Can't set correct rain history figure

[stenp]

I have checked every forum post i found regarding rain figures but no one seems to have the same problem as I.

I want to replace Easy Weather with Cumulus and everything worked well until some days ago when we had 5 mm of rain but the station reported 0 (zero). I checked the station and found that a spider has built its home inside the rain detector and after cleaning up I found that the weather station registered my puzzling around with the detector caused it to report 17 mm of rain

Now I am struggling to reset the rain value to a dayvalue for July 17 to 5 mm and a total rain this year to 155 mm.

The WP1400/FineOffset is communicating very well and I have cleared the memory in the station by using Easy Weather program. I tried to change every figure that is rain related in the Cumulus files but nothing happens. The same old 17 mm shows up every time I start up Cumulus.

I am using Windows 7 but followed the instructions to install under C:\Cumulus and the ini-files and other files in this folder are the ones that Cumulus uses.

So... anyone having the spider problem or a solution to how to reset the rain figures to correct ones are very welcome to comment my post.

Regards
Sten

[steve]

The daily total is in dayfile.txt, so you need to edit that, with Cumulus stopped. The running total for the day is also held in the July log, so you might want to edit the entries for July 17 as well - although it sounds like you may already have done that.

[stenp]

I have updated all Cumulus files that I can find with rain related data to reflect the correct values. I even tried to zero out every value and cleared the memory of the station but the 17 mm is still there. Of course alla changes made with Cumuls shut down.

I'll will try now to uninstall Cumulus and delete all files and restart Windows (how knows whats hiding inside that creature) and the reinstall Cumulus and see what happens. Maybe it is the station that has something left even after a memory clearance?

Coming back soon.

[stenp]

Uninstalled, restarted Windows, installed Cumulus again. Now every rainfall value is zero so it is not the station the value comes from.

Maybe I can copy data from the complete copy of the previous installation including data folder. What files do I have to copy to my new installation to keep up with the history?

Sten

[steve]

The contents of the data folder. And then you will be back where you started. I don't really understand why you did all of the uninstalling etc, when the solution is simply to edit one value in dayfile.txt. Or maybe I misunderstood your problem. I thought it was that on July 17 you introduced 12 mm of extra rainfall and you wanted to remove that rainfall (changing 17mm for that day back to 5mm).

Is that not the problem?

Edit: Hold on... is it today that you did the tinkering with the rain gauge, so it's today's rainfall that has the extra 17mm?

[stenp]

Yes it is todays rainfall that has the 17 mm, should be zero, but the problem began when i cleaned the rain sensor. Then I tried to reset to correct values but without success and after I cleared memory in the station the 17 mm comes from somewhere in the files but I just can't find where.

I have tried to change all files in the data folder. I have tried to edit the alltime.ini, alltimelog.txt, jul10log.txt, today.ini and dayfile.txt without success.

Sten

[steve]

Yes it is todays rainfall that has the 17 mm, should be zero,

Ah, right, I didn't understand that from your original post. In that case, you need the FAQ: http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/FAQ#My_sta ... it_to_zero

[stenp]

How could i miss this FAQ. Thanks.

But it doesn't help.

I did the following, the value I want as registered at 2010-07-17 dailyrain is 4,3 mm and that should also be hourly and monthly rain.

In alltime.ini
[Rain]
highrainratevalue=4,3
highrainratetime=2010-07-17 23:55:00
highdailyrainvalue=4,3
highdailyraintime=2010-07-17 23:55:00
highhourlyrainvalue=4,3
highhourlyraintime=2010-07-17 23:55:00
highmonthlyrainvalue=4,3
highmonthlyraintime=2010-07-17 23:55:00

In alltimelog.txt I deleted all lines about rain except these. (I started Cumulus for the first time at 2010-07-12.)
2010-07-17 23:55 4,300 "All time high daily rain" 2010-07-12 19:43 0,000
2010-07-17 23:55 4,300 "Highest monthly rainfall" 2010-07-01 00:00 0,000
2010-07-17 23:55 4,300 "All time high rain rate" 2010-07-12 19:43 0,000
2010-07-17 23:55 4,300 "All time high hourly rain" 2010-07-12 19:43 0,000

In jul10log.txt I changed the values for every entry that has incorrect values and now it is
Current rainfall rate = 0,0
Total rainfall today so far = 0,0
Total rainfall counter = 4,3 from 2010-07-17 23:55

In today.ini
[Rain]
High=0
HTime=00:01
Start=4,3
Yesterday=0

Anything else ?

