Software

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Cumulus MX

a cross platform version of Cumulus which runs on Windows, Linux (including the Raspberry Pi) and Mac OS X. (M Crossley update)

Note: Cumulus MX is strictly for non-commercial, non-government use only.

Both the mandatory Admin Interface, and the optional default web site, contains products produced by Highsoft which are not free for commercial and governmental use.

NOTE: On Linux/RPi/macOS, Mono version 5, or 6, is needed for MX Release v3.9.1 or later, (and other packages).
Mono v4 is subject to random crashes.


  • There is also a pre-built disk image file for your first installation onto a Raspberry Pi.
    • This contains all you need; the latest lite version of the Raspberry Pi operating system, latest mono-complete ('built on a model 3), a MX installation (in "/opt/CumulusMX"), plus links to a temporary RAM drive for temporary files (reducing wear on micro-SD card).
      • The instructions for using this image can be found here: Raspberry Pi Image
      • Please note, this image may not always contain latest MX release, but once you have installed a release of MX on your Raspberry Pi, upgrading is done using main software download link, as none of the other components in the image need to be upgraded.

Upgrading

We strongly advise updating to the latest version, if only for the fact that later versions offer more functionality, and may fix any bugs in an earlier release.

You can install a new release of MX directly over your existing installation.

  • Important, please read all of the release notes (in the appropriate forum announcement threads) for the builds since the version you are upgrading from.
  • If you are currently running an old release of MX, you might want to check Updating MX to new version page, as that has some advice about whether it is best to upgrade in multiple steps.
  • If you are upgrading from a previous version of the legacy Cumulus 1, then you might want to read Migrating from Cumulus 1 to MX page; and if you need more justification read Compare legacy Cumulus and MX page

Note by Steve Loft: you may find that anti-virus software flag a new release of Cumulus as a ‘threat’, for a few days or weeks after a new version has been released, even though it does not actually contain a virus of any kind. This is due to a system they call ‘reputation’ where they automatically block any versions of software which have recently been released. You may want to consider complaining to the provider of your anti-virus software about this ridiculous system, or better still, use some better anti-virus software.


Source download

Help with ‘Stable’ MX releases

Please read the announcement for the latest MX release in the forum before installing it.

If you need any help with Cumulus MX, please first consult, in this Wiki, the Category:Cumulus MX page for pointers to articles that may help. If you cannot answer your questions from those links, then use the correct MX support forum to see if others have answers.


Current Release

Latest build distribution download

Download Cumulus MX v3.11.4 build 3133, 25-May-2021

Raspberry Pi Image

Download Raspberry Pi Image for Cumulus MX 3.11.3



Older releases

It is always possible that a new release introduces a bug, and you decide to regress to an earlier release.

Find link to earlier MX release distributions on Main Page.

For earlier Raspberry Pi images, simply change the file name above, to represent earlier release (an image has not been created for every release, but past contents of this page can be found by searching on the history tab):

Other utilities

Utility for Fine Offset Stations

  • Set Logger Interval A utility by Steve Loft to adjust the internal logging interval on Fine Offset stations


Weather Display Converter

This utility was provided by Steve to convert Weather Display log files to Cumulus format.

At time of writing this here, the functionality in MX was limited. You may need to manually recreate records, etc. using Cumulus 1.

Please read the readme file in the zip.

There is a forum thread about this converter here.

WDConverter.zip

WeatherLink Converter

This utility was provided by Steve to convert WeatherLink log files to Cumulus format.

Please read the readme file in the zip.

There is a forum thread about this converter here.

WLconverter.zip

Create Missing

A utility, by Mark Crossley, to create missing entries in your dayfile.txt.

You may use this:

  1. to add additional new fields for derivatives that are missing from existing extreme records (in .ini files) created with old versions of Cumulus,
  2. or to create a whole new daily summary file if you are starting afresh with monthly based data imported into Standard log files from another program.

The v1.0.2 download dated 11 Mar 2021 is here.

More information can be found here.

ExportToMySQL

A utility, by Mark Crossley, to export Cumulus MX monthly and dayfile logs to a MySQL database.

