Trixology
Weather => Weather Hardware/Measurement => Topic started by: Blicj11 on September 11, 2015, 09:33:33 PM
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It has taken me 15 months to determine that I have a problem with some part of my Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus ISS kit. My unit is about 15 months old and I was a little slow figuring out what is happening. About 5 months after I installed the ISS, the transmitter battery failed. I replaced it and didn't think much about it. 5 months later the sceond battery failed. When I investigated in the ISS, I couldn't really tell if I had securely connected the lead from the circuit board, which would have explained the quick battery life. I put in another battery when I should have contacted Davis as I was still under warranty at the time.
However, the ravages of time on my brain combined for a weak link in the reasoning department and I went on just as if I had good sense.
Today the battery failed again, and now my deductive powers have fired back up like they should have 5 months ago.
Since there is no foggy/cloudy residue over the solar panel, I assume it is fine. I either have a bad super capacitor or something else is bad on the transmitter circuit board. I called Davis tech support and they say it "can only be the board and the board needs to be replaced."
I called Ryan at Scaled Instruments and he says it could be either. The $5 fix is to replace the super cap and the more expensive fix is to replace the transmitter board. Right now Ryan happens to be selling the boards for about $US57, which is the cheapest price you can find them anywhere, about $100 less than retail and $30 less than I was able to get out of Davis tech support.
I couldn't decide which way to go; he told me he was selling the boards at a pretty good clip given the price. Ryan did not pressure me one way or the other but I decided to buy both a super cap and a board. That way I have a spare transmitter board at a good price if the super cap is not the problem.
I'll report back next week, but just want to share than I felt like I got more insight from Ryan at Scaled Instruments than I did from tech support at Davis, and if you are in the market for a replacement wireless transmitter board, he has a killer price right now.
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Dear Blick and WeatherCat station caregivers,
Sorry, that you had your station fail so soon after you installed it. That is a bummer.
I'll be interested to learn how your attempt to replace the supercapacitor turns out. I was too chicken to try that, I just haven't done much in the way of soldering on circuit boards.
Swapping out the ISS circuit board is reasonably easy and I bought one from Ryan and Scaled Instruments when I was struggling with my sensor errors problem. You'll need instructions that Ryan can give you or I might have them still in my packrat collection of emails related to the problem with my station.
Best of luck in getting things up and running again once more!
Cheers, Edouard
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Yesterday I got an alert from WC that the ISS battery failed. Two hours later I got a message that the following sensors failed: Ext temp, wind, ext humidity. I assumed the sensor failure was just the failed battery. At 1:00 this morning I got an alert that all transmitter batteries are now good, but I still don't have any readings from the three failed sensors. I'm still away from home and have not yet changed the battery. Is there anything I should do to "reboot" hte ISS or console once I get the battery changed tonight?
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Hi Blick and WeatherCat fans,
Sorry you are having these problems.
Yesterday I got an alert from WC that the ISS battery failed. Two hours later I got a message that the following sensors failed: Ext temp, wind, ext humidity. I assumed the sensor failure was just the failed battery. At 1:00 this morning I got an alert that all transmitter batteries are now good, but I still don't have any readings from the three failed sensors. I'm still away from home and have not yet changed the battery. Is there anything I should do to "reboot" hte ISS or console once I get the battery changed tonight?
As far as I know there is no "boot button" on the ISS board. Just put in a new battery and hope that buys you some time. This does sound very similar to the problems I was having last autumn. Bummer dude.
Edouard
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Thanks Edouard. A miracle has happened. Our son happened by and when I found out he was there, I asked him to change the ISS battery. (The miracle is that he came by.) He put the console in setup mode, changed the battery, and everything is back in happy mode. We we flying home tonight from Texas and sometime in the next couple of weekends I will either replace the super cap or the circuit board, or both. Stay tuned.
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Dear Blick and WeatherCat station caregivers, . . .
Anyone who thinks that taking care of personal weather station is easy . . . .
Thanks Edouard. A miracle has happened. Our son happened by and when I found out he was there, I asked him to change the ISS battery. (The miracle is that he came by.) He put the console in setup mode, changed the battery, and everything is back in happy mode.
Glad your station is back up and running with as minimum downtime as possible.
We we flying home tonight from Texas and sometime in the next couple of weekends I will either replace the super cap or the circuit board, or both. Stay tuned.
I'll be interested to hear how things turn out. I'm very suspicious about the super-capacitor hypothesis. There was one other guy on the WX-Forum who was complaining about ISS boards that were not switching correctly between the solar-panel, super-capacitor, and battery. I wonder if Davis has some bad boards out there we are two unlucky recipients of them. At least you have a plan-B if that turns out to be the case.
Cheers, Edouard
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Edouard, please remind me of how you determined that you battery was being drained and the super cap was not doing its job.
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Dear Blick and WeatherCat station troubleshooters,
Edouard, please remind me of how you determined that you battery was being drained and the super cap was not doing its job.
I don't remember how I decided that was the problem. However, the whole thing started shortly after I had done my annual replacement of the 123 battery. The symptoms were sensor errors. As part of my troubleshooting, I double-checked the voltage of the new battery I had installed and found it low. At first I thought it was a bad battery, but the problems continued. For whatever reason, I started to notice that the battery was discharging very rapidly. If I replaced the battery frequently, I could keep the station online.
