Can Cumulus damage the Instromet Data Logger.

[fdhugo]

Text of email to Richard, here to you:

Hi!

Either hardware or software or both continues to malfunction.
Copy of August Log to date and cumulus file attached.
I have indicated the discontinuities by blank lines.

Yesterday morning data logger reset.
Cumulus Closed.
PC Slept.
Yesterday afternoon PC booted, Cumulus opened, data transferred, Cumulus Closed overnight.
PC did not Sleep.
This morning Cumulus Opened, data transferred.
Data is duplicated and missing.

Please advise.

[fdhugo]

I realise that this may be irrelevant to you, but attach the cumulus file in case.

2015-08-07
>17:00 PC found asleep, Cumulus closed and power plan changed.
PC woken.
Cumulus opened.
No data transfer, last record 11:40.
Power plan changed to Balanced, with Sleep Never.
17:10 Normal record.
Cumulus Closed.
>18:40 PC awake, power plan unchanged.
Cumulus opened.
No data transfer.
18:50 Normal record.
>20:20 Cumulus closed.
HyperTerminal:
LGCT 141,103
WRST,13,0
WRST, 13,0,23
WRST, 14,0
WRST,14,0,22
LGCT 0,25
<20:30 Cumulus opened.
20:30 20:40 20:50 normal records.
Cumulus closed.
21:10 Cumulus opened.
Data transfer, record for 21:02.
PC monitored overnight, no Sleep, no change to power plan.
2015-08-08
>11:00 Cumulus closed.
13:13 PC still awake, no change to power plan.
Cumulus opened.
No data transferred.

There has been a successful transfer of data after resetting and subsequently no successful transfer for a period when Cumulus was closed and the PC did not Sleep.

[steve]

I've spent a lot of time on this, and I think I've done all I can. The evidence points to a problem with the logger. If the problem is in Cumulus, Instromet will have to tell me exactly what Cumulus is doing wrong, even though as far as I am aware it is not doing anything that isn't in the protocol.

[fdhugo]

You and me both...

From Richard.

Good morning Francois,
Our external hardware engineer, who developed the logger has indicated that the “E” shown in your previous details indicate a possible corruption in the records in the flash memory.
He is currently running a few experiments to try and establish the cause of the corruption and I’ll come back to you once I hear from him.
Best Regards
Richard Peel

[fdhugo]

I have managed to persuade IT to keep my PCs awake, and have had little trouble.
I have heard nothing from Richard about E.
This morning Error was flashing and the display frozen.
Cumulus Closed and Opened, no data recovered.
cumulus file attached.
I assume as before, not your problem, and have asked Richard whether he has made any progress.

[steve]

The logger just kept sending the same two logger entries repeatedly (both were from back in August).

Additionally this time, when Cumulus started reading the live data, there were errors in the live data which show up as invalid checksums, but it is likely that it was actually not receiving a response.