Cumulus

Cumulus is a program for retrieving, storing and displaying data from an electronic Automatic Weather Station (AWS).

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 templated web pages for this purpose. Cumulus also supports automatic uploads to Weather Underground and CWOP/APRS.

Cumulus works with the Davis Vantage Pro and Vantage Pro2 weather stations, the Oregon Scientific WMR-928 and WM-918 weather stations (and related models), Fine Offset stations such as the WH1081, and the La Crosse WS-2300 range.

Warning: If your weather station is a La Crosse and it is connected using a serial/USB adapter, then you will probably have problems using it with Cumulus, in that you will get erroneous data from time to time. These weather stations are known to have problems with serial/USB adapters, and for some reason Cumulus seems to suffer more than other software. There doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about this. For this reason, I am sorry to say that I cannot support the use of Cumulus in this way.

Cumulus is in use on our own Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station, and our data are uploaded to our weather website: Sanday Weather. The web template in use there is packaged with Cumulus, and the commented CSS file is included in order that users may adapt it for their own use, changing the colours and background image as desired. You can, of course, write your own web pages from scratch, and use the ‘web tags’ feature to make Cumulus insert your weather data at the appropriate places. See the help file for more details.

Features

• Free for personal and non-profit use, but a donation would be appreciated if you continue to use Cumulus after trying it
• Runs on Windows XP,  Windows Vista, and Windows 7
• Supports Davis Vantage Pro and Pro2; Oregon Scientific WM918, WMR-918, WMR-928, WMR-968 weather stations; EasyWeather stations (MyDEL, Nevada, Watson, Fine Offset, WH1080, WH1081, W8681 etc); La Crosse WS-2300 and other models in the WS23xx range.
• Easy to use, clean display
• Choice of meteorological day - midnight to midnight or 0900 to 0900
• Numeric and graphical display of data
• Real time web display of wind speed and direction
• Automatic upload of data to web sites, Weather Underground, CWOP/APRS, PSW Weather/WeatherForYou/HAMweather, Twitter
• Ready-made web pages supplied, or build your own using web tags
• Configurable alarms for various conditions
• Sunrise, sunset and moon phase display
• Displays historical data for any given month or year
• Graphical display of historical data for any time period
• Generation of xAP home automation weather reports
• Comprehensive help file included
• Free support available in the support forum

Screenshots

Note that these are from an earlier version of Cumulus; the displays have changed a little in the latest version.

Web pages

Web pages included:

• Current Conditions
• Gauges (with real time wind display)
• Current Meteorological Day: Maxima and Minima
• Previous Meteorological Day: Maxima and Minima
• All Time Records: Maxima and Minima
• Trend Graphs

The standard menu navigation allows for inclusion of both a forum link and a link to a webcam. Custom web pages can be achieved through the use of web tags added to any HTML/CSS layout.

Support

Cumulus includes a comprehensive Help File.

There is also a FAQ (work in progress).

Further help, support, and discussion is available on our Forum.  You will need to register to be able to post to the forum. Please submit bug reports and requests for enhancements there.

Changelog

version 1.8.6 14th April 2009

• Fixed saving of non-default ftp port
• Added option to use file for twitter update
• Added web tags for WMR928 extra sensors
• Option to keep to clock time year-round for 0900 rollover
• Option to prevent multiple instances running
• Captions for WMR928 extra channels are configurable
• Fixed problem where Fine Offset day rollover not done when bad data detected
• Corrected ‘rain since midnight’ for 0900 rollovers (for Wunderground etc)
• Option to copy files locally instead of ftp
• Don’t write today.ini unless station contacted
• Option to have South as origin of wind direction charts
• Fix average temp calculation when using logger data
• Fix problem with daily extremes when first logger entry causes day rollover
• Attempt to avoid reading WS23xx data when station is talking to remote sensors
• Added ‘Print…’ menu to Select-a-graph window
• Fixed high rain rate at startup (Fine offset)
• Added option to copy images to a specified folder
• Send altimeter pressure to CWOP instead of MSLP
• Added <#dawn>, <#dusk> and <#daylightlength> web tags
• Added dawn/dusk display to main screen
• Option to display cloud base on main screen
• Option to configure cloud base units independently of altitude units
• Set colour of moon phase text to black
• Option to restart Cumulus if Fine Offset station uplugged
• Range of wind gauge can now be specified
• Snow unit text in diary can now be specified

