Ants have taken over my rain gauge!

[Gina]

Be wary of WD40 with ants though - they seem to like it for some reason!

OMG!

[Super-T]

I can just imagine the queue of ants waiting for their turn to bath in the WD40 pool
There again....I don't have an ant problem.

[Andy]

Currently raining and Cumulus is recording nil for the day. I had noticed spider activity at the top of the mast where the unit is mounted and guess that something/somebody has taken up residence.
Now when it stops raining I’ll take the unit down to check and clean. Are there any tips to dismantling/cleaning/reassembling the rain gauge?
TIA
Andy

[Synewave]

There's some good tips in here, although the subject is Battery change it's still relevant.

https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3721

[serowe]

Another backup tip - get yourself a tubular, plastic rain gauge and mount it beside (or near to) the stations rain gauge. This way, you can at least get an idea how much rain alls it the electronic/auto gauge fails for any reason.

I have one like this and empty it roughly once a week (unless it absolutely pi$$e$ down as it does sometimes!)

[Andy]

Thanks for your replies. My wife kindly agreed to stand out in the rain holding up the mast whilst I unscrewed it from inside the shed so I didn’t get too wet!
There were a few cobwebs and a small beetle, dead, inside. Couldn’t quite see why either would cause the pivoted balance thingy (sorry for the technical terminology) to malfunction however cleaned it and a squirt of WD40 seems to have got it working OK. As the gauge was ‘offline’ during the rainy period I would like to adjust the rain data for the current 24 hour period. I guess that I can take a mean from the weather stations local to me (Groombridge which is the nearest, Hustmonceux and then Brighton ). Given that I wait to tomorrow to retrieve their figures for what would be yesterday and once I have arrived at a figure to enhance my data (theirs roughly averaged out minus mine for today’s partial reading?), which of the data files will I need to edit, Nov10log.txt, alltimelog.txt or both?
Thanks again,
Andy

[steve]

which of the data files will I need to edit

You'll need to amend the total in dayfile.txt. You can also edit Nov10log.txt if you wish, as that contains the 'total so far' figures for the day, but to do that you would need to have the figures as the day progressed, which I guess you won't have.

[Synewave]

Andy,

Your welcome to my nov10log.txt if you want it. Maybe also ask Neil (nking) in Hurstpierpoint too to compare.

[Andy]

Ah, not as straightforward as I thought.
These are the last lines from today’s Dayfile.txt. I need to establish when the gauge malfunctioned – it did drizzly for a time yesterday afternoon, so would I be correct in saying that as there is a positive figure in the group highlighted that the gauge was working at the time?

26/10/10,22.1,225,13:14,-0.1,01:33,12.5,23:04,29.76,21:55,30.04,00:03,7.2,16:37,5.1,7.6,69.8,12.1,13:14
27/10/10,17.4,270,07:41,11.3,23:02,15.8,14:40,29.64,17:30,29.76,00:04,0.6,00:34,0.3,12.8,75.7,9.2,07:41
28/10/10,19.7,225,13:06,10.4,02:32,16.9,13:51,29.55,23:33,29.68,11:33,0.0,00:02,0.0,12.8,70.9,10.7,13:06
29/10/10,18.3,180,10:14,10.4,07:30,14.4,13:34,29.00,19:42,29.55,00:03,0.0,00:03,0.0,12.3,77.1,9.2,20:57
30/10/10,15.9,202,14:00,8.4,08:03,15.9,14:10,29.04,00:03,29.15,10:18,0.0,00:03,0.0,11.5,24.1,7.6,14:00
31/10/10,8.3,315,14:33,9.3,23:02,13.6,14:15,29.04,03:33,29.39,23:32,0.0,00:00,0.0,10.7,6.3,3.1,11:11
01/11/10,15.2,360,08:43,6.1,18:45,15.7,14:32,29.40,00:02,29.61,17:47,0.0,00:02,0.0,10.5,32.3,7.6,07:49
02/11/10,25.9,315,20:45,11.0,00:03,16.2,13:04,29.40,23:34,29.55,00:03,0.0,00:03,0.0,13.4,97.7,12.1,19:21
03/11/10,19.7,315,16:57,13.6,00:34,17.8,10:28,29.41,01:04,29.64,23:33,0.0,00:04,0.0,14.9,95.8,9.8,16:57
04/11/10,25.1,270,10:24,13.7,20:54,17.4,12:14,29.63,00:33,29.77,17:52,0.0,00:03,0.0,15.1,137.2,13.0,13:03
05/11/10,19.7,270,12:32,13.9,23:34,15.6,09:26,29.61,23:34,29.80,09:20,0.0,00:04,0.0,14.8,98.2,9.8,20:12
06/11/10,9.8,225,00:04,4.0,23:34,16.0,12:22,29.45,23:34,29.69,08:42,0.0,00:04,0.0,8.9,5.4,4.5,12:24
07/11/10,16.8,45,14:16,1.7,02:34,11.1,13:36,28.98,23:33,29.45,00:04,0.0,00:04,0.0,4.9,18.1,8.3,11:45