I'm still not sure what was going on, but my board was definitely failing in some way that using a lot of current. I was killing a battery every couple days. Keep an eye of the voltage under load if that isn't a royal pain to do. It should drop only very slowly if nothing is wrong.
Hope this helps, . . . . Edouard
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Here is the latest report on this issue. I decided to address this problem of the Super Cap apparently not doing anything by replacing the ISS transmitter board. I could have replaced the Super Cap but I just didn't feel like figuring out how to solder standing at the top of a ladder. Like others on the forum, I bought a replacement board from Ryan at Scaled Instruments for about half what Davis charges. Swapping that out was supposed to be fairly straight forward. And it was, except for the discovery that when I moved the anemometer last summer, I used weather-rated Cat 6 cable. I spliced that cable back into the Davis telephone wire inside the ISS plastic box and it was the dickens to pay to manoeuvre those 4 weather-proof splices back through the cutout in the box. But eventually we (my son and I) were able to coax the splices out, one at a time.
After we got the new module hooked back up (it was much easier to thread the splices back into the new box than it was to take them out of the old one), we took the console out of setup mode and discovered that although we were transmitting, there was no external data on the console. We double checked everything, including making sure all the cables were tight, in the right ports and installed a new battery. Still no data.
I called Davis. They told me everyone in the world (except Edouard) used the factory default of Station ID 1. They had me change the DIP switches to use Station ID 5, then change the console to ID 5 and this time, we had data! They told me that changing the Station ID was a frequently-used trick to get the ISS to restart transmitting properly after swapping out the transmitter board.
So my big adventure turned out fine. Now I will wait 5 months and see if my battery dies again. If it does, then I will have to swap out the solar panel.
Whilst I had the thing apart, I cleaned out the collector cup, applied Rain-X to it and blew the spider webs out of the tipping buckets, etc. We are supposed to get an inch of snow tomorrow so I figured that my annual maintenance should not be procrastinated any longer.
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Ryan, from Scaled Instruments, offered this additional insight:
When you decommissioned the old transmitter on channel 1 and commissioned the new transmitter on channel 1 they conflicted with each other. Your console was picking up the old transmitter and showing "low battery" and no data on the sensors... because the battery was out and nothing connected to it. You probably had the old transmitter closer to the console than the installed transmitter and the console "saw" it instead of the intended transmitter. The old transmitter will die as soon as the supercap runs out of juice.
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Dear Blick and WeatherCat station caregivers,
Glad you are back in business! [tup] Station maintenance can be a real pain. Ryan was probably correct, your problem was that the old transmitter board was still sending some sort of a signal. To make it die faster, you can turn on the LED that flashes when data is transmitted.
Cheers, Edouard
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Interesting.
You could wrap the old ISS in aluminium foil to stop the RF signal "escaping" and being picked up by the console. Maybe use 2 or 3 separate wrappings and try and ensure that any gaps or joints don't line up and allow the RF out.
HTH
Stuart
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Dear Stuart and WeatherCat station caregivers,
You could wrap the old ISS in aluminium foil to stop the RF signal "escaping" and being picked up by the console. Maybe use 2 or 3 separate wrappings and try and ensure that any gaps or joints don't line up and allow the RF out.
Yes that might work. However, if you have transmitter board already out of your station, is it extremely easy to change the transmitter ID of the board you are abandoning to any thing other than the ID you are actually using. If you turn on the LED display, the board will run out of power very rapidly. I've tested it and it can be as little as an hour. So that is the easiest solution.
If you have a Davis station in a suburban or urban area, it is probably a good idea to change the ID to something other than 1 anyway. Putting up a weather station is popular and you never know what someone next to you might put up a Davis station that you cannot see or do not notice. The odds of someone else picking the same ID of the remaining 7 is really low. It is a small amount of insurance that your station won't have any transmission "issuez" no matter what your neighbors are up to.
Cheers, Edouard
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You could wrap the old ISS in aluminium foil to stop the RF signal "escaping" and being picked up by the console. Maybe use 2 or 3 separate wrappings and try and ensure that any gaps or joints don't line up and allow the RF out.
I'm waiting for Herb to recommend wrapping my head in aluminum foil to keep out the voices.
However, if you have transmitter board already out of your station, is it extremely easy to change the transmitter ID of the board you are abandoning to any thing other than the ID you are actually using. If you turn on the LED display, the board will run out of power very rapidly. I've tested it and it can be as little as an hour. So that is the easiest solution.
Agreed. Turning on Switch 4 turns on the LED and the battery runs down in no time.
If you have a Davis station in a suburban or urban area, it is probably a good idea to change the ID to something other than 1 anyway.
Davis recommends you don't leave the ID switched to 1.
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Dear Blick and WeatherCat station caregivers,
If you have a Davis station in a suburban or urban area, it is probably a good idea to change the ID to something other than 1 anyway.
Davis recommends you don't leave the ID switched to 1.
