Cumulus Support

Just worked out the measurements if anemometer can go up on chimney were it would be best
the rain bucket can go on a wooden pole in back garden on a 4 x 4 wooden pole were the soler panel would be facing south would appreciate your input Ray.

Geoff (as you can see I have been busy already today)

Geoff,

Get an aerial fitter to mount an 8ft aluminium pole to your chimney and attach the anemometer to that. Aluminium is light and won't rust.

The ISS needs to be furthest from the house to ensure it doesn't pick up house heat. If the 50ft anemometer cable won't reach ask ProData if they have a longer one. ISS should be 4-5ft high and above grass.

Take your time deciding. Location is everything.

No problem Ray will do I am making notes of everything you are saying so the fitting
is as per your instructions I may have to get an extension for the anemometer if you
think 6ft away from the house is not enough.
I hope the aerial fitter will come on monday my wife is a friend of his wife so I hope
it don't break the bank but like you say it has to be done right and there is no way
my chair will go up there. Is it save to get the software loaded up ready ?

Thanks Geoff

6 feet above the roofline is borderline Geoff. You will get wind swirling around above the roof which could affect the direction shown on the console. The advice on the Met Office is 2-3 metres (6-9ft). 6ft is not a show-stopper but higher would be better.

You also need to keep the anemometer away from what I guess is a working chimney. The arm it's attached to is angled and although the manual say's to point the arm to the north mine is pointed west with an adjustment made on the console to compensate so it's clear of the chimney.

By 'software' I guess you mean WeatherLink. No, that should be done once you have assembled the VP2 and connected it to the console. Test everything with it indoors. Spin the anemometer by hand so you can see it all works before it's fitted to the chimney. I had mine running inside the house for a day or two just so I was sure everything was okay.

Familiarise yourself with the well-written instructions.

And if you're intending to use Cumulus, don't, whatever you do, allow Weatherlink to work in USB mode. When you get it to look for the station, make sure you specify serial mode, it will avoid a lot of problems later. The last time I installed Weatherlink, it offered me the option of USB or serial, and warned that I wouldn't be able to use third-party software if I chose USB mode.

You can get back from USB mode to serial mode, but some people seem to have problems with that.

Geoff,

I hope you don't think I'm being paranoid about mounting the anemometer as ideally as possible. The big thing about the VP2 is it logs wind data every 2.5 seconds which is far more frequent than any other station. Given the cost of the VP2 it therefore makes sense to make sure you locate the anemometer as accurately as possible to capture those gusts.

I will get the aerial fitter to put the anemometer has high as poss, the chimney is not a working one so there is no problem there if i have worked things out right the anemometer will be at 10ft of the top of the pot and the rain bucket will be 7ft away from the house walls at a hight of 4ft
and Steve the logger i have is a usb one will that be ok.

Geoff

A USB logger is fine, but make sure when you start Weatherlink that you choose to operate in serial mode (it installs drivers which do the conversion from USB to serial and lets WL and Cumulus talk to the station as if it was connected to a serial port).

While you have WL running, you might want to set the logging interval; you can't do that with Cumulus. Whatever interval you choose, set Cumulus to the same value.

Thanks Steve You and Ray have both been great as usual it will more than likely be early next week before it is all in place I will be taking my other weather station off line when the VP2 goes
up I can't wait I just wish I was not stuck in this chair because I could do it myself.
I will have to change the setting on cumulus from fine offset to VP2 is that right.
my other weather station will still be powered up but no longer be linked to the pc.

Geoff

Thanks again Ray & Steve, Steve Just Found an extra instruction sheet is seem's to
saying something similar to what you were saying regarding serial port /usb port I though
I would attach it just it sorts out the problem that can occur with the port set up.

Geoff

Hi Steve did you manage to look at the VP2 sheet I attached.

Geoff

The one you uploaded less than two hours ago? Not yet, no, sorry. Is it very urgent?

No rush Steve as I am not setting up yet Its only you mentioned the data logger set
up is critical as to not have a problem.

Just not sure if Davis have changed the set up in the book after problems and have
added the extra set up sheet.

Geoff

I've had a quick look at it, and as it has a large "copyright Prodata Systems" across it, it is obviously provided by John Dann and not by Davis. And as it's copyright, I've removed it from your post. Please don't upload copyright material here.

Sorry I had not really noticed that I was more concerned in what you had said yesterday
and what that was saying I don't want the system messed up from the start.