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= Installing and Running Cumulus =
== Should I use Cumulus 1 or Cumulus 2 or Cumulus 3 (MX)? ==
I have no recommendations one way or the other. The main decision is whether you are happy with the different architecture of MX, and whether you can live without those facilities in Cumulus 1 yet to be added to MX.
Cumulus 1 is a finished version, and because the development environment is obsolete no further changes are possible. Cumulus 1 is reliable and has more functionality to cope with problems if your weather station set-up may experience problems.
Cumulus 2 explored an improved data approach using UTC and having better handling of rainfall. Although it was hoped it would make enhancement easier, and allow use of alternative languages possible, it proved too complicated. and has been abandoned and is no longer available. Subsequently, some of the developments in Cumulus 2 were ported into new version 1.9.0, and remain in final Cumulus 1.
Cumulus 3 is a new rewrite also known as Cumulus MX, using a different architecture (partly inspired by Cumulus 2), but it is still in beta. Although it provides some enhancements in functionality and will run on a range of platforms, there are several key pieces of functionality that have not been made available in Cumulus MX. It can be used in a production system as it has good reliability, but perhaps should be avoided in a few rare cases where people's systems are not very reliable.
== What operating systems does Cumulus run on? ==
== Where do I find the Cumulus installer? ==
== What do I need to get right when first getting Cumulus? ==
== Why haven't you added the feature I asked for a long time ago? ==
I develop and support Cumulus in my spare time, and I have a full time job. I invite donations, but I don't make a living from Cumulus. I add facilities when I can. There is a long list of [
== How do I upgrade to a new release? ==
These instructions apply whether you are updating by one build, skipping several builds, upgrading to/from a beta version, or installing the latest 'release' version.
'''Cumulus 1 only:'''
The Cumulus 1 installer will always upgrade the following files (replacing them, ignoring existing versions):
# "cumulus.exe"; - the latest build
# "unins000.exe";
*So tick this option, if you have a standard Cumulus implementation and then you can be sure to upgrade the standard templates.
*Untick this option if you have [[Customised_templates#Creating_Your_Own_Templates|customised the existing pages]], so that if your customised versions are in "web\*.*" they don't get overwritten. It is recommended that you store any customised pages in a directory outside the Cumulus folder, as you can specify up to 10 such files on the local side of the files tab in the Configuration menu Internet settings screen and (if you are not using standard files) untick ''Include Standard Files'' on the same screen. (100 such files can be specified in [[Cumulus.ini]]).
== Changing to different weather station ==
Yes is the answer for other weather information, providing you can manipulate the information you have into either (preferably) the format used by the [[Monthly_log_files#Importing_pre-Cumulus_data]] or (second best) [[Dayfile.txt]]. Look up those cross-references in this Wiki (or the Cumulus '''Help''') for further information on required formats. The support forum includes a few threads related to this topic, and if you post there then people who have already imported from particular systems may offer their services to import your past observations.
A converter for Weather Display log files is available from this thread in the forum:
A converter for WeatherLink log files is available from this thread in the forum:
== I was away on the last day of last month/year - How do I see the final lowest and highest figures for last month/year? ==
== Where does Cumulus get its this month and this year rainfall totals from? ==
* The rainfall totals (for this month, year, and season), are initialised when Cumulus is (re-)started by adding up the corresponding daily totals in [[dayfile.txt]] and storing those sums in memory.
* Each time Cumulus reads records from the weather station it applies any change to the 'total rain count' against today's total in its memory.▼
** The rainfall totals shown on the ''This period'', ''This month'', and ''This year'' screens within the '''View''' menu in Cumulus 1 are generated by adding up the daily rainfall totals found in [[dayfile.txt]] for the selected period.
* The today's total so far at each reading time is also added to the 'recent tag' array allowing total values for the day-so-far at one minute intervals for up to a week ago to be added as web tags to a web template. ▼
** Cumulus MX builds below 3008 do not include rainfall for year to date, other rainfall calculation items were fixed in 3022 to 3042, you should use latest build for best functionality.