I'm not sure everyone needs to do this. I had my station at ID #1 for 4 years and never had any problems. It appears to me that having a personal weather station is rapidly gaining in popularity. It is popular enough that in my neighborhood it has started to become a problem. However, I think most station owners can get a good idea of how likely it is that another Davis station could interfere with your own. If your nearest neighbor is too far away or you can see clearly that none of your neighbors have a David station, as the old saying goes: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Cheers, Edouard
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I'm waiting for Herb to recommend wrapping my head in aluminum foil to keep out the voices.
Voices? You hear 'em too? ?
(https://media.giphy.com/media/fnzR3nV72uaEo/giphy.gif)
Let's not talk about voices. Nooo?sireee?
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Just after midnight, yesterday, my console stopped receiving readings from all outside sensors. Normally, one would expect to have an ISS battery failure with this development. However, about 90 minutes later, the problem corrected itself. The battery tests just fine. This is pretty weird behaviour. I did get a bunch of WeatherCat messages like this:
11/20/15 1:52:03.476 AM WeatherCat[45569]: ***WARNING*** WeatherCat was not able to fetch all the weather data from the hardware after repeated tries.
Since I replaced my ISS transmitter board just three weeks ago, it may be that I have a bad replacement board. Just have to keep an eye on it and see if it happens again.
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Intermittent failures like you describe can be caused by several things, but given your extreme conditions and Davis' 70's technology, I would expect it to be either a cold solder joint, or other type bad connection. Changing temperature with thermal expansion/contraction, and/or wind causes the electrical path of a cold solder to be broken intermittently.
Since you've already replaced the board, and the symptoms having reappeared look very much the same as 3 weeks ago, I think you need to look at the rest of the connections for the source. Since power keeps getting interrupted, perhaps the battery socket or super capacitor has a cold solder joint.
Did you know, you can "press and hold TEMP and press HUM to display statistical and reception diagnostics on the console." I didn't until just now. I discovered that on page 18 of the ISS Installation Manual. More information on this feature is on page 36 thru 39 of the Vantage Pro2 Console Manual.
The Console Diagnostics Mode consists of two screens, the Statistical Diagnostic Screen and the Reception Diagnostic Screen.
Diagnostic Screen Commands
? Press and hold TEMP, then press HUM to display the Statistical Diagnostic screen.
? Press the > key to display signal statistics for the next installed transmitter ID.
? Press 2ND and then press CHILL to toggle between the Statistical and Reception
Diagnostic screens.
? A degree (?) sign displays in right corner of value 1 of the Reception Diagnostic
screen (screen 2) to differentiate which screen is currently displayed.
? Press DONE to exit the diagnostic screen.
An explanation of the screen display is also represented. Seems like it might be useful upon discovery that you've experience a data gap that fixed itself. You may already use this, but I haven't seen it mentioned in any of the threads, even with Edouard's similar issues.
Good luck and keep us posted.
[cheers1]
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Thanks Herb. I just reviewed those two screens on the console. I have 99% good packets and have not had a repeat of the issue, but it's only been one day. I'll keep you posted.
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Dear Blick, Herb, and WeatherCat station troubleshooters,
Just after midnight, yesterday, my console stopped receiving readings from all outside sensors.
Of course, just after midnight when you were asleep - right? [bed]
Sure looks like the fingerprints of one sort of villain - gremlins! (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/gremlin_emoticon.png)
Thanks Herb. I just reviewed those two screens on the console. I have 99% good packets and have not had a repeat of the issue, but it's only been one day. I'll keep you posted.
Something else to keep in mind is that it could be some sort of EFI interference that was strong enough to effectively "jam" the signal from your ISS to your console. If you see it again while you are up and available to troubleshoot, something else to check is if the ISS is actually transmitting. You can turn on the LED that indicates when data is transmitted using the dip switches. If that LED doesn't come on, then you know for sure the board has a problem. If the LED is working, it could be EFI issue.
Cheers, Edouard
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Of course, just after midnight when you were asleep - right? [bed]
[Snip]
Something else to keep in mind is that it could be some sort of EFI interference that was strong enough to effectively "jam" the signal from your ISS to your console. If you see it again while you are up and available to troubleshoot, something else to check is if the ISS is actually transmitting. You can turn on the LED that indicates when data is transmitted using the dip switches. If that LED doesn't come on, then you know for sure the board has a problem. If the LED is working, it could be EFI issue.
Herb and I are the only ones I know who are up past midnight when we shouldn't be.
Yes, the ISS board LED transmitting light was on my list of things to check, but not at 1:00 in the morning. By the time I got up in the morning, things were back to normal.
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Just after midnight I had a repeat of this same weird issue of the console not receiving data from the external sensors. It started at 00:18 and continued until 4:38. Then it started receiving data again. This is the third time this has happened in 3 months.
I had another consult with Ryan at Scaled Instruments and then talked to Davis Tech Support. The best theory at this point is that there is some kind of electrical interference on the frequency of the Transmitter ID. Each of these blackout periods have occurred on ID 5 so today I changed the ID to 8. It only happens about once a month so I'll just wait and see what happens. There are at least three more things I can try, but I don't want to change more than one variable at a time so I can reliably rule things out.
It is so nice to get out in the snow and work on the ISS. ::)
I'll keep you posted.