version 1.8.5 12th February 2009

• Attempt to fix startup problem when shut down just before midnight
• Stopped old backups going into recycle bin
• Added support for Twitter (http://www.twitter.com)
• Changed wind gauge so it continues to re-scale up to a max of 200
• Allowed main window to be resized smaller (with scroll bars)
• Added printer selection dialogue to Print function
• Added print function to Graphs form
• Added archive data count to status bar
• Prevent crash when no printer installed
• Fix problem with all-time low pressure when offset in use
• Fix wrong times for some of today’s extremes
• Add WMR928 extra sensor display
• Extra debugging for Fine Offset rain rate
• Fixed ‘ghost’ rain rate just after startup
• Added wind chill to logs and graphs
• Added UV and Solar Rad to Wunderground and PWSweather updates
• Fixed some problems with dewpoint and windchill on Fine Offset
• Add offset facility for inside temperature
• Don’t put leading slash on realtime.txt path if ftp directory is blank
• Attempt to detect WS2300 sensors disconnected
• Fix a missing day rollover problem
• Changed temperature chart so temperature line is always on top
• Removed temperature cutoff from chill calc
• Attempt to cater for displays less than 1024×768
• Added APRS humidity cutoff for quirky OS sensors (set via ini file)
• More filtering for bad WS2300 data
• Fixed WS2300 bad pressure data check for “in Hg” units
• Allow for rain multiplier at rollover (incorrect this month and year displayed)
• Correct WS2300 rain total when gauge (but not console) has been reset
• Allow manual input of Fine Offset pressure offset (set via ini file)
• Cater for Fine Offset humidity ‘underflow’ value of FF
• Options to not send UV and SolarRad to Weather Underground and PWS Weather
• Clock now has 12-hour display option (click on it)
• Changed extra file processing to use unique filename for each file
• Added support for Vantage Pro USB and TCP/IP connection
• Fixed a problem with WS23xx history download
• Create realtime.txt file even if realtime not in use

version 1.8.4 21st December 2008

• Added ET,UV and Solar Rad for Davis stations
• Added pressure range config for forecast
• Added config for FTP port number
• Improved Fine Offset rain rate calculation
• Display Davis transmitter battery status
• Fixed an error in one of the forecast strings
• Fixed a startup problem for some Fine Offset users
• Added battery status for WMR-928 (etc)
• Added ET,UV and SolarRad to realtime.txt
• Fixed <#temptrendtext> tag for deg F users
• Fixed colour change for daily rain chart
• Increased pressure and ET resolution by 1 dp for Davis
• Added experimental forced VP barometer update
• Help now has search facility
• Prevent calibrated humidity being >100 or <0
• Fixed ET decimal places
• Added day length, moonrise, and moonset times, with web tags
• Added ‘delete before upload’ option for ftp
• Improved ftp connect timeout handling
• Added resize option for web graph files
• Added <#windrunY> web tag - yesterday’s wind run
• Added extra debugging for WS2300
• Changed latitude/longitude/elevation web tag output to have &nbsp;
• Fixed WS2300 absolute pressure in history data bug
• Fixed garbage entry when downloading WS2300 history
• Ignore dubious relative pressure reading at startup (Fine Offset)
• Save backups of data files at startup
• Use different temp filenames for realtime uploads
• Adds 10-minute average wind bearing (degrees) to realtime.txtAdd latest gust to data log
• Option to plot latest gust instead of recent max gust
• Option to display bearing of zero degrees and ‘—’ when calm
• Added ‘rain last hour’ to realtime.txt

version 1.8.3 20th November 2008

• Changed “kph” to “km/h”
• Changed graphs left axis increment for rainfall in inches
• Fixed temp/pressure/rain last hour and rate during startup
• Fixed wind direction offset crash
• Added ‘build’ web tag
• Wunderground ‘rapid fire’ option
• ‘Close on suspend’ option
• Improved UI responsiveness
• Support for La Crosse WS2300 range
• Added creation of wxnow.txt file
• Fixed display of calibrated wind values
• Added inside temp and humidity to data log file
• Added inside temp, inside and outside humidity to select-a-graph
• Changed default date/times for select-a-graph
• Changed checking of Fine Offset status byte
• Swapped positions of Temp Min/Max and Rain Today thumbnails
• Fixed some problems with VP2 logger data download
• Attempt to cater for repeated data line at Fine Offset startup
• Corrected display of ‘yesterday’ calibrated rain
• Changed due north bearing from zero to 360 degrees
• Added extra diagnostics for Wunderground update
• Encoded space in Wunderground string correctly
• Added two new graphs, and average temp to min/max graph
• Fixed problem where data logs don’t get created on first run (Oregon only)
• Fixed windchill calculation for data from Davis logger
• Allow for calibration in wind chill, dew point, and heat index
• ‘Calculate wind chill’ option
• Use calibrated pressure in all-time records etc
• Added support for xAP Home Automation weather reports
• Added option to generate weather forecasts

version 1.8.2 20th October 2008

• Added further items to realtime.txt
• (#21,#23,#25) fixed divide by zero at startup (Fine Offset)
• Fixed ‘extra day rollover’ problem when starting up between midnight and 1 am
• fixed Oregon Scientific crash at startup
• Changed ftp CD code to avoid IIS problems