▲* The rainfall totals shown on the ''This period'', ''This month'', and ''This year'' screens within the '''View''' menu are generated by adding up the daily rainfall totals found in [[dayfile.txt]] for the selected period. So any rainfall for the current (meteorological) day is excluded as the latest dayfile.txt row is for yesterday. Totals are recalculated when you press the ''Update display'' button. Important note: The view menu 'This year' screen always calculates the total for a selected calendar year starting in January.
▲* Each time Cumulus (both 1 and MX) reads records from the weather station it applies any change to the 'total rain count' against today's total in its memory.
* The rain figures that Cumulus uses for displaying in 'This month' and 'This year' on the Cumulus ''main screen'' are updated each time Cumulus receives a rain reading from the station, so will not be displayed if Cumulus is unable to read rain information from your station.▼
**As you will see if you look in [[diags]], Cumulus stores the 'total rain count' figure at rollover, so by maintaining the current figure it can subtract off the start of day figure to deduce the rainfall today and this is shown on the front screen in Cumulus 1, labelled ''Today''. In Cumulus 1 the '''Edit''' menu gives access to the ''Today's rain'' screen and that provides the ability to edit the strt of day figure so that the figure shown for today is correct. Equivalent functionality is provided in Cumulus MX. If there is no rain in a day, the start of day count will be the same at the start of the next day.
* For the web tags, Cumulus takes its stored sums and adds today's latest total each time, to give the current totals for this month and this rain season (year so far) when processing 'thismonthT.htm' and 'thisyearT.htm' web templates.▼
▲*
▲** The today's total so far at each reading time is also added to the 'recent tag' array allowing total values for the day-so-far at one minute intervals for up to a week ago to be added as web tags to a web template.
▲* For the web tags, Cumulus (both 1 and MX) takes its stored sums and adds today's latest total each time, to give the current totals for this month and this rain season (year so far) when processing 'thismonthT.htm' and 'thisyearT.htm' web templates.
**Important, for the <#ryear> web tag, and for the 'This year' display on the ''main'' Cumulus screen, the processing reads the ''dayfile.txt'' for the rainfall season starting with the month set on the station settings screen and stored as the value for attribute ''RainSeasonStart'' in [[Cumulus.ini#Section:_Station]] (its default is January).
**If you have set a 'year to date' value and Cumulus is being re-started when the year specified beside that figure matches the current calendar year, your year-to-date amount is also added into this year's total. This should normally only be relevant in your first rain season of operating Cumulus, but could be used if in any season you needed to add an extra amount because for some reason you had a gap in your recording period. ''Do be aware that if you select a rain season starting in a month other than January, the year to date figure will stop being added on 1 January because the year specified next to the figure to add on will then be the previous calendar year!''
**There is no corresponding setting for
*Note that you need to stop and then restart Cumulus to update these initial values that are stored in memory and get any corrections you made to rogue values in the daily summary log (or year-to-date) reflected on the main Cumulus screen and in web tags.
The built-in dayfile.txt editor is used if it is necessary to amend the daily totals (to correct any monthly, rain season, or calendar year, totals); the built-in all-time (or monthly records) editor(s) in Cumulus 1 is used if it is necessary to regenerate the extreme records from dayfile.txt; see [[#My_station_invented_some_rain_that_didn.27t_really_occur.2C_and_I_want_to_set_it_to_zero_.28or_some_other_figure.29 |FAQ about correcting incorrect rainfall displays]].
== How do I reset all my data to start again from scratch? ==
3 options:
*You can install Cumulus 1 (or MX) on more than one
*You can install 2 copies of Cumulus 1 in different paths on a single PC, ''if you have two weather stations'' and Cumulus is able to distinguish between them, e.g. they are from different manufacturers, or both are serial port stations (different ports), or one is USB and one is serial, or one is a Weatherlink IP. In other words the combination that does not work on a single PC is two USB stations (including clones from different suppliers) from the same manufacturer. Note that Davis stations with USB loggers are serial port stations as far as Cumulus is concerned, so there are no problems using multiple copies of Cumulus with multiple Davis stations on the same PC. (Same rules for two copies of Cumulus MX).