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Well, if you had a second Vantage Pro 2 console, and a second computer, you could listen to the signal on both devices & computers to see if they both wink out at the same time.
Come on. For a few seconds there, you gave it some thought. Didn't you?
[lol2]
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Dear Blick, Herb, and WeatherCat station troubleshooters,
Just after midnight I had a repeat of this same weird issue of the console not receiving data from the external sensors. It started at 00:18 and continued until 4:38. Then it started receiving data again. This is the third time this has happened in 3 months.
I had another consult with Ryan at Scaled Instruments and then talked to Davis Tech Support. The best theory at this point is that there is some kind of electrical interference on the frequency of the Transmitter ID. Each of these blackout periods have occurred on ID 5 so today I changed the ID to 8. It only happens about once a month so I'll just wait and see what happens. There are at least three more things I can try, but I don't want to change more than one variable at a time so I can reliably rule things out.
I'm seeing this also occurring also in the same time-frame - shortly after midnight. I've written the problem off as having too much electronics in the computer room, but perhaps that's a mistake on my part. Since it always happens after midnight, I'm usually asleep and when I do get up it doesn't occur to me to check WeatherCat.
I was reasonably certain that the problem wasn't happening between my ISS and my console. I have my console retransmitting to the Weather Envoy. This really shouldn't fail and it shouldn't happen mostly at night.
So perhaps there is something going on that explains the problem. Could there be some processes that OS X performs after midnight that would involve a lot hard drive activity maybe? Perhaps Time Machine purging?
I'll keep a closer eye on it since you are also having this problem.
Edouard
P.S. I did try a few different transmitter IDs but didn't see any obvious improvement. Nonetheless, since it is so rare, perhaps I should have experimented some more.
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Re: Time Machine activity
If Time Machine is still set to default mode, it backs up every hour. I suppose it could do housekeeping on its hard drive at certain times, since the older backups are not so granular as one hour. That might cause a regular run of high hard drive activity. I have read reports complaining that USB 3 leaks radio interference. If your Time Machine is a USB 3 HD device, it could explain a lot. Shielding the cable with aluminum foil may isolate the interference if that were the case.
A test might be improvised where the drive was made busy by a long read/write during the day to observe for interference. It wouldn't be conclusive unless positive interference was observed, though.
On my setup, I've incorporated an app called TimeMachineEditor (http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/), which forgoes the hourly backups to perform a single early morning one each day.
[cheers1]
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I'm seeing this also occurring also in the same time-frame - shortly after midnight. I've written the problem off as having too much electronics in the computer room, but perhaps that's a mistake on my part. Since it always happens after midnight, I'm usually asleep and when I do get up it doesn't occur to me to check WeatherCat.
[snip]
I'll keep a closer eye on it since you are also having this problem.
Misery loves company Edouard and I welcome yours!
On my setup, I've incorporated an app called TimeMachineEditor (http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/), which forgoes the hourly backups to perform a single early morning one each day.
Herb, I tried one of these a few years ago and it did not work. I like this idea a lot because I only need a daily backup. I will give it shot, so thanks for the link.
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Works like a charm for me; both computers. Can't understand why anyone would need an hourly backup.
In fact, while I was fetching the link, I noticed that the program had been updated for El Capitan, so I downloaded it. The installed one being replaced was a whole number behind, but it still worked.
You must turn off Time Machine in System Preferences, because it wants to do the backup every hour. TimeMachineEditor lets you set the interval and then executes from there. You still end up with 2 months of daily backups and older than that, weekly backups. It must do the housekeeping at the end of the month. Right now, it has daily all of November and December to date. All previous months, starting with October going backwards are weekly records.
[cheers1]
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Since these erros seem to occur at nearly the same time, how about setting your computer to a different time zone for a few weeks or even longer. If the errors still occur at the same 'computer' time, if problem is computer related. However, if the errors occur at a time difference associated with the time zone difference, the cause is most likely external interference (local radio activity) or with the ISS 'day' event. Or, something else. [banghead]
Can't understand why anyone would need an hourly backup.
I think it does depend on the individual user. However, if all I wanted were daily backups, I'd use SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner. In fact, I use both of them! ;) The reason I wouldn't use TM for that task is because both those apps make bootable copies. TM does not make a bootable copy, nor is it designed to. It was not designed to replace apps like SD or CCC. It is designed to make backups without much thought on the part of users (who too often simply give no thought to any kind of backup, I'm married to one of those people... and there are at least two more people living in this household with a similar lack of concern [rolleyes2] ).
The whole point of TM is to have an incremental backup of any work you do during the last hour, plus all the versions of a file since it was created. SD and/or CCC will just have what was on the computer yesterday, not the originals of anything that changed. When your computer crashes after a days worth of work, that work will not be on any 'daily' backup that you have, even if it is a modified TM backup.
One of the reasons TM is so un-intrusice is because it does not have to make a complete backup of every single file on the drive. All it adds to the backup are the files that have changed in the last hour. If you change the hourly backup to something/anything longer, you will simply make those backups take longer, also.
