Legacy Cumulus 1 release 1.9.4 (build 1099) - 28 November 2014
(a patch is available for 1.9.4 build 1099 that extends the date range of drop-down menus to 2030)
Download the Software (Cumulus MX / Cumulus 1 and other related items) from the Wiki
TNETWeather wrote:Plus if it breaks or arrives broken, you should have service locally as well.
Good point - but I,m sick n tired of paying over the top prices when the same item is £94 in the USA and £171 here in the UK, its not as if we get twice as much wages to compensate !
Kevin - could you buy a few on our behalf and ship them across as "gifts" then there will be no import duty -
Paul C wrote:Kevin - could you buy a few on our behalf and ship them across as "gifts" then there will be no import duty
Not true, sadly. Customs duty is still payable if the duty comes to more than £7 - the same as for non-gifts. VAT is payable on gifts if the value of the gift is more than £36 (compared to £18 for non-gifts). So to avoid duty and/or VAT you would have to lie about the value (and lie about various other things too) and risk HMRC opening it and confiscating it (or worse?). We're just screwed, basically.
This is the nearest there is to measure daily sunshine hours ? _ - I am hoping that if I can afford to buy it. Steve will be able to work out a way to take the readings this produces and convert into meaningfull sunshine figures.
The other sensor is the - UV Sensor 6490 - which appears to work out how fast you can get sunburnt !
Not sure as I've not used them yet but they are one of the few who will ship to the UK and if you email them then you may get a better than advertised price.
I don't know if Kevin or Jack have any experience with them?
I have found the Davis Solar Radiation Sensor a complete waste of money. The sensor measures Global Radiation and this meathod of measurement is not recognised by the Met Office or the WMO. The value at which the software kicks in is set at 100 W/squ meter. Even if you set the value to a ludicrous figure of 190 W/ squ meter, it makes not the slightest difference. Over a period of 12 months the difference between Davis "Sunshine Hours" and the true Met Office total per day differs by as much as 4.5 hours. The Davis company has no right to call the figures quoted by their software as "Total Sunshine Hours". It is using a meathod that is not recognised in Meteorological Data Collection and it should be left as W/ squ meter value, for this what it truly is, not total sunshine hours as they are claiming.
Part of the problem is applying a fixed cutoff. It needs to vary based on location and time of year; doing it this way can apparently produce reasonable figures. But as you say, the fact that it measures global radiation isn't helpful.
I,ve had by my VP2 Solar device for 8months now. I also have an old fashioned Sunshine recorder which records the sunlshine hours onto a card. I agree that the figures produced by Davis as "Bright Sunshine Hours" are misleading. I think they have there formulas written incorrectly. However I have been using some software provided by ProData and can now produce some very comparable sunshine hours . In fact its so good I am serioulsy thinking of removing my old sunshine recorder and just using the VP2 Solar.
All very well lads, but I as a novice was ripped off by purchasing a product that was not fit for purpose. When I contacted Davis their reply was as follows. This is pasted straight from their e-mail..... “You can change this value to whatever you choose. The 100 value is the default because we measure global solar radiation rather than direct solar radiation, which is what the 120 value is referenced to.".... unquote.
This statement as you will agree is a load of bull. Changing the 100w/squ meter to 500 w/square meter makes not the slightest differance to the recorded total, so the statement is an outright lie. Davis it appears are above all Meteorological authority and "We can do what we like and call it Sunshine Hours because WE say so."
I would dearly love a Cumulus version that would make the daily figures an acurate means of turning the Global Radiation into true sunshine hours.
I found Weather Display software just as big a fudge and a pain in the backside. I have wipped this software off the computer in it's entirety and wrote off the cost.
I went to the trouble of adapting the Davis bracket to fix the sensor at the top of a 12 meter mast together with the Anemometer to comply with the conditions as laid out in the Met Office Observer's Handbook, at no time in the year would the Solar Sensor be in shaddow.
Here's hoping.
Hailstone,
Co Durham.
hailstone wrote:I would dearly love a Cumulus version that would make the daily figures an acurate means of turning the Global Radiation into true sunshine hours.
Steve, I await with baited breath and I put it in print that I will cross your palm with silver very handsomely if you succeed.
Let nothing you dismay.
