Topic: Weatherlink Vs Cumulus

[NoelGlass]

Hi all

This is my first post on this forum so hello to all first off.  

I have been using an OS WMR200 and running Cumulus very happily now for several months but i always fancied a Davis station and now funds permit  

My question is do i keep using Cumulus or switch to Weatherlink ? or can both be used with the davis logger ?

Can I have your views on Weatherlink and its limits compared to cumulus, I suspect its more of an in depth program but Cumulus looks a lot more user friendly in my opinion.


Many Thanks and look forward to your comments.

Noel  

PS I forgot to say I don't leave my PC on 24/7 and download twice daily (laptop)

[d_l]

Both can be used with the Davis loggers as long as Cumulus can periodically download from the logger's archival storage.  Someone else will have to answer that question for you.

Some people complain about the outdated appearance of WeatherLink and dismiss it, but it doesn't make big demands on computer resources and it is "free" with the purchase of the logger.  Its database is reasonably compact so the data storage requirements aren't onerous.

WeatherLink has the ability to configure settings in Davis consoles and Envoys.  In fact it HAS to be used to set up Envoys as there are no buttons for configuration.

[Weather Display]

you can run both at the same time with a program called VVP

[Beaudog]

In my opinion cumlus is the better of the two programs.    However, it is much easier to go thru the original setup of the davis console using WL.   After that you can use cumulus or any other program.

It sounds like you are not uploading to any sites like weather underground so either one will do pretty much the same thing.

You can have both on the computer and run both.  Not at the same time unless you use VVP.   If you are not running 24/7 I see little reason to do that.

[johnd]

you can run both at the same time with a program called VVP

That's very restrained of you Brian!  

(But sound advice. And there are other good/compatible weather programs out there besides Cumulus and Weatherlink)

[Weather Display]

Oh
I will not be recommending any more to check out WD software again on this forum if that is what people are thinking

[NoelGlass]

In my opinion cumlus is the better of the two programs.    However, it is much easier to go thru the original setup of the davis console using WL.   After that you can use cumulus or any other program.

It sounds like you are not uploading to any sites like weather underground so either one will do pretty much the same thing.

You can have both on the computer and run both.  Not at the same time unless you use VVP.   If you are not running 24/7 I see little reason to do that.

I upload to the met WOW and weather underground sites twice daily, I think i will give weatherlink a go but so long as i can keep cumulus going too to start with and see if i like Weatherlink more.

Thanks for all your input guys. 

[d_l]

WeatherLink to WU requires a free module obtained from WU to be installed, but you may have been aware of that.

WeatherLink and Cumulus will readily download form the logger without any other software needed as long as you launch one program and download and then launch the other.

The previous posts were primarily focused on how to run 24/7 with both programs running.  Your original post indicated that wasn't your goal, but it is possible should you ever change your mind.

[NoelGlass]

Thanks as I wasn't aware of that.

That's great so I can DL to cumulus then DL to weatherlink as well, perfect.

My OS station logger erases as it DL's which is a pain as had a couple of hiccups and lost a days data once.

How does the Davis logger work? Does it hold so much data then overwrites the oldest ?

Thanks again.

[d_l]

Does it hold so much data then overwrites the oldest ?

Yup.  The archival storage capacity depends on the archival interval.  The times until overwrite are listed in this spec sheet: http://www.davisnet.com/product_documents/weather/spec_sheets/6510_40_44_50_60_SpecWLWin_Rev_D.pdf

[NoelGlass]

Thanks a lot.

Happy days.

[EW1628]

Is it possible to run both cumulus and weatherlink at the same time on the same machine without VVP if you have the IP datalogger?

[Weather Display]

if you set to release the IP port ,then yes
there is another thread about that

[johnd]

Is it possible to run both cumulus and weatherlink at the same time on the same machine without VVP if you have the IP datalogger?

No - the IP logger is _not_ a data server (in the sense of being able to handle multiple simultaneous requests for data from different programs).

Edit: Let me rephrase because there's potential for confusion here since 'weatherlink' can refer to two different things.

If you mean uploading to weatherlink.com (ie the website) at much the same time as feeding data to Cumulus then yes you can do this, provided as Brian says Cumulus is configured to release the IP port at frequent intervals so that the uploads to weatherlink.com can proceed.