TM hourly backups have saved by bacon too many times to remember. As I age I find it even easier to delete the wrong version of a file! So far, I have never ever needed/used either a SD or CCC backup. I still use them, even pay for them, but TM is much more important to my daily computer usage (stupidity recoveries or simply "let's just start over from the beginning").
SD/CCC: bootable recovery with whatever was on the machine when it was made
TM: recovery of any version of anything made since the last backup (normally not more than 1 hours ago)
Different apps/methods for different purposes/uses. [tup]
Of course, YMMV. :)
We now return to the regularly scheduled topic subject...
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Dear Blick and WeatherCat station troubleshooters, . . .
I'm in panic mode trying to keep ahead of Christmas, so of course my station decided to goof off today . . . .
(http://www.canebas.org/misc/Voila_images/Signal%20loss%202015-12-15.jpg)
As you can see I had two episodes. One in the early morning hours and the second one while . . . I was fighting to mail a package at the post office. [banghead]
We are having very dry and windy weather. I was wondering if that caused an increase in static electricity that could be contributing.
Since I've never tried this before, I moved the ID that I'm retransmitting from 3 to 8. Since the second episode occurred in the daytime, I can confirm that the ISS to console connection is working just fine. It is the console retransmission to the Weather Envoy that is failing. It is a ridiculous 30 feet at the most, but it is all inside the house and as I've reported, this house has the old-school plaster walls with steel mesh to support the plaster. Not the best environment for radio signals. Nonetheless, if the transmitter IDs are "next to each other" in frequency, perhaps choosing an ID that is "farther away" will reduce any interference between IDs caused by other sources of RFI . . . .
We'll see, . . . Edouard
P.S. The ISS transmits to the console on ID #2. I also have a Temperature/Humidity station transmitting on ID #4.
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My soil station transmitter does this every few days for no apparent reason. I've changed channels, replaced batteries, moved wires and antenna around, but it still occurs. I just ignore them...
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Agree with you, X-Air. Exactly the reasons why I use both TM and SD (once per week for a bootable backup of the primary computer).
One thing I like is that multiple computers can be backed up with TM to the same drive. In my case, two laptops, a Mac mini and Mac Pro all to one large external RAID 1 array for redundancy. Of course, doesn't help much if the house burns down but I can only carry that backup paranoia so far. At least a copy of yearly financial records, tax returns and digital photos are stored off site.
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Since these erros seem to occur at nearly the same time, how about setting your computer to a different time zone for a few weeks or even longer. If the errors still occur at the same 'computer' time, if problem is computer related. However, if the errors occur at a time difference associated with the time zone difference, the cause is most likely external interference (local radio activity) or with the ISS 'day' event. Or, something else.
Thanks for the suggestion, but the problem is between the ISS and console, not between the console and the computer. In any event, haven't had one for a week but that is too soon to tell if changing the ID will address the issue.
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On my setup, I've incorporated an app called TimeMachineEditor (http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/), which forgoes the hourly backups to perform a single early morning one each day.
Just installed this Herb. Set it to daily at 3:00 am. I'm not staying up to see if it works.
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Lol! Can't say as I blame you for that? When I first tested it out, I set it for 8:30 in the morning, hoping to get up and see if it did it's job. Problem was, I kept staying up late. It took me a couple of weeks to actually see it backing up. However before that, when I launched Time Machine, the daily backups were there, so I didn't worry. I set my computer that sleeps to wake up daily, just before the backup. The weather station computer never sleeps, so it wasn't an issue there.
Main reason I use it is because, as the amount of data collected gets really long by the end of the year, the backups get longer and longer as Time Machine checks for changes on more files. With the hourly regime, by the end of the year it was backing up almost all the time. Also, it didn't help that I only had 4 GB of RAM on that computer, which slowed things to the point of frequent spinners during normal WC operations. After adding a 16 GB kit, the spinners disappeared. I had no idea that low RAM was the cause, or I would have fixed it long ago.
[cheers1]
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Dear Blick, Herb, and WeatherCat Davis troubleshooters,
Alas, from around 7:30 pm to 10 pm I once more lost transmission between my console and Weather Envoy. This is extremely maddening since I can check the console under such circumstances and the data is there. It simply doesn't make the extra 30 feet to the Envoy and WeatherCat. In the past, I have power-cycled the Envoy to restore the connection, but this is a bad idea because you lose data like the ET and rainfall for the whole year.
At 10 pm I got fed up and decided to try something else. I changed the ID that the Envoy was expecting to receive the signal from #8 to #7. After a moment, I reversed the procedure and put it back at ID #8. Within a few minutes, the Envoy was once more receiving data.
That suggests to me that the firmware in these Davis devices isn't particularly good at recovering from a loss of transmission caused by some sort of EMI/RF interference. So if you find yourself in this sort of predicament, you might try "giggling" the IDs of the receiver to see if that gets to try to find the signal more rapidly than if you just waited and hoped. If your problem is between the console and the ISS, at least this procedure doesn't require going outside to perform it.
Cheers, Edouard
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So if you find yourself in this sort of predicament, you might try "giggling" the IDs of the receiver to see if that gets to try to find the signal more rapidly than if you just waited and hoped. If your problem is between the console and the ISS, at least this procedure doesn't require going outside to perform it.
