Cumulus Support

Davis Vantage Pro2 with console
Davis WeatherLink Live
Dedicated Windows 10 Desktop, up to date
Latest release of MX

On April 15 I noticed that the WeatherUnderground site would stop graphing data consistently. I started getting gaps in graphed data. The "realtime" rapidfire widget on the webpage ( https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KMDNEWWI3 ) worked at times, other times the wind dial froze.

I push to PWS, Windy, CWOP, etc and the data is complete ( https://www.pwsweather.com/station/pws/JORDRETRT for example ). The data under the Cumulus browser interface is complete with no gaps and live.

I noticed in the Cumulus Settings for the station name and password that "password" was no longer used and to use the "Station Key". Is this the API key perhaps? I tried it and the data stayed online but the WU interface froze. If I put the password back in it worked for 15 seconds or so then the interface froze.

The WeatherUnderground WXforum sub forum isn't seeing this en mass, just a few folks have responded with similar problems. Not sure if they are Cumulus MX users.

Any thoughts.

Someone reporting on wxforum taht the entire system now seems to be down...

https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic ... #msg428624

Personally I gave up on the wunder-lost site nearly a year ago.

Re the password/key.

Wunderground used to use the password to authenticate API uploads, they switched to providing a separate key, but accounts/stations that originally used the password could continue to do so (though they said support will be withdrawn at some point - so far unspecified afaik). New stations have to use their key and have no option to use the password.

mcrossley wrote: ↑Wed 21 Apr 2021 3:42 pm Someone reporting on wxforum taht the entire system now seems to be down...

https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic ... #msg428624

Personally I gave up on the wunder-lost site nearly a year ago.

Yeah, he posted in my thread.

I like(d) WU because the RapidFire near realtime updates were available to me on any platform that would show a web page. The key is "realtime". My Davis WLL shows realtime on my android phone through an ugly app, but their website inexplicably doesnt. Otherwise I'd ditch WU too. That's the problem...

Switch on debug logging, let it run for a while to capture a good number of uploads, then post your latest MXdiags log file. Thanks.

boss281 wrote: ↑Wed 21 Apr 2021 3:58 pm
Yeah, he posted in my thread.

I just looked at the wunder map for the first time in a while, for me it shows none to a few stations until you zoom in quite a lot - not what I expected, I expected it to show lots of stations until the density became too high, then show a sub-set of them.

disregard

Yes I noticed the problems with Wunderground for the past week or so. Looking at the CMX Diags shows that the problem lies at the Wunderground gateway.

I push to Windy.com and PWS all on 5 minute intervals and only Wunderground causes problems

Log file coming. It should be posting data to WeatherUnderground, Windy, PWS Weather and APRS/CWOP. Windy and PWS Weather seems up to date. I don't understand the time at CWOP but now that I look at it that website does not seem up to date. Interesting.

mcrossley wrote: ↑Wed 21 Apr 2021 4:08 pm Switch on debug logging, let it run for a while to capture a good number of uploads, then post your latest MXdiags log file. Thanks.

Here's the file you asked for. I'm a bit puzzled by it (didn't see anything in there about Weather Underground but I could have overlooked it).

Having seen boss281 reply with no WU problems here is my MXDiags file which shows the WU Gateway problems.

I think if your WU data is erratic like most people, and all other data to 3rd parties is ok, then email WU.

There is just no point in discussing WU issues here or wxforums since we are repeating ourselves time and time again . I've been saying this for years, WU is just not worth the effort or worth talking about. It's not reliable enough as a source of data any longer. Since the takeover of WU by IBM they just dont care.

boss281 wrote: ↑Wed 21 Apr 2021 10:51 pm Here's the file you asked for. I'm a bit puzzled by it (didn't see anything in there about Weather Underground but I could have overlooked it).

20210421-180036.txt

Thanks, I checked, and there is no logging if you use Rapid Fire unless the call fails with an exception. I have now changed that for the next release so that it will log rapid fire responses if the return code is anything other than success.

If you disable rapid fire for a period you should see the logging - both methods use exactly the same API URL.

AndyKF650 wrote: ↑Thu 22 Apr 2021 6:40 am Having seen boss281 reply with no WU problems here is my MXDiags file which shows the WU Gateway problems.

Yep, internal WU issues - error 504.

ConligWX wrote: ↑Thu 22 Apr 2021 7:19 am I think if your WU data is erratic like most people, and all other data to 3rd parties is ok, then email WU.

There is just no point in discussing WU issues here or wxforums since we are repeating ourselves time and time again . I've been saying this for years, WU is just not worth the effort or worth talking about. It's not reliable enough as a source of data any longer. Since the takeover of WU by IBM they just dont care.

Hi Simon, thanks for responding. And venting. Having been a WU user for many years I understand and share that frustration. The key problem for me is what do I use off my home network? I need web based access to real time wind and rain data. Even my Davis WLL android app is only useful while under my home network. The Davis WeatherLInk website is inexplicably not real time.

When Mark was working on the beta, I knew I had found a solution for those times I needed to see real time weather data while home on the home network. I can fire up CMX on any laptop and check conditions when those nasty mid-Atlantic storm fronts come through. But off network I'm dead. I can't find ANYTHING that provides that live reporting like WU. So I endure.

That said, I'm open to alternatives but when I asked for a suitable replacement years ago I was told there isn't anything. Has that changed? Is there a CMX approach I can use to access my data through general internet access while off the home network. I'm happy to discuss elsewhere, perhaps I'll start yet another "WU alternative" thread on WXForum. Thanks for your thoughts on this.
John

I replied on your wxforum post, but regarding my last point there, I have hosted a web server on my home LAN for years, it works well, in fact it runs on the same rPi as Cumulus MX and my MySQL database.

Here is a demo of "near" real time updates via that site... https://weather.wilmslowastro.com/test/ ... matica.php

I have other versions of that page that use web sockets or MQTT for proper real time updates.

EDIT: Typically, there is not much wind action at the moment!