Rainfall display

[avoorpool]

Hi Steve,

Went through a lot of threads regarding this subject, but can't find my WMR200A related question (since I don't know the exact specifications for rainfall).
Today we had light rainfall, and the WMR200 console showed 2.1mm
Cumulus displayed 2.0mm

I set the Cumulus Configuration/Calibration/Multiplier entry for Rainfall to 1.05 in order to meet the same display (2.1mm on both ends).
Probably not the correct way......or is it...???
Why is there this small dicrepency?

Thanks

Arthur

[steve]

There are other threads about this. Don't use a multiplier, Cumulus is displaying the values correctly. The difference is due to the fact that the station measures in inches (each tip is 0.04 inches) and Cumulus and the console both convert to mm. The console has a rather odd way of doing the conversion, it doesn't update the display in a linear fashion (i.e. the amount displayed doesn't go up by the same amount for each tip, even allowing for rounding). You'll find that sometimes the console and Cumulus agree exactly, sometimes they do not.

Strictly speaking, neither Cumulus nor the console should be displaying fractions of a mm at all, as it implies an accuracy that the station doesn't have.

[bai4943]

Hi Steve,

Hope you can help with this query. I am having problems in getting a reading from the rain gauge on my WMR180 which I only activated on Saturday. On the base unit the rain reading is only showing as three dashes. I initially had a reading 0.00 but when it didn't move I reset it and haven't had anything since. I have reset the station a further twice and pressed search on the unit with no joy.

Thanks

Stuart

[steve]

I know very little about these stations, I'm afraid. It sounds like the console is having trouble picking up the signal from the rain gauge - how far apart are they? You could try bringing the rain gauge inside (or taking the console to the rain gauge) and see if it picks it up. Are the batteries OK in the rain gauge?

[bai4943]

I know very little about these stations, I'm afraid. It sounds like the console is having trouble picking up the signal from the rain gauge - how far apart are they? You could try bringing the rain gauge inside (or taking the console to the rain gauge) and see if it picks it up. Are the batteries OK in the rain gauge?

Thanks for that - I feel very silly now. I have moved the rain gauge a bit closer to the station and its now receiving fine!

[avoorpool]

Hi Steve,

There might have been another issue with the WMR200 in regards to rainfall.
Yesterday (Aug 4) we had the first rainfall (7.4mm). Last rainfall recorded at 11:14PM. At midnight it still showed last rainfall rate of 36.8mm/hr (with NO rain at all), so I reset the today.ini file. It remained there forever, so I reset the display on the WMR200 console.
Now it shows that I have a rainfall of -181.1mm (indeed according the diag file, rainfall start was 181.1 but is now 0
When I add the 181.1 in the today.ini file, it suddenly shows a record hourly rain of 181.1mm and a record monthly rain of 181.1mm.
Where do I correct this figure, to have a normal display again (see attachment).

Thanks,

Arthur

[steve]

The rainfall rate is supplied by the station. It takes several hours for that figure to return to zero after it's stopped raining, so it's quite likely that everything was working fine. But now that you've reset the station, it looks like the total rain count, on which Cumulus relies, has been reset to zero. You don't say exactly what you've done to today.ini, but Cumulus does cope with the rain counter being reset without any intervention, which will typically make things worse; there's a limit to what it can cope with when the rain figures start getting changed.

Having reset the total rain counter, some of the figures that rely on this will show odd values for a while (e.g. rain in last 24 hours, rain since midnight). These will eventually correct themselves.

The monthly and annual totals are calculated from the daily totals in dayfile.txt.

The all-time records can be corrected using the built-in editors.

[avoorpool]

HI Stee,

Thanks for your quick reply!
Indeed an act of "impatience", thinking of the incorrect rainfall rate when a new day started
"Hard lesson learned".!!!
In the mean time, monthly, yearly and daily numbers are back to normal, the only (weird) incorrect display is the "Rainfall since Midnight" and "Rainfall last 24 hours".
Is there a way to reset these numbers, or do I better disable this webtag till we have accumulate 181.1mm..??
There is rain for today in the forecast, so will this number be reset to actual value after the first rain for today (= after midnight)..??

Thanks,

Arthur

[steve]

If you want to correct the rain in last 24 hours and rain since midnight, you'll have to stop Cumulus and edit the 'total rain counter' figures in the August log file. Or, as I said, these will eventually correct themselves - when the effect of the reset is sufficiently far in the past.

[avoorpool]

HI Steve,

I checked the August log file and see at some point the jump form 181.1 to 0.0, however a few lines below it's back to 181.1 (when I changed this in the today.ini file).
When it's changed in the today.ini file, it resets itself back to 0.0 (of course since this is the input from the station, now at 0.0 after reset).
When I change the August.txt log file back to original value (181.1), how will it keep this figure when the station keeps sending the message the raincounter is at 0.0....???

(For now I have disable the 2 weird displayes (-181.1mm of rain I've never seen ).

Thanks,

Arthur

[steve]

You would have to edit the values in the log file so that they correspond with the current value from the station. I really recommend that you just leave it alone.

[avoorpool]

Will do!!!

Thanks Steve!