Cumulus Support

I have been bought the WH3080 as a replacement for the 1080 which is starting to fail. If I set up the 3080 & when ready disconnect the old one, will it take over or will I have to load Easyweather & start from scratch again? Is there anything extra that I will need to do?

Cheers,

Chris

Hi Chris,

You will need to run the new Easyweather program to change the logging interval if you use other than the default 30 minutes.

Otherwise, AFAIK you should only need to change Cumulus Configuration to "FO with UV/light sensor", update any calibration settings which you use, and maybe correct for a glitch in the rain counter.

Cheers, Alan.

Hi Alan,
Many thanks. Watch this space! I hope to do the transfer this weekend.

Cheers,
Chris

Have finally set up my WH3080 between gales & all seems to be working fine - the results are all coming up on the new brighter monitor. Now to get it up on the web site. I am running on Cumulus 1.9.1 Build 977 & am very happy with it. Will I have to update Cumulus to get the UV & lux readings or can I just add a bit to the program (preferred option).

Cheers,
Chris

Hi Chris,

I thought that v.1.9.1 supported the Solar data (certainly some builds do), but if you don't have the "Fine Offset with UV/Light sensor" option in : Configuration : Station (settings), it's easy to upgrade to v.1.9.2 (and worth doing anyway).

Cheers, Alan.

Hi Alan,
Have added the relevant parts to Cumulus to show the Solar readings & made the adjustments to the station settings. Decided to connect the new monitor to laptop via USB. I shut down Cumulus. Reset the new on to default settings which seemed to me to be pretty accurate - made a couple of adjustments like time to -1 & wind speed to mph from kph - connected the usb to the computer & restarted Cumulus. Several readings from the 3080 were picked up but not the pressure or windspeed. These records changed on the computer screen but were not the same as on the 3080 monitor . Rainfall shot up to over 80 mm for the day & over 70 in the last hour. I have also noticed that the 3080 monitor is dropping sensor contact with the outside on occasions. It did not do this before I connected it to the computer.
I have put the old monitor back! I can't believe it is because I have 2 stations running at the moment - the 3080 is transmitting on 433Mhz while my old 1080 is on 868.3 Mhz The 2 stations are quite close to each other. Surely it can't be interference!! The idea was to get the new one working before shutting the old one down, for the purpose of continuity.
HELP!

Cheers,
Chris

You haven't got the two stations connected to the same computer, by any chance?

Regarding losing sensor contact, other people have also experienced that when plugging in to a PC.

Hi Steve,
Not at the same time. I disconnect , shut down Cumulus, connect the other station & then restart Cumulus -

Cheers,
Chris

Hi,

Yes I have also found that connecting a computer to the 3080 console can cause loss of contact. I assumed that it was the particular location but maybe FO have made a design error, see also this thread.

The pressure sensor is in the console so shouldn't be affected by interference, but I believe it may take some time to stabilise. The rain measurement uses a "rolling" count so glitches can occur after resets, etc., but I suppose you haven't got the wind and rain plugs swapped?

Cheers, Alan.

Hi
You shouldn’t have trouble with two systems on different frequencies, but might still get trouble depending on how you got your station set up. I have two La Crosse weather stations next to each other and I don’t get interference between the two. One is 433 MHz and the other is 915 MHz. I don't have a Fine Offset so they may behave differently. Before I got my second station I was worried that they would interference even if they are different frequencies, but it has been good for 3 months now.

dionaea wrote:Not at the same time. I disconnect , shut down Cumulus, connect the other station & then restart Cumulus

It's still not clear exactly what you're doing. If you're running the same copy of Cumulus swapping back and forth between two different weather stations you will inevitably get rainfall issues. Other than what's in the FAQ, the pressure and wind readings should be correct (the wind reading will be affected by your loss of sensor contact). You're selecting the correct weather station type?

OK - it looks like I am somewhat misguided. I have indeed been swapping over between the two stations using the same Cumulus.I did make sure that I disconnected the 1080 and waited a few minutes.I then reset the 3080 LCD and changed the settings so that they would match up with the settings used for 1080 like wind speed in mph etc. this took a little time - thus there was a gap before the readings from the 3080 started to upload & no overlap. I assumed ( obviously wrongly) that the new readings would just carry on where the old ones left off. Just a point - the 3080 LCD was showing pretty accurate readings straight from the default settings - just not going into Cumulus. I should point out that I have not downloaded my new copy of Easyweather as I reasoned that 2 copies on the same computer would probably also cause problems.

