Daily Rain: getting console, graphs, NOAA reports and RAIN:TOTAL:TODAY in sync

[JosBaz]

Dear WeatherCat enthusiasts,

Having pine-trees around the house means the needles occasionally block (despite the filter thingie) the tipping bucket mechanism of my Davis VP2 rain gauge. This happened again today and (after clearing it) I'm now trying to manually correct the rain data - but am facing some challenges.

- I used the Data Editor/Viewer to update the 'Raw Rain' values
- I manually changed the Daily Rain value on the Davis console
- I checked the 1_WeatherCatData.cat file, and this is now showing the correct(ed) values

So thought all was fine, but the discovered that indeed the Data Viewer Editor and RAIN:TOTAL:TODAY values are correct (what I want them to be), but the monthly NOAA report and 'Precipitation Daily' graph show a much higher (incorrect) Daily Rain total. 

It seems almost if -- for the NOAA report and Graph --- WC is adding the revised console value to the new values I put in the Data Editor.

Any hints and tips on how I can get things back in sync?

Thanks,

Jos

[Blicj11]

Jos:

Page 54 of the WC manual states: "It is not possible to edit the daily rain for the current day (as the day is not yet over); wait until the next day to edit it. The editor affects all statistics queries (reports, tags etc) that output accumulated rain where the edited day is included in the date range of the query."

[JosBaz]

Blick,

Thanks, but I am not using the Daily Rain editor.
Using Data Viewer/Editor instead.

Jos

[xairbusdriver]

I am not using the Daily Rain editor.
Using Data Viewer/Editor instead.

I only recently even looked at/used these two 'editors'. I have to admit, I don't remember reading the text Blick quoted, but I trust his veracity (of course, i have made errors in that area before... ). However, I was at first tempted to do what I think you are doing; editing the data in the "Data Viewer". 

While you can edit data in the "Data Viewer/Editor", it should mostly be done in the "Daily Rain Editor" and no sooner than the day after it gets recorded. At least that's how I interpret Blicks quote. And it sounds like your experience is verifying that interpretation. At least that's my opinion and I'm not interested in factual corrections!

[xairbusdriver]

Investigating THE Manual (27th June 2015, Version 2.2.0), specifically page 182 brings up some questions.

... In the following list, the name of the property is in bold, this is followed by the ?type? of data where ?text? means the property is a string, ?real? means the property is a number and ?boolean? means the property is either ?true? or ?false?. An ?r/o? following the type means the property is read only ? i.e. you cannot set it.

The reason I was even reading this mart of THE Manual was to find a definition of "Daily Rain" in the "Data Editor/Viewer". On Jan 22, the "Data Editor/Viewer" shows a few entries under "Rain/h", looks normal with lots of zero entries, as well. "Daily Rain" starts at zero and builds up to a final entry of "5.33". "Raw Rain"  starts at zero and ends with "0.21".

However, my statistics show "Total Rain" 0.04 (This week [STAT$RAIN:TOTAL:THISWEEK$ RAINUNITS$]), 0.80 (Last week [STAT$RAIN:TOTAL:LASTWEEK$ RAINUNITS$]), 2.33 (This month [STAT$RAIN:TOTAL:THISMONTH$ RAINUNITS$]), 2.33 (This year [STAT$RAIN:TOTAL:THISYEAR$ RAINUNITS$]).

The definitions in THE Manual:

PrecipitationPerHour (real, r/o) : Returns the current precipitation per hour in the units as set in WeatherCat's preferences for precipitation
PrecipitationDaily (real, r/o) : Returns the current daily precipitation in the units as set in WeatherCat's preferences for precipitation
Precipitation (real, r/o) : Returns the current raw precipitation in the units as set in WeatherCat's preferences for precipitation

Questions:

1. What does that "_5.33_" mean and what WC tags would display it, assuming it is a valid measurement.
2. Since all three items/channels are defined as "r/o" why are there reports of their being editable?
3. Do I have the wrong WC tags in use?

[elagache]

Dear Jos, Blick, X-Air, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

. . . .
- I used the Data Editor/Viewer to update the 'Raw Rain' values
- I manually changed the Daily Rain value on the Davis console

. . . .

So thought all was fine, but the discovered that indeed the Data Viewer Editor and RAIN:TOTAL:TODAY values are correct (what I want them to be), but the monthly NOAA report and 'Precipitation Daily' graph show a much higher (incorrect) Daily Rain total. 

It seems almost if -- for the NOAA report and Graph --- WC is adding the revised console value to the new values I put in the Data Editor.

Unfortunately, you are in unknown territory at least for me.  I understand that you would want to correct both WeatherCat and the console, but I'm not sure what is the correct procedure for accomplishing this.  Could you check to see if the incorrect valve is indeed the sum of the two corrections?  That would help with the troubleshooting.

In the following list, the name of the property is in bold, this is followed by the ?type? of data where ?text? means the property is a string, ?real? means the property is a number and ?boolean? means the property is either ?true? or ?false?. An ?r/o? following the type means the property is read only ? i.e. you cannot set it.

X-Air, this section of the WeatherCat manual is describing the WeatherCat AppleScript interface and indeed you cannot make changes using AppleScript.  That doesn't mean you cannot make those changes via other means.

Cheers, Edouard

[xairbusdriver]

[that] section of the WeatherCat manual is describing the WeatherCat AppleScript interface

OK. That's what I get for searching for specific words/phrases. One down, two to go.

[WCDev]

Jos,
In theory, all you should need to do is quit WeatherCat, update the daily rain on the console, then restart WeatherCat and everything should update from there.

If you've got a doubling of the rain, it probably means somewhere a 0 was recorded for the rain - check the data file for yesterday, in particular looking for the P: field dropping then going back up again. If found, change the 0 to the previous value.

X-Air, your tags are fine. Raw rain is the rain from the station - it can be a variety of things depending on the hardware - as WeatherCat uses the differences between samples to calculate rain, it can be the daily rain, annual rain, or just an incrementing value as it rains - it doesn't matter as long as it increments when it rains (some stations output daily rain, some output a rain counter that goes up to some arbitrary value, then resets).

The daily rain is the daily rain calculated by WeatherCat in mm's - your 0.21 inches is 5.33 mm's.
 

[xairbusdriver]

your 0.21 inches is 5.33 mm's

That's what I get for being an American! Being a hold out for the olde english measurement leaves us completely baffled by kilometers, liters, centigrade, etc.. Maybe in the 22nd century? At least I was introduced to millibars through work. Thanks for keeping your answer simple enough for me!

[denalibelay]

I am having exactly the same problem.  My data viewer/editor is 100% correct with the data (double checked it with the data dowloaded in weatherlink software) but all my reports are showing double the rain values.  I have no idea what to do to make these changes.  Also, I normally turn my computer off at night.