Topic: Software for Wunderground

[gtanty]

Hi all,

Last July I installed an Ambient WS2090, downloaded Cumulus, registered my station with Wunderground all was fine.  Until about a month ago when the readings were like I moved the station to Venus.  250 MPH winds, dew point minus thousands.  Then it started raining about 150 inches a night.  The guy at Cumulus said these were spikes and very common with my brand of station.  There are work arounds, but that would be constant maintenance.  I think the station is working fine because the free software that comes with the station, EasyWeather, shows none of these spikes.  So I started casting about for something to replace Cumulus.  A guy at Wunderground recommended Virtual Weather Station from Ambient but Ed said my station model is not supported.  I looked at Weather Display but it appears I would have to buy a USB - com port cable since I have to identify the com port used and it doesn't recognize a USB connection.

I don't mind paying for software if it works.  I want software that will transmit my data to Wunderground and I would also like it to keep historical data.  I really liked Cumulus, but the spiking problem appears unsolvable.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions any of you might have.

Thanks for your help

George
Santa Fe, NM

[Skywatch]

If the station works with Cumulus should work with WD. Sounds like you already have the USB cable.

[gtanty]

The readout thingee for my station, like a small ipad connects to the computer via a USB cable.  But in trying to get WD to work it seemed like I had to choose a comport and searching through their help section, folks were talking about needing to buy a cable to connect my USB cable to a com port.  If there is a way to tell WD I'm connecting via a USB cable, then that's the way I'd like to go.  Should I reach out to WD support?

Thanks

George

[Skywatch]

I believe how software typically works is you when you select what station and model you're using the software automatically begins searching through the inputs for a code associated with the station model selected. When the station is selected the program will recognize the input and begin to communicate with the station.

Think of it as a language. Each station model has it's own language. Software is programmed to recognize that language. To non-compatible programs the stations language is foreign therefore the program won't understand the input. WD would be considered multi-lingual of the software world as it understands a wide variety of station languages.

As far as the USB issue I've only heard of this being a issue with Davis Weather Link USB. I my self have the WL USB talking to WD as a serial port device. But this was necessary on older loggers which apparently had some sort of glitch.

I don't think WD will have any problems with the WS2090. Just make sure that model is entered into WD otherwise WD won't know to look for it as with any software.

[ericfynne]

The guy at Cumulus said these were spikes and very common with my brand of station.  There are work arounds, but that would be constant maintenance. 

The 'spike removal' settings in Cumulus are working fine for me with my Fine Offset station. I set them up once and it just gets on with the job. From reading the Cumulus forum, it works for many others with the same station type in the same way. There's no 'constant maintenance'.

Having looked at Weather Display myself briefly, Fine Offset stations exhibit 'spikes' with that too (understandable as it's a problem with the cheap hardware, not the software) and I believe WD has a similar spike filtering mechanism to Cumulus.

Eric

[DanS]

On the hardware side of things, make absolutely sure that your P.C. ground is there. Having a 3-prong power cord in the outlet is not a guarantee there's a ground present. I've had my dogs dig and chew through the  house ground wire and it threw my stations readings all over the place. A "floating ground" p.c. can cause the symptoms you describe.

[MikeyTahoe]

I bought the 2080A for my son for Christmas and I was looking at using Wunderground to make an online weather station. Do you need to have the digitial readout hooked up 24/7 to a USB port and the software running or is it something you sync daily? I am guessing you keep it online to have accurate readouts?

Mike

[PaulMy]

I am guessing you keep it online to have accurate readouts?

Yes for live data display, but if you want to run it occassionaly/part time and your station has a data logger you can do that and the Catch Up feature in Cumulus (and likely in some of the other programs as well) will then automatically upload the data to WU from the last shut down of the program to the new start up time/date.

Paul

[gtanty]

"Having looked at Weather Display myself briefly, Fine Offset stations exhibit 'spikes' with that too (understandable as it's a problem with the cheap hardware, not the software) and I believe WD has a similar spike filtering mechanism to Cumulus."

If "cheap" hardware is the problem, how come none of the Cumulus spikes show in the Easy Weather software that came with the hardware?

According to the person that answers questions at Cumulus, the spike filtering will only work if no spiking is occurring when you set the filters.  And mine is spiking every evening.

[ericfynne]

It sounds like you weren't having the usual 'spikes', if you were getting so many that you didn't even have chance to set the spike removal settings in the periods between them. Typically, a spike lasts for less than a minute, and then things return to normal for a while, often hours or days. You were getting constant spikes?

And it's also strange that you see no problems whatsoever now that you've switched to Easyweather. How long have you been running Easyweather 'live' now, instead of Cumulus, without seeing a single problem?

And stranger still that it was working fine with Cumulus for months and then suddenly you started having problems. It's very odd for software to suddenly start going wrong like that, for no apparent reason.

Anyway, you're clearly convinced that the problem is with Cumulus, so to answer your original question, have you looked at WUHU?

Eric 

[Beaudog]

The (person) that answers the questions in the cumulus forum is Steve the guy who wrote the program. I kinda think he knows what he is doing.

[gtanty]

ericfynne - fairly constant but I just started it again and no spikes for the last 24 hours.  The spikes are in 8 different categories.  I'm going to wait and see if this calms down so I can make the editing changes in their Wiki

Beaudog - I didn't infer he didn't.  I merely repeated what he said and believed him when he said it.

[ericfynne]

I just started it again and no spikes for the last 24 hours. 

That's good news. So presumably you have now entered some spike removal values?

Eric

[gtanty]

Eric

I had entered those some time ago but they weren't working.  The Cumulus guy sent me a link to another part of his Wiki about having to open some log files and make some adjustments before the spike removal values would take effect.  I was really busy at time.  This weekend I'm going to read those posts and edit the log files.  I'll report on my successes assuming no new spikes to complicate my efforts.

Thanks

George