Author Topic: Is my Davis Soil Station mis-reporting?  (Read 3920 times)

testmatch

  • Gentle Breeze
  • **
  • Posts: 61
    • EW7347
    • IENGLAND665
    • Dunchurch Weather
  • Station Details: Davis Vantage Pro 2 Plus, Mac mini
Is my Davis Soil Station mis-reporting?
« on: May 30, 2017, 04:24:30 PM »
Hi,

I've had a Davis Soil Station with a leaf wetness sensor, two soil moisture sensors and two soil temperatures sensors since February last year and I've just noticed two odd things about it from the Live Data display in WeatherCat. As the attached screenshot shows, the two things that confuse me about its readings are:

1.) The Soil Temperature readings are also reported as Leaf Temperature ones. Should that be expected? Or should there be a way of suppressing that when the temperature sensors underground are nowhere near the leaf one?

2.) Leaf Wetness 4 is shown as valid, despite not having a sensor. I'd expect that to be invalid (like Leaf Wetness 2 and 3). Is there a hardware fault with my station? And if so, might it be fixeable?

Does anyone else see either or both of these things? Are they hardware issues? Or is WeatherCat picking up things it shouldn't? I'm using 2.43 Build 1.

Thanks,

John


 

Weatheraardvark

  • Gale
  • ****
  • Posts: 397
  • I hear tornado sirens, lets go climb on the roof
    • C0005
    • KIADESMI1
    • Des Moines Weather and Climate
  • Station Details: Davis VP2 Plus, Fars, Extra sensors
Re: Is my Davis Soil Station mis-reporting?
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2017, 01:01:10 AM »
Your data is just fine

Leaf temperature for the soil moisture station, assumes that you put a leaf temperature probe on soil temperature 1 rather than bury it as we do.   So if you are using only 2 sensors, then reconnect them to sensors 3 and 4.  The leaf temperature will disappear.  If you wish, you can buy an additional soil temperature probe, run the lead into the bushes and then you will get the leaf temperature.

Yeah, I agree it makes no sense as to why it works that way.    I have all 4 sensors connected and I get exactly what you are seeing.   
Leaf wetness 4 is kind of silly as the transmitter only has 2 plugs.  You might check to see if within the range of the station anyone else has a soil station and then change your channel.   Since you don't have a sensor, I'd ignore it.  In fact it could be a software issue.   What does Weatherlink show for leaf 4. ?

The other pain in the tush is the pinch connectors for the lead wires, you have to becareful not to break the plastic levers and they go quickly.  I broke one and fortunately it was on sensor 1, so I kind of fixed it.   
Davis VP2 Plus; 24h  FARS; Extra Temp Humid sensor (2); Extra Temp Station (2);;Weatherlink IP;USB; MAC Ventura 13.3

; https://www.weatherlink.com/embeddablePage/show/8a7585dd06404bde81d5229b09f84ebb/summary

testmatch

  • Gentle Breeze
  • **
  • Posts: 61
    • EW7347
    • IENGLAND665
    • Dunchurch Weather
  • Station Details: Davis Vantage Pro 2 Plus, Mac mini
Re: Is my Davis Soil Station mis-reporting?
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2017, 07:00:26 PM »
Thanks - that makes sense and I think I'll do as you suggest and ignore the readings for now. :)

I've certainly no desire to move the sensor connections around inside the soil station - it was bad enough fitting them in the first place (on a very cold February day), and I can live with the soil temperature being reported as the leaf temperature as well. I've not seen any other weather stations in the area - although it's hard to check without arising the suspicion of other village residents! I might change the channel when the bedding plants between me and the station aren't such an obstruction (the delphiniums are an effective barrier over 2 metres high!).

I've never installed Weatherlink, so gave it a go this morning. It's not very friendly, and I've not managed to see beyond the main station so far. However I'll play further and see what I can get - thanks for the suggestion.

All this only came to light because the Meteotemplate Leaf block shows the contents of the four leaf temperature and wetness channels. So I've edited the block to suppress the ones I don't want and satisfy my desire for tidiness.  :)

John

xairbusdriver

  • Storm
  • *****
  • Posts: 3126
    • EW7115 (E7115)
    • KTNGERMA20
    • Mid-South Weather
  • Station Details: Davis VP2 wireless + remote Anemometer/2014 Mac min - 10.15.7/WC 3.0.5
Re: Is my Davis Soil Station mis-reporting?
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2017, 08:21:29 PM »
Perhaps this page of the Davis manual has been mentioned one way or another, but it may apply to the topic of this thread. "Using Multiple Transmitting Stations", p12 I was actually looking for a section that describes the indications on the Console regarding signal strength. I also remember a site/map showing current PWS. It's probably a Weather Underground page, but I don't know if it's still available. That could give you a rough idea about nearby stations. Might even be at the CWOP, PWS or another site. [banghead]
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system


