Cumulus MX FAQ: Difference between revisions

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Cumulus MX FAQ (view source)

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= Introduction =
= Introduction =
[[Category:Cumulus_MX]]
<div style="background: LemonChiffon;padding:5px; margin:2px;">
[[File:Crystal Clear info.png|40px]] This document is 'Work In Progress' so content may not be complete or accurate!
</div>


If you are seeking information on why you might want to use Cumulus, then please read [[About Cumulus|the About Cumulus article]] first. That is a general introduction to what Cumulus does and what might be its advantages over alternative software.
If you are seeking information on why you might want to use Cumulus, then please read [[About Cumulus|the About Cumulus article]] first. That is a general introduction to what Cumulus does and what might be its advantages over alternative software.
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I started pasting in useful material, mostly from Steve Loft's posts in the forum about the beta version of MX, but as at that time I was not using MX I hoped somebody else would make sense of it and create a better layout. Of course nobody did.
I started pasting in useful material, mostly from Steve Loft's posts in the forum about the beta version of MX, but as at that time I was not using MX I hoped somebody else would make sense of it and create a better layout. Of course nobody did.


When I did start using MX, I decided to edit other articles first, see [[Cumulus MX]], [[Cumulus MX formal release versions]], [[Webtags]], [[Cumulus.ini]], [[Dayfile.txt]], [[Category:Log Files]], [[Php webtags]], and various others.
When I did start using MX, I decided to edit other articles first, see [[Cumulus MX]], [[Cumulus MX formal release versions]], [[Webtags]], [[Cumulus.ini]], [[Dayfile.txt]], [[:Category:Log Files]], [[Php webtags]], and various others.


So that left this page, and now I am starting on updating this article. If you read this, and believe you can help with completing this update, please do.
So that left this page, but I don't have enough time to complete updating this article. If you read this, and believe you can help with completing this update, please do.


= Installation and Upgrading problems =
= Installation and Upgrading problems =
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# Whether you are installing MX for the first time, or updating to a new version, you download the zipped software from [[Software|Software page]].
# Whether you are installing MX for the first time, or updating to a new version, you download the zipped software from [[Software|Software page]].
#Unzip it either directly to the place where you want it, or to a holding are where you keep downloaded software, and then use copy or another file transfer process to get it to final destination
#Unzip it either directly to the place where you want it, or to a holding area where you keep downloaded software, and then use copy or another file transfer process to get it to final destination
#You will find more advice in the [[Cumulus_MX|Cumulus_MX documentation page]].
#You will find more advice in the [[Cumulus_MX|Cumulus_MX documentation page]].
#If there is a problem, the most likely problem is that you are trying to install onto say a SD card and that has failed, and needs to be replaced. You might want to consider investing in a SSD drive, they tend to be very reliable.
#If there is a problem, the most likely problem is that you are trying to install onto say a SD card and that has failed, and needs to be replaced. You might want to consider investing in a SSD drive, they tend to be very reliable.


