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About Cumulus: Difference between revisions
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Cumulus is free software for retrieving, storing and displaying data from an electronic Automatic Weather Station (AWS). | Cumulus is free software for retrieving, storing and displaying data from an electronic Automatic Weather Station (AWS). | ||
Cumulus was born in 2003, when Steve Loft decided none of the weather software available suited his needs, so he wrote something that did do what he wanted. | |||
It offers a lot of features, here, in case you are wondering about trying this software, are the key ones: | It offers a lot of features, here, in case you are wondering about trying this software, are the key ones: | ||
* Support for data loggers (no 24/7 running needed) | |||
* Display of additional sensors | |||
* Support for WMR-100 and WMR-200 | |||
* Direct support for Fine Offset stations (no need for EasyWeather) | |||
* Support for LaCrosse stations (WS2300 etc) | |||
* Support for Davis WMII | |||
* [[Cumulus Screenshots|Cumulus screens]] for viewing data and configuration | |||
* Web pages | |||
* Data stored in simple text files | |||
* Supports [[Meteorological day]] | |||
= Features of Cumulus Software = | = Features of Cumulus Software = | ||
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#*It can track the duration for each observed wind speed and calculate wind run for each day, it can report the day each month (or year, or all-time) with the highest daily wind run | #*It can track the duration for each observed wind speed and calculate wind run for each day, it can report the day each month (or year, or all-time) with the highest daily wind run | ||
#*Cumulus also tracks the actual rainfall over each 5 minutes and uses that to calculate a rain rate; it can report the highest hourly rainfall in a day, a month, a year or all-time; and it can report the wettest day in a month, year or all-time. | #*Cumulus also tracks the actual rainfall over each 5 minutes and uses that to calculate a rain rate; it can report the highest hourly rainfall in a day, a month, a year or all-time; and it can report the wettest day in a month, year or all-time. | ||
#From 1.9.1 beta builds, Cumulus introduced tracking of highest/lowest extreme records in current month [[Month.ini]], and year [[Year.ini]]. | |||
# Cumulus also includes a '''weather diary''' where you can record (in free text) any aspect of the weather for a day that your AWS does not capture, this diary includes ability to record for each day if snow is falling, if snow is lying, the snow depth, and from the last it can calculate a snow index for a month or for a winter. | # Cumulus also includes a '''weather diary''' where you can record (in free text) any aspect of the weather for a day that your AWS does not capture, this diary includes ability to record for each day if snow is falling, if snow is lying, the snow depth, and from the last it can calculate a snow index for a month or for a winter. | ||
# Cumulus also produces monthly climatological reports summarising the weather each day of that month, and a yearly climatological report summarising the weather each month of that year. | # Cumulus also produces monthly climatological reports summarising the weather each day of that month, and a yearly climatological report summarising the weather each month of that year. | ||
# Cumulus includes some templates that it processes to generate web pages, and provides hundreds of web tags that you can incorporate into templates of your own that Cumulus will process into scripts or web pages for you; there is a choice of how frequently this processing happens | # Cumulus includes some templates that it processes to generate web pages, and provides hundreds of web tags that you can incorporate into templates of your own that Cumulus will process into scripts or web pages for you; there is a choice of how frequently this processing happens | ||
#Cumulus also has the ability to launch external processes, at its "real-time" processing interval, its "normal updating" interval or as it is processing the daily "rollover" to a new meteorological day. | #Cumulus also has the ability to launch external processes, at its "real-time" processing interval, its "normal updating" interval or as it is processing the daily "rollover" to a new meteorological day. | ||
== Outputs to external web sites == | == Outputs to external web sites == | ||
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To read more about this Wiki see [[CumulusWiki:About|About Cumulus Wiki]]. | To read more about this Wiki see [[CumulusWiki:About|About Cumulus Wiki]]. | ||
There are pages within this [[ | There are pages within this [[Original Cumulus Wiki|Wiki contents page]] that discuss: | ||
*Frequently Asked Questions [[FAQ|for Cumulus 1]] (although it has some applicability to MX and does discuss weather station positioning; and a new one [[Cumulus MX#FAQ|for Cumulus MX]] (only rough outline at present) | *Frequently Asked Questions [[FAQ|for Cumulus 1]] (although it has some applicability to MX and does discuss weather station positioning; and a new one [[Cumulus MX#FAQ|for Cumulus MX]] (only rough outline at present) | ||
* each of the [[:Category:Configuration Files|configuration]] and [[:Category:Log Files|log files]], | * each of the [[:Category:Configuration Files|configuration]] and [[:Category:Log Files|log files]], | ||
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== Cumulus 2 == | == Cumulus 2 == | ||
This is no longer available as it never worked satisfactorily. | This is no longer available as it never worked satisfactorily. The final release was launched at https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3266. | ||
While Cumulus 1 uses a "rain counter" and derives everything it reports from that (with some problems and complex code to cope with odd changes in the counter), Cumulus 2 used directly what each weather station was reporting for rain, and tried to adjust that into daily (e.g. 9am to 9am) rainfall; this was not as easy as Steve Loft expected. | |||
While Cumulus 1 used local time, (with some oddities when daylight saving time started and finished), Cumulus 2 logged everything in UTC, the idea was to avoid issues with time zones, but actually implementing that for Cumulus users all round the world was not as easy as Steve Loft expected. | |||
