Cumulus Support

Hi,

I have my weather base station WH1081 (LCD touchscreen) hooked up
to my pc, but I cant get the "pressure history" bar graph to display historic values
(on the LCD base station).

It seems to be just stepping along each hourly column (with a value of four rows),
kind of like a progress bar. From right [-0] to left [-24] and then when it reaches [-24]
it then starts again at [-0], I hope that makes sence.

Does anyone know if this correct?
i.e. when connected to a computer it does not show the history,
and just steps along to show that it is connected to a pc?

I think that's all the pressure bar graph does; you can only choose between the last 12 hours and the last 24 hours. I've no idea why it does that 'progress bar' animation, it seems somewhat pointless.

Yeah, that pressure graph is a joke. For one thing, the right hand column on mine consists of only 4 LCD bars, whereas the rest have 7. Meaning the whole display must be compressed if the most recent pressure is relatively high. I ignore it and view the Cumulus graphs for the real deal.

steve wrote:I've no idea why it does that 'progress bar' animation, it seems somewhat pointless.

Yes, I've always thought that.

Thought the WH1091 had 8 bars as well as the WH1081
It`s just a bit of eye candy though

Thanks for the replies,

I have taken a very bad quality video (sorry the lighting in my pc room coupled
with taking the video on my mobile phone), of whats happening to my pressure bars.



Also anotheer quick question, in Orion's image the Tendancy graphic has a "down arrow"
next to it, which on mine I do not have displaying. Does this indicate a pressure drop?
and is there a setting I need to set to be able to display this on my WH1081?
I have had a look through the user manual but there is nothing there about it.

I think you only time you get to see the down arrow when there is a storm warning, The storm threshold default being 4hpa
The manual does not give much of an explanation
If after 24hrs you do not get all 8 bars then it looks to me like the station may have a fault

If your pressure has been fairly constant over 24 hours, what you describe would be typical, as the final column has been manufactured with only 4 LCD rows or bars (check it with a strong oblique light from below). Therefore the remaining columns will also only show 4 rows, even though they have 7 rows each. If on the other hand, Cumulus is showing significant pressure changes over the period, then you might have a faulty console.
And as Orion points out the arrows (up or down) indicate high rates of pressure change.

Quick update,

Yesterday when I looked at the LCD screen, the bars were still progressing along
but now the columns displayed different row heights, therefore it must be working ok
And you need a couple of days up time before it starts to display the data.

Also I had an up arrow being displayed in the tendancy part of the display.

So looks all good now.

Thanks again for all the replies.

Solorize wrote: It seems to be just stepping along each hourly column (with a value of four rows),
kind of like a progress bar. From right [-0] to left [-24] and then when it reaches [-24]
it then starts again at [-0], I hope that makes sence.

It does this to prevent burn in, to prolong screen life.

Burn-in on a simple black-and-white LCD? I wouldn't have thought so, for even very old LCDs on thing such as wristwatches never suffer from burn-in.

I still keep wondering why the pressure graphs did that "progress bar" animation thing. It does seem quite pointless, and it would make it harder to mentally analyse the graph if it is constantly appearing and disappearing (a moot point considering many of us use Cumulus, and the graph is only relative).

As annoying as it is, maybe the designer thought it would add to the gimmick factor. I'd agree with Orion - just a case of eye candy.

Hi,

Probably most of the people here in this forum knows more of weather stations than I do, but I will add here (which mostly have been said in previous post by people probably more knowledgeable than me in this area) what I have found/understood about this pressure history bar.

First I do concur that the bar is mostly eye candy. Basically it moves column to column from right to left (-0 column = now, -1H = one hour ago, etc.). The only useful thing about this is bar graph is to see "tendencies" of rising and lowering, since the bars do not seem to be too calibrated. I do not think that is to prevent screen burn, since LCD technology usually do not suffer from that. For all I know, the console may have obviated the special effect of constant redrawing that pressure graph and just update it every hour, and from the technical point of view it would have worked the same. Of course, doing that is not eye catching as an animated graph from the marketing point of view.

The column to the most right (the 0H column) has only 4 bars (instead of the 7 that all others have) because that is the starting point. That middle point there represent the actual measured pressure read by the station. If the pressure that the station read in the previous measuring time is higher than the actual pressure, then that column will have more bars and will be higher. On contrary if the pressure previously read is lower, then the column will have less bars and the column will be lower.

So as long as you see (reading from right to left) the graph is going down when pressure is going down and/or graph going up when pressure is going up; that "graph thingy" is probably working well.

Hope this helps...


Francisco

fadiaz wrote:The column to the most right (the 0H column) has only 4 bars (instead of the 7 that all others have) because that is the starting point.

Here's a photo I took a few weeks ago of the pressure graph. I turned up the LCD contrast to emphasise the LCD segments. Hope this helps with the explanation.