*It is possible to back up the Cumulus files from one installation running off a weather station, and briefly have another reduced functionality copy just looking at historic data without ever any updating (the second Cumulus is set up as if reading from an EasyWeather.dat file, but not given a path/file name) - see [[Cumulus.ini#Introduced_for_problems_with_Fine_Offset_family:|Easyweather.dat section here]].
Don't attempt to run Cumulus 1 and MX at same time, they cannot share a single weather station.
= Troubleshooting =
Assuming you use the type of weather station that does have an internal memory that retains observations that have already been read by your computer (and assuming that you have not left Cumulus off for so long that some of the days you want are no longer there)...
#Use the 'rewind feature' of Cumulus. Look in the backup folder for the backup which Cumulus took when it first started up today. Stop Cumulus, copy all of the files from that backup folder into the data folder (overwriting the files which are there) - this restores Cumulus to the state it was in before you ran it today. Make sure nothing else on the computer is running that might affect either your station or Cumulus log files. You can look in [[today.ini]] to see the date and time that you will rewind back to. Start Cumulus and it should then download the data (from the date
#As mentioned elsewhere if option 1 does not work, you can
#If Cumulus still cannot catch-up, then you can try this more risky solution, you can edit [[#I.E2.80.99ve_just_installed_Cumulus.2C_and_it_didn.E2.80.99t_download_all_the_old_data_from_my_weather_station|timestamp in today.ini]] to exactly match a logging time in your station, the restart should then read all subsequent timed storage locations in the station. This only applies to makes of stations that store the exact time with each logging, not to station types that only record duration since previous logging.
▲As mentioned elsewhere, you can even choose an older back-up and rewind back further providing the information is in the station logger. Remember however, that when you restart Cumulus it will only have access to observations at the station's logging interval, so any extremes picked up by the frequent querying of the station while Cumulus was previously running during the period you are now rewinding may be lost.
#If you are very skilled in understanding how Cumulus uses its various [[:Category:Log Files|Log Files]], it is possible (when you stop Cumulus) to back up all the Cumulus log files, before you perform the rewind and a restart, then stop Cumulus again and partially merge data from old and new files, this might enable you to keep some extremes that would otherwise be lost by the rewind, finally do a normal restart.
== Cumulus read some invalid figures from my station ==
'''Possible Cure:'''
The purpose of the backup files is to allow Cumulus to be 'rewound' to a particular point in time. It simulates the situation where someone had closed Cumulus down at that point, and is only now starting it up again, and needs data to be downloaded from the station's logger to catch up to the present time. Obviously this cure will not work if your station type does not have a logger (one is needed for Cumulus to read old readings again).
*If you have only installed Cumulus a few days ago, or have just re-started Cumulus after it was stopped and encounter multiple ''rogue readings in the catch-up from the station logger''; '''one possibility''' is to stop Cumulus and find the [[#On_restarting_Cumulus.2C_it_did_not_successfully_read_all_data_from_when_it_last_ran|backup files]] that it took when you started it up (or just after the previous roll-over time), copy those files into the data folder, overwriting the ones that are there, then when you start it up again it will rewind back to the time in that back-up, and could sort itself out.
The [[Diags]] log often contains useful information for sorting out what has been read, which values have been ignored, and which highs or lows may have been updated incorrectly. Note that automatic backups are made just after roll-over time because restarting Cumulus when there are no logger records to read before roll-over has been known to cause problems. Therefore, the backup to choose might be one with the date before when the problem occured, but remember that any calculations Cumulus makes are based on readings at least every minute when Cumulus is running, but for the catch up period such calculations can only use the readings available at your station's logging interval. Note if you choose a later backup and it does not work, you can always then repeat the 'rewind' with a earlier backup.
