Cumulus Support

Not sure if this is a Cumulus/PWSWeather interface problem or whether it is purely PWSWeather's error but I just happened to notice that the "Today's Average" for precipitation (at time of posting), for my weather station, is 275.8mm which looks more like a summation of all the data records' "Daily Precip Total" figures, as opposed to any sort of an average.

Cumulus only sends 'rain in the last hour' (which PWS displays in the 'Precip' column) and 'rain so far today' (the 'Daily Precip Total' column). I don't even know what something called "Today's Average" for Precipitation could possibly represent, even if it were displaying something sensible. Hourly average, perhaps? I notice that it only appears on the today tab, and not any other, so my theory is that it's not supposed to be there and it's a bug. It might actually be useful on the weekly/monthly/yearly tabs, where it could display the daily average.

Well, I've reported it to them anyway.

They still have all my data wrong anyway because they haven't taken into account the clock change (correctly).

I know I don't check PWSWeather and Wunderground continuously but I find it strange that I didn't check it several times before I went to bed, which was after midnight my time, and notice that it had flatlined around 20:00 my time (lost contact with sensor), particularly given the time stamps of the posts on this thread (lol, didn't you look at it too?). I must be getting old. And, anyway, why, if I have "alarm if sensor contact lost" set, don't I hear anything?

OK, so I know I am going a bit off topic but...

re. my last post, as I don't seem to get an alarm sound, I have downloaded the necessary files for using the Toolbox to notify me by email, if I lose sensor contact again.

I am really only interested in the appropriate file being generated (as well as realtime.txt) and not FTP'd (neither of them).

However, apart from an initial generation through the suggested "Web Update", the file has not been updated since (realtime.txt is fine).

What is the definitive setup for it?
I have...
cumuluswebtags.txt in the Local Filenames
cumuluswebtags.php in the Remote Filenames
Process? checked
Realtime? have tried both checked and unchecked
FTP? have tried both checked and unchecked
(as well as Include Standard Files & Include Standard Images checked)
(and I have Enable Realtime, Enable Realtime FTP and Realtime.txt FTP all checked)


oh and btw, Cumulus crashed when I selected Help from the File List dialogue.

gluepack wrote:And, anyway, why, if I have "alarm if sensor contact lost" set, don't I hear anything?

I don't know, it works OK for me, and no-one else has reported a problem. Do other alarms work OK? Is the sound file configuration pointing to a valid wav file?

gluepack wrote:I have...
cumuluswebtags.txt in the Local Filenames
cumuluswebtags.php in the Remote Filenames
Process? checked
Realtime? have tried both checked and unchecked
FTP? have tried both checked and unchecked
(as well as Include Standard Files & Include Standard Images checked)
(and I have Enable Realtime, Enable Realtime FTP and Realtime.txt FTP all checked)

I've just tried the same settings, and it updates the cumuluswebtags.txttmp file correctly (and cumuluswebtags.php if I set it to just 'copy', i.e. ftp not ticked). I know almost nothing about the Toolbox so I don't know for certain which file it's looking for; I think it's cumuluswebtags.txttmp.

oh and btw, Cumulus crashed when I selected Help from the File List dialogue.

Works OK for me and no-one else has reported a problem. Did it create a bugreport.txt file?

Are you running Cumulus from the shortcut created by the installer? Which folder do you have it installed in? I'm wondering if all of the problems you're seeing are related. They're clearly specific to your setup.

Are you running Cumulus from the shortcut created by the installer? Which folder do you have it installed in? I'm wondering if all of the problems you're seeing are related. They're clearly specific to your setup.

Cumulus is installed in the cumulus folder off the c: drive, as recommended and I execute it from the desktop shortcut (well, sorry, actually it is invoked automatically at startup). The Toolbox folder is under Program Files.

Do other alarms work OK? Is the sound file configuration pointing to a valid wav file?

Other cumulus alarms? I have none set and, if I did, the condition would have to occur. The only one I have set is the lost sensor and it is set up to point to the default wav file. I only just instigated it because of two other recent occurrences. Sound is through my monitor and all other Win sounds are fine.

I've just tried the same settings, and it updates the cumuluswebtags.txttmp file correctly (and cumuluswebtags.php if I set it to just 'copy', i.e. ftp not ticked). I know almost nothing about the Toolbox so I don't know for certain which file it's looking for; I think it's cumuluswebtags.txttmp.

