Cumulus Support

I finally got my no-name WH1081PC installed on the roof today (I know, not an ideal location, but little other choice on my property), so now I'm starting to play with Cumulus and learn what things mean.

The first thing I needed to do was find out what the three graphical displays in the right column of the main screen meant. For this, the Help function was sufficently enlightening. But then I thought, "Why do I need to access Help for such simple explanations?"

There is plenty of space beneath each graphic (or top-left and -right for the direction indicator), and I imagine it would not be too hard to add very simple legends explaining what the different colours mean, just like is done for the graphs. A short coloured line segment (coloured triangles for the wind direction) with a few words next to each ("10-min av", "10-min gusts", etc) would impart enough understanding for most people, even novices like me!

One more suggestion... For me, apart from the main screen, the most-used display (so far) is the graphs. It would be great if, like EasyWeather, there was a button specifically for opening the graphs window, to save having to go through the menu every time. There appears to be room along the bottom-middle of the main window for several display icons, unless that space is used for something on some other models of AWS.

Nevertheless, a great product, Steve, thanks.

Daniel

Thanks for the suggestions, Daniel, but as I keep saying, I really do want to stop doing things to this version and get on with version 2. But your suggestions are not complicated, so maybe...

The space at the bottom is used on Davis stations for the transmitter battery status. But what Cumulus should really have is a tool bar for quick access to various things, not only graphs, so that's probably what I would do if I do anything.

Steve

steve wrote:...But your suggestions are not complicated, so maybe...

Steve, I can understand your desire to 'move on' from Version 1 and complete Version 2, but unfortunately v2 will never (in the foreseeable future) be of any use to me, as I understand it won't run under Win2kSP4. So it would be great if you could implement the 'legend' additions in a v1 build before you drop its development entirely.

If it's any help, I have added some appropriate legend text above the wind gauges on my Gerroa weather site at http://www.users.on.net/~idmills/gauges.htm.

And while checking that web page today (while we're having lovely >100km/h gusts, seen for the first time in the 'fixed' Cumulus ) I noticed that the realtime wind-speed gauge doesn't seem to auto-scale, but just sits on 100km/h when the wind speed is over that. I guess that's not such a simple fix, though?

Daniel.

How about something similar to what I did on my Cumulus PHP Web page for the 3 gauges (wind compass, wind gauge and wind rose):

[link removed]

(just leave you mouse cursor on any of the graphics for more than 1000 milliseconds)

The same 'hint' display can be use for the HTM pages.

Ray,

Thanks for that - quite a neat way to explain the graphics, provided the viewer knows to hover over the gauges (but you don't tell them on the website to do so - I wouldn't have guessed it had you not told me).

I'm not an HTML programmer (assembler and C are my forte), so wouldn't know how to do that anyway. But the problem I'm asking Steve about is not for my website but for Cumulus running on my PC. It's OK when you're viewing it every day and can remember what all the colours mean, but what about when a visitor drops in to have a look - I have to explain what each items mean, when it would be so simple to have legends next to each gauge. Helps me too, when I haven't looked at Cumulus for weeks, and have a 'senior moment'.

Daniel.

Even if are not a programmer, the modifications can be made quite easily.

Should you change your mind about modifying the gauges page, just let me know.

As for Steve adding new features to Cumulus 1 should not be expected very soon or even at all, as all development for Cumulus 1 should be stopped completely in order to properly proceed with Cumulus 2 which has been doing its first steps just a few weeks ago.

In order to concentrate on Cumulus 2, Steve needs to 'put a freeze' on Cumulus 1...

I understand that would not be acceptable by everyone, but that is the normal procedure in the evolution of any software, unfortunately ... otherwise there is no evolution.

DanielF wrote:Steve, I can understand your desire to 'move on' from Version 1 and complete Version 2, but unfortunately v2 will never (in the foreseeable future) be of any use to me, as I understand it won't run under Win2kSP4. So it would be great if you could implement the 'legend' additions in a v1 build before you drop its development entirely.

I'm not sure I'll drop development of Cumulus 1 entirely. I understand that there will be people who can't or don't want to run version 2. I know a number of people like the fact that Cumulus 1 is 'lean' in terms of resource usage, for example, and Cumulus 2 is much more resource hungry. I will certainly continue to fix bugs in version 1 for the foreseeable future, and probably also add small enhancements like the ones you proposed here. But there will definitely be no large-scale changes to version 1. So at some point I will probably be able to do what you're asking, but as Ray correctly points out, for now Cumulus 2 development (and Cumulus 1 bug fixes) take priority.

And while checking that web page today (while we're having lovely >100km/h gusts, seen for the first time in the 'fixed' Cumulus ) I noticed that the realtime wind-speed gauge doesn't seem to auto-scale, but just sits on 100km/h when the wind speed is over that. I guess that's not such a simple fix, though?

It's unlikely that I'll be doing anything else to the Flash gauges; the Silverlight gauges are intended to replace those, even though the standard web pages don't reflect that yet. At some point it's my intention to make the source code for Flash gauges available if anyone wants to play with it.

steve wrote:I will certainly continue to fix bugs in version 1 for the foreseeable future, and probably also add small enhancements like the ones you proposed here. But there will definitely be no large-scale changes to version 1. So at some point I will probably be able to do what you're asking, but as Ray correctly points out, for now Cumulus 2 development (and Cumulus 1 bug fixes) take priority.

No hurry, Steve. For my usage, Cumulus 1 is pretty close to perfect now; the additions I suggested are just 'window dressing'.

steve wrote:It's unlikely that I'll be doing anything else to the Flash gauges; the Silverlight gauges are intended to replace those, even though the standard web pages don't reflect that yet. At some point it's my intention to make the source code for Flash gauges available if anyone wants to play with it.

I'm not too concerned about the Flash gauge not auto-scaling. For what it will mainly be used for (water sports people checking on the weather in the Bight), it doesn't make much difference once the speed reaches 100 km/h - no-one will want to go out sail-boarding or kite-surfing in that weather!

Nevertheless, if you do ever release the Flash source code, I might take a look at upgrading it, even though I (currently) have no Flash experience or knowledge - just another thing to stimulate my aging brain cells and keep those neurons alive!