== How to restore a corrupted log file ==
Full information about all the log files is
''These notes are written for Cumulus 1, some attempt is made to also cover Cumulus MX, but the way that date/times are stored in Cumulus 1 and Cumulus MX files can be different, particularly for the '*.ini' files; consequently this summary does not cover any problems in files that have been ported from Cumulus 1 to Cumulus MX. ''
Both Cumulus 1 and Cumulus MX create a copy of each of the logs in the backup folder, both at end of day rollover, and when the software is (re-)started. If the corrupted file in 'data' folder is a log holding extremes (not the detailed log created for each month nor 'today.ini'), then the easiest way to remove false extremes recorded recently is to to overwrite the current file with the one from the most recent back-up. Since 'today.ini' is updated very frequently (every time Cumulus interogates your weather station), it is not advised that you overwrite that file, unless you are able to do a rewind as described in previous answer. If you were to use the backup folder copy of the detailed log, you would lose all of the stored values since the backup, so again only do that in a rewind context where all the files from the backup are overwriting those in data folder, and you simply want to copy in what is still in any station logging memory.▼
▲Both Cumulus 1 and Cumulus MX create a copy of each of the logs in the backup folder, both at end of day rollover, and when the software is (re-)started. If the corrupted file in 'data' folder is a log holding extremes (not the detailed log created for each month nor 'today.ini'), then the easiest way to remove false extremes recorded recently is to to overwrite the current file with the one from the most recent back-up. Since 'today.ini' is updated very frequently (every time Cumulus interogates your weather station), it is not advised that you overwrite that file, unless you are able to do a rewind as described in
Cumulus 1 provides editors - go to Edit menu and pick the relevant extremes file, the either type over the figures that you want to change or use the buttons that load the more detailed log files and then figures from them can be copied into extreme file. There is an option (in the view menu) to read the latest detailed log for the current (or past) month, but there is no built in editor for those files.
Cumulus MX
* Remember 'alltimelog.txt' logs each change made to 'alltime.ini' so you don't need to correct the former, but it can help you know how to regress the latter.
*While Cumulus is running (not when catching up with stored past values from the station log), it will ignore large increases in rainfall. (See [[#.28Invented_rain.29_Error_prevention_by_Spike_removal|below]]).
Because many positive values are realistic, Cumulus generally will accept those odd increases as a result of accidental knocking of a tipping bucket gauge, due to wind effects on the gauge, or even due to the station electronics generating a rogue reading. The sub-answers below explain how to correct such errors.
=== (Invented rain) Error in today's total ===
#optionally stop Cumulus and edit [[today.ini]] to change the ''LastTip=''(look up previous value in a recently backed up today.ini) parameter.▼
#Remember that 'ConsecutiveDryDays' and 'ConsecutiveWetDays' do not include today.▼
▲
=== (Invented rain) Error in number of consecutive days with or without rain ===
# The counts are for completed days, not part days. The threshold for whether a day counts as a wet day is set in the optional parameter [[Cumulus.ini#Section:_Station|RainDayThreshold= -1]], and the parameter [[Cumulus.ini#Section:_Station|NoFlashWetDryDayRecords=1]] is also relevant.
▲# Remember that 'ConsecutiveDryDays' and 'ConsecutiveWetDays' do not include today, they reflect the daily rainfall amounts stored in the [[dayfile.txt|daily summary log]].
To edit the count reported by Cumulus, stop Cumulus and edit [[Today.ini#Editing_rainfall_in_today.ini_within_Cumulus| the today.ini log file]] by changing the integer value. Remember, that invented rain can affect monthly, annual, all-time, and monthly_all_time extreme records, and you may need to [[#How_do_I_correct_my_all-time_.28or_monthly_all-time.29_records.3F|edit these]] as described in sub-answers below.▼
=== (Invented rain) Error in yesterday's total ===
#optionally edit yesterday's total (which is only held temporarily for display purposes) in [[today.ini]], while Cumulus is stopped.
▲=== (Invented rain) Error in Consecutive day count ===
▲To edit the count reported by Cumulus, stop Cumulus and edit [[Today.ini#Editing_rainfall_in_today.ini_within_Cumulus| the today.ini log file]] by changing the integer value. Remember, that invented rain can affect monthly, annual, all-time, and monthly_all_time extreme records, and you may need to [[#How_do_I_correct_my_all-time_.28or_monthly_all-time.29_records.3F|edit these]] as described in sub-answers below.
