Cumulus Support

I recently decided to try Cumulus v1.8.9 with my Oregon Scientific WMR-968. I noticed that wind chill always reads 69.8ºF no matter what the air temp and wind speed readings. Also, Heat Index is always identical to the air temperature. Is this normal?

The heat index being the same as the ambient temperature is probably explained by this:

http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/FAQ#My_hea ... emperature

With the WMR-968, the wind chill value is read directly from the station, so if it never changes, this suggests some sort of problem with your station, or perhaps a communication problem. If you turn on the debug log and leave it for 10 minutes or so, then attach the debug.log file here, I'll have a look to see what your station is doing.

Edit: Of course, what I said about the wind chill being read from the station doesn't apply if you've selected the option to have Cumulus calculate the wind chill?

Thanks for your offer, Steve. I've attached a debug log. Note that my default outside temperature sensor bought the farm years ago, so I replaced it with an alternative unit that's operating on Channel 1. Noting elsewhere instructions for editing the INI file to accurately use Channel 1 for the primary outside temperature, I have that running correctly. Could this be the source of my problem with the wind chill reading?

We're in a very arid part of the globe, with relative humidities in the summer typically running 15-25%, so your FAQ effectively explains the Heat Index phenomenon I've observed.

And no, I don't have Cumulus calculating the wind chill. However, in the link you provided I note this (and apologies for not seeing this part of the FAQ first before posting):

Wind chill only applies when the wind speed is above 4.8 kph and the temperature is below 10C.

Am I to assume that only applies if I have Cumulus calculating the wind chill?

Thanks again for your assistance! So far I'm impressed with Cumulus over other wx software packages I've tried. Hopefully I'll figure out how to get it to do all that I want it to do.

FirstTracks wrote:Am I to assume that only applies if I have Cumulus calculating the wind chill?

yes, that's right. If the station is calculating the wind chill, I just let it do its own thing.

Your wind data packets look like this:

2824.9066 : 7:43:54 PM FFFF000036030010202188
2826.2872 : 7:44:08 PM FFFF0000156301102021C8
2827.6881 : 7:44:22 PM FFFF0000128301122021E7
2829.0906 : 7:44:36 PM FFFF0000256301122021DA

The '21' in the penultimate byte each time is the wind chill, in Celsius, so yes, the station is saying 69.8F every time.

It looks like you don't have a 'normal' outdoor temperature sensor, but you do have an 'extra' sensor? Are you using the 'extra' sensor as your main sensor? I suspect this is why the station isn't calculating wind chill, it probably requires a standard outdoor sensor for this. I think you will have to switch to getting Cumulus to calculate the wind chill.

Thanks, Steve, for explaining this to me.

steve wrote:It looks like you don't have a 'normal' outdoor temperature sensor, but you do have an 'extra' sensor? Are you using the 'extra' sensor as your main sensor?

That's correct. When the main temp sensor that came packaged with the WMR-968 died I replaced it with an "extra" sensor as it was half the price of replacing the original. Of course, that's caused me nothing but grief since then.

steve wrote:I suspect this is why the station isn't calculating wind chill, it probably requires a standard outdoor sensor for this. I think you will have to switch to getting Cumulus to calculate the wind chill.

Will do...once I get it back up and running. At least that'll be an easy fix. In the meantime, the Prolific drivers for my serial-to-USB converter cable aren't playing nice in the sandbox with Vista. I'm getting a blue screen of death at least once daily and I seem to have narrowed down the culprit to the drivers for that Prolific chipset in the converter cable. So I went ahead and purchased a serial PCI card for the computer, but they're not available locally and I had to mail order it this morning, so the station is down until the card arrives.