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Forum Index : Windmills : Weather station software for wind users
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Bolty Regular Member  Joined: 03/04/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 81 |
I thought that I would share my experiences with some weather station software that I have been using, in the thought that others, who do not know about Cumulus, may wish to try it! I bought a Lacrosse WS2307 weather station (WS) late last year. After considerable struggling with the provided "Heavy Weather" software, I went looking on the web for something better. I found the original software to be a disaster. I tried about 2 different commercial packages but did not find them appealing. Then I came across "Cumulus". Cumulus is a programme produced by Steve Loft, who lives in the Orkney Islands. His programme is free, but I have given him a donation as his work on the programme has been astounding. He has also given me a large amount of personal help. His programme has been quickly evolving, and he does frequent updates to incorporate changes, fixes and improvements. As an example of his fantastic support, I must mention one specific example of his great work. Originally his software was not made to work on Lacrosse WS. Around the time that I first started looking for better software, he included beginning support for the Lacrosse range. One thing that I was then needing was a way to dump the WS data to my computer at 24 hour intervals. This was to allow my computer to sleep most of the day to conserve power. Then at just after midnight, I wanted to dump my daily data. At that stage this was not a feature of Cumulus fro Lacrosse WS. I sent him an email asking if it was possible to include this in future releases. To my complete amazement, I received an updated version of the software the next day, with the data dump included for my WS. Since then his support has been ongoing. The Orkneys are a very windy place. I would love to be able to have a wind generator there! By comparison, I have virtually no wind here at all! To accommodate his high wind regime, the dial that graphically displays the wind speed goes to 50 m/s. My dial was sitting at around 1% of maximum most of the time, occasionally shifted up to 5%. I sent a suggestion to Steve to think about making this dial configurable. I just could not believe that I received an updated version, incorporating a configurable dial, within half an hour. Recently I changed my Windows Home Server (WHS) desktop computer from being in power saving, sleep mode for most of the day, to being a laptop. This was from Gordon’s great idea of being able to save considerable power, and yet gain 24/7 access to the server. One benefit from this was in being able to upload WS data to a website. This is an included feature of Steve’s Cumulus, that I had not previously used, due to power wastage with my desktop WHS. I have now very easily utilized this feature and now have my own WS site. It is at : www.users.on.net/~bolty/myweather Although I am having a few problems with my rain gauge, everything else works beautifully. In particular I find the wind data graph most useful, especially when I am away from home, to keep in touch with what is happening. (You need to click on the trends link near the bottom of the screen). I am also working on a webcam. I have had this working, but I am using a USB extender to get the camera data to my server. This is over Cat 5 cable about 30 metres away. I am having a little trouble with the webcam software being reliable. It is still in testing, and I just have the camera pointing at a tree until I can locate it better to show the weather in the sky. Overall I really like Cumulus, and it does everything that I need. In particular I like the subtle screen presentation, as opposed to many other very gaudy pieces of WS software. I have no vested interests in Steve’s work, other than being an admirer of his efforts, support, skill and talent. If others find his programme useful, this posting may be of help to them! |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5119 |
Great work Bolty. The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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philb Regular Member Joined: 05/07/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 96 |
Thanks for the info Bolty. I like the weather reporting site...and the software. I have looked at Lacrosse wx equipment before. I have not purchased it because I wanted to look at the data realtime and store data also without their software issues. I didn't seem possible until Cumulus came around. Nice find. These units are affordable also. They are available in stores like Walmart,Home Depot, Lowes in the US. We use the RM Young WX stuff will all the bells and whistles where I work. I could buy a car for the same price. Davis is more affordable but still rather pricey too. Thanks.  philb |
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| Bolty Regular Member Joined: 03/04/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 81 |
Thanks Gizmo! Phil! I should mention that it is not the Lacrosse that I am impressed with...it is Cumulus. Cumulus is able to operate with a range of different weather stations. Cumulus's configuration menu lists the following. Vantage Pro and Pro 2 WMR-928 WM-918 Easy Weather Fine Offset/Watson/MyDel etc W2300 series The original software with my Lacrosse was dreadful! Cheers |
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Loomberah Regular Member Joined: 11/06/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
Thanks for the tip Bolty, I've just installed Cumulus after reading your post ;) Heavy Weather really is a useless piece of crud and I'd given up downloding its data onto my computer months ago due to continual crashes and other problems. Cumulus seems to be going ok so far, apart from occasional ftp problems where it doesnt upload the files. I arrived home late this arvo to find it hadn't updated the webpages since 12:50. Occasional ridiculous low temperature readings (-30C this morning) are due to the LaCrosse WS2350, and not the USB-Serial converter, since it shows on the weather station as the min for today. I edit these out from the records when I find them. You do have weird hours of day light there in Victor Harbour though, Sunrise at 14:46?! Weather posted here: My weather page cheers, Gordon Loomberah weather +solar&UV, astronomy, photography, organic farm |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5119 |
