New user - 962 beta version issues

[shotsky]

I'm a new user, and have installed the 962 beta version successfullly. I have a couple of comments. Some of these may just be new user syndrome issues, of course. And I'm posting here because I'm using the beta version.

1. Battery: The battery display text assumes the same color as the text boxes. But there is a light background for the battery, and a dark background for the text, so it is difficult to get a good color contrast. I like yellow on black for text boxes, for example, but that washes out the battery display. Also, I wonder about having 8 battery display ticks, when most of us only need one.

2. Temperatures: The All-Time records editor says the lowest temperature was 33.5F on 10/17. But Averages and Extremes for October 2010 has a minimum of 0.0F on 10/4. (And adds 1 frost day). This implies to me that there is more than one source of data. I'd like to know what to edit to fix this record.

3. Pressure: Averages and Extremes shows a lowest pressure of 0.000 inches. Since we would need to be in outer space to experience that, it seems that a different default should be in place, and the limits are established in the Station Settings configuration. Again, I'd like to know what to edit to fix this record.

For these oddball readings, it would really be handy to be able to double click a questionable reading, and edit it to put it into a normal value, so as to not throw off other calculations that depend on these values.

Web page:
http://shotsky.gotdns.com/index.htm
Links: I have attempted to change the colons that surround the bottom menu into [ and ]. I turn Cumulus off, and my web server (local) off while editing the web files. But no matter how carefully I edit them, some colons reappear in the Forum link. It seems to me that a program function is placing those colons independent of the text files.

I changed the graphic picture for my web page. But when I look at my web page using my Droid, the graphic 'jumps' into the text, making it unreadable. In other words, it appears that the birds move, but the text doesn't. I looked for something that would make the graphic stay in place, but didn't find anything. Do I just need to eliminate the graphic in order to use a smartphone to display the weather? Or is there a way to have a different display for smartphones?

Overall, I'm really impressed with the quality and functionality of Cumulus. Keep up the good work!
John

[steve]

1. Battery: The battery display text assumes the same color as the text boxes. But there is a light background for the battery, and a dark background for the text, so it is difficult to get a good color contrast.

Sorry, you'll have to show me a screen shot, I don't understand the problem.

Also, I wonder about having 8 battery display ticks, when most of us only need one.

It just reproduces the format that it gets back from the station (or possibly the Davis DLL, sometimes it's hard to know which is supplying a particular piece of information). I would have to parse the string to do anything with it, with the risk that Davis might change the format in the future, and break my code.

2. Temperatures: The All-Time records editor says the lowest temperature was 33.5F on 10/17. But Averages and Extremes for October 2010 has a minimum of 0.0F on 10/4. (And adds 1 frost day). This implies to me that there is more than one source of data. I'd like to know what to edit to fix this record.

The all-time records values are checked and updated as each reading is made and held in alltime.ini. The Averages and Extremes figures come from dayfile.txt. The formats of the files are in the help and the wiki.

3. Pressure: Averages and Extremes shows a lowest pressure of 0.000 inches. Since we would need to be in outer space to experience that, it seems that a different default should be in place,

It's not a default, it's a problem where sometimes these zero figures creep in on the first day that you run Cumulus - is that the day that these are recorded against? I don't know what the cause is, I have never been able to reproduce it. It's a good idea to delete the first entry from dayfile.txt (with Cumulus stopped) as typically it doesn't represent a full day anyway.

I have attempted to change the colons that surround the bottom menu into [ and ]. I turn Cumulus off, and my web server (local) off while editing the web files. But no matter how carefully I edit them, some colons reappear in the Forum link. It seems to me that a program function is placing those colons independent of the text files.p

Yes, it does; sorry about that, it's the easiest way to make them fit with the existing page and allow them to be turned off. If you're creating your own pages anyway, the best thing to do is to put your own links in and not use the web tag.

I changed the graphic picture for my web page. But when I look at my web page using my Droid, the graphic 'jumps' into the text, making it unreadable. In other words, it appears that the birds move, but the text doesn't. I looked for something that would make the graphic stay in place, but didn't find anything. Do I just need to eliminate the graphic in order to use a smartphone to display the weather? Or is there a way to have a different display for smartphones?

Sorry, I don't know, but hopefully someone else will.

