Cumulus Support

Greetings,

Have been using Cumulus for almost two years on my Windows 10 PC with a Davis Vantage Pro2 wireless, following the fatal crash of Ambient Weather’s VWS, which I had been using for over 15 years (and only learned that AW no longer supported when it died). Cumulus has worked well, although it does lock up at odd times. A week ago it locked up and would not load upon reboot. Gave some permission errors. Since I was still running the original version I downloaded (Build 3100), which was very out of date, I decided to update. Could not locate InstallerMX.exe no matter how many times I followed the circular links. So, tried to update manually. No luck. Checked out a few of the commercial packages, but they all look like they were designed for Windows 95, as compared to the very nice Cumulus interface. Eventually, I gave up, copied all the folders to another location, deleted everything in the original folder, installed the latest version of Cumulus as a new version and just configured it all over again, including uploading to CWOP and WU. And, so far, it is working fine. Three questions:

1) Can someone point me to the actual location of InstallerMX.exe, so I don’t have to go through this again for the next update? The installer may be in an obvious location on Hans’ site, but, in the interest of full disclosure, I lost most of my vision a couple of years ago. So, what may be obvious to most is usually not obvious to me. Apologies, if this and my other questions are really rudimentary. Everything takes a lot longer these days (like typing this message), and one of the reasons I really like Cumulus is that the screen is very large and the numbers are much easier to see.

2) Is there any way to integrate the old data that I saved into the new install? Am guessing the answer is “No”, but figured it was worth asking. There are so many holes in my data now that it is not a big deal, if I lose the past 22 months.

3) When the new version started, it downloaded data stored in the VP buffer. One weird result is that the rain total for the entire year all showed up as happening yesterday, the day I installed the new version of Cumulus. It’s nice to have the total for the year, but not so nice to see it all recorded as falling in a single day. Is there any way to adjust that without going into the data and changing every day to try to spread it out? It would not be accurate, as I have no idea how much rain fell on each day. UNLESS, I could somehow merge the old data with the new data per my question above. Then, I would only have to correct yesterday’s data entry. Again, not a biggie given all the other issues with my data.

Finally, a big shout out to everyone, who is involved in developing and evolving Cumulus. It has come a long way just in the time that I have been using it. Love the customizability and clean look.

Thanks for any and all help,

Bill

Hi,

Cumulus has worked well, although it does lock up at odd times.

If it locks up again, could you attach the MXdiags file for that period and attach to a post so it can be looked at and see if any details or cause.

1) Can someone point me to the actual location of InstallerMX.exe,

HansR has added a InstallCMX utility -
https://cumuluswiki.org/a/Updating_MX_t ... ler_Option to assist with updates.
viewtopic.php?p=150084#p150084

My usual and simplest way is, while CumulusMX is stopped, Copy the full content of the unzipped new version and Paste it in \CumulusMX folder. Then restart. Your existing \data \Reports and Cumulus.ini folders/files will not be impacted at all.

Is there any way to integrate the old data that I saved into the new install?

If the old Cumulus data is to fairly recent (before your datalogger has overwritten the data) then just copy the old \data folder content into your new install and at restart CumulusMX will catch up the historical data from the logger.

If you have older Cumulus data that is no longer in the logger for catchup you should be able to paste that it the running install. With CumulusMX stopped Copy and Paste the older dayfile.txt data to current dayfile.txt (must have same date format), and Copy and Paste the older MonYYlog.txt files to running install.
You can run the CreateMissing tool to fill in any missing fields in dayfile.txt (can only fill in if the data is in the MonYYlog.txt files) https://cumuluswiki.org/a/Software#Create_Missing

Is there any way to adjust that without going into the data and changing every day to try to spread it out? It would not be accurate, as I have no idea how much rain fell on each day. UNLESS,

You can add rain amount from before you started Cumulus through Settings> Station Settings > Annual Rainfall.

Enjoy,
Paul

Thank you, Paul, for the speedy and detailed reply. I actually have the diag files for a period of time from before I upgraded, and they are attached as a zip, in case it helps.

The link you provided for the installer is the same one I followed in the past. I cannot find the .exe file on any of the pages. I will just try your approach the next time. I actually did try simply installing into the folder with the existing files, but it would not run. It would show the first line of the start up sequence and then just sit with a blinking cursor at the CL prompt. But, maybe it had something to do with the prior version being so old. Will see what happens next time.

I copied the old data folder into the CumulusMX folder and it looks like it loaded in the old data. Very cool!

I just need to adjust the rainfall total for yesterday, 10 Octobere, because it is showing all rain for the year, ove 24 inches, at once. I tried to use the edit menu, but I only see where you can adjust daily rain for the current day (wish I had seen this yesterday). Do I need to go into a text file to change it for yesterday?

Thanks!

Hi,

The link you provided for the installer is the same one I followed in the past. I cannot find the .exe file on any of the pages.

Strange, I just clicked on the Attachments InstallCMXv102.zip, downloaded and unzip and it contains 2 files:
InstallCMX.rtp Properies says Rich text format
InstallCMX.exe properties says Application

I actually did try simply installing into the folder with the existing files, but it would not run. It would show the first line of the start up sequence and then just sit with a blinking cursor at the CL prompt. But, maybe it had something to do with the prior version being so old. Will see what happens next time.

Again strange. I have never had a failure by Paste in all the unzipped files and folders. But usually I am pretty well up to that with versions.

Looking at your MXdiags first lines: It is highly recommended to not place Cumulus in the Program Files folder. I believe it is related to access issues. I place mine in C:\KomokaWeather\CumulusMX
Possibly also to do with running CumulusMX in C:\Program Files or a change in COM #?
The Cumulus.ini file has all the settings when CumulusMX was stopped so you may be able to go to a previous backup and see what the setings were. At end of day and (daily) and at each restart CumulusMX makes a backup of the current data files and also Cumulus.ini so you can quickly go to a previous backup of a working install/settings and data. The Cumulus.ini is installed in the backup but if needed needs to be copied in \CumulusMX\
All the other files in backups are from the \data folder (so, as you experienced very easy to go back if you need to, as long as you know the backup data is good). The CumulusMX saving of backup files is limited and only for 10, so having your own full backup system should also be in place.

I am not very familiar with data editing but the various xxxx.ini files in the \data folder are key for the various records.

Enjoy,
Paul






I do

Well, my vision failed me again. I have been to that page many times, but I use Text-to-Speech software to read most websites and electronic documents. This time I did a search for that file name, and I found it in a box on the page that my SW did not read. Now, I have the installer for future use, TY.

Funny you should mention the install location. I rarely install anything to the OS drive, but the first time I installed CumulusMX the installer tool defaulted to that location and I did not know enough about CMX, so I went with it. I just tried something that I don’t normally do – I copied the entire folder to another drive. I figured it was worth a shot, since CMX seems pretty self-contained and does not show up in the usual Windows program menus. And, it worked. So, it is off of the OS drive. The only problem I have is that I used to have it start automatically on boot up with a 30 second delay. I have to find the instructions for how to do that, again. I know it is done by setting a parameter but can’t remember where. I am trying to set up a task in Task Scheduler, but I know that is not how I did it the first time.

Thanks for all your help!

Bill

CumulusMX itself has various Start-Up options in Program Settings.

On Windows you can run CMX with the -install parameter and it will set itself up as a System Service. That can be configured to auto-start.

Then you can use the Program Settings to add additional delays, checking for network etc.

Thanks, David and Mark. THAT'S how I remember setting it up last time. I keep getting error messages, when i try to run with -install as a parameter at the command prompt. But, I'll keep playing around with it. Thanks!

You must run it as Administrator to perform the install.