Cumulus Support

Hi
We are measuring visible light which is perhaps more useful in PV applications as well as the holiday maker etc, however, so that we have comparable (only more accurate) results to other methods we are using the Watt level as a guide.

Regards
Alan

Hi
Just as an afterthought - the attached graph show the meter level in yellow (factored down) and the sun recorder level and threshold and at the bottom the related ON/OFF indications.
There is a slight time shift as the two sources were running on different computers and with very slight interval differences.
Regards
Alan

That's interesting.... so with this device what you get is an on = sunny off = not sunny indication and therefore the amount of on time equates to sunshine hours. I guess what is missing from this is some way to indicate conditions other than sunny/not sunny which you get with a VP style sensor (and others) which can be useful. I'd be interested to see how well the thresholds hold up in high summer when you get quite a lot of reflected light from clouds etc.

I can see this being used in addition to a VP style sensor assuming it comes in at an affordable price.

I have seen another type of sensor which is intended as a cloud sensor for astronomy (cant remember where right now) and it works at night as it works on temperature comparison, apparently it can also be used as a sunshine indicator.

Stuart

Hi
The original concept was simply to produce a sunshine duration system to supercede the old Campbell Stokes device which remained the standard until quite recently but as it is measuring levels it could be put to other purposes. Our latest version should prove to be very affordable and will fill the gap in the data collected by many people.
Regards
Alan

I shall continue to follow this and hope it all turns out OK.

The sensor I was thinking about was this one which as I said works as a cloud sensor, however it is not cheap!

Stuart

Hi All
Just to prove that Olejul and I have not hibernated over winter here is my record of sunshine in West Cornwall since 1st November 2010.
Olejul is presently making the prototypes of our latest simplified version and if all goes well we hope to have a small production run before too long to carry out trials in a wider geographical area.
Regards
Alan

Sounds like progress..

Hi All
We now have the first few units of our latest version of the recorder. After some initial testing by ourselves we will be looking for four or five people to test the recorder in different latitudes. We want to cover the range from 20° to 70° North or South. With Steve's permission we will be posting a more comprehensive note of our requirements and asking for replies through the private mail system.
Regards
Alan

apenwith wrote:With Steve's permission we will be posting a more comprehensive note of our requirements and asking for replies through the private mail system.

I've no problem at all with that, Alan.

Hi
I see from a wind vane thread that Steve is thinking of a 1-wire connection which is what we use. Would that mean that Cumulus could read data through one usb port for the station and another port for extras. If so that has great possibilities for all sorts of add-ons.
Regards
Alan

I know next to nothing about 1-wire, so I can't yet say how it would fit into Cumulus. But if it offers an interface via USB - hopefully as a HID - then what you say sounds reasonable.

I use OWFS - One Wire File System - to drive my 1-wire network. It's multi-platform and free (on sourceforge). It works with either the serial or USB 1-wire adapters (I use the serial, not tried the USB) and provides access to all the I/O by emulating folders and files. Any programming language that can access files and folders will work. It amazed me how simple it was I've seem other methods including Java and they looked very complicated but maybe it was the way it was presented.

Here is the link to OWFS explaining what 1-wire is, how it works and how to use OWFS to connect to it. Best explanation I've found so far. http://owfs.org/index.php?page=what-is-1-wire

Hi All
In reply to Bruce45 in 'Interface with Cumulus' Steve at nearly 60° N actually fits our idea of testing the unit at different latitudes. Meanwhile attched is a (slightly out of focus) picture of the latest version which is being used to establish a few variables needed.
Regards
Alan

Whoops
Sorry about the size - but if you zoom out the page you can see it

Alan

apenwith wrote:Steve at nearly 60° N actually fits our idea of testing the unit at different latitudes.

I was hoping/assuming I would, and am ready to volunteer when the time comes.