[daj]

I changed the graphic picture for my web page. But when I look at my web page using my Droid, the graphic 'jumps' into the text, making it unreadable. In other words, it appears that the birds move, but the text doesn't. I looked for something that would make the graphic stay in place, but didn't find anything. Do I just need to eliminate the graphic in order to use a smartphone to display the weather? Or is there a way to have a different display for smartphones?

Basically the image is a bacground image, so if the window size shrinks on a computer (or is already small on a smartphone) the graphic will fall behind the text. There are a number of tricks we could do but in reality, if using a smartphone I would drop the image as there is a limited amount of space to work with

[steve]

Basically the image is a bacground image, so if the window size shrinks on a computer (or is already small on a smartphone) the graphic will fall behind the text.

Oh, I see, as simple as that! I thought it was something specific to smartphones. Yes, any image which doesn't work well as a background image is going to cause problems with the text that isn't in the tables.

[Synewave]

Yes, any image which doesn't work well as a background image is going to cause problems with the text that isn't in the tables.

You could add

Code: Select all

background-color: #FFFFFF;

to the content section of the CSS to make the background white.

[shotsky]

Ok, I was able to resolve all issues. The battery text changed to yellow when I changed the regular text color, but after stopping and restarting Cumulus, the battery text went back to blue, so there is no problem on that issue.

I removed the graphic so it works on my Droid now. I still need to do some adjustments, but it's clear that it will work fine.
Thanks,
John

[steve]

The battery text changed to yellow when I changed the regular text color,

That's a bug - if by "regular text" you mean the data values ("digit colour" on the display settings). I'll fix it. It's supposed to be the same colour as the "heading" (which it what it sounds like it reverted to after you restarted).

[shotsky]

I'm a new user, and have installed the 962 beta version successfullly. I have a couple of comments. Some of these may just be new user syndrome issues, of course. And I'm posting here because I'm using the beta version.

1. Battery: The battery display text assumes the same color as the text boxes. But there is a light background for the battery, and a dark background for the text, so it is difficult to get a good color contrast. I like yellow on black for text boxes, for example, but that washes out the battery display. Also, I wonder about having 8 battery display ticks, when most of us only need one.

2. Temperatures: The All-Time records editor says the lowest temperature was 33.5F on 10/17. But Averages and Extremes for October 2010 has a minimum of 0.0F on 10/4. (And adds 1 frost day). This implies to me that there is more than one source of data. I'd like to know what to edit to fix this record.

I solved this mystery, and it may be related to the software, or just to my weather station. The 10/4 date happened to be the very first line of data in the 'dayfile.txt' file. Upon deleting this line, both item 2 above and item 3 below are normal.
3. Pressure: Averages and Extremes shows a lowest pressure of 0.000 inches. Since we would need to be in outer space to experience that, it seems that a different default should be in place, and the limits are established in the Station Settings configuration. Again, I'd like to know what to edit to fix this record.

For these oddball readings, it would really be handy to be able to double click a questionable reading, and edit it to put it into a normal value, so as to not throw off other calculations that depend on these values.

Web page:
http://shotsky.gotdns.com/index.htm
Links: I have attempted to change the colons that surround the bottom menu into [ and ]. I turn Cumulus off, and my web server (local) off while editing the web files. But no matter how carefully I edit them, some colons reappear in the Forum link. It seems to me that a program function is placing those colons independent of the text files.

I changed the graphic picture for my web page. But when I look at my web page using my Droid, the graphic 'jumps' into the text, making it unreadable. In other words, it appears that the birds move, but the text doesn't. I looked for something that would make the graphic stay in place, but didn't find anything. Do I just need to eliminate the graphic in order to use a smartphone to display the weather? Or is there a way to have a different display for smartphones?

Overall, I'm really impressed with the quality and functionality of Cumulus. Keep up the good work!
John

[beeman]

Hi Steve, just updated to v1.9.1 build 962 and the battery indicator has text missing from the second bar. I have

Rain battery
battery
Temp battery
Indoor battery

Windows 7 on a Dell D630 IE 8

Regards

[Synewave]

I'm pretty sure someone else has raised this on the forum. I think Steve had said he may resolve it in a build or two. I can't find the post.

[beeman]

OK, thanks. It's almost too trivial to mention considering the complexity of the rest of the program.
Regards