The following figures were recorded in Monthly log file, again am I correct in assuming that the highlighted figures are the Current rainfall rate and Total rainfall today so far. After fixing the gauge, as can be seen a figure of 11.1 (I’m imperial) appears.
08/11/10,11:59,5.2,92,4.0,4.5,18.3,120,0.0,0.0,28.24,15.9,17.6,41,13.6,3.6,5.2,0.0,0
08/11/10,12:04,5.2,92,4.0,3.1,13.6,124,0.0,0.0,28.24,15.9,17.7,41,9.2,4.3,5.2,0.0,0
08/11/10,12:16,5.2,91,3.9,3.8,13.6,139,0.0,11.1,28.23,27.0,17.8,40,6.9,3.9,5.2,0.0,0
08/11/10,12:17,5.2,91,3.9,1.6,13.6,145,0.0,11.1,28.23,27.0,17.8,40,8.3,5.2,5.2,0.0,0
So, John, if could have a copy of your nov10log.txt file I’ll see what I can do. Luckily I have managed to open my nov10log.txt in Excel so hopefully concocting some artificial ‘data’ should not be too difficult.
Thanks again
Andy

[Synewave]

Which John?

[steve]

so would I be correct in saying that as there is a positive figure in the group highlighted that the gauge was working at the time?

Well, you seem to have recorded 11.1 mm between 12:04 and 12:16 today, which seems rather a lot, presumably this was when you were moving it? Other than that, you haven't recorded any rain since Oct 27th.

Luckily I have managed to open my nov10log.txt in Excel so hopefully concocting some artificial ‘data’ should not be too difficult.

It's not a good idea to edit your data files in Excel, it is likely to do horrible things to the formatting which Cumulus won't like. Far better to use David's Toolbox.

[Andy]

Paul,
Apologies, the intention was to take up your offer . From what Steve says it appears that the gauge may have been out of operation for some time. I'm sure in didn't rain for all the days the gauge malfuctiioned so your file may help in limiting the number of changes I need to make to my file.
Steve,
Thanks, I will have a look at the Toolbox to see how straightforward making the amendments will be.
Andy

[Synewave]

Andy,

Have sent you a PM with the file attached.

[nking]

Andy,

Have sent you a PM with the file attached.

Ditto from me

[Andy]

Paul and Neil,
Thank you for the files which I saved in Cumulus\data folder as BrightonNov10log.txt and HurstpierpointNov10log.txt. With Cumulus closed down, attempted to open the files via Toolbox as suggested by Steve. Both files return the same error message i.e. “Unhandled exception has occurred in your application ..... Index was outside the bounds of the array”. I have checked and can open my Nov10log.txt.
So I’ve opened both your files with Excel and will concoct a figure for the days when my gauge was malfunctioning and enter the revised data via Toolbox.
Thanks for your help – and patience.
Andy