Are you saying that you don't actually change the ID DIP switch on the ISS? You just change the ID in the Console setup and then set it back?
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How do you change the ID on the console, Edouard? I haven't fooled with the station IDs for the better part of three years but as I recall, you go "Done-Minus sign" on the console which puts you into Set-Up mode. Then then console finds all your various station IDs (if you have more than one) and that can take a bit of time. When you punch Done again, followed by the Left/Right Arrow keys, you cycle through the various stations. At least as I remember, you don't have a choice about setting the IDs on the console, your only option is to turn each station's ID On/Off using the Up/Down keys.
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At least as I remember, you don't have a choice about setting the IDs on the console, your only option is to turn each station's ID On/Off using the Up/Down keys.
That is how you do it. You make sure that all of the IDs are off except the one(s) that is the ID you want the console to accept.
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Thanks for the confirmation, Blick. So I take it from Edouard's post there is some way on the Envoy to select any of the various Davis wireless station IDs. Because you can't do that on VP II console itself, it only lets you turn On/Off the stations it finds during the first screen search process.
Again, I'm doing this from memory so I could have it wrong.
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Edouard and I are saying the same thing. You get on the console and turn on the ID you want the console to receive and then turn all other IDs off. I don't think there is any other way to do it. I was just asking him if he changed which ID he was receiving from on the console without changing the DIP switches on the unit, and then changed it back to match the DIP.
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If I'm reading your question correctly, you can change the ID channel that the Console looks for the ISS on. Once you get to the screen to turn the ISS ON or OFF, use the < and > buttons to change the channel. It sounds like Edouard changed the ISS channel, closed the setup, then changed it back.
Screen 2: Configuring Transmitter IDs ? Wireless Only
Setup screen 2 allows you to change the ISS transmitter ID and to add or remove optional transmitter stations. The default transmitter ID setting is ?1? (ISS), which works fine for most installations.
Screen 2: Transmitter ID configuration
If you have a cabled station, or if you have a wireless station and are using the default transmitter ID setting, press DONE to move to the next screen.
Typically, you can use the default transmitter ID setting of 1 unless you are installing one of the optional transmitter stations or a nearby neighbor has a Vantage Pro2 sta- tion that uses transmitter ID 1 for the ISS.
3. Press the < and > keys to select the transmitter ID.
When you select a transmitter ID, the ID number is displayed on the screen as well as the current configuration.
4. Press the + and - keys to toggle console reception of signals from transmit- ters using that ID on and off.
5. Press GRAPH to change the type of station assigned to each transmitter. Scroll through the station types - ISS, TEMP, HUM, TEMP HUM, WIND, RAIN, LEAF, SOIL, and LEAF/SOIL - until the correct type appears.
6. Press DONE to move to the next screen.
This screen contains functionality for enabling repeaters. If the word ?Repeater? dis- plays in the right corner of the screen and you are not using repeaters as part of your network, see ?Clearing Repeater ID? on page 52. If you are using repeaters as part of your network see ?Wireless Repeater Configuration? (Appendix C) on page 51 for configuring repeaters on the console.
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OK guys, when I go to the first screen and wait awhile, it says "Receiving from..." and lists ID #1, 2, 3, 4, 5. #1 is the ISS and the other four are miscellaneous sensors.
So you're saying if I wanted to force the console to re-poll #3 for example, I'd select OFF on ID #3 and turn on #6 for which there is no sensor? Then close everything out to get the weather screen back. And obviously I'll get horizontal lines for the new #6 sensor since there isn't one. Then go back through screen 1 and 2 again and change everything back to the original configuration and close out again?
I was under the impression that when you opened and subsequently closed the Set-Up mode (screen #1) that automatically forced a re-poll anyway. And if screen #1 indicates reception of the station ID you're concerned with, you can rule out a whole host of potential transmitter/console reception problems right off the bat. If the station ID still doesn't show up, then it would seem to me it would be about time to change the station ID on the recalcitrant station transmitter (after flipping Up DIP switch #4 and ensuring the transmitter LED is flashing and putting in a new battery for good measure) followed by reconfiguring the console assuming the new ID is recognized.
And if that didn't work, I guess I'd get the manual out and figure out how to use those diagnostic screens to try and narrow down my problem. At least I would want to know what the troubleshooting guide says before showing my behind to a Davis Technician.
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Dear Blick Felix, Steve, and WeatherCat Davis troubleshooters,
Are you saying that you don't actually change the ID DIP switch on the ISS? You just change the ID in the Console setup and then set it back?
In a word yes. I did it for the Weather Envoy using WeatherLink, but the concept is the same. Because you have changed the station ID, the console should start searching for the signal. My impression is that this process can long winded if you wait for the station to find the ISS on its own. I'm not sure of that though. This morning I had another one of those "midnight outages," but it lasted only 10-20 minutes.
How do you change the ID on the console, Edouard?
Steve gives most of the answer but the key is realizing that you can select an ID that isn't in use at the moment. Here is the page in the Davis Console manual about it:
http://www.davisnet.com/product_documents/weather/manuals/07395-234_IM_06312.pdf#page=14 (http://www.davisnet.com/product_documents/weather/manuals/07395-234_IM_06312.pdf#page=14)
The idea is simply to pick some other ID, exit of the setup mode for a for a brief period, and then go back and select the ID where the ISS is actually located. That will cause the console to initiate a search for that device immediately.
