Cumulus Support

Hi guys, sorry to put 2 questions in one for my PCE-FWS-20 (WH 1081)
Can anyone confirm (so I dont have to climb the pole) that the RJ11 cables connecting the separate units/transmitters are male to male.
With that in mind you will know that I am going to change the cables to move the rain meter and temp transmitter so....
If I remove the batteries will that stop the the transmitting and therefore any errors being transfered to the Cumulus software ?
Or is it as simple as disconnecting the unit from the computer ?
Cheers guys and thanks in advance
Steve

Disconnecting the console from the PC won't stop the transmitter sending rain gauge tips (etc) to it. The rain counter is held at the transmitter end, so in theory removing the batteries and/or unplugging the rain gauge cable will prevent spurious rain being recorded.

Extending leads requires the new cable to have a plug at one end and a socket at the other. RJ11 phone cable is fine for the rain gauge, but not advisable for the wind unit which is likely to generate spikes in temperature (!), and a twisted pair cable such as Cat5e is preferable. Cable joiners need good protection from the weather.
Just unplugging the leads to the transmitter is all that's needed to stop data being recorded, as Steve says. I've done it several times now, without removing batteries.

Thanks for your help guys

The cables are soldered in at one end and have male plugs at the other. It is advisable to completely replace the wind sensor cable rather than have a pair of connectors half way up the mast though several people have and successfully sealed them against the weather. If you can run the cable down inside the mast (assuming it's metal) and earth the mast you are less likely to pick up interference.

I am hoping this will go back to those who replied. My rain gauge is now moved and is now working perfectly. I used the cable as suggested and bought from Amazon. http://www.amazon.co.uk/ADSL-Broadband- ... 32&sr=8-26 . I would recommend this company to everyone. It was a suggested delivery of 3-5 days and was received 15 hours after the order was placed. Google Aquarius Computers. Works perfectly. The cable is routed down through the pole and on to an out to a building roof. I used a 10 metre cable and the connection was M to F as suggested.
As far as stopping data transmitting is concerned I can confirm that I disconnected the following...
Batteries from the fine offset unit,
Fine offset unit from the computer,
When I got the pole down I disconnected the rain gauge.
These all stayed disconnected for more than 24 hours.
I can now confirm that once the whole unit was reconnected and I reloaded the cumulus software all and every movement of the weather station sensors was saved by the weather station and uploaded to the software. If I remember right the rainfall was over 130mm per hour and and there was 110 mm fro the day !!!
I have tried to adjust the rainfall for that day but to be honest the wiki instruction page seems to be for the computer literate not amateurs like myself. I reckon I am about 30 to 40 mm out but it will adjust itself over time.
Thanks for all your help my friends
Steve

West Howe Weather wrote:I can now confirm that once the whole unit was reconnected and I reloaded the cumulus software all and every movement of the weather station sensors was saved by the weather station and uploaded to the software.

I can't tell whether you're surprised by this, or just conforming that it did what you expected. Nothing you did would have prevented rain being recorded while you were moving the rain gauge. Until you unplugged the rain gauge, all the movement would have been recorded as rain, which would then have been transmitted to the PC when you had everything connected and working again.

I have tried to adjust the rainfall for that day but to be honest the wiki instruction page seems to be for the computer literate not amateurs like myself.

Perhaps in trying to give a detailed explanation, I have over-complicated the description. It just comes down to subtracting/adding two numbers to set today's total so far, and then tidying up the already-logged data. I can't see anything there that requires anyone to be particularly expert with computers, it's just arithmetic and using a text editor.

Perhaps if you could explain what you did and what happened, and which parts of the instructions you don't understand, then I could amend the entry as required so that others could benefit in the future.

It wouldn't actually be too hard for someone to write a little utility to make the process a little easier (I'm not suggesting that you personally could write it); even a bit of code behind a spreadsheet could do it.

Just a quick observation and question. Obviously the transmitter unit has two cables running into it from "above". Using CAT5, is it possible and sensible to use two pairs of the 4 pairs in there to extend both cables to the transmitter?

Scott

ScottVan wrote:Just a quick observation and question. Obviously the transmitter unit has two cables running into it from "above". Using CAT5, is it possible and sensible to use two pairs of the 4 pairs in there to extend both cables to the transmitter?

Scott

Yes, that's what I've done.