version 1.8.1 4th October 2008

• Added 3D graph display option
• (#6) Data offset/calibration facility
• (#10) Option to turn off use of data logger
• (#14) Further options for extra file upload
• (#17) Added FTP rename option
• (#7) Fixed crash when zooming wind direction graph
• (#9) Prevent access to menu (to avoid crash) when downloading from data logger
• (#13) Allow realtime ftp to start without Cumulus restart needed
• (#15) Configured realtime interval didn’t ’stick’
• (#18) Fixed a case where invalid data logger data could cause crash

version 1.8.0 24th September 2008

• Added support for Davis VP/VP2 data logger
• Added support for Fine Offset data logger
• Added support for regions which use commas for decimals
• Made confirmation of shutdown optional
• Made data logging interval configurable
• Added option to synchronise VP/VP2 clock with PC

version 1.7.17 6th September 2008

• Cater for occasional invalid data from Fine Offset etc (’Easyweather’) stations
• Clock background colour can now be set in display settings

version 1.7.16 1st September 2008

• Fixed a bug where the units set on the first run weren’t used until a restart
• Added support for PWS Weather/WeatherForYou/HAMweather
• Fixed problem where ‘easyweather direct’ mode didn’t work for some users
• Corrected pressure display for ‘easyweather direct’ mode to allow for calibrated value
• Changed all degree symbols on web pages to &deg; - really did it this time!

version 1.7.15 27th August 2008

• Changed all degree symbols on web pages to &deg;
• Added relative humidity to ‘copy to clipboard’
• Fixed APRS weather station type identifier
• Added facility to specify pass code for APRS
• Added optional ’station model’ description for web pages
• Added direct driving of Easyweather stations

version 1.7.14 11th August 2008

• Added some more date and time web tags
• Web files can now be created if ftp not set up
• Various bug fixes

version 1.7.13 14th July 2008

• Fixed data unit conversion for Easyweather
• Added decimal place to wind display
• Increased temperature display to 4 sig figs (for temps over 100F)

version 1.7.12 5th July 2008

• ‘Real Time’ wind gauges for use on the web
• Support of EasyWeather stations (via easyweather.dat file)
• Year to date rainfall correction

version 1.7.11 21st June 2008

• Added a new ‘gauges’ page using the jsGraphIT gauges
• Uploads now include the three wind gauges
• Added Heat Index
• A few more web tags
• A few bug fixes

version 1.7.10 14th June 2008

• Web, APRS and Wunderground upload intervals can now be configured independently
• APRS server and port can now be configured

version 1.7.9 9th June 2008

• Added basic support for CWOP/APRS
• ‘Fixed’ a number of places where a bug report window would pop up
• Improved FTP connect timeout handling - maybe!

version 1.7.8 10th March 2008

• Added pressure trend string update for both types of OS sensors
• Changed sunrise/sunset times to be updated hourly, so they’re correct when clocks change

version 1.7.7 5th March 2008

• Fixed pressure trend values
• Improved timing of moon phase text

version 1.7.6 2nd March 2008

• Fixed crash in ‘This Month’ and ‘This Year’ on US systems
• Changed pressure trend value to be over last 3 hours
• Fixed pressure trend string on Oregon Scientific stations
• Fixed spurious zero values on graphs at startup

version 1.7.5 29th February 2008

• Added moon phases
• Added Wind Run
• Added monthly and yearly count of air frosts
• Added monthly and yearly count of gale days
• Added upload of image of wind rose
• Fixed bug with wind speed in m/s

version 1.7.4 2nd January 2008

• Fixed problem with pressure records
• Fixed errors in web templates
• Increased maximum size of altitude configuration to 5 digits

version 1.7.3 30th October 2007

• Fixed pressure units problem for Oregon stations (inches showing as mb)
• Improved ftp error resilience a little

version 1.7.2 10th October 2007

• Fixed pressure units problem for Davis stations (inches showing as mb)

version 1.7.1 3rd October 2007

• Fixed wind speed problem for Oregon Scientific stations (was showing 10x too high)

version 1.7.0 20th September 2007

• Added (back) support for Oregon Scientific stations

version 1.6.1 17th September 2007

• Fixed responsiveness problem experience by some users
• A few other minor bugfixes spotted while fixing the above

version 1.6.0 12th August 2007

• New version for Davis Vantage Pro2 (only)

Contribute

Cumulus is offered on a donationware basis and you are at liberty to download the software and to use it for free for personal and non-profit use.

If you find Cumulus useful, please consider making a small donation to the Cumulus development fund. Any donation that you make will be used either to pay for the site hosting or to purchase software or components to enable enhancements to our software. I am currently developing version 2 of Cumulus and I would like to buy some software components for it (graphs and gauges etc), but these are quite expensive.

You can make a donation by Paypal by clicking on the button above, which will take you to the Paypal site using a secure connection, where you will be able to enter your details and choose an amount to donate. You do not need a Paypal account, you have the option to provide Paypal with your credit card details on a one-off basis. If you have any queries about donating, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Download