Procedure for changing weathers stations with Cumulus

[geoffw]

I take delivery of an Oregon WRM200 on Monday to replace my increasingly unreliable Watson Weather Station W-8681 that has been in use since June 2009. Any tips or advice on a seamless transfer from the Watson to the Oregon using Cumulus?

[steve]

Just change the station type. If it doesn't start reading the data, stop it and start it again. Some of the rain figures may be odd for a while (e.g. rain in last 24 hours).

[geoffw]

Just change the station type. If it doesn't start reading the data, stop it and start it again. Some of the rain figures may be odd for a while (e.g. rain in last 24 hours).

Can't believe it would be that easy! ........... thanks Steve!

[steve]

I switch backwards and forwards between a Fine Offset and a WMR200 frequently for testing, the only thing that happens is that the rain figures go wrong initially (because the two stations have different counters).

[iandrews]

I was going to ask the same question, as am planning on upgrading my Fine Offset to a Davis Pro 2. So good to know that it's that simple.

However, what to do with the "all time records". I have 5 years of data from the Fine Offset, and wouldn't want to "loose" it, but am wondering with the new station whether it would be best to start afresh with the records. The temp / rain / wind stuff will be sited in the same place as the existing gear, so data would be for the same location, but from the different stations, so wouldn’t want say a temp record from the old station (which used to read high in bright sunshine) to never get beaten because the Pro 2 is (hopefully) more accurate. As I see it I could do the following:

1. Do nothing, and just let a record get updated if one occurs with the new station.
2. Delete just the "all time records" (if that’s possible), and then let them build up again as time goes by with just the Pro 2 readings. I have a Top 10 data page, so that would show records for both stations, so I could see the “older” records (as long as any are still within the top 10), as well as the “monthly records” page showing records from both stations.
3. Start afresh, that way all data is from the Pro 2. I would keep a copy of the existing data on the PC, and would “take a copy” of the web site as it stood on the last day of the Fine Offset, so that it could be referenced.

Any thoughts on the above, what have others done.

Also have to consider the new version of Cumulus (either running in beta, or when its officially released). What happens there, can the existing data be “imported”, and would there be any pros / cons (or not a blind bit of difference) of starting afresh with the new version.

Thanks.

[steve]

Also have to consider the new version of Cumulus (either running in beta, or when its officially released). What happens there, can the existing data be “imported”, and would there be any pros / cons (or not a blind bit of difference) of starting afresh with the new version.

MX uses the same data files at Cumulus 1. In some cases a few adjustments are needed to make them compatible - e.g. if decimal commas are in use, the ini files need editing to change them to decimal points, but the monthly logs and dayfile.txt are compatible as-is.