But if by weatherlink you mean a copy of the Weatherlink program running on a local PC and taking a feed of live data direct from the logger then no this won't work robustly without VVP. (The logger can't service two simultaneous sets of requests for continuous LOOP data - before long it either stops responding to one set or the other or just locks up in my experience.)

[EW1628]

Thanks for the quick responses. I'm not sure if I want to go down this road, but wanted to check on my options.

But if by weatherlink you mean a copy of the Weatherlink program running on a local PC and taking a feed of live data direct from the logger then no this won't work robustly without VVP. (The logger can't service two simultaneous sets of requests for continuous LOOP data - before long it either stops responding to one set or the other or just locks up in my experience.)

Yes, I was thinking about running a local copy of the Weatherlink software alongside Cumulus, not uploading data to weatherlink.com. I would only use Cumulus to upload data to weather underground and CWOP. It sounds like running both programs simultaneously is a bad idea.

[PaulMy]

I had found it more reliable when running Cumulus only and uploading to Weather Underground, CWOP and others, compared to running Weatherlink only and uploading to Weather Underground and CWOP.  I had considerable trouble with Weatherlink when running both together using VVP but Cumulus was very stable (Windows 7 64 bit).  I use Cumulus full time, and twice a month stop Cumulus for a few minutes and run Weatherlink so that I can maintain the Weatherlink .wlk database that I started with initially.  Why? just because I can!  The datalogger keeps about 17 days of data at my 10 minute interval setting.

Paul

 

[SlowModem]

I use Cumulus full time, and twice a month stop Cumulus for a few minutes and run Weatherlink so that I can maintain the Weatherlink .wlk database that I started with initially.  Why? just because I can!  The datalogger keeps about 17 days of data at my 10 minute interval setting.

Me, too.  Except I run WUHU and I d/l WL 1/month.

[d_l]

Yes, I was thinking about running a local copy of the Weatherlink software alongside Cumulus, not uploading data to weatherlink.com. I would only use Cumulus to upload data to weather underground and CWOP. It sounds like running both programs simultaneously is a bad idea.

The WLIP can upload data to both WU and CWOP via a relay from weatherlink.com.  The upload rate to WU is every 15 minutes and that is fixed.  I don't know the rate to CWOP.

So with the WLIP, you don't need to be uploading directly to either WU or CWOP as long as you are satisfied with how weatherlink.com handles the relay of your data to them.

As stated previously, WL and Cumulous must alternate access to the archival data within the WLIP logger due to the fact that the WLIP only can handle a single thread at a time. Remember it also has an internal program uploading to weatherlink.com current conditions every minute or so and archival conditions hourly.  Both WL and Cumulous archival downloads would have to contend with this activity.

However, if you are satisfied with archival downloads that are up to an hour behind current conditions, the WL software can be set to download archival records from the weatherlink.com site.  This doesn't interfere in any way with the WLIP's activity  Downloading archive records from weatherlink.com is much, much faster than downloading the records out of the WLIP's internal memory.

If either WL or Cumulous are set to monitor/display the current weather data (LOOPing) from the WLIP, then there has to be a periodic release of the IP port to allow the WLIP to send its uploads to weatherlink.com.  I think WL software must have this release built in (it isn't configurable); whereas, in Cumulous you must configure it.

I think I'm fairly experienced in the use of WLIPs with multiple programs.  I have a meteohub which is essentially a _nix software program looping several WLIPs for current data.  It has pauses built in to allow the WLIPs to upload to weatherlink.com.  I don't know how long and how frequent they are though.  Through out the day I can periodically download archival records with WL.  If I estimate that the download will be longer than 10 pages, then I manually switch the WL software to download from the weatherlink.com site.  If under 10 pages, then probably a download of the latest archives from the internal logger can get though using a built in pause window of the meteohub that happens to be available.

This usually all works quite well.  Sometimes there is a conflict with a WL download directly from the logger and the download has to be re-attempted after it fails the first time.  The only serious problem with this set up occurred last spring when weatherlink.com wasn't accepting uploads from the WLIPs in a timely fashion.  Apparently their servers were congested.  They upgraded the servers and all has been smooth since.