Cumulus Support

My readings today show Highest Hourly Rain = 36.3mm at 15:38 yet my Daily Total is only 29.8mm

Any Clues

If you zip up the diags folder and attach it, along with your June log file, I'll take a look. I don't think there's a problem with the code (but you are using a beta version).

Zipped file as requested

Thanks Steve

You had very large numbers of rain tips between readings on two occasions, so they were filtered out as far as the rain total is concerned; it's not so easy to adjust the rate and hourly figures in the same way (so spike removal settings are provided).

28/06/2012 14:59:34.513 : New monthly record, month = 6: 2012-06-28 14:59 100.252 "Highest monthly rainfall" 2012-06-28 14:58 99.048
28/06/2012 15:00:00.128 : New monthly record, month = 6: 2012-06-28 15:00 69.041 "High rain rate" 2012-06-28 14:58 67.435
28/06/2012 15:00:00.222 : Writing today.ini, LastUpdateTime = 28/06/2012 15:00:00 raindaystart = 686.400024414063 rain counter = 740.400024414063
28/06/2012 15:01:54.618 : Warning: large difference in rain gauge tip count: 53
28/06/2012 15:01:54.618 : Ignoring reading 1
28/06/2012 15:02:04.633 : Warning: large difference in rain gauge tip count: 53
28/06/2012 15:02:04.633 : Ignoring reading 2
28/06/2012 15:02:14.648 : Warning: large difference in rain gauge tip count: 53
28/06/2012 15:02:14.648 : Ignoring reading 3
28/06/2012 15:02:24.648 : Warning: large difference in rain gauge tip count: 53
28/06/2012 15:02:24.648 : Ignoring reading 4
28/06/2012 15:02:34.663 : Warning: large difference in rain gauge tip count: 53
28/06/2012 15:02:34.663 : Ignoring reading 5
28/06/2012 15:02:44.662 : Warning: large difference in rain gauge tip count: 63
28/06/2012 15:02:44.662 : Six consecutive readings; accepting value. Adjusting start of day figure to compensate
28/06/2012 15:02:44.662 : Setting raindaystart to 705.300048828125
28/06/2012 15:03:00.762 : New monthly record, month = 6: 2012-06-28 15:03 15.588 "High hourly rain" 2012-06-06 17:48 11.373
28/06/2012 15:03:00.777 : New monthly record, month = 6: 2012-06-28 15:03 80.158 "High rain rate" 2012-06-28 15:00 69.041


28/06/2012 15:10:45.070 : Warning: large difference in rain gauge tip count: 34
28/06/2012 15:10:45.070 : Ignoring reading 1
28/06/2012 15:10:55.086 : Warning: large difference in rain gauge tip count: 34
28/06/2012 15:10:55.086 : Ignoring reading 2
28/06/2012 15:11:01.606 : FTP connect timeout, aborting...
28/06/2012 15:11:01.606 : FTPRequestDone ftpConnectAsync Errcode = 426
28/06/2012 15:11:05.085 : Warning: large difference in rain gauge tip count: 34
28/06/2012 15:11:05.085 : Ignoring reading 3
28/06/2012 15:11:15.100 : Warning: large difference in rain gauge tip count: 34
28/06/2012 15:11:15.100 : Ignoring reading 4
28/06/2012 15:11:25.100 : Warning: large difference in rain gauge tip count: 34
28/06/2012 15:11:25.100 : Ignoring reading 5
28/06/2012 15:11:31.621 : FTP connect timeout, aborting...
28/06/2012 15:11:31.621 : FTPRequestDone ftpConnectAsync Errcode = 426
28/06/2012 15:11:35.115 : Warning: large difference in rain gauge tip count: 65
28/06/2012 15:11:35.115 : Six consecutive readings; accepting value. Adjusting start of day figure to compensate

The check just uses the number of tips between each 48-second update, and doesn't take into account any multiplier that you have set, and you have set a multiplier of 0.22, so you have presumably increased the size of your rain collector considerably. Given the downpour you had, it's just about possible that the number of tips was valid, as 65 tips corresponds to 65*0.3*0.22=4.29 mm. This is still a very large amount of rain to have actually fallen in 48 seconds, so perhaps the increase in wind that you had at the same time contributed to the number of tips.

You can if you wish change the default number of tips by adding a line to the [Station] section of cumulus.ini:

EWMaxRainTipDiff=n

where n is the number of tips you want to use instead.

Thanks for looking into that for me, I may have to wait until RAF Coningsby publishes it's rainfall figures to check the amount of rain that actually fell in that period. Unfortunately I was at work so was unable to monitor what was happening in the funnel during the deluge. I don't think wind had a lot to do with it as the rainfall bit is on a large flat roof bolted to a large deep (6") tray filled with pebbles, without the whole lot had become flooded. As you say though 4mm in 48 seconds does seem to be a lot of rain

I guess in the long run, given the equipment I have, in freak weather conditions as we had today that I will never get accurate results.

Thanks again for you time

R-II wrote:I guess in the long run, given the equipment I have, in freak weather conditions as we had today that I will never get accurate results.

Yes; you've effectively modified it to be more sensitive, and then the weather was quite brutal with it. If you're confident that the wind had no effect, then given the extraordinary conditions that occurred yesterday in many places, I think I'd be tempted to believe the figures and add back in to the day's total the 8.4 mm that Cumulus ignored.

Now all I have to remember is exactly which files I need to modify

Edit dayfile.txt with the built-in editor, then restart Cumulus to get the monthly and annual totals updated. While Cumulus is stopped, you can optionally edit yesterday's total in today.ini.

That would be all there is to it, except that it was a new daily and monthly record for you (all-time and for June), so you'll need to then run the editors for those and amend the totals in the records.

My question is to do with rain data files. When my WH3080 went on the blink with the batteries not receiving enough charge, or rather too much charge being drawn from them, some very over enthusiastic rainfall numbers found their way into the log files ( in excess of 9m a day). I have edited these out of the monthly logs (simple find and replace) but would like to know if it possible to recreate the daily logs from the monthly logs in the software.

Cumulus allows you to reread the log files and to reread the daily logs. Can I regenerate daily logs from the monthly logs to get rid of the very large rainfall numbers?

This is not an urgent request as this is not a scientific station. Cumulus runs very well automatically and I'm very pleased with it and it feeds my website at www.harrywarrenhouse.com. The WH3080 has been fixed for now by soldering a 3v power supply to it so batteries and solar charging is not an issue. This has been working well for a couple of weeks now and there is no reason why it should not work from now on. Will note any other problems with the WH3080 should they arise - so far it's been pretty good.

The dayfile.txt editor allows you to recreate entire missing entries, but not individual items in existing entries. So you would need to first delete any entries that you wanted to recreate. Note that the recreation of the entries cannot be perfect, compared to entries made from 'live' data at the time.