Weatheraardvark

  • Gale
  • ****
  • Posts: 397
  • I hear tornado sirens, lets go climb on the roof
    • C0005
    • KIADESMI1
    • Des Moines Weather and Climate
  • Station Details: Davis VP2 Plus, Fars, Extra sensors
Re: Is my Davis Soil Station mis-reporting?
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2017, 08:23:37 PM »
It is odd that the leaf temperature 1 and 2 are the same as the soil temperature 1 and 2.   I assume there is some logic here,  I just haven't found it.  Unless the person uses  sensors 3 and 4 for soil readings and 1 and 2 for leaf readings.

However, the quality of the data is very good.
Davis VP2 Plus; 24h  FARS; Extra Temp Humid sensor (2); Extra Temp Station (2);;Weatherlink IP;USB; MAC Ventura 13.3

; https://www.weatherlink.com/embeddablePage/show/8a7585dd06404bde81d5229b09f84ebb/summary

Weatheraardvark

  • Gale
  • ****
  • Posts: 397
  • I hear tornado sirens, lets go climb on the roof
    • C0005
    • KIADESMI1
    • Des Moines Weather and Climate
  • Station Details: Davis VP2 Plus, Fars, Extra sensors
Re: Is my Davis Soil Station mis-reporting?
« Reply #5 on: May 31, 2017, 08:27:39 PM »
Perhaps this page of the Davis manual has been mentioned one way or another, but it may apply to the topic of this thread. "Using Multiple Transmitting Stations", p12 I was actually looking for a section that describes the indications on the Console regarding signal strength. I also remember a site/map showing current PWS. It's probably a Weather Underground page, but I don't know if it's still available. That could give you a rough idea about nearby stations. Might even be at the CWOP, PWS or another site. [banghead]

When I got my Vp2, I had trouble with station frequency and shouldn't have.  I found within a 4 block radius, 2 Ham towers. One looked like it had been there a while, the other was new. I talked with both, the new one had been trimming his frequencies and was down around mine.  For some reason he eventually took down his tower, maybe he got his license pulled or never had one. I recently found one VP2 unit in the neighborhood, but far enough away that it poses no problems.

Frequencies are funny.

Davis VP2 Plus; 24h  FARS; Extra Temp Humid sensor (2); Extra Temp Station (2);;Weatherlink IP;USB; MAC Ventura 13.3

; https://www.weatherlink.com/embeddablePage/show/8a7585dd06404bde81d5229b09f84ebb/summary

Blicj11

  • Storm
  • *****
  • Posts: 3941
    • EW3808
    • KUTHEBER6
    • Timber Lakes Weather
  • Station Details: Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus | WeatherLinkIP Data Logger | iMac (2019), 3.6 GHz Intel Core i9, 40 GB RAM, macOS Ventura 13.6 | Sharx SCNC2900 Webcam | WeatherCat 3.3 | Supportive Wife
Re: Is my Davis Soil Station mis-reporting?
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2017, 08:39:07 PM »
Frequencies are funny.

Absolutely. I had to change mine after a few years because it suddenly stopped connecting on the frequency I had been using. The tech guy at Davis told me "never use 1" because, according to him, the vast majority of Vantage customers just leave the default setting at 1.
Blick


wurzelmac

  • Storm
  • *****
  • Posts: 1361
    • ITIROLPR2
    • Wetterstation Pr?graten am Gro?venediger
  • Station Details: Davis Vantage PRO2 Plus (24h fan aspirated, wireless) with UV/Solar | Weather Envoy Data Logger | Mac mini 2023 M2 8/256 | 1x Canon EOS 1300D | macOS Sonoma 14.2
Re: Is my Davis Soil Station mis-reporting?
« Reply #7 on: June 02, 2017, 06:35:32 PM »
Interesting: The LeafWetness4 channel reports "vaild" for me as yours, although no leaf sensor is in action anyway.  ???
Reinhard


Blicj11

  • Storm
  • *****
  • Posts: 3941
    • EW3808
    • KUTHEBER6
    • Timber Lakes Weather
  • Station Details: Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus | WeatherLinkIP Data Logger | iMac (2019), 3.6 GHz Intel Core i9, 40 GB RAM, macOS Ventura 13.6 | Sharx SCNC2900 Webcam | WeatherCat 3.3 | Supportive Wife
Re: Is my Davis Soil Station mis-reporting?
« Reply #8 on: June 02, 2017, 08:23:53 PM »
Interesting: The LeafWetness4 channel reports "vaild" for me as yours, although no leaf sensor is in action anyway.  ???

I think this is universal, although I have no idea why.
Blick