Davis Vantage View spurious results

[RichardM]

My David Vantage Vue has suddenly decided to give spurious rain results. It started a couple of months ago with 17" of rain in the last hours, then last month, 14" of rain in the last hour, and now a ridiculous 136" of rain for yesterday.

Does anyone have any experience of this happening with their Davis Vantage Vue and if so how did you fix it?

I have tried going into the various logs on Cumulus to try and get rid of these results with little effect. Does this mean that I need to do something to the Davis software? Have try open the log files on there but they appear to be .wlk files which I cannot open.

Don't want to have to chuck £500 worth of gear away, but it is useless as is. Any ideas gratefully received

[steve]

You have .wlk files - so you're running Weatherlink as well as Cumulus? Are you running them both at the same time, and if so what arrangement do you have for doing this?

Is the spurious rainfall also showing on the console and in Weatherlink, or just in Cumulus?

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

[RichardM]

Sorry cannot give that information at the moment as I have disengaged the data logger to stop any more silly results going to the web page.

With regard to Cumulus and Weatherlink, I have both programs on the laptop, but only ever run Cumulus. Would it help to un-install Weatherlink
completely? I wasn't sure whether this would stop data going to Cumulus.

Also I wasn't sure if removing the results from the Cumulus log files would make any difference as the Data Logger just reinstalls them I would guess.

Yes the spurious rainfall also shows on the Weatherlink page as well so I think it is probably a problem with the data logger or the desk console, but cannot get any response from Davis on the Technical help line, hence my post on here.

[Gordon-Loomberah]

Does the VV have a similar tipping bucket arrangement to the VP2? If so, perhaps it's being bumped around by the wind, causing the buckets to tip?

[steve]

With regard to Cumulus and Weatherlink, I have both programs on the laptop, but only ever run Cumulus. Would it help to un-install Weatherlink
completely? I wasn't sure whether this would stop data going to Cumulus.

No, just having WL on your PC (or even running it but not at the same time as Cumulus) won't affect Cumulus.

Also I wasn't sure if removing the results from the Cumulus log files would make any difference as the Data Logger just reinstalls them I would guess.

It will only re-download the data if you force it to do that.

Yes the spurious rainfall also shows on the Weatherlink page as well so I think it is probably a problem with the data logger or the desk console, but cannot get any response from Davis on the Technical help line, hence my post on here.

I emailed them recently about my faulty temp sensor, and got a (not very satisfactory) reply after about a week. It does sound like your station has developed a fault. Have you checked that it's still securely mounted, no loose connections anywhere etc?

[RichardM]

Yes, have checked the actual station and everything is fine there, securely mounted and I have put a measured amount of water through the rain gauge and got a result immediate that was what I would have expected. I get a feeling that it is software related as when these spurious results happen it is always in the 'last hour' box on Cumulus.

Strangely the day before yesterday the rain was shown at 2.28" (within the last hour) when I checked at breakfast, yet the following day that translated to yesterdays rainfall of just 0.28" which was nearly the mark (as checked against another local station).

I really feel that I need to reset the station and data logger to factory presets but there doesn't appear to be a way to do this. I know I would loose past data, but I would rather do that than have ridiculous figures going forward to the webssite

[steve]

I get a feeling that it is software related as when these spurious results happen it is always in the 'last hour' box on Cumulus.

In that case I'll need the diags folder that I asked for. But if WL and Cumulus both show the rainfall, then it is unlikely to be a software issue.

[RichardM]

Yes wouyld send it to you but how do I copy it across? Copy and paste doesn't work.

[steve]

Instructions for sending the diags files are in the post linked to near the top of the forum - "Please click here before posting".

[RichardM]

Sorry never used this forum before and have no idea of how to attach this file. It is already zipped but will not transfer when I try to list it in the box below all it does is opens the internal files. My apologies for sounding thick.

[steve]

when I try to list it in the box below all it does is opens the internal files.

At what point does that happen - when you click "Choose file", "Open", or "Add the file"?

[RichardM]

I open the post reply box and then go down to the browse button and select Cumulus from Drive C. Diags shows as a zipped folder. I choose that and when I hit Open it immediately opens into the individual folders within. I select all the folders and hit Open, but nothing downloads to the reply page. I am using Windows 7 professional, by the way.

[steve]

The forum doesn't have the ability to unzip files, so I think you must be selecting the Diags folder, and not a zipped copy. Have you actually zipped it? If you can't work it out, then email it to me.

[RichardM]

Hi Steve

Trying to download the individual files from the diag folder in a separate window and it is taking ages, will send them up when it has finished
Richard

[RichardM]

Have been trying to download the files within the Diags folder for you but although I can download folders 1,2,3, folder 4 is much larger and just will not download, usually coming up with a server error. Tried it many times yesterday and again overnight with no luck and just a box telling me there is a 'Server Error'

So I guess the only option is to stop using Cumulus and just use the console that came wit the station as that at least does not keep showing me that my records are wrong.

Thank you for your help so far - will just have to wait and see if I get a helpful reply from Davis.