Forgive me, but my searches haven't worked

[waymegelli]

I'm sure my question has been asked and answered, but I guess I'm not using the right search terms.

I just bought and installed my first weather station - a Davis Vantage Vue. It works great, but when I looked for the USB port to connect it to my computer.... well, you all know what happened then. So back to the AmbientWeather website to buy whatever I need to be able to connect to my computer and upload to Wunderground. It appears that I need Davis' WeatherLink (which I've now ordered), but I'm not sure what other software (maybe hardware?) I need, if any. The AmbientWeather site suggests I add Virtual Weather Station for $50 or more, and also suggests I get Weather Exchange for free. In addition, my searching has led me to the Davis WeatherLink $30 annual subscription option - what is that for? Now I find this Cumulus program, and I'm even more confused. Do I need all of them? Some of them? All I want to do is send my data to Wunderground.

Thanks for reading - if my answers are already out there, please post a link.

[steve]

Virtual Weather Station is the equivalent of Cumulus, it displays and logs weather data etc. Your Weatherlink logger will come with Weatherlink software, which performs similar functions. You don't need all of them, but you could use them all if you wanted. You can't run them all at the same time, unless you use something like Virtual VP from SoftWX. I don't know what Weather Exchange is.

If all you want to do is send data to WU, you would probably be best sticking to the Weatherlink software supplied by Davis.

The Weatherlink subscription gives you a page for your data at weatherlink.com, which is standard with IP loggers, and which Davis have recently started offering as a paid option for users of serial and USB loggers.

[RayProudfoot]

If you want to make your weather data available on the web you need the datalogger and this comes with a copy of WeatherLink. It does a job and is very stable but the display won't set you or your users on fire.

Cumulus has been improved almost continuously since it was launched a few years ago and is favoured by many for its clean presentation and stability even with beta releases. As Steve says if you want to run more than one weather software package you have to use VirtualVP which you can trial free for 30 days. I've used it for nearly 4 years and it's allowed me to run Cumulus, VPLive and WL.

Steve is too modest to plug his own software so I'll do it for him. I've tried a few different offerings but once I found Cumulus that was it for me. It's stable, highly configurable and the support Steve gives is second to none. It won't even cost you anything to try it but once you have I'm sure you'll like it. Many of us have made more than one contribution which allows Steve to buy the software to continue to develop what in my opinion is probably the finest weather software currently available.

[water01]

Steve is too modest to plug his own software so I'll do it for him. I've tried a few different offerings but once I found Cumulus that was it for me. It's stable, highly configurable and the support Steve gives is second to none. It won't even cost you anything to try it but once you have I'm sure you'll like it. Many of us have made more than one contribution which allows Steve to buy the software to continue to develop what in my opinion is probably the finest weather software currently available.

Totally agree, if you are going to run only one piece of software run Cumulus. If you intend to run more than one, run Cumulus first, but the others won't stand the comparison.

[Jim Brown]

I assume that you ordered the USB data logger. When you go thru the setup process it is very important that you read and follow the instructions. If you are going to use any software other than Weather Link ( which you are going to want to do) you must set up the logger in/to the serial mode eventhough it is a USB logger.

I reccommend that you load Weather link use it to setup the logger and the console and then swithch to cumulus or some other software.

[waymegelli]

Thanks for the replies. I did order the USB logger, and in my searching, I learned about the USB/Serial issue, so that's on my to-do list. I'm not sure why I would want to run multiple weather programs, although as I gain some experience, maybe I will. Again, thanks for the input and I'll try to post some results and maybe some pictures after I get everything running.

[waymegelli]

Now I'm trying to figure out how to upload data to Wunderground. I've got an ID - KTXAZLE7 - and I've entered data about my site, including a couple of pictures, but I can't seem to find the next step of how to upload. It's probably obvious, but I'm missing it. Somebody help me, please.

[PaulMy]

Have you enabled the Weather Underground settings in Cumulus (Configuration - Internet)?

Paul

[waymegelli]

Yes, but that's the only thing I did on that page. If I need to fill in all the other information on that page, where do I get the information?

[PaulMy]

For uploading to WU you only need to fill in that particular section, the station Id would be what was provided by WU, likely KTXAZLE7 and the password what you entered when registering. Interval is what you select for your updating time, i.e. 5 min, 10, 15 or whatever. You can tick the other items if applicable to you.

If you want to upload to the other services shown, fill in that information after you have that registration information.

Paul

[waymegelli]

It's working! Thanks to all for your assistance. Next step, can I also upload to other sites, or is that going to require those other programs I read about that allow two programs to run at the same time?

[steve]

What other sites do you want to upload to?

[waymegelli]

CWOP - I see that Cumulus will do it so I've enabled it, but I'm stumbling my way around the various pages of the CWOP site to figure out how to enter my location data.

[steve]

I seem to remember there's some kind of manual approval process for CWOP sites, so you may not see your data there immediately.