My big fear is that I have nearly 3 years of records so didn't want to lose continuity.
Please advise ?

Cheers,
Chris - clearly not a computer wizard!!

Cheers,
Chris

Cumulus uses the rain total counter from the rain sensor to keep track of rain, it's the only value the station supplies. Your two stations will have different totals stored, so swapping between the two will cause Cumulus to lose track of the rain figures and give incorrect values.

If it's the units on the console that you're changing, that doesn't make any difference, Cumulus uses the units that you have configured in Cumulus.

If you are running the same copy of Cumulus with the 1080 and the 3080, how are you changing the station type? If you try to use a 3080 with the 1080 station type, then any data downloaded from the logger will be incorrect (the format of the logger entries is different).

Cumulus copes reasonably well with changing from one station to another so long as you change the station type correctly and amend the rainfall data when you change, if required.

Many thanks for the various comments & advice. I decided in the end to make a backup copy of Cumulus 1.9.1 that I had happily used with the 1080 & I have stored it in 'Documents" out of the way so my records are safe. I then removed any other Cumulus from the laptop (Acer - Windows Vista) I then did a clean installation of 1.9.2,onto the C drive, organised the settings etc. & connected 3080 via USB. It worked fine & with some help from Dave - dc1500 - managed to get it back on the web. The clean installation is producing the data OK. I am adjusting the web files to the way I had them set up before but with the new parameters such as Solar & Lux . I will remove evapotranspiration when I get round to it & make other slight changes in good time.
The main problem is that the Console keeps cutting out whatever I try to do. I have moved it around, away from my wifi & computer,
I added a coiled USB extension cable - I have put a ferrite ring filter on the USB cable - all to no avail.The transmitter is no more than 20feet away from the console. It can cut out as much as every 4 minutes - the inside data returns almost immediately but the external data can take a couple of minutes to return. I don't think it can be the batteries - I charged them before putting them in only a few days ago. I'm not sure how you can check if they are OK by looking at the console. If I disconnect the USB the console does not lose contact. A few days ago I did a trial run of 1.9.2 on my Apple Mac using XP & it did not cut out at all. The obvious answer would seem to be to run my web site from the Apple but this is not possible as this lip top has to be moved around quite a bit & it is not convenient to have a console & USB lead tagging along. Is it time to think about returning the console to Signatrol? I don't think that the data is being lost but the beep of the alarm every few minutes is infuriating.

Cheers,
Chris

Hi Chris,

That it's working fine on the Apple rather implies that it's your (Windows) computer hardware causing the problem. Maybe just an "unfortunate" clock frequency creating interference or perhaps a USB glitch. Otherwise, I would consider returning it to Signatrol as a lot of 3080s do seem to have problems.

dionaea wrote:The main problem is that the Console keeps cutting out whatever I try to do. ...... It can cut out as much as every 4 minutes - the inside data returns almost immediately. ..... I don't think that the data is being lost but the beep of the alarm every few minutes is infuriating.

I don't really understand this. Are you saying that the whole LCD goes blank? What makes the beep, the console or the PC (e.g. the USB disconnect/connect alarm)? Do you hear the relay in the console click when the USB is plugged in and out, or at any other time?

dionaea wrote:I don't think it can be the batteries - I charged them before putting them in only a few days ago. I'm not sure how you can check if they are OK by looking at the console.

I wouldn't be too sure, do you have a proper battery charger for rechargeable alkalines? However, if the battery voltage is low then a "Low TX" icon should appear on the LCD. But I would certainly try a pair of fresh normal alkalines in the transmitter, you're not going to have any risk of them being "over-charged" by the solar unit at this time of the year.

I must say that I'm currently experiencing some mysterious USB-disconnect issues, but only with my "test" 1080 (the 1081 is fine so it's not a cable or PC fault). It only occurs when I unplug one specific piece of mains equipment, which suggests radio interference, perhaps into the RCC circuit(s).

Cheers, Alan.