Cumulus Support

Hi All,

I've been using Cumulus for almost 2 years now and have had nil problems....until now.

Recently I got my hands onto a second hand laptop and preceded to turn it into my weather PC. Currently Cumulus runs full time on a old desktop.

So 1st I installed the latest version of Cumulus (1.92 Build 1026) on my laptop, transfered across the data folder from the old desktop and connected my La Crosse weather station (via serial port). Immediately I started having problems with Cumulus. The daily rain fall immediately read ->1721mls and Yesterdays rain fall read -> -1721mls(negative 1721mls). The figure of 1721mls is what my La Crosse station reads as the total rain since installation.

So next I re- installed Cumulus (1.92 Build 1026) to the laptop (I deleted the old installation) and started it up (I did not use the existing Data file from the old desktop). Nil problems, no unusual rain readings.

Next, I copied the whole Cumulus folder from the old desktop (the version of Cumulus is 2 versions prior to build 1026) onto the laptop, started it up and the same issue occurred -> Daily rain fall reading 1721mls.

So I went back to the old desktop and installed Cumulus (1.92 Build 1026) over the top of the old instillation, started it up and all of the rain readings were as per normal.

I have also transfered the new installed build from the Desktop to the laptop and experienced the same issues as above.

So I'm at a loss at how I can fix this problem. All I can think is that the copying of the Cumulus Data folder from is causing some weird corruption/problem.... Maybe its the laptop?

Config of the Laptop - Dell D620 XP SP3 & 1GB RAM

Any help/thoughts would be appreciated.

James

If you stopped Cumulus on the old PC and then immediately copied the entire data folder over to the new one, there is no reason at all why you should have any odd rain readings. If you can't work out what's going wrong and everything else is correct, just edit the rain totals.

It's not a file protection issue is it? If you copied the files over the network they get a 'suspect' flag set which you have to clear manually - not sure that applied back in XP SP3 though.

steve wrote:If you stopped Cumulus on the old PC and then immediately copied the entire data folder over to the new one, there is no reason at all why you should have any odd rain readings. If you can't work out what's going wrong and everything else is correct, just edit the rain totals.

Hi Steve, yes I can edit the rain totals , but cumulus keeps using the 1721ml figure from the base station as the daily rain fall, i.e. it keeps get being written in the data file.

Have you used the editor in Cumulus to reset today's rain?

mcrossley wrote:It's not a file protection issue is it? If you copied the files over the network they get a 'suspect' flag set which you have to clear manually - not sure that applied back in XP SP3 though.

Hi Mark I transferred the files via USB.

Are all the laptop 'basics' the same ?

eg. correct time / date
same time date format
same data delimiters etc.

Is it only the initial rain 'read' that is incorrect, can you view your old records and do they look correct ?

Clutching at straws I must admit !

beteljuice wrote:eg. correct time / date
same time date format
same data delimiters etc.

Ah, good point. I should have thought to suggest that. Not feeling too well; that's my excuse anyway and I'm sticking to it.

steve wrote:Have you used the editor in Cumulus to reset today's rain?

Yes I have , but Cumulus keeps using the 1721mls as todays rainfall (post edit)

beteljuice wrote:Are all the laptop 'basics' the same ?

eg. correct time / date
same time date format
same data delimiters etc.

Is it only the initial rain 'read' that is incorrect, can you view your old records and do they look correct ?

Clutching at straws I must admit !

Hi what do you mean by 'Data Delimiters'? How can I check this?

The old records all look correct.

This morning I have installed the new build of Cumulus - 1027 , onto the old desktop computer. Post installation and start up - everything is normal.

I took this newly installed version of Cumulus and copied it to by laptop(deleting the old version on the laptop) and the same issues has occurred with the daily rainfall figure. I've attached snapshots of the same copy of Cumulus runnign on my ol;d desktop and laptop (so you all don't think I'm crazy! ).

Control Panel => Regional Language and Settings

I think you need to zip up the diags folders from each machine and attach them

mcrossley wrote:I think you need to zip up the diags folders from each machine and attach them

Here are the 2 diag's folders from each machine -

beteljuice wrote:Control Panel => Regional Language and Settings

The laptop had regional language set for US English and the Old desktop was set at Australian English. I have changed the laptop to Australian English, recopied the Cumulus installation from the old desktop computer. I have started running Cumulus on the laptop and so far all seems to be good (see - http://www.users.on.net/~freespirit/weather/).

Gosh, didn't realise that such a simple setting could have a big impact. Thanks beteljuice and everyone who replied to my problem.

Cumulus is great!



James