My Dad wants to use Cumulus - should he?

[David's daughter]

My Dad wants to use Cumulus. Unfortunately, he's come to me for help

My question is, how easy is it to operate for someone who's not especially computer literature? He looked at the support forum and said it didn't make any sense!

At the moment, he's using the weatherlink software which has pretty much set itself up and runs itself. This is his current site. I'm happy to set up Cumulus for him as long as it involves limited fannying around and we can just leave it running, as we do with Weatherlink.

Does anyone have the help file which talks about setting up Cumulus on the web? The PDF set up guide on the Sandaysoft website only has details of setting up on the PC (which, tbh, looks fairly straight forward). Also, he wants to use the template used by this chap http://www.whatstheweatherroger.co.uk/ which I assume will be easy to install? Like with Wordpress?

Although I can do things like alter CSS etc, I am not a computer programmer and do not want to spend hours doing it.

I would try to dissuade him, but he sounds rather keen! Thanks in advance for your help.

Jane

[steve]

Cumulus is very easy to set up, and that's not just my opinion The only complication might be if you have a USB logger and you're currently using it in 'USBxpress mode'. See the FAQ: http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/FAQ#How_do ... Cumulus.3F. Some people find it very easy to switch to 'virtual serial' mode, and others, for some reason, struggle.

Using the 'standard' web site is very easy, instructions are in the Cumulus help file, and in the wiki, here: http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/Simple_Website_setup. The process is harder to describe than to do.

The templates on the site you've linked to are produced by Jacques, and lots of people use them. Look in the 'Weather by you' section of the forum, and on Jacques's own site. They won't be quite as easy to set up as the standard site, but I can't imagine that it's at all difficult.

To be perfectly honest, from the tone of your post, I would say that if the station is in USB mode, then I would strongly recommend sticking with Weatherlink, as you may find that the process requires more effort than you are prepared to expend.

[PaulMy]

Jane,

My Dad wants to use Cumulus. Unfortunately, he's come to me for help

I would say fortunate that he can come to someone. And there are many helpful people here if needed.
I'll second that Cumulus is very easy to set up (other than the one-time potential Davis USB issue but this can be overcome with a bit of patience) and the standard web templates a breeze if you follow the instructions. Also very easy to upload the data to other sites once you are registered with them - WU, CWOP, PWS, WOW...

I don't use Jacques templates, as yet, but from what you can see there are quite a number of happy users many of which are likely beginners as well.

Paul

[BCJKiwi]

DD - Just one other point which has not been mentioned - unless I missed it!
If you set up Cumulus, then you won't be able to continue with the Weatherlink site as well (or run weatherlink sortware) at the same time as Cumulus. There are a couple of work arounds - one that allows cumulus to 'pause' from time to time to allow weatherlink periodic access and another system that allows multiple software to access the one console at the same time but that adds further complication and cost.

I don't use these myself so may not have some of the detail correct but I think this will give you the basics and if I have given the wromg impression then I'm sure others will correct me promptly.