Cumulus is awesome!

[Dave]

Hello everyone, A newbie here with a few comments on my experience with Cumulus.

A few months back I decided to begin uploading my Vantage Pro 2 data to Weather Underground. I have been using Davis’Weatherlink software for many years so I figured I would just use the Wunderground plug-in and that would be the end of the story. Well it turns out that the plug-in is terrible and simply does not work properly.

I next decided to evaluate some of the other software packages available and really didn’t like any of them for various reasons. I won’t get into any specifics, but there were issues with each programs approach that I simply found unacceptable to me. I know each author put a lot of hard work into their program so I don’t mean to be bashing their efforts; they just didn’t work for me. I was about to scrap the whole idea and stick with Weatherlink when I stumbled on Cumulus! Perfect! Just what I was looking for!

I have been using Cumulus for about two months now with no issues at all. Setup was a snap, all the information I need is easy to access and see, Wunderground uploads work perfect, the forum is great, Steve’s availability is amazing (haven’t needed his help yet he does such a fine job with his code ). I still keep my Weatherlink data base going too with the help of Virtual Vantage Pro. They all play very nice together and I’m a very satisfied user. Thanks Steve for a great program.

If you haven’t tossed a donation in the hat yet please give it some thought. I have just thoroughly checked out the competition and Cumulus is the best IMHO.

Dave

[RayProudfoot]

Dave,

I concur with all you have said. I bought my VP2 in April and as WL came with it I naturally used that. But whilst it captures all the required data the web pages look a bit dated. But I'll keep it running alongside Cumulus using VirtualVP as I don't want to dismiss something before I've learned about HTML and what I can do with it.

I also upload to WU but the WL DLL with Rapid Fire was absolutely dreadful. It stays on top and won't give control back to anything else. Once Steve tweaked the wind gust I switched to Cumulus updates to WU and have been very pleased with the outcome.

I looked at WD as everyone seemed to be recommending it and the WDL flash feature is very good. But the WD interface is perhaps the worst I've ever seen. I tried it for a couple of days but just couldn't live with it.

I'm really happy with Cumulus from a software point of view and also the quality of support by Steve. I consider support to be as important as the software itself.

I'm eagerly awaiting Cumulus2 so in the meantime I need to learn about website design and find myself a web host.

[Dave]

Ray, I know exactly what you mean about WD. The WDL Flash app. is very cool. I just couldn't ever make any sense of the WD main apps. interface and the documentation was very poor too.

I like WDL so much that it has inspired me to start learning Actionscript 3.0 in my spare time. My goal is to make a live current conditions display for a large LCD computer monitor that I will hang on the wall in my home. So far I am working out the animations of some analog wind dials. I'm real particualr that the physics of the pointers on the dials have a 'real' analog look when they are in motion. The app. will use the realtime.txt file of Cumulus on the local HD to feed it the real time data from the VP2. As you know the Davis VP2 monochrome LCD is difficult to see from any distance, especially at night.

Dave

[RayProudfoot]

Hi Dave,

Good luck with the project, I'm impressed. If you want a free real-time live display have you seen the Rapid-Fire updates in WeatherUnderground?

Have a look at my data here. Not as good as WDL but it's pretty good as a freebie. http://www.wunderground.com/swf/Rapid_F ... =ISTOCKPO4

[steve]

There's always Cumulus Realtime, of course, which is my attempt at emulating WDL...

[beteljuice]

realtime.txt, analogue wind dials ?

One of beteljuices play things: http://www.dickie.webfusion.co.uk/betel ... oard2.html

[RayProudfoot]

There's always Cumulus Realtime, of course, which is my attempt at emulating WDL...

Steve,

I wasn't dissing Cumulus's RealTime. I got the impression from Dave that he didn't yet have a website (just as I haven't) so WU is his only way of seeing real-time data.

I'll definitely be using CRT when I get my website up and running.

[Super-T]

Ray
How do you get your Rapid Fire to show both metric and non-metric data?

[6719jason]

http://www.wunderground.com/swf/Rapid_F ... =IESSEXWE2

units=both shows both units - Metric & Non Metric

If you ensure that the Rapid Fire web address, like mine above, has units=both after Rapid_Fire.swf? it should display both metric and non metric.

Glad to be of help.

Jason

[Dave]

There's always Cumulus Realtime, of course, which is my attempt at emulating WDL...

Steve,

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that what I'm hacking away at is in any way an attempt to compete with Cumulus RT or WDL for that matter. I was just surprised to see what was possible with Flash and Actionscript 3 when I saw WDL and figured even a complete amateur programmer like me could make a custom realtime display for my home. I have no intention at this point of making a weather website, I'm just using the app. on my local computer. My 49 year old eyes need BIG BRIGHT numbers so I can see the wind and temperature without getting up from my recliner!

realtime.txt, analogue wind dials ?

One of beteljuices play things: http://www.dickie.webfusion.co.uk/betel ... oard2.html

Beteljuice,

Very nice! Please share some details with us.

Dave

[beteljuice]

As usual with the beteljuice, unfinished work in progress

Designed for a web page, but of course nothing stopping you displaying from your PC instead of the web - hadn't really thought about it

It's all javascript, (drawing pixel by pixel) so making the animated wind dials much larger would slow everything down and give your PC a thrombosis !

But, IE at least has the ability to 'zoom' the page, I just tried the dials at 400% and they looked good

Note to self, must find out if there is way to selectively zoom by coding.

Of course the only problem with a permanent display would be 'screen burn'.

[steve]

I have no intention at this point of making a weather website, I'm just using the app. on my local computer.

One of the interesting new features in v3 of Silverlight is the ability to run the application 'out of browser', i.e. as a desktop application, which I must investigate when I get chance.

My 49 year old eyes need BIG BRIGHT numbers

Youngster

An alternative 'read-from-a-distance' display is something I'd like to add to Cumulus 2 eventually.

[Dave]

One of the interesting new features in v3 of Silverlight is the ability to run the application 'out of browser', i.e. as a desktop application

Flash has the same ability. One way is to run the script with the Flash Projector which also supports a full screen mode, perfect for what I'm doing. The other way is to compile the script with Flex which makes a stand-alone executable file. I was fortunate enough to have a friend give me his full version of Flash CS4. Without that kind gift, the price of admission to Flash would have been way to steep to justify spending just for fiddling around with my weather hobby!

An alternative 'read-from-a-distance' display is something I'd like to add to Cumulus 2 eventually

One of the things I miss the most from the old Heathkit weather station days is the large, bright LED displays that can be viewed from across a room. It was very nice at 3AM to glance across a totally dark house and check on the outside conditions.

Dave