Steve Loft designed Cumulus 2, so the units you selected effected how a value was shown, but not how the value was stored. Consequently in Cumulus 2, as all values were stored exactly as output by weather station, you could easily change units for display at any time. You can read more at https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=17. | |||
Steve Loft felt he wasted a lot of time working on Cumulus 2, as he found using C# code a real struggle. He stopped, and restarted, its development a few times, before finally giving up. In the end, only a small number of users did use it. There was documentation in this Wiki, but Steve Loft deleted all the pages that related just to Cumulus 2. | |||
Some other ideas | Some of its features (you can read more in old Support Forum posts) were incorporated into Cumulus 1.9.1 onwards, and from there into Cumulus MX. | ||
Some other ideas; formed the basis for his Cumulus 3 beta including: | |||
*standardising on ISO format for dates; | |||
*separating the engine and admin interface; | |||
*and a few more. | |||
The design of Cumulus 3 (MX) is much more robust, because it has learnt from the pitfalls of Cumulus 2 | The design of Cumulus 3 (MX) is much more robust, because it has learnt from the pitfalls of Cumulus 2 | ||
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== Should I use Cumulus 1 or Cumulus 2 or Cumulus 3 (MX)? == | |||
Steve Loft (who originated all 3 versions) had no recommendations one way or the other. However, since he focussed on enjoying retirement and withdrew from involvement in Cumulus, a lot has changed. | Steve Loft (who originated all 3 versions) had no recommendations one way or the other. However, since he focussed on enjoying retirement and withdrew from involvement in Cumulus, a lot has changed. | ||
Now newcomers should probably choose Cumulus MX, but read on if you are not sure. | Now newcomers should probably choose Cumulus MX, but read on if you are not sure. | ||
Cumulus 1 is a finished version, with very few bugs, but because the development environment is obsolete no further changes are possible. Cumulus 1 is reliable, it has | Cumulus 1 is a finished version, with very few bugs, but because the development environment is obsolete no further changes are possible. That said there have been two recent patches to the screen interface, allowing dates from 2021 to 2030 to be selected in drop downs, but the core code will never change. Although there remains some expertise with Cumulus 1 established users, any newcomer may prefer to choose a MX as that has more technical support available. Cumulus 1 is reliable, it has in-built functionality to cope with problems if your weather station set-up experiences problems. However, you may not be able to use this (legacy) Cumulus software: | ||
# | #If you use one of the new weather station models, as the legacy Cumulus does not support these (you would need to find a way to make your station output to a format it does understand) | ||
#it will only run on a Microsoft Windows device | #If you want to upload to a web server using a secure file transfer protocol, as the legacy Cumulus does not support SFTP or FTPS directly (you can get it to run external scripts) | ||
#If you want to run Cumulus on a Linux computer, the legacy Cumulus will only run on a Microsoft Windows device | |||
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, so if you don't already have it hard luck. Subsequently, some of the developments in Cumulus 2 were ported into new version 1.9.0, and remain in final Cumulus 1.9.4 from where they were in turn ported to Cumulus | 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, so (if you don't already have it) hard luck. Subsequently, some of the developments in Cumulus 2 were ported into new version 1.9.0, and remain in final Cumulus 1.9.4 from where they were in turn ported to Cumulus 3. Also having learnt lessons from the failure of Cumulus 2, Cumulus 3 has gone back to the rainfall counter method of deducing all rainfall reported, and has adopted local time (not UTC) for logging data. So whichever of the two versions still available you choose, you are benefiting from work done for Cumulus 2. | ||
Cumulus 3 was released by Steve Loft as MX beta. It is using a different architecture (partly inspired by Cumulus 2). The MX beta (version 3.0.0) lacked much of the functionality in the legacy Cumulus, consequently it was only suitable for very reliable weather stations, and people who did not need editing functionality. | Cumulus 3 was released by Steve Loft as MX beta. It is using a different architecture (partly inspired by Cumulus 2). The MX beta (version 3.0.0) lacked much of the functionality in the legacy Cumulus, consequently it was only suitable for very reliable weather stations, and people who did not need editing functionality. | ||
The development of Cumulus MX, by Mark Crossley, has completely transformed the product (see below). Somebody who uses the new features in MX needs to produce a functionality guide for MX that provides similar information to that appearing here for the legacy software. | |||
=Cumulus MX= | =Cumulus MX= | ||
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Building up a library of screen shots for MX is planned, when development slows down (so it is not a moving target). Meanwhile, a number of the MX screenshots, as they used to be, is currently still available at [https://www.circuitspecialists.com/blog/using-the-banana-pi-bpi-m2-with-a-home-weather-station/ CumulusMX-with-a-home-weather-station] | Building up a library of screen shots for MX is planned, when development slows down (so it is not a moving target). Meanwhile, a number of the MX screenshots, as they used to be, is currently still available at [https://www.circuitspecialists.com/blog/using-the-banana-pi-bpi-m2-with-a-home-weather-station/ CumulusMX-with-a-home-weather-station] | ||
== Outputs to external web sites == | |||
Cumulus will store full weather records, along with daily and all-time records, and graphical data. Cumulus can upload its data to a web server and comes packaged with template web pages for this purpose. Cumulus also supports automatic uploads to Weather Underground, PWS weather, Weatherbug, WOW, CWOP/APRS, Windy.COM, Awekas and Weathercloud. | |||
Releases after 3072 include an interface to MQTT which allows users to feed data to their home automation systems (e.g. you can feed internal temperatures from your weather station to your home automation system to control your central heating). | |||
== End of Day Actions == | == End of Day Actions == | ||