The v1.3.0 download dated 27 Apr 2021 (for 7 May release of MX 3.11.0) is here.

More information can be found here.

This replaces the "ExportMySQL.exe" utility included by Steve Loft in his MX beta distributions.

Third Party Contributions by Cumulus Users

For files, and add-on's, contributed by Cumulus users, see these Categories:

  1. Category:3rd Party Apps - contributions for various devices,
  2. Category:AddOns - adding extra functionality,
  3. Category:WebTools - for your web server, and
  4. Category:User_Contributions - key contributions from the user community

Current MX Developed from

Cumulus 3 (MX) software was developed as a beta with limited functionality by Steve Loft.

  • Steve Loft previously developed Cumulus 2 (where he tested using the C# language, now used for MX)
  • Steve Loft created the original Cumulus software (now known as legacy cumulus 1) just for his use, before making it generally available, he then developed it over the next decade to include requirements suggested by thousands of users.
  • Steve Loft, the author of Cumulus/Cumulus MX has since fully retired, and stopped providing support, or updates, to Cumulus 1 or Cumulus MX software.

Steve's final beta MX

You can download below the final beta release as made available by Steve Loft, and also his subsequent final source code.

If you are able to understand his source code (linked below), and compare it to the latest source code (linked above), you can appreciate the transformation that has taken place in recent years.

  • Cumulus MX v3.0.0 beta build 3043, 20-Jan-2017 Cumulus MX, a cross platform version of Cumulus which runs on Windows, Linux (including the Raspberry Pi) and Mac OS X (Steve Loft - final release).
  • subsequent updated Cumulus MX Source Code from Steve Loft. He made the following comments, as he handed the project over to "the community":
    • This version of the code is post b3043 as it includes some changes that Steve had made, but not yet released.
    • Offered completely without support in the hope that it might be useful.
    • The code is very badly structured due to the 'Frankenstein' way it was cobbled together from various places. Some of it is a machine translation of parts of Cumulus 1.


Legacy releases

See downloads page for full details.

Cumulus 1

The installer for Cumulus 1 is available here *Cumulus 1099 installer.

  • Cumulus 1.9.4 build 1099.2 patch Patched version of one file (Cumulus.exe),
    • modifies the drop-down year selectors, (on "this period" screens, for NOAA reports, and for Snow Index).
  • The new year drop-down selectors will make it easier to choose date entries up to the year 2030 (updated 28 Jan 2020).
  • Note this is not the full installation package, just one file to replace the suite of files created by the installer, a patched .exe.
    • Without the patch, you can still enter any year,but you have to over-type with the full year yourself.

Special Variants

  • Cumulus 1.9.4 build 1100 setup Use ONLY if you are an Instromet user, and your logger operates at 115200 baud, you should use build 1100
  • Cumulus 1.9.4 build 1101 setup Use ONLY if you are an Instromet user, and your logger operates at 19200 baud, you should use build 1101
  • NOTE: These Cumulus 1.9.4 variants will not have any updates in the future.
  • In 2020, some of the menu items with year drop-down selectors will not display years beyond 2020.
    • You can manually over-type any selection boxes with any year you like,you are not limited to those in drop-down
    • For example, this will happen on manual generation of NOAA-style reports.
    • This does not affect any automatic generation of NOAA reports.

It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that users of Cumulus 1.9.4 variants migrate to Cumulus MX, which has ongoing support by mcrossley. The baud rate can be selected within MX as a configuration setting.

Legacy Resources

  • Cumulus installation guide Instructions for installing Cumulus 1
  • Cumulus readme.txt Please read this before installing or updating Cumulus
  • Cumulus help file The Cumulus 1 help file (this also gets installed when Cumulus is installed)
  • Cumulus Realtime An obsolete Silverlight application for displaying 2 extra dials showing real time wind data on the standard Cumulus (with temperature and rainfall in histogram style) gauges page for a web site (no longer developed or supported)
  • Cumulus help file in French The Cumulus 1 help file translated into French

Cumulus 2

The software for Cumulus 2 is no longer available.