I hope that clears things up!
Cheers, Edouard
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I just had another one of these infuriating "outages." It started at 6:38 this morning and I discovered it about 8:00 am. I did exactly what Edouard described. I changed the ID on the console to a nonexistent ID, waited 5 minutes and then changed it back to the ID matching the DIP switches on the ISS. It immediately started to receive the external sensor data at the console.
This looks like either some kind of electronic interference, a bad transmitter board or something haywire in the console. I happen to have a backup console (long story) so I am going to try swapping consoles and see if that makes any difference.
Edouard, how long do you wait before you switch the console ID back?
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Dear Blick and WeatherCat troubleshooters,
I just had another one of these infuriating "outages." It started at 6:38 this morning and I discovered it about 8:00 am.
Bummer dude! Sure wish I had a clear remedy for this.
Edouard, how long do you wait before you switch the console ID back?
Not long, at most a few seconds. I just quit out of WeatherLink and launched it again to change the ID back. The only reason I quit was to make sure I found it at the ID I set it when I returned to WeatherLink.
Cheers, Edouard
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Based on Edouard's post in the "companion" thread about his expiring hard drives causing electrical interference, I have re-evalluated what is sitting close to my console. I did find a wireless temperature probe (broadcasting internal temperature to an Oregon Scientific projector clock). I moved it elsewhere. I am also running my backup console simultaneously with my main console. I want to see if the next occurrence fails to register outdoor sensors on both consoles. This will tell me if the problem is on the receiving end or the transmitting end.
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Perhaps these links will help, also:
- <Build Your Own Faraday Cage (http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/build-your-own-faraday-cage-heres-how/)>
- <Details on Faraday Shields (http://warriortimes.com/2010/09/04/faraday-box-one-way-to-protect-sensitive-electronics-from-emp/)>
- <History, all-you-can-stand-to-know! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage)>
- <Commercial source (http://www.rfshieldbox.com/products.html?vcn=overture&vcad=rf_shield)>
I particularly recommend the Faraday Door idea, near the bottom of that first linked article... [lol] [rolleyes2] Who knows what some one knocking on your door might be planning?! Better safe than sorry! [tup] [banghead]
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XAir, thanks for some good laughs. My favourite option is the old microwave, but cannot convince SWMBO that the old $89 microwave should be placed in our bedroom.
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Weird, had a hard drive die in Elgar just last night (runs the WeatherCat update service and dev forums, bug tracker etc) - a WD SE with 11K hours on it - that's the second one that's died prematurely.
Spent most of today repairing the array - joy. There are another 5 in there - now tossing up whether to replace them pre-emptively or wait for them to die... WD sell these SE's as enterprise level drives. They aren't.
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Howdy Blick, X-Air, Stu, and WeatherCat hardware troubleshooters, . .
Weird, had a hard drive die in Elgar just last night (runs the WeatherCat update service and dev forums, bug tracker etc) - a WD SE with 11K hours on it - that's the second one that's died prematurely.
;) . . . . It isn't premature at all . . . the company that makes the drives is seriously short on cash. To deal with such a possibility, they have a backdoor on their firmware that allows them to kill any drive remotely. When they are short of cash, they "convert" a few old drives into business opportunities! (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/D'oh.gif)
Spent most of today repairing the array - joy. There are another 5 in there - now tossing up whether to replace them pre-emptively or wait for them to die... WD sell these SE's as enterprise level drives. They aren't.
[wink] . . . Of course, these are "enterprise level drives" . . . . where "enterprise" means you can afford to replace the drives all da' time!! . . . [lol2]
Seriously though Stu, have you ever had a problem with a station signal not getting through? Even that you have a lot of stations around for testing and a fair amount of computing power, this scenario would have been more likely to happen to you.
Cheers, Edouard
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Enterprise level drives? ? Well, that may depend on which Enterprise they're talking about. They are definitely not Starship Enterprise level drives, and it'd be hard to pass them for original Enterprise level drives, since it served the US Navy from 1775 until 1777. Seems our Colonel Benedict Arnold absconded with it right after the British Canadians built it. I guess he just couldn't be trusted. (Sorry about that.) Fast forward 7 USS Enterprises later and they might be USS Enterprise (CVN-65) level drives. That one served from 1961 until 2013 as the a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Probably used punch cards originally, though.
[cheers1]
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Seriously though Stu, have you ever had a problem with a station signal not getting through? Even that you have a lot of stations around for testing and a fair amount of computing power, this scenario would have been more likely to happen to you.
Cheers, Edouard
Unfortunately not, although I don't use external drives (everything is over ethernet).
I do have one external USB drive that I occasionally use for OS installations etc and it's 50/50 whether the SiliconLabs driver (running on a completely different machine) will lock up when a drive in that case spins up - they are definitely electrically 'noisy'.
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I just experienced another interruption of wireless data transmission from the external sensors. I was able to use the soon-to-be-patented Edouard approach to reconnect. However, the good news is the interruption only occurred on one console! The second VP console continued to receive data. I think I can, therefore, conclude one of two things:
(1) the problem is on the receiving end in the console itself, or
(2) there is some EFI interference in one console location that does not occur in the other location.