Toolbox is accessing the file (cumuluswebtags.txttmp) fine. Cumulus isn't updating it, since the initial creation. Are you sure that there are no other Cumulus settings required, other than those I have mentioned? Oh, I should add, that I did retry Web Update again when I unchecked the FTP? box and although it attempted an FTP (I don't use Cumulus for FTP because it will not talk to my site) there had been no update to the files since the first attempt.

afa the Help crash is concerned. It did happen once before but I was too busy and ignored it. I see no file this time. When I get a chance I will try to replicate it.

gluepack wrote:Are you sure that there are no other Cumulus settings required, other than those I have mentioned?

The only settings I have are local and remote file specified, and 'process' and 'realtime' ticked, plus the ones required to get realtime.txt uploading to my web site ('enable realtime' is the only one that's actually required for this particular purpose). It then updates the cumuluswebtags.txttmp and cumuluswebtags.php in the same folder as the cumuluswebtags.txt file (I've put it in my Cumulus installation folder) on each realtime update. If you don't have 'realtime' selected for the file, you would need to have 'auto update' set, if it isn't already set for the purpose of uploading to your web site. And for this to work, your station would need have supplied pressure and outdoor temperature at least once since Cumulus started up, as otherwise most of the timers for periodic tasks don't get started - http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/FAQ#Cumulu ... eb_uploads

Perhaps Cumulus just doesn't work properly on your system, for whatever reason. I can't hope to make it work on every system. It works for most people, including using it to FTP to their web site, and that's the best I can offer.

gluepack wrote:(well, sorry, actually it is invoked automatically at startup).

I missed this before. This is likely to be the cause of at least some of your problems, possibly a permissions problem, or an 'environment' problem. By what method have you arranged for it to start automatically? If you stop it and start it again manually from the shortcut, do you still see all of the issues that you've mentioned in this thread?

Not sure why adding it as an automatic startup app would be any different. Anyway...

Just tried a couple of "Help"s from the File list dialogue, no problem. I then set debug log and exited, so I could restart from the desktop icon (I've only been running it at startup for a relatively short period).

After restart I went to the File dialogue and tried Help and it was ok. I then noticed that the debug log setting doesn't appear to be retained across sessions, so I set that again. I then went to Configuration>Internet and within a couple of seconds of the dialogue box being displayed it suddenly disappeared and I was unable to do anything in Cumulus (it appeared to be still running, as wu/aprs/pwsw were still being updated) getting the normal sound that you get when you try and access something that Windows doesn't like you accessing. Alt-tabbing through the running apps failed at Cumulus every time too. I then Task Managered it out of there and restarted it and it has been running fine since. There is a debug.log file of 57 mb (presumably extension of an earlier one?) if you want it.

I have come across this problem on (some of?) those occasions when I have had lost sensor contact. Having looked at the error condition (via the flashing red light) I have then been unable to select anything in Cumulus and have had to end the task.

Anyway, meanwhile the cumuluswebtags.txttmp file still hasn't been updated since its initial creation.

Oh and I have a bugreport.txt file, presumably from the earlier Help crash with a "Floating point division by zero", if you want it.

If you zip up the diags folder and attach it, the diags files may show something, and the bugreport.txt file may do as well, so please include that. But all of your issues seem to be related to some kind of interaction problem with Windows which I can't reproduce, so it's very hard to diagnose.

I'll just add that having done the Web Update originally, that created the two files ( .txtphp and .php) I deleted them and ran Web Update again without FTP? checked and it didn't recreate them. I then checked FTP? and reran Web Update and they were still not recreated.

The crashes in bugreport.txt are in Windows code (in user32.dll) in its window handling code.

There's nothing in any of the files to help explain the problems you're having. You should remove your ftp login details from the internet settings to avoid Cumulus attempting to connect to your ftp server; the creation of the files should be taking place anyway without actual ftp being attempted.

Note that 'web update' doesn't do a 'realtime' update. The realtime settings I listed earlier should cause the cumuluswebtags.txt file to be processed. Which folder have you put the file in? Perhaps it's a permissions problem (that might also account for the lack of the alarm sound) - I suppose you could try doing a 'run as administrator' on the Cumulus shortcut.

The only other thing I can suggest is that you send me your cumulus.ini file (with passwords removed) and I'll see if I can see anything. But on a fresh install, these are the only settings I need to get it to update the file:

Note that 'web update' doesn't do a 'realtime' update. The realtime settings I listed earlier should cause the cumuluswebtags.txt file to be processed.

I am just going by the Wiki.

Which folder have you put the file in? Perhaps it's a permissions problem (that might also account for the lack of the alarm sound) - I suppose you could try doing a 'run as administrator' on the Cumulus shortcut.

They are in the cumulus sub-directory. I have administrator privileges which I would have thought overcame any obstacle, unless you know something about "administration" that I don't and I'm sure you do.