Weird Graphs

[LeadDog]

Weather Cat started making all my graphs look like this starting about Monday at 12AM.  I'm not sure what is going on.  Does anyone have any idea?  Check the attacked screen shot.  Looks like a bunch of spikes that follows the curve of the regular graph.  I upgraded to Version 1.12 Build 45 (1.1.2) today and it is still making the same weird graphs.

[WCDev]

Hi LeadDog,
Here's a couple of questions/suggestions that might help.

First reboot the machine and use disk utility to check permissions and the disk.
Check the time of the computer against the time at the console.
Check your comms quality to the station.
Is the data recorded live or out of the logger (or it doesn't make any difference) and how does the data look in the data editor/viewer.
Try with a new prefs file (quit WeatherCat, rename ~/Library/Preferences/com.trixology.weathercat.plist to something like com.trixology.weathercat_old.plist then boot WeatherCat, it'll create a new prefs file).
If you think it has the data in the logger, quit WeatherCat, rename the January data file (~/Library/WeatherCatData/Location1/2013/1_WeatherCatData.cat to 1_WeatherCatData_old.cat) then launch WeatherCat and let it download the data from the logger).

[LeadDog]

Hi LeadDog,
Here's a couple of questions/suggestions that might help.

First reboot the machine and use disk utility to check permissions and the disk.
Check the time of the computer against the time at the console.
Check your comms quality to the station.
Is the data recorded live or out of the logger (or it doesn't make any difference) and how does the data look in the data editor/viewer.
Try with a new prefs file (quit WeatherCat, rename ~/Library/Preferences/com.trixology.weathercat.plist to something like com.trixology.weathercat_old.plist then boot WeatherCat, it'll create a new prefs file).
If you think it has the data in the logger, quit WeatherCat, rename the January data file (~/Library/WeatherCatData/Location1/2013/1_WeatherCatData.cat to 1_WeatherCatData_old.cat) then launch WeatherCat and let it download the data from the logger).

I rebooted the machine and repaired the permissions.  It seems that is still doing the same thing.
The console is the console.app of the Mac OS?  I didn't see how to check the time with it.

[Randall75]

LeadDog
 What Stu is asking is the time on your weather station console the same as it is on your computer?
And the spikes are usually caused by low batteries that was my case any way
And what kind of serial to usb adapter are you using?
Hope this helps
 

[LeadDog]

LeadDog
 What Stu is asking is the time on your weather station console the same as it is on your computer?
And the spikes are usually caused by low batteries that was my case any way
And what kind of serial to usb adapter are you using?
Hope this helps
 

The time on the weather station and the computer agree.  The weather station is powered by AC so low batteries shouldn't be the problem but I'll check.
The serial to USB adapter is one I have used for years.  I have quit WeatherCat for like 8 hours and when it updates with the data from the station the graphs look normal.  I'm mystified as to why it is doing this.  The graphics went to spikes at midnight when no person was using the computer and there wasn't any software changes.  I think Stu has a few more steps that I can work thru that hopeful fix whatever happened.

[LeadDog]

I unplugged the AC power from the station and the batteries kept it running so I think they are good.  I unplugged the USB adaptor from the computer and WeatherCat told me that COMMs had failed so I figure that is working right.  I have forced it to create a new prefs file so I'll see what that does.

[LeadDog]

Is the data recorded live or out of the logger (or it doesn't make any difference) and how does the data look in the data editor/viewer.

I believe it is live and it doesn't look right to me.  I'll see what creating new prefs did and if that doesn't fix the problem I'll upload a sample from the data editor/viewer to see what you think.

[LeadDog]

I'm still getting the same graphs after all of the above.  Here is a screen shot of the Data Viewer.

[WCDev]

Hmm, that doesn't look right at all. So some more things to try/answer:-
1. How's your comms quality figures? (Gauges window or Status from the Tools menu).
2. If you quit WeatherCat, then rename the current data file (~/Library/WeatherCatData/Location1/2013/1_WeatherCatData.cat (where ~ is your home directory)) to something like 1_WeatherCatData_old.cat then boot WeatherCat (it'll create a new data file and download any data from your logger) does the problem still exist? Note on 10.7 or later, the ~/Library folder is hidden by default - enter:

Code: [Select]

chflags nohidden ~/Library/into the terminal to make it visible.
3. Check the console log for any diagnostic messages from WeatherCat (Applications->Utilities->Console.app)

[LeadDog]

Hmm, that doesn't look right at all. So some more things to try/answer:-
1. How's your comms quality figures? (Gauges window or Status from the Tools menu).
2. If you quit WeatherCat, then rename the current data file (~/Library/WeatherCatData/Location1/2013/1_WeatherCatData.cat (where ~ is your home directory)) to something like 1_WeatherCatData_old.cat then boot WeatherCat (it'll create a new data file and download any data from your logger) does the problem still exist? Note on 10.7 or later, the ~/Library folder is hidden by default - enter:

Code: [Select]

chflags nohidden ~/Library/into the terminal to make it visible.
3. Check the console log for any diagnostic messages from WeatherCat (Applications->Utilities->Console.app)

1. Comms quality is 100%.  Comms error is 0  Sensor error is 0  Good data is 69635
3. There is a user diagnostic report for WeatherCat on 1/7/2013
2. WeatherCat download two days of data from the weather station and the graphs made from that looks good.  I have done a similar thing in the past and the graphs start spiking as the graphs are made in real time.  I'll see what happens this time.

[LeadDog]

The graphs are back to normal.  Thanks very much.

[WCDev]

Thanks for letting me know. If you still have the old file, could you zip it up and email it to me for analysis please?

[LeadDog]

The file is on its way.  I think I saw the problem as I was zipping up the file.  The file said it had a creation date of 1/31/13.  I wonder how that happened?

[LeadDog]

The weird graphs are back they started at midnight 2/1/13.  Is this a first of the month problem?  It never happened before 1/1/13 so I'm not sure.

[WCDev]

Strange, I have no reports of this happening to anyone else. If you have the time, zip up and send me your January and February data files so I can load them up here to see if I can spot anything. Also send me your WeatherCat preferences file (~/Library/Preferences/com.trixology.weathercat.plist).

Many thanks.