Please see Diags article. Read below for Cumulus 1, please see MXDiags for MX.

However, a contributor amended this article for MX, although the relevant information for Cumulus 1 has been added back, the MX information below has not been moved to the correct article.

APPEAL: Perhaps someone can now move the MX related information back to its correct place PLEASE

Introduction

The debug logging feature is extremely useful in troubleshooting problems with Cumulus and/or connectivity to your weather station or FTP upload communications.

The file contains a wealth of data including the raw data received from your weather station, connectivity attempts, file uploads, etc.

The file can grow very large very quickly so turn the Debug Log option off it not required. If the file grows too large it can cause Cumulus (up to version 3.8.1 - b3091) to crash. (From Release 3.8.2 - b3092 adds MXdiags log rotation to avoid this).

Turning debugging log on/off

By default, logging of debugging information is disabled.
Restarting Cumulus (1, 2, or MX) will normally (you can manually change this) turn debug log off (because it is automatically turned off as Cumulus exits)
Logging of debugging information can be enabled as Cumulus is started (see instructions below for your flavour)
In MX only, you can turn the logging of debugging information on and off while it is running, using the admin interface (see below to identify which settings screen)

Cumulus 1.x.y: The only way to turn on the logging of debugging messages in all builds of Cumulus 1, is to stop Cumulus 1, edit the Cumulus.ini configuration file, and add a line in the [Station] section: Logging = 1, then restart Cumulus 1. From build 1003 onwards, you can also turn it on/off using the Configuration menu (debug option in menu).

Cumulus MX: There are three ways to turn on the logging of debugging messages in Cumulus MX:

Close Cumulus MX, then edit Cumulus.ini configuration file, and add a line in the [Station] section: Logging = 1, then restart Cumulus MX.
When you start Cumulus MX, use Parameter for adding debugging as part of the command for starting
Use the admin interface Settings menu, next tick the 'Debug Logging' menu option, and finally click Save, on the appropriate web page depending on which version of MX you are using (see below). You can untick the option to disable the logging of debugging information
- Program settings web page for version 3.9.4 - build 3099 onwards
- Station settings web page for earlier MX versions

Details

File Location, Name and Format

In Cumulus 1, the file is called Debug.log, and is located in the root of the Cumulus folder. Entries are identified by date as fraction, and time e.g. 9173.516 : 14:23:59.

In CumulusMX, debug logging adds additional detail into the standard logging file. Entries are timestamped by date and time e.g. 2020-09-07 14:26:21.793. These logging files are in sub-folder MXdiags within the CumulusMX root directory. It is a text (*.txt) file named by the date and time that the CumulusMX session began, for example: 20210112-171450.txt

The log file is a simple text file containing the time and a description of each event.

The file can be deleted at any time as Cumulus does not read from it.

Sample File for Cumulus 1

An extract from a debug.log file

9168.735 : 14:23:54 Realtime FTP Put attempt
9168.766 : 14:23:54 Realtime FTP local file: C:\Program Files\Cumulus\realtime.txt
9168.766 : 14:23:54 Realtime FTP remote file: /var/www/html/data/realtime.txt
9173.500 : 14:23:59 USB device is plugged in
9173.500 : 14:23:59 request EW data block, written = 9, addr = 000000 
9173.516 : 14:23:59 EW data line 01  55 AA FF FF FF FF FF FF 
9173.516 : 14:23:59 EW data line 02  FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
9173.531 : 14:23:59 EW data line 03  0A 20 08 25 11 00 00 00 
9173.531 : 14:23:59 EW data line 04  81 00 00 F0 0F 00 10 DD 
9173.531 : 14:23:59 USB device is plugged in
9173.547 : 14:23:59 request EW data block, written = 9, addr = 00DD10 
9173.563 : 14:23:59 EW data line 05  00 3A BF 00 47 97 00 FD 
9173.578 : 14:23:59 EW data line 06  25 00 03 00 0B 0C 08 00 
9173.578 : 14:23:59 Data: 00 3A BF 00 47 97 00 FD 25 00 03 00 0B 0C 08 00 
9173.578 : 14:23:59 EW data line 07  0A 2D D5 00 55 57 00 16 
9173.594 : 14:23:59 EW data line 08  26 00 00 00 06 65 07 00 
9175.328 : 27/08/2009 14:24:00 Minute timer 24
9175.328 : Adding LH entry, ts = 14:24:00 raintot = 618
9175.328 : TD = 0.0833333358168602 Lastval = 618 Firstval = 618 rate = 0

Sample File extract for Cumulus MX

An extract from 20200907-142621.txt

  
2020-09-07 14:26:21.693 Cumulus MX v.3.8.3 build 3093
2020-09-07 14:26:21.715 Platform: Win32NT
2020-09-07 14:26:21.715 OS version: Microsoft Windows NT 6.2.9200.0
2020-09-07 14:26:21.746 Current culture: English (United Kingdom)
2020-09-07 14:26:21.746 Directory separator=[\] Decimal separator=[.] List separator=[,]
2020-09-07 14:26:21.746 Date separator=[/] Time separator=[:]
2020-09-07 14:26:21.746 Standard time zone name:   GMT Standard Time
2020-09-07 14:26:21.746 Daylight saving time name: GMT Summer Time
2020-09-07 14:26:21.746 Daylight saving time? True
2020-09-07 14:26:21.746 07/09/2020 14:26:21
2020-09-07 14:26:21.762 Reading Cumulus.ini file
2020-09-07 14:26:21.777 ASM=10 AST=00:10:00
2020-09-07 14:26:21.777 Cumulus start date: 19 January 2020
2020-09-07 14:26:21.793 Data path = data\
2020-09-07 14:26:21.878 Creating backup folder backup\20200907142621\
2020-09-07 14:26:22.232 Created backup folder backup\20200907142621\
2020-09-07 14:26:22.232 Debug logging is enabled
2020-09-07 14:26:22.232 Data logging is disabled
2020-09-07 14:26:22.232 FTP logging is disabled
2020-09-07 14:26:22.232 Spike logging is enabled
2020-09-07 14:26:22.232 Logging interval = 10 mins
2020-09-07 14:26:22.232 Real time interval = 55 secs
2020-09-07 14:26:22.232 NoSensorCheck = 0
2020-09-07 14:26:22.294 Calculating sunrise and sunset times
2020-09-07 14:26:22.310 Sunrise: 06:32:24
2020-09-07 14:26:22.310 Sunset : 19:44:49