=== (Invented rain) Error in total or high rainfall rate for any day before today ===
See next FAQ. Once you have corrected the daily totals (or high rainfall rates) in dayfile.txt, you can use the editors (on the Cumulus 1 edit menu) for 'This Month' and 'This Year' to fetch the corrected values from dayfile.txt (or enter figures manually).
=== (Invented rain) Error in all-time
Cumulus stores the following rain extremes; for all time and for every January, February ... December:
See [[#How_do_I_correct_my_all-time_.28or_monthly_all-time.29_records.3F |this FAQ]].▼
*Highest rain rate
*Highest hourly total
*Highest daily total
*Highest monthly total
*Longest dry period
*Longest wet period
▲
To see the previous value for all-time records see [[Alltimelog.txt]]. If your all-time records, or month-by-month all-time records have been affected, in Cumulus 1 you can use the built-in editors (in Cumulus MX, use any external text editor). The Cumulus 1 editors can fetch the correct values after you have corrected dayfile.txt.
=== (Invented rain and) Rain Counter ===
Cumulus uses a counter supplied by the station to determine its rainfall data (exactly what that counter is, depends on the type of station). A search of the forum will help for your particular model, for example for some models there might be a counter that represents rain since station bought (or since it was reset), for some stations Cumulus will use an annual total supplied by the station (that resets each new year).
If the rain counter is reset by the station for some unexpected reason, you will have to accept that, and let Cumulus handle it - it does its best to cope when the rain counter changes unexpectedly. Assuming it doesn't change unexpectedly again, you should find that the rain figure is only affected for one day, and then you can amend if necessary subsequently as per other sub-answers here. You can see the counter value being used by Cumulus labelled "raindaystart=" in the diagnostics file (for cumulus 1 - "Cumulus\Diags\
=== (Invented rain and) Other rain figures ===
Note that other rain figures, such as 'rain last hour', 'rain last 24 hours' and 'rain since midnight' depend on a sensible progression of the rain counter described in previous sub-answer, so it's not easy to correct this; it is easier to wait until the erroneous figure is far enough in the past so as not to affect the calculation of these 3 other values. Note that if you're using a midnight start of day then you don't need the 'rain since midnight' figure anyway, as it is normally the same as 'rain today', and that figure is much more easily corrected.
If you really do want to try to correct these other rain figures; you would need to stop Cumulus, then find (for the period in question), the correct [[monthly_log_files|monthly log file]] field 11 (assuming date is field 0), which stores the Cumulus 'rain counter' values, and edit (increasing the value in the count field, decreases the difference to the next (or current) count, and therefore reduces the rain in the in-between period) so they are correct relative to the current value of the rain counter (i.e. the latest one logged).
=== (Invented rain) Error prevention by Spike removal ===
== I get error -32710 with Cumulus and my USB Davis station ==
The USB support in the Davis DLL which Cumulus uses doesn't seem to work. You need to use the CP210X USB/serial software which Davis supply, and use the station in serial mode. If you have previously been using your station with Weatherlink in USB mode, you will need to change to serial mode in Weatherlink before you can use the station with Cumulus. You can do this using [http://www.davisnet.com/support/weather/download/CP210X_USB_Serial_Converter_ver2.exe this utility from Davis]. See also this FAQ entry -
== When I start Cumulus, the graphs restart again each time and don't show the earlier data ==
Note that this situation can also occur if you close Cumulus and then start it up again very soon afterwards, for similar reasons. There is nothing that Cumulus can do about this, it is an issue with the logger (or Virtual VP, which behaves in the same way).
== Davis to Cumulus skips one logged set of readings ==
The Davis DLL which Cumulus 1 uses never downloads the latest archive record. Consequently, if you have Davis and Cumulus set to logging every five minutes and restart Cumulus at 07:33, the archived readings up to 07:25 will be read across to Cumulus, the set of readings stored on Davis at 07:30 will be skipped, and Cumulus will create its own logs from 07:35 onwards.
