Combining Cumulus Datasets

[Captain Canada]

Hi Folks;

I have looked around for the forum for a couple of days on this issue and have not found anything really close to solving my issue.

I had a computer that was running for about 9 months recording information in Cumulus from a Davis Vantage Pro2. That computer had a motherboard failure so I got a second computer and put it in place. It is now doing the same job as the old one was.

Now the problem.

I have the hard drive from the old computer with Cumulus data files on it and I have a new computer with Cumulus data files on it. Also I have a Davis Vantage Pro2 console with about two weeks of data on it that does not appear in either of the other two data sets.

How do I: 1. recover the two weeks of data from the Davis console in a form that Cumulus can use?
2. combine the three datasets into one so Cumulus can use all of the data?

Thanks in advance;

Captain Canada

[steve]

How do I: 1. recover the two weeks of data from the Davis console in a form that Cumulus can use?

You can make Cumulus download data from any point in time by editing today.ini; see http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/FAQ#I.E2.8 ... er_station

2. combine the three datasets into one so Cumulus can use all of the data?

You'll need to merge the monthly log files and optionally dayfile.txt. You can can then get Cumulus to create any missing dayfile.txt entries using the built-in editor, and then generate all-time records etc similarly using the built in editors.

[Captain Canada]

Thanks for the quick reply, Steve.

I did what the wiki said and changed the timestamp in "today.ini". When I ran Cumulus again, it downloaded 2559 archived records but only to where I started up the replacement computer (compuer 2) which was on December 8th even though I changed the timestamp to read January 1, 2012. I even tried it on a third computer that did not have a Cumuls installation on it and started from scratch. The result was exactly the same. So I am no further ahead with trying to recover the lost two weeks. My understanding (though it may be wrong) is that the Davis console has quite a bit of storage capacity so more data must still be there. Do I need to change the time stamps in the other ini files to go back further? If that is not an option, I guess I will have to write the data off.

With regard to merging data, my understanding from your response is that I just need to collect all of the monthly "log" files and put them all in the data folder and the rest can be done in Cumulus -is that correct?

If I want to combine several "dayfile.txt" files, should I use Notepad++ or is there something better that will display the data in columns and still save as a comma delimiting text file?

Once I get this Davis data all sorted out, I then have another year's worth of Cumulus data from my old Fine Offset NG station to process. It also is in several chunks. By that time I should know what I am doing.

Looking forward to getting this done,

Captain Canada

[PaulMy]

What interval is your datalogger set? as that will determine how far back it has data.

p.s. looks like you may be getting some snow later this week?

Paul

[steve]

When I ran Cumulus again, it downloaded 2559 archived records

That's how many entries the logger holds (2560, actually, but there's a bug in the Davis DLL which means that the latest entry is never downloaded). So that's all the data that's available. You presumably have the logger set to 5 minutes, so it can hold about 9 days.

With regard to merging data, my understanding from your response is that I just need to collect all of the monthly "log" files and put them all in the data folder and the rest can be done in Cumulus -is that correct?

Yes, that's correct. If you have multiple logs for the same month, you will need to merge the files.

If I want to combine several "dayfile.txt" files, should I use Notepad++ or is there something better that will display the data in columns and still save as a comma delimiting text file?

Notepad++ should be fine if you're just merging, as you don't actually need to have the data in columns.

[Captain Canada]

OK, Steve;

Thanks a whole bunch. It really helps when you know what will work.

Thanks again, and Merry Christmas from Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada - the largest freshwater island in the entire World!

Captain Canada