Sten

[edit]
The dayfile.txt
12-07-10;0,7;315;22:24;0,0;00:00;27,2;19:44;0,0;00:00;1011,8;19:44;0,0;00:00;0,0;23,9;0,0;0,0;00:00
13-07-10;4,1;90;18:22;18,8;23:24;35,7;12:54;1003,0;17:24;1011,4;00:54;0,0;00:24;0,0;26,3;36,1;2,0;17:38
14-07-10;2,0;225;11:26;17,2;23:54;30,5;17:32;1005,1;00:24;1010,9;23:54;0,0;00:24;0,0;23,1;14,3;1,4;11:35
15-07-10;3,4;225;16:54;14,0;03:54;29,4;13:24;1006,9;19:24;1012,2;06:54;0,0;00:24;0,0;22,7;41,4;1,4;07:24
16-07-10;3,1;270;09:18;16,7;04:24;29,2;12:08;1009,1;00:24;1015,6;23:24;0,0;00:24;0,0;23,0;15,4;1,0;10:14
17-07-10;7,5;135;20:29;15,1;04:24;32,6;11:27;1011,1;20:40;1016,3;05:54;4,3;23:55;4,3;23,5;90,4;4,4;20:59
18-07-10;0,3;270;20:59;0,0;00:00;18,9;20:59;0,0;00:00;1016,4;23:25;0,0;00:00;0,0;16,0;0,0;0,0;00:00
19-07-10;5,8;225;16:38;11,7;03:55;27,8;13:55;1013,8;22:54;1016,8;00:25;0,0;00:25;0,0;21,0;59,2;2,7;16:38

[steve]

How could i miss this FAQ. Thanks.

But it doesn't help.

I think perhaps you didn't read it carefully enough

In jul10log.txt I changed the values for every entry that has incorrect values and now it is
Current rainfall rate = 0,0
Total rainfall today so far = 0,0
Total rainfall counter = 4,3 from 2010-07-17 23:55

As the FAQ says, there is no point in changing the total rainfall counter field in the logs, it is a record of what your station is actually saying. This is a crucial point. The 'total rainfall counter' is the actual counter from the hardware, Cumulus has no control over it. It doesn't represent the rainfall for any particular time period. And you need the actual current value so you can make the correction.

In today.ini
[Rain]
High=0
HTime=00:01
Start=4,3
Yesterday=0

I don't think 4,3 can be your current rainfall counter, as you have had your 17mm of "extra" rain, which must be included in the counter. You need to set the Start figure to whatever your station is currently saying its counter is. You find that by looking at the last line of the July log file (except that you have edited it, it seems). You need to let Cumulus write the latest correct value to the log file so you can set the Start value in today.ini. As the FAQ says: "So, to set today's rain to zero, I set the Start figure equal to the total rainfall counter."

[stenp]

Aha, thanks for pointing out the facts, I really did not understand it correct. That did the trick.

And I learned that clearing the memory in the WP1400 does NOT clear this counter.

Thanks for your engaged help. Now I am ready to try the web publishing part of the program.

Sten

[Gina]

And I learned that clearing the memory in the WP1400 does NOT clear this counter.

Yes, the total rainfall count is held in the outdoor transmitter unit.

[stenp]

The rain values still puzzles me.

Today it rained 0,9 mm but inte the alltime.ini i find the following values:
[Rain]
highrainratevalue=3685,99462890625
highrainratetime=2010-07-21 19:57:00
highdailyrainvalue=318
highdailyraintime=2010-07-21 19:56:11
highhourlyrainvalue=307,200012207031
highhourlyraintime=2010-07-21 19:57:00
highmonthlyrainvalue=322,299987792969
highmonthlyraintime=2010-07-21 19:56:11

From where does Cumuls create these values ?

Sten

[steve]

From where does Cumuls create these values ?

From the rain counter that the station gives it. It looks like the counter jumped up at 19:57 yesterday - were you doing anything to the station or Cumulus around that time? If you zip up the diags folder and attach it, along with your July log file, I'll see what your counter has been doing.

[stenp]

Thank you Steve for helping me.

[steve]

And your July log file, please?