Trixology

Weather => Weather Hardware/Measurement => Topic started by: Blicj11 on September 30, 2017, 03:55:04 AM

Title: Annual ISS Maintenance
Post by: Blicj11 on September 30, 2017, 03:55:04 AM

Last month I performed the annual maintenance on my ISS. I cleaned out the debris, used some Rain-X on the collector cup, etc. Last weekend we had an early snowstorm that dropped 15 inches over three days. I turned on my collector cup heater to melt the snow but not a drop registered on the console. Today I had a chance to take a look. A single leaf was sitting in the bottom of the cup, with its stem poking through the hole in the bottom. Perfect deflection shield for the melted snow to bypass the tipping bucket. Easy fix. I figured as long as I was there, I would replace the 3 volt battery. It was still giving me 3.2 v but has been in use for almost 15 months and I decided I really didn't want to replace it during a blizzard.

Title: Checklist on Wiki (Re: Annual ISS Maintenance)
Post by: elagache on September 30, 2017, 10:25:06 PM

Dear Blick and WeatherCat station caregivers,

Thanks for the reminder.  I normally service my station early in October.  For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere it is definitely time to get this done.  Just in case anyone has forgotten, we have a checklist on the WeatherCat Wiki:

http://wiki.trixology.com/index.php?title=Station_Maintenance (http://wiki.trixology.com/index.php?title=Station_Maintenance)

Cheers, Edouard

Title: Re: Annual ISS Maintenance
Post by: wurzelmac on October 01, 2017, 09:12:23 AM

Me too,
thanks for the reminder. And thanks for reminding the to-do-list in the Wiki!
Cheers,

Title: Re: Annual ISS Maintenance
Post by: Steve on October 01, 2017, 03:42:17 PM

I do my annual maintenance when the Autumnal Equinox arrives. Except I haven't yet...   [cat]

Title: Re: Annual ISS Maintenance
Post by: Weatheraardvark on October 01, 2017, 11:19:07 PM

I generally do it in the spring. when I change the battery in the FARS.  However, I do check the rain cone for crap as well as where wires come into the iSS.  Also replace batteries in the fall.  I don't want to be trotting out to the station in bad Iowa weather in winter.

I do need to move my soil moisture station back a few feet, that will involve drilling all new  holes for the moisture and temperature sensors, through pvc pipe and hooking it up to the transmitter.   The sensors need replacing, one is even not reporting.   I have on order new sensors from Scaled Instruments.   Funny for some reason, these nasty little beatles  craw into the moisture transmitter and hide behind the circuit board.    Bleah....

this week it is supposed to rain so it might be next week before I can do anything.