Cumulus Support

It looks like I'm going to have to move my Cumulus installation over to my W10 machine. It is causing instability on my Mac that I can't have happening. It's crashed 3 time in the last couple of days. Only started crashing when I started running Cu soooo. In the Mac world I'm able to connect the console into a USB port and use FTDIUSBSerialDriver software to go from Serial to USB. I was hoping that FTDI had a windows equivalent but it doesn't look like it. I've been googling but as usual it gets more confusing then helpful. How do people connect their console to W10? Is there some sort of driver like the Mac or does there have to be hardware dongle involved? One of my searches brought up going to device manager and there's a ports tab you can configure. There is no such thing on my machine. The tab above and below are there with the com port missing in-between .

You just make sure that the USB connection is switched to serial mode from USB, and it appears as a serial port in Windows - no extra drivers required. You have to use the WeatherLink software to switch modes I believe - never done it myself.

Would a Rasberry Pi be a better bet - much less power hungry than a PC.

I think the driver is included with Windows 10. Try plugging your station in and see what is listed under ports.

In my search google showed a port tab between Portable Devices and Print queues in the device manager. Mine does not have that between. When I plug the console in I get a USBXpress Device in the bottom USB controllers tab. Manufacturer is Silicon Labs Software. Location is Port_#0002.Hub_#0001. I'm just not that up on W10. I'm a videographer thus Mac is the main platform. I used to be proficient in peecee, I ran XP till they ripped it from my dead hands. Then on to 7 which I rode till the end. I don't need to use windows much anymore so I've forgotten more than I ever knew

I think what is getting me is the com port. The default Com 1 didn't work, I tried the location address but I can't get it to communicate with the station. I do have it running on WLL but I want Cu to run off the data logger so I have the 1 min interval instead of the basic 15 min that my WLL account is. I still have the Mac running on serial till I can get the serial going on W10, but next time it crashes I won't bring it back up. I'm sure it doesn't get along with something else that is running but Cu is the one who has to get along, not the others. What should the Serial port name be?

You cannot use the USBXpress connection with Cumulus MX, you have to switch your logger into Serial mode.

I suspect the reason I don't have a port tab in the Device Manager is that my computer doesn't have a serial port, only USB. It's one of those palm sized things. Perfect for what I need it for. I've got 2 programs I need to run on a win box. I'd still be running W7 if one of the two doesn't run on W7 anymore. It's a dual booting computer, I've also got Linux on it. In fact in the boot menu it defaults to Linux so if the it reboots due to crash or update it's going to end up in Linux without intervention. One thing that drives me up a wall with W10, I'm not on there very much. If I want to quick check something I usually have to wait forever as it's updating the OS. I'm sure there is a way to have more control over that but I don't use it enough to know or care.

Would Linux be a better option for Cu? Would I be able to plug the data logger into the USB port and have it work like I can on the Mac? I'm going to try it anyway on Linux, I'd rather connect to the console / data logger than WLL. It's been running on the Mac for awhile now without crashing so that's a good thing.

None of my computers have physical serial ports either. It's a virtual concept. As Mark says, your weather station works in either serial mode or usb mode. Yours is in usb mode and if you want to use Cumulus MX (on either Windows or Linux) you need to change it to serial mode. You can still connect it to a usb port, and it will be treated internally as a serial connection by Linux or Windows, and you will see a serial port appear in whichever OS you decide to use.

Switching from usb mode to serial mode is done with the WeatherLink software that came with the station.

I'm pretty sure it's in the serial mode. I've got this driver installed on the Mac, FTDIUSBSerialDriver_v2_2_16. Cu is setup on the Mac as serial with the port being /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART. Is the station software different from the lame Mac version of WeatherLInk? I have WeatherLink 6.0.3C on the computer and I have a CD that came with the station that is WeatherLInk 5.1. There isn't much as far as configuration on 6.0.3C. I've attached the Cu config from the Mac.

I am one happy camper. I've moved the entire setup to Linux. Install was seamless. Plugged in the logger and connected right into Cu. I moved the Data, Backup & Records folders from the Mac over to Linux and it's purring along with all my data intact. I love the fact that Cu is browser based, anything I need to do to it can be done from my main computer, the Mac. I'll leave the setup on the Mac for now but if I get any more crashes I'll take it off. If that happened I suspect it would be mono doing it.

When there is an application update as there has been since I started this project. There doesn't seem to be an update version only a full install. I'd just need to replace the CumulusMX.exe file right?

@hahniv: no you better copy the whole distribution over the old one (make a copy of that old one if you want to be sure). You may want to check out the multiplatform installer.

Does the Cumulus.ini file contain the station config and anything I've setup within Cu? If so I shouldn't copy that over right? If that isn't the program config file then where are all my setting stored? I don't see anything in the data folder that looks like program config files. When I migrated over to Linux it was setup with 3116 so it's up to date. Mac is one behind but I"m not running that anymore. I just need to know for when the next update comes along.

Does the Cumulus.ini file contain the station config and anything I've setup within Cu?

Cumulus.ini is the full configuration file. When you over-install with a new CumulusMX which has no Cumulus.ini the existing Cumulus.ini is not affected so just start it up and continue on (and check Settings after an update, like the several changes with v3.10.1 and also do the webfiles FTP if using the web pages.

Or if it is a new install and you have a previous Cumulus.ini then generally you can copy that in to pick up the settings that were in the previous install, just like the previous \data and \Reports folders.

Enjoy,
Paul

Thanks!

Silly question ... why no USB option? This presented an installation hurdle pretty early on and I am now wondering if I should wait out the unsupported VWS and associated reliability issues. I've attempted to convert from USB to Serial using WeatherLink and it cycles through my 18 Windows 10 Comm ports, cannot find anything to use and fails out. I suppose I have to track down an old drive from Davis and add my station as a Comm device?

Hi,
The Davis USB data logger can be set and run as serial or USB mode, and WeatherlinkPC can run either way. But all 3-rd party weather program use serial mode (or IP if you have an IP datalogger) so you must have the Davis USB datalogger set as serial. If you have previously used the logger as USB mode then there is a process and driver needed to set as serial mode. This https://www.manula.com/manuals/pws/davi ... ink-logger is a great resource.

Enjoy,
Paul