Topic: Need to replace WeatherTracker -- what else would work

[MJB]

I have four weather stations connected to my LAN and want to see their data on WUnderground. Three are Davis stations using the IP version of WeatherLink. One is an Ambient station.

For the three Davis stations I have been using WeatherTracker to upload data to WUnderground. But that software now crashes at least once per day.

I want a SIMPLE, uncomplicated program (therefore, not WeatherLink software) that uploads the data to WUnderground and connects to the weather devices via an IP address (NOT COM port) to my always-on Windows 11 PC. That's it. I don't care about fancy displays or analytics.

What can people recommend? Thx.

[Garth Bock]

Do you want weather software that will connect to all three stations or just one ? I have never seen PC based software that will connect to multiple IP station addresses. Cumulus 1.9 (the old version not supported but works fine) is easy to setup and can connect via IP.  If you just want it to just upload to WU and not provide anything fancy it would be good. It's donation-ware (not a license purchase). Some here will recommend Cumulus MX but if you want something quick and easy to just upload to WU then the old Cumulus is quick and easy. Weather Display which is more of a Swiss Army knife can upload to multiple sites but there is more of a learning curve and it requires a paid license.

[PaulMy]

Hi,
If you have 3 consoles and WeatherlinkIP loggers then you can run 3 instances of CumulusMX (yes you can use Cumulus1 as well but that is a little more complicated in running all 3 on the same PC).  Both Cumulus1 and CumulusMX will upload to Weather Underground, and to other sites as well.  With CumulusMX you can access and view from any PC or device on your local network.


Unfortunately, most programs now come with fancy displays and analytics


Enjoy,
Paul

[MJB]

Thanks very much for the help. Couple of clarifications...

1. I don't mind having fancy displays and analytics -- I just don't value them, specially if they look like they come from DOS!
2. I need to run 3 instances of the software -- one for each of the 3 Davis stations
3. The Ambient station runs independently and doesn't need WeatherTracker.
4. I don't mind paying for the software.

I looked at Weather-Display but it appears to require you to use a serial cable and set a COM port, at least according to the Wiki manual. Has this changed? Can you specify a TCP/IP connection instead?

Cumulus looks like it might work. I tried it years ago and gave up on it for reasons I don't remember. Worth a look again perhaps. Can you run multiple instances of it?

Thanks.

[broadstairs]

Weather Display will handle IP connections including WLL and you can run multiple instances of it.

Stuart

[mcrossley]

Yes, you can run multiple instances of CumulusMX, and to clarify it is no longer donationware it is free.

Weewx can probably also do what you want. But is a bit more of an initial learning curve - my opinion!

[MJB]

Thanks. Very helpful. Really appreciate the help.

When I looked at the documentation for WeeWx it only talked about using a COM port.

[DaleReid]

broadstairs:

You mention that Weather Display can use an IP connection, something I did not realize, but to clarify, is it done by choosing the right weather station (which has an interface with an IP connection) for WD to configure itself and receive info, or can WD look to an IP address itself?

This might deviate from the original poster's question and you might consider a new thread, but I'd be very interested in your experience and how to get my WD to look at an IP connection which would allow me to move the computer running WD further from the station.

Please give us (me) some leads to follow up on, or if you have the time, tell us how  you are doing it so others might try.  Thanks a bunch.  Dale

[MJB]

I tried Weather-Display. (It took almost an hour to download!)

You can select an TCP/IP connection specifically for the appropriate Davis weather stations. That part was easy.

However, I could not get it to work because my weather stations are on a different LAN subnet than my computer. WeatherTracker had no difficulty with this but evidently Weather-Display does.) The router rules are set to allow my computer access to all subnets and it works great for about 60 other devices on the network in other subnets.)

When I pinged the weather stations in Weather-Display, the software did not look at all subnets.

[MJB]

Update -- Installed Cumulus.  Works great!  Transferred two of the Davis stations to the Cumulus software and the updating to WU is perfect. However, it appears that I can only create two instances of the software. Every attempt to add a third station has failed -- the software just doesn't run if two other instances are open. 

Thanks for everyone's help.

[mcrossley]

Is that Cumulus or Cumulus MX? You should be able to run lots of copies, just make sure the option to prevent multiple instances in program settings is disabled, and you use a different port parameter for each instance.

[PaulMy]

Hi,

However, it appears that I can only create two instances of the software. Every attempt to add a third station has failed -- the software just doesn't run if two other instances are open.

I continuously run 3 instances and have run up to 5 at the same time on the same PC, just use a different :port number when starting each instances.

Just to check:
Each instance of CumulusMX is in its own folder, like C:\CumulusMX C:\CumulusMX2 etc.?
You start the first instance as CumulusMX.exe as Administrator or from a shortcut?
You start the second instance from [Run] C:\CumulusMX2\CumulusMX.exe -port 8997 or a shortcut with that?
You start the third instance from [Run] C:\CumulusMX3\CumulusMX.exe -port 8996 or a shortcut with that? 
Etc.

Can you check the CumulusMX\Mxdiags file where it didn't run and see what is logged?


p.s. I see Mark posted before I did but presume you had the settings correct as you were able to run 2.

Enjoy,
Paul