== I use Cumulus 1 and want to move to Cumulus MX ==
== I use Cumulus 1 and want to move to Cumulus MX ==
You can move between versions fairly easily, but you should really read all the guidance on the Cumulus [[Cumulus MX|MX page]]. However, here are some key points:
* While Cumulus 1 has a tool to generate graphs itself and then uploads them to your website, the graphs used in Cumulus MX are drawn when the end-user loads the web page, they use Highcharts routines that are free for non-commercial use only, i.e. you may not use MX with these graphs on a company web site.
* While Cumulus 1 runs as an application that includes a main screen, and other screens, that appear when you start it, Cumulus MX is two separate applications, there is the "engine" that connects to your weather station and processes that data, but there is also a separate administrative interface. The latter is viewed on a browser ''on any device connected to the same local network'' as the device that runs the engine. On this admin interface you change settings, you can edit the various logs, and you can view a series of web pages that allow you to see all the weather derivatives output from MX.
* The settings for both Cumulus 1 and MX are held in [[Cumulus.ini|'''Cumulus.ini''']]. For MX the file name is case sensitive and must have capitals where shown.
**The case sensitivity of MX also applies to the section names within the file e.g. [FTP site] must use capitals for the FTP and must use lower case for site. Edit any section names that do not follow format in the wiki article for this file referenced above.
**All the characters used within this configuration file must be within ASCII range (represented by binary 0 to 127, basically A to Z, a to z, 0 to 9, and some punctuation), any extended characters (such as those used for accented characters, symbols and non English characters) must be removed.
**Whilst many settings are common between both flavours, some are not used by MX and MX has some new ones. In particular if you used '''Port''' in Cumulus 1, that will not be carried across to MX, and you will need to set '''ComPort''' instead. You are advised to check all '''Settings''' using the MX admin interface.
*The contents of your Cumulus 1 '''Reports''' folder (NOAA style reports) can be read by MX.
*The contents of your Cumulus 1 '''data''' folder (log files ending with extension '''.ini''' or '''.txt''') can be read by MX.
**However, if you use decimal commas in your Cumulus 1 '.ini' files then you do need to change, in each stored value, the decimal commas into periods/full stops.
**MX when it needs to update these files will change the way dates are stored, see the [[:Category:Log Files|Log File]] pages in the Wiki for more information.
** The '.txt' files in the data folder will work with both Cumulus 1 and MX - assuming you are using the same decimal and list separators in MX as you used in Cumulus 1 (i.e. the same locale).
*The Cumulus 1 web templates (files using web tags) will not work with MX (whether you use the standard files provided or have written your own replacements)
**The reason is because the content of the standard web pages is different. For any web templates you have written, you will almost certainly need to change some web tags, and you may find this difficult because certain formatting characters (e.g. H or M) have different meanings when they appear in isolation in an output format to what they mean when combined with others (e.g.H:mm or 'd M'). See the [[Webtags]] page for full information on how to change these, and ask in the support forum if you have difficulty.
*(Other file names within MX will be as supplied in the file that you download, or as Cumulus MX decides when it creates the file).
* The settings in Cumulus 1 and MX work differently, for Cumulus 1 you choose to save changes by clicking OK, for MX changes are only saved when you click a '''Save''' button if one is provided. If there is no Save button anywhere on the screen (as in Extra Web Files) then the setting is saved when you move to next field/line.
Finally if you are moving from Windows to Linux, remember you need to learn a host of new commands!


Please see [[Moving from Cumulus 1 to MX]] article.


== Variation between releases ==
== Variation between releases ==
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#* For other weather station types, look in the forum for advice or read the station instructions.
#* For other weather station types, look in the forum for advice or read the station instructions.
# If the output values are frequently incorrect, MX provides some calibration settings in the admin interface. These vary dependent on the type of weather reading you want to correct. In general they use a formula like <tt> Output = Multiplier_2 X Input<sup>2</sup> + Multiplier_1 X input + Offset</tt> so in the settings you can specify the multipliers and offset to use in that equation.
# If the output values are frequently incorrect, MX provides some calibration settings in the admin interface. These vary dependent on the type of weather reading you want to correct. In general they use a formula like <tt> Output = Multiplier_2 X Input<sup>2</sup> + Multiplier_1 X input + Offset</tt> so in the settings you can specify the multipliers and offset to use in that equation.
#If only a small numbers are incorrect, MX provides editors for the logs that store extremes (although for today only the rainfall can be edited). See the pages linked from [[:Category:Log Files|Category:Log Files]] to discover more about each log and how to deal with rogue values. View and edit these on'''Edit''' tab of admin interface.
#If only a small numbers are incorrect, MX provides editors for the logs that store extremes (although for today only the rainfall can be edited). See the pages linked from [[:Category:Log Files|:Category:Log Files]] to discover more about each log and how to deal with rogue values. View and edit these on'''Edit''' tab of admin interface.
#You can correct any individual rogue value in a monthly log as MX (see viewer editor on '''Data logs''' tab of admin interface.
#You can correct any individual rogue value in a monthly log as MX (see viewer editor on '''Data logs''' tab of admin interface.
#As rainfall has a lot of different derivatives stored for it (hourly totals, daily totals, rain rate) it is quite complicated to correct, so there are a series of instruction in the [[FAQ#My_station_invented_some_rain_that_didn.27t_really_occur.2C_and_I_want_to_set_it_to_zero_.28or_some_other_figure.29|C1 FAQ]].
#As rainfall has a lot of different derivatives stored for it (hourly totals, daily totals, rain rate) it is quite complicated to correct, so there are a series of instruction in the [[FAQ#My_station_invented_some_rain_that_didn.27t_really_occur.2C_and_I_want_to_set_it_to_zero_.28or_some_other_figure.29|C1 FAQ]].
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