Cumulus 1.8.9 won't read my station data (1.8.8 will!)

[steve]

Please zip up the diags folder and attach it.

[Gyro]

Hi Steve,
I have attached the 2 Diags files, the one that is diag.zip is the one on the computer that I did the testing on and Diag1.zip is the files on the computer that I used it on 100% after testing, neither works after returning home from rec leave,
cheers
Gyro

[steve]

It appears to be working fine. You have a 'last update' time back in January:

2010-06-15 09:52:46 : Read today file: Date = 28/01/2010, LastUpdateTime = 29/01/2010 5:50:00 AM

So it's downloading the entire contents of the data logger. This takes quite some time, but you appear to be killing it every time before it has chance to finish.

[Gyro]

Hi Steve,
Well you were right, tho it took 15 minutes to show anything on the Cumulus screen them the data showed on the main Cumulus screen, I really didn't think it would take that long as I did take the batteries out of the unit and started from fresh also (I thought), thanks for the info, just too impatient,
cheers
Gyro

[steve]

The original idea was that it would keep you informed about what it was up to all the time it was downloading and processing the logger data, so it didn't appear to just freeze, but for reasons beyond my control it didn't work out that way. Hopefully Cumulus 2 will do it better.

[DanielF]

After some major PC trauma over the weekend, in which Win2k refused to log me into my Windoze profile and insisted on creating a 'default' profile, I had to recreate my original settings under a new profile (what a nightmare!).

Since then, Cumulus has refused to download anything from my WH1081PC base station! I tried uninstalling, clean the registry and reinstall from scratch (tried both 1.8.8b and 1.8.9), and nothing works.

Of course Easy Weather still reads the station, which makes me wonder... We've got to be missing something basic here. Steve, I know you're reluctant to release source code for Cumulus 1, but what about just the USB comms portion (including any related ISRs, header files etc) so that I could have a look at/play with it? I'm quite happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement if required, and of course wouldn't copy it to anyone else.

While my background (electronics engineer) is in embedded systems hardware and firmware design, I have done a little PC programming too, and maybe another head looking at the code might discover the 'missing link'?

[steve]

I'm not going to get into the business of NDAs and giving out bits of the code. I spent a lot of time working with various people trying to get it to work on Windows 2000, and I'm not prepared to spend any more time on it - it's time I simply don't have. I don't have the spec for the Fine Offset stations, and I was probably lucky that the code that I wrote worked at all.

The USB HID component I use is part of the "JEDI VCL" - http://jvcl.delphi-jedi.org/. The author of the component died some time ago, and as far as I know the code hasn't been updated for some time.

Even Microsoft aren't able to get some of their own code to run on Windows 2000. You do know that Windows 2000 reaches 'end of life' next week?

Sorry.

[DanielF]

For reasons unrelated to weather stations, I moved my mouse from a USB port to a PS/2 port a few weeks ago. This left a 'direct' USB port (straight to the motherboard, not via an external hub) free, so I transferred the weather station to that port instead of through a hub. Cumulus still couldn't communicate with it though; EasyWeather and Weather Display (trial version) still could.

But this whole issue of Cumulus no longer talking to the station (and the thought of having to use the dreadful Weather Display software!) has been bugging me all this time. Today I decided to:

Uninstall Cumulus (again)
Uninstall EasyWeather
Uninstall the USB port the weather station is now connected to (found special software to identify which of several that is)
Reinstall EasyWeather (actually a later version than I had previously installed)
Plug-in the weather station and let Windows reinstall the driver
Run EasyWeather to make sure it communicates with the station (it didn't first time, but did on the second run)
Reinstall Cumulus (reinstating my previous .ini file to preserve all my setup)

To my great joy, Cumulus 1.8.8 now reads the weather station again!!

But unfortunately all the web setup has been lost (obviously those details aren't stored in the Cumulus.ini file - I thought they would be), so I'll need to go through the web/FTP setup all over again.

Steve, can you please tell me where the web setup stuff is stored, so I can back up all the relevant files in case of another 'disaster'?

[steve]

Uninstalling Cumulus won't have had any effect - and it doesn't delete the cumulus.ini file anyway (and neither does the installer). But I can understand how removing the USB port might have done something. In particular, running Easyweather would definitely have helped - it seems to get the station in sync again when it's somehow got out of sync.

Cumulus stores all of its settings in the cumulus.ini file; there are no settings anywhere else, unless you count 'strings.ini'.

[DanielF]

Cumulus stores all of its settings in the cumulus.ini file; there are no settings anywhere else, unless you count 'strings.ini'.

Steve,
Thanks for the quick reply. It seems the backed-up .ini file I restored was a 'recent' one from the time I tried reinstalling Cumulus to fix the non-reading problem, so it contained no Internet setup. But I've now located and installed an older Cumulus.ini backup, and the Internet stuff is working again. Hooray!! And thanks as always for your help.

[steve]

You could be brave now, and try installing 1.8.9

[DanielF]

You could be brave now, and try installing 1.8.9

I had a good chuckle when I read that, Steve! But then I went to bed, as it was past midnight, and I could hear the witches howling around the house (or was it just the 50kph 'breeze' we had last night? )

But this morning I tried 1.8.9 again (I left it installed in a separate directory last time I tried it, so didn't have to reinstall). Still no-go, unfortunately.

Never mind; I'm very happy to have 1.8.8 working again!

[steve]

That's weird, as nothing changed which could make a difference. But as we don't know what the problem is with W2K anyway, it could be anything - a slight timing change or something.