I bought a Bios weather station from Jaycar a few weeks ago. I was pretty disappointed with it. It is wireless, but range was only about 10 meters. I fixed that by making tuned length dipole aerials, doubled the range. One big bad "feature", if I turned off the indoor unit to save power, when I turn it back on its forgotten the lock code for the outdoor unit, so I have to go out and reset the remote unit ( removing batteries for a couple of seconds ) so the indoor unit could lock onto its signal! Now that is a pain! I can connect a 4 wire cable between the indoor and outdoor unit, and doing so means there is no need for a signal lock or batteries, so when I find a permanent location for the outdoor unit I'll run some wire. The software is pretty horrid. Can only read up to 10mm of rain per day! In the tropics over 150mm a day is a norm for the wet season. And the logging is only hourly. There is some open source interest in this model, so I'm watching the threads to see if anything I can work with pops up. Someone has written a Apple program to read the data. If I can find a way to read the datastream in VB I'll write a little program to record the data and display it online. It uses a USB interface, so its not as easy as a serial connected weather station. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| 9c12m Newbie  Joined: 04/09/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 28 |
Hi Folks, I also use Cumulus with a weather station from Altronics (X 7062) that is produced by Fine Offset (WH1080 and WH1081) and sold by Watson, Maplin, National Geographic, Jaycar, and others. There are 2 versions available at the moment: WH1080 link: http://www.foshk.com/en/products/show.asp?id=42 and WH1081 link: http://www.foshk.com/en/products/show.asp?id=41 Cumulus has worked fine so far and I also found Steve from Cumulus to be very helpful when I had a problem with the ftp server address for uploading data to the web page. I ended up using the ftp server ip address number instead of the ftp server name to get reliable uploads. I have added a small solar panel charger for the external batteries in the 1081 weather station and had some quirky problems such as the battery lid on the console resolved by adding 2 thin pieces of cardboard to prevent the batteries from losing contact. http://dcurrey.actewagl.net.au/web/index.htm Cheers, Darcy |
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herbnz Senior Member  Joined: 18/02/2007 Location: New ZealandPosts: 258 |
Hi Thanks Bolty I have a old La Crosse Ws2300 interested to see the new models still got old crappy software. I downloaded the Cumulus its much better alright. However with need to be economical on power I can not leave a computer running all day so tend to use the logging method and only download once in a while, usually once a day. Actually despite all the warnings I have to use a USB converter on my laptop and appears to work fine, I have noticed my DSE cable does work on applications that others wont Herb |
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| Loomberah Regular Member Joined: 11/06/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
I'm running on solar power here, off grid, so its something I have to think about too, but the little Fujitsu Lifebook with a 30cm screen is perfect of the job, since it only draws about 10W on average. Its about 9W with screen powered off, which is how it is most of the time, but only goes up to ~16W when I touch the keypad to re-activate the screen. I also have to think about power 500m up the hill for my microwave link to town for the internet, too many cloudy days in a row and the battery will go flat even with 2 old 60W 12V panels, so I only have the power on up there during the day and evening, then for 10 mins on the hour after 11pm to 7am. cheeers, Gordon Loomberah weather +solar&UV, astronomy, photography, organic farm |
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| Bolty Regular Member Joined: 03/04/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 81 |
Loomberah said You do have weird hours of day light there in Victor Harbour though, Sunrise at 14:46?! Thanks! I had the wrong time zone set on my server, even though the clock time appeared correct! Cumulus really handles the downloads from the WS at pre- determined times very well. It was this feature that Steve Loft added to Cumulus after my request. Your use of Fujitsu lifebook sure is frugal with power. My old Desktop WHS consumed nearly 150 watts. Needless tosay, since I have become more energy conscious, I have dispensed with that. I am now looking at buying an Intel Atom M/B D945GSEJT which should draw under 20 watts with HD. It will be headless, so no screen power. Does anybody have any experience in this or other lower power M/B's |
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| Wes Lemarr Newbie Joined: 07/09/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 35 |
Bolty Where can we download a copy of Steve Lofts "Cumulus" software? I would like to try it. Thanks Wes LeMarr |
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| Bolty Regular Member Joined: 03/04/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 81 |
You can either click on the link under "Forum" in my Cumulus weather page on the web (link shown above) or: http://sandaysoft.com/forum/ Then click on "Announcements and News" |
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| Wes Lemarr Newbie Joined: 07/09/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 35 |
Bolty, Thanks for the information I was able to download the software
Regards Wes LeMarr |
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