WMR88 upload problem

[4knots]

G'day all. I'm new here. Just been given a WMR88 and am in the process of setting everything up. It comes with a version of VWS, which I am familiar with because I used to run a club Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station using VWS. I wanted something more suited to my own needs, and with the help of 6719jason's great blog and review of the WMR88, am trying Cumulus (latest stable version).

I got everything working fine yesterday: uploading to my laptop, and ftp-ing to my web space. Then, after running sweetly for several hours, I inadvertently shut Cumulus down. When I restarted it, it seemed to have "lost" the USB connection; no new data uploaded, just a series of error messages saying no data to upload. I have tried disconnecting the USB cable and uninstalling and reinstalling Cumulus, several times, but to no avail. With Cumulus uninstalled, I briefly installed VWS to check that the problem was not down to the WMR88 and/or USB; the data uploaded to VWS with no problem.

I really don't want to have to use VWS; Cumulus is ideal, so if anyone has any idea about what might be the issue I would be grateful. (Looked in FAQs Troubleshooting, but didn't see anything there).

Many thanks.

[steve]

If you zip up the diags folder and attach it, I'll take a look.

[4knots]

Thanks for such a quick response steve. Diags folder attached -- but all I've got to show you at the moment is a completely new, very recent installation with zero data!

I noticed your reply on another thread mentioning that Windows has a habit of mis-identifying an "unknown" USB device. I wonder if this could be the problem? However, as I said in my OP, data uploaded to VWS without any trouble.

Diags.zip

[4knots]

Restarted Cumulus and hey presto! data is now uploading. Didn't do anything meantime. Since I will not be able to keep Cumulus running 24/7, it would still be good to know why the station couldn't be found and then suddenly was found again.

[6719jason]

Hi there,

Welcome to the Cumulus Forum! Your soon feel right at home

I'm pleased that you found my Blog and Review useful I would welcome any feedback you may have.

I've just taken a look at your Debug Log.

It would seem that when you fired up Cumulus, you initially did not have the Station Type Set.

It would then appear that 4 mins later, you manually set the Station Type at WMR-100.

I then see that no data was retrieved during the time you had Cumulus running.

I would personally recommend the following:

1. While Cumulus is still running, Ensure that the Station Type is set to WMR-100.

2. Then Close down Cumulus, ensuring that you wait it to fully close down.

3. Then unplug the Console from the USB Socket of your PC.

4. Close down any other software (Such as VWS) which may be running. If VWS is running, go into the Settings and double check that it is NOT set to Start Up with the Computer or at Start Up.

5. Shut down the Laptop fully.

6. Plug the USB cable from the Console back into your Laptop.

7. Power up your Laptop and wait for it to fully boot into Windows

8. Once System is started, Ensure VWS or any other Weather Station software is not running.

9. Then start up Cumulus and wait approx 5 mins for Cumulus to Start and the Console to communicate with Cumulus

Then post back your results!

Hope this helps

Edit - Just seen your update on this thread. I would recommend running Cumulus 24/7 if at all possible as, this Station has no Logger what so ever so please bear this in mind

I think also, what you will find is that Cumulus or any Weather Station Software is not designed to only be run for a duration then Closed and then opened later. Especially when Stations communicate via USB, when a Device has to be 'initialized' and so on.

Steve might be able to shed more light on this but for my own personal experience.... starting then stopping then starting and so on Cumulus without rebooting the PC will cause you to run into issues communicating with any station.

[4knots]

Thanks Jason. Yes, a logger would have been great, but the station was an out of the blue gift and I couldn't look the gift horse in the mouth

I'm not planning to run any other wx software. I simply installed the packaged VWS to make sure the console and USB connection as such were not the problem. It's uninstalled now.

Will let you have feedback on your blog & review in due course. "Very helpful" would be a start

[steve]

I hadn't realised that you had only run Cumulus once after starting again from scratch; just restarting it after selecting the station type may have helped it to find the station - but it does appear that Windows was saying it didn't exist, and in that situation there's nothing that Cumulus can do. Perhaps you have a flaky connection.

[4knots]

Thanks again Steve. I've installed a useful little utility called USBDeview, which builds a list of USB devices plugged in over time and tells you whether they are currently connected or not. I can see from that that the WMR88 is being identified as an HID (human interface device), along with my mouse! Maybe, if Windows isn't able to identify a device, it assumes it is an HID. However, that can't be the problem since everything is fine at the moment, and when I had data uploading to VWS, presumably the WMR88 was listed as an HID then also.

Cumulus is a great piece of work Donation will follow

[steve]

Yes, it's correct that the station is identified as a HID.