 May 2013 9:38 am
Weather Station: Fine Offset WH3081
Operating System: Windows Server 2012
Location: Caboolture, Australia
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Random spikes corrupting all-time records

Post by justincredible »

Hey guys. I have two problems I'd like to report, and the first one is through my own doing, but thought I'd share it anyway.

First problem:

I had Cumulus Beta 1079 running perfectly fine but happened to accidentally launch another instance of it. I didn't have "prevent other launches" ticked in the options, it launched, and subsequently my (at least) all time records logs were corrupted, from what I remember the wind gust max, some temperatures and dew points were affected. It happened the second the second Cumulus instance launched and has never happened before or since (I don't try to launch second instances now, though).

Second problem:

This relates to random spikes in the logs, also having the same effect of corrupting (at least) my all-time records. Usually it's dew point and humidity that's the problem, for example humidity will (always) drop to 13% and as such dew point will be -17.3C. This has happened more than once, and seemed to start happening when I moved my Cumulus install from an old machine (running Windows XP) to my regular server which runs Server 2012.

Here is an example of the problem. I thought Cumulus was supposed to filter out obvious spikes?

Image

Image

Any ideas what could be the problem? Now running build 1080 of 1.9.4, upgraded last night. However, if downgrading is no issue, I can do that and see how I go.

Thanks.
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steve
Cumulus Author
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Re: Random spikes corrupting all-time records

Post by steve »

justincredible wrote:Here is an example of the problem. I thought Cumulus was supposed to filter out obvious spikes?
Not spikes, but obviously incorrect absolute values. If you want it to attempt spike removal, you need to make some settings in the spike removal section of the calibration settings screen.
Steve
justincredible
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat 11 May 2013 9:38 am
Weather Station: Fine Offset WH3081
Operating System: Windows Server 2012
Location: Caboolture, Australia
Contact:

Re: Random spikes corrupting all-time records

Post by justincredible »

OK, I knew Cumulus had some sort of spike removal feature, and I had a little look, but I don't really have any idea how to use it. Can you give me some pointers on how I may be able to set up spike removal to remove those dew point/humidity spikes? That seems to be my main problem, and I'm not sure how to resolve it properly.

That, and once or twice the barometer has dipped to impossibly low values and taken a couple of days to recover, however I think that may be a problem with the equipment itself and not the software.

Cheers.
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steve
Cumulus Author
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Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
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Location: Vienne, France
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Re: Random spikes corrupting all-time records

Post by steve »

justincredible wrote:OK, I knew Cumulus had some sort of spike removal feature, and I had a little look, but I don't really have any idea how to use it.
is the help for the calibration screen not of any use? Basically, you tell Cumulus how big a difference between readings to ignore. If your spike is always as large as the one you've shown, then you can use a reasonably large setting.
That, and once or twice the barometer has dipped to impossibly low values and taken a couple of days to recover, however I think that may be a problem with the equipment itself and not the software.
In Cumulus only, or on the console display as well? Possibly this: http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/FAQ#My_pre ... creased.21
Steve
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MickinMoulden
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Weather Station: WS-1081 with rain gauge mod
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Re: Random spikes corrupting all-time records

Post by MickinMoulden »

justincredible wrote:OK, I knew Cumulus had some sort of spike removal feature, and I had a little look, but I don't really have any idea how to use it. Can you give me some pointers on how I may be able to set up spike removal to remove those dew point/humidity spikes? That seems to be my main problem, and I'm not sure how to resolve it properly.

That, and once or twice the barometer has dipped to impossibly low values and taken a couple of days to recover, however I think that may be a problem with the equipment itself and not the software.

Cheers.
I would start in the Calibration in Cumulus, and set Humidity to say 20% (yours jumped 85%, and 10% in 5 minutes is big). This will automatically fix your dew point as dew point is calculated with humidity. Pressure you could set as 1 hPa (0.6 hPa in 5 minutes is big), 1 hPa setting is equivalent to a drop of 12 hPa/hr. This is plenty. I've had mine drop at 1.9 hPa/hr with a cyclone. I live in Darwin (Palmerston). Have fun going through your logs to fix the errors. That's what I had to do. Also, the jumps occur with bad contacts with the phone connectors, especially when water gets in them. I would look at that as well. My spikes don't occur any more.
I've been to Caboolture a few times. My folks live north of you in Landsborough.
Michael, Palmerston, NT Australia www.Palmerston-WeatherImageNo image? I'm offline!
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