Cumulus Support

Hi,
I've just switched from Lacrosse to FineOffset (well, actually it's a PCE -FWS20, but it's identical to FineOffset WS 1080) and I have some questions...

1) Just after starting cumulus, SOMETIMES, when cumulus has not yet read the current values (all values are 0) it saves a 0 in every signal. So I have to manually remove that entry from the current month.txt file and then restart cumulus (Hoping that it doesn't do the same error again, if so I have to do again the same trick until it doesn't save the 0 readings...)
Is it something avoidable? Is it already known?

2) The wind readings are different than LaCrosse ones: the current wind speed is not the same which is reported on the weather station LCD: I found that cumulus reported wind speed is the wind gust reported by the station. Then if I check the option "use speed' for avg calculation" the cumulus wind avg equals the console instant wind speed.... what the hell is that?
I'm a bit dizzy, because with lacrosse station (WITHOUT "use speed for avg calculation") the wind speed was the same between cumulus and lacrosse LCD, and the same was with the wind gust. Why now the FineOffset has the readings swapped?

3) What is the correct configuration for FineOffset WS1080: "Fine Offset with U/V sensor" or generic "FineOffset" ? I think it's the latter one but I want to be sure... (my station has a little solar panel just to charge the battery, it doesn't report the insolation value to the console).


Anyway the question number 2 make me wonder about a bug, could you clarify me about that? Thank you veyr much!

Matteo

About the wind http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/FAQ#What_d ... tations.3F

You have a Fne-Offset 1080 etc (so WITHOUT UV sensor)

I don't have an anwer about the zero readings...

Thank you, I read the FAQ and found the wind values explanation... ok.

About the station settings I am ok with "Fine Offset" (without U/V).

About the zero readings at the start of Cumulus I can say that I have configured cumulus for FineOffset with serial port 0, I don't know if it's right or not, but I found it somewere on internet...
The strange thing is that sometime it happens, sometimes not. I don't think it has something to do with "usb lockup issues" but at the moment I have tried both "synchronize readings" checked or not without any noticeable difference.

It seems to me that cumulus is too fast to save the readings and since it has not yet picked up right values from the console, it saves the 0 values which corrupt charts. I have "spike removal" already enabled (with some reasonable data) but it doesn't seem to do anything about the zero readings.

Or maybe it's a bug of Cumulus that can be avoided just by checking if data have been read (maybe just by checking if current pressure is 0 or not, or waiting TWO DIFFERENT set of data) and so it can save values, if not it shouldn't save anything.
Am I wrong?

Regarding point 1, please zip up the diags folder and attach it.

Here it is the zipped diag

From the log consider only the data after yesterday (monday) evening at 19:00, because before that moment I had connected wrongly the sensors (inverted rain and wind on the thermoigrometer sockets), so the values were wrong.

Thank you!

You initially had the wrong station type selected, and after you corrected that and then corrected the rainfall figure which would have been wrong as a result of that, you have only started Cumulus three times, all last night:

1. at 22:00
2. at 22:06
3. at 22:12

It looks like it is still running from that last start, so presumably the 'sometimes' that you are referring to is actually just one or both of those first two. Can you tell me whether it was just the one, or both of them? What were the timestamps on the entries in the log files which were all zero?

Do you have the NoSensorCheck=1 setting in your cumulus.ini file?

What logging intervals do you have the station logger and Cumulus set to? The same value, hopefully, as recommended?

Yes, I set 20minutes with easyweather into the station and then set 20 minutes in Cumulus.

Unluckily I don't remember if the zero reading problem was during the first two start or just during the first one...

Today just before zipping the diag folder I stopped cumulus but restarting it I found no issue, so I start thinking it could be something about wrong configuration...

Anyway I will keep checking it, and if I found again it, I will post the wrong record entry with diag folder zipped, is it ok?

Yes - if it happens again, let it run until it has logged a valid entry, then before you do any changes, zip up the diags folder and attach it along with the current monthly log file.

At the moment it never did the "zero readings" anymore.

Hopefully it was due to my fault because at the first I inverted the sensors into the thermohygrometer sensor and maybe it caused that problem.

After 4 days (and after some stop and start tests) it's running flawlessly

Well, I spoke too early...

During the last week I had a lot of "communication problems" with FineOffset, and cumulus told me to "remove USB cable and batteries from the weather station"...

Since the problem was intermittent (only few times, and not always) I waited for a week but this morning I decided to reset the station and so I removed usb cable, batteries, then I connected again the station to the pc.

Before starting cumulus I checked that the station was still configured for 10minutes interval with easy weather, and so it was.

Then I started cumulus and here it is the zero reading problem, just one time... now after closing and starting no zero values are read.
I've attached the diag folder but I forgot (sorry about it) to save the original zero-values record in nov2014.txt file

My guess is that when the station has no memory at all (no stored values) maybe cumulus can't read any values since the station has recorded the first one.
I noticed that the zero-values record was setted on a time that was outside from the normal time window: my station is setted to save a sample every 10 minutes and the zero-values record was on 7,56am (while the 7,50 am and 8,00 am values were recorded correctly).

Do I have to enable the "syncrhonize" option of cumulus for FineOffset stations?

Vathek wrote:My guess is that when the station has no memory at all (no stored values) maybe cumulus can't read any values since the station has recorded the first one.

Yes, it was caused by the reset. Unfortunately a reset which clears the memory can lead to further errors in the data the first time you start up again. The code could probably do a better job of detecting this situation.

Do I have to enable the "syncrhonize" option of cumulus for FineOffset stations?

It's usually a good idea to do that, because it helps to prevent the 'USB lockup' problem that can happen with Fine Offset stations. I'm not sure that you've actually been having that problem, though, it looks more like a problem with the USB connection itself.

Ok, how can I check if I have the USB look-up problem?

I use a usb cable with a cable extension, maybe it's that... I will search for a longer cable but it's difficult because it's a strange cable with double male A connectors
I will also check changing USB port on PC... is it safe or does it changes some address (like in RS232-USB converters)?

In the meantime if I check the synchro option, will it cause any issue?

Vathek wrote:Ok, how can I check if I have the USB look-up problem?

If a station is detected correctly but doesn't respond to software at all until it is reset, then it may have the USB lockup problem.

I use a usb cable with a cable extension, maybe it's that... I will search for a longer cable but it's difficult because it's a strange cable with double male A connectors
I will also check changing USB port on PC... is it safe or does it changes some address (like in RS232-USB converters)?

It could well be your extension cable. It doesn't matter which port you use.

In the meantime if I check the synchro option, will it cause any issue?

None that I am aware of.

Ok, yesterday evening (after a day from the reset) I found the same error again.

This morning I changed the usb extension with another one, and at the moment I see no usb error... I will see