== My Davis console clock is not exactly the same as my PC clock, but I have "Synchronise station clock" selected ==
== How do I correct my all-time (or monthly all-time) records? ==
Cumulus works by whenever the reading it is currently processing exceeds a particular record, that record is updated. In essence, Cumulus end-of-day works by reading what is in the detailed [[Monthly_log_files]] to find the highs and lows during the day just ended, these then update the [[dayfile.txt|daily summary log]]. Cumulus can also read what is in the daily summary log to update the all-time extremes held in [[alltime.ini]] and month-by-month all-time extremes held in [[monthlyalltime.ini]]. Look up those cross-references to help you understand the various items, and how they can be updated.
Either 1) Consequently, you can manually copy the sequence remembering it requires several steps:
# Correct the rogue values or values in the detailed [[Monthly_log_files]] ''with Cumulus stopped''. Neither Cumulus 1 nor Cumulus MX provides an editor to do this, and you need to guess new values for readings as there is no other file provided by Cumulus to offer any suggestions, often people interpolate between earlier and later readings.
# Correct the [[dayfile.txt|daily summary log]] ''(don't do this near the rollover time)'', the editor in Cumulus 1 requires you to manually change the numbers, unless you delete the whole day (or it was previously missing) and you ask Cumulus to '''Insert missing''' i.e. populate a single line (day) from the detailed log, ignoring any extremes at times between logged readings.
# Correct the all-time extremes held in [[alltime.ini]] and monthly all-time extremes held in [[monthlyalltime.ini]]. Using the Cumulus 1 [[Cumulus_Screenshots#File.2FEdit.2FHelp_Menu|built-in appropriate editor]] from the first couple of commands in the Edit menu (and now also in CumulusMX) allows you to see, and copy across, suggested extremes based on contents of the detailed [[Monthly_log_files]] or contents of the [[dayfile.txt|daily summary log]].
or 2) If you know the correct figures, you can alternatively enter them manually directly into the .ini files and not bother to update the detailed log or the daily summary log. (It is pointless to edit the .ini files directly and then afterwards edit the log files):
*You can look at the [[Alltimelog.txt]] file to find the previous values for the [[
*Similar entries are logged to the [[diags]] files for any updates to the monthly highs and lows in [[
▲*You can look at the [[Alltimelog.txt]] file to find the previous values for the [[Monthlyalltime.ini|all-time records]].
▲*Similar entries are logged to the [[diags]] files for the monthly highs and lows in [[month.ini]].
or 3) Cumulus takes a backup of
== It's January 1st and my 'rain since midnight' and/or 'last 24 hours rain' and/or Evapotranspiration are wrong/negative ==
== My monthly (month-by-month) all-time records don't have entries for all of the months that I have been using Cumulus ==
You need to initialise them. See the release announcement for version 1.9.3, which is when this facility was introduced:
You only need to do this once; when you have initialised them, Cumulus will keep them up to date thereafter.
== I have problems after upgrading to Windows 10 ==
See this forum post -
= Website =
== How do I configure Cumulus for Secure FTP (SFTP/FTPS)? ==
Cumulus 1 doesn't support Secure FTP. You can configure Cumulus to invoke an external program like WinSCP, as described here: [[SFTP | SFTP article]]
Cumulus MX supports FTPS (FTP over TLS) natively, but not SFTP. Just enable it in the settings.
== Directory related problems in FTP ==
For more advice see the website of your local Meteorological Bureau, an educational place (e.g. in USA see [http://newa.nysaes.cornell.edu/public/NEWAStationSitingGuidelines.htm Cornell University]), the [http://library.wmo.int/opac/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=12407 World Meterological Organisation] (WMO), or a specialist organisation (e.g. in UK see [http://www.rmets.org/weather-and-climate/observing/guidelines-observing-0 Royal Meteorological Society] rather than the Met Office web site).
Modern Stevenson Screens are uPVC constructed with a black interior (so they do not radiate heat onto the sensors) and a white exterior (so they reflect as much radiation as possible). There is a lot of discussion on the [
If you are contributing to an external site like APRS/CWOP, Weather Underground, PWS weather, Weatherbug and/or WOW, see guidance from these organisations re instrument placement.
== How do I protect my rain gauge against spiders or other natural problems ==
There is a lot of discussion on the [
== How do I get good temperature and humidity measurements ==
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