Due to the layout, I cannot setup the consoles side by side. Therefore, I have now swapped the console locations and await the next "outage" to see if the problem is location specific, or console specific.
This is progress. Maybe.
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Dear Blick and WeatherCat Davis troubleshooters,
I just experienced another interruption of wireless data transmission from the external sensors. I was able to use the soon-to-be-patented Edouard approach to reconnect. However, the good news is the interruption only occurred on one console! The second VP console continued to receive data. I think I can, therefore, conclude one of two things:
(1) the problem is on the receiving end in the console itself, or
(2) there is some EFI interference in one console location that does not occur in the other location.
Due to the layout, I cannot setup the consoles side by side. Therefore, I have now swapped the console locations and await the next "outage" to see if the problem is location specific, or console specific.
It sounds like you have a likely hypothesis at this point. You'll just have to see if swapping the consoles exposes the culprit!
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
P.S. Still no problems with my setup since I returning to using only the ISS to transmit to both the console and Weather Envoy - knock wood! (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/lucky_shamrock.gif)
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Hope you have nailed it Edouard.
In my case, within 12 hours of swapping my consoles, I had another "outage" from the external sensors. It looks like there is EFI interference at my preferred console location. The problem did not move with the console; it is consistent in one console location. So my next thing to check is moving the data logger to the other location to see if that solves the problem.
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Good work, Blick! Sounds like you're on your way to a solution.
[cheers1]
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Dear Blick, Herb, and WeatherCat Davis troubleshooters, . . .
In my case, within 12 hours of swapping my consoles, I had another "outage" from the external sensors. It looks like there is EFI interference at my preferred console location.
Interesting . . . Is there any sort of electronics at that location that seems plausible as the cause?
So my next thing to check is moving the data logger to the other location to see if that solves the problem.
Since you have an IP data logger, do you have Ethernet at the other location, or will you have to string a cable?
Glad you are making progress!
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
P.S. Still no problems on my end - still knocking wood! (http://www.canebas.org/WeatherCat/Forum_support_documents/Custom_emoticons/lucky_shamrock.gif)
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Interesting . . . Is there any sort of electronics at that location that seems plausible as the cause?
Nothing that I can think of.
Since you have an IP data logger, do you have Ethernet at the other location, or will you have to string a cable?
At my second location, I have to run a 50-foot Cat 5e cable, which is on order from Amazon. I just don't have any reason to have one of those sitting around in my junk drawer.
The things we go through so we can have instant access to the weather at our house!
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Dear Blick and WeatherCat Davis troubleshooters,
Interesting . . . Is there any sort of electronics at that location that seems plausible as the cause?
Nothing that I can think of.
That's still mysterious. Nothing you can do about it, but there "ought" to be a rational explanation for such things. Of course there also ought to be rational explanation for anything observed at the CERN's Large Hadron Collider . . . . however, . . . . .
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2016/01/-worlds-physicists-probe-mystery-signal-at-cerns-large-hadron-collider.html (http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2016/01/-worlds-physicists-probe-mystery-signal-at-cerns-large-hadron-collider.html)
At my second location, I have to run a 50-foot Cat 5e cable, which is on order from Amazon. I just don't have any reason to have one of those sitting around in my junk drawer.
;) . . . . Of course you had a reason to have 50 feet of Cat 5e! You just didn't find out what the reason was until now! - surprise!! [banghead]
The things we go through so we can have instant access to the weather at our house!
I feel your pain brother! . . . .
Cheers, Edouard
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In my ongoing saga, I have now swapped the console positions, which resulted in both consoles failing when they were in Location 1 (not to be confused with ID 1, which I am not using). Then I moved the IP data logger to the console at Location 2. Thereafter, the console at Location 1 lost communication with the external sensors, but the console at Location 2 (with the data logger) remained connected. I now conclude that there is some kind of RFI interference at Location 1.
The solution appears to be to abandon Location 1. I believe the interference may have something to do with the wall. I have a tonne of cables in the adjacent wall for a low voltage lighting control system that I control from my iOS devices. That wall also has iOS controlled thermostats and lights switches, as well as an Airport Express. However, I have used Location 1 for my Davis console for years without a problem so I actually have no idea what is happening.
Location 1 is very handy, but Location 2 appears to work and I do have access to the data through iOS.
So, for now, it appears that I may have a good workaround. Perhaps my transmitting board is not the culprit after all. I'll be back if I get disconnected at location 1. In the meantime, sincere thanks to everyone who chimed in here, as well as in Edouard's companion thread on a similar issue.
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Good job, Blick! Want a job as an instrument technician? You seem to have a knack for troubleshooting?
[tup]
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Looks like I am chasing you around the forum this afternoon. Hope your weekend is a good one, my friend.
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Dear Blick, Herb, and WeatherCat Davis troubleshooters, . . .
So, for now, it appears that I may have a good workaround. Perhaps my transmitting board is not the culprit after all. I'll be back if I get disconnected at location 1. In the meantime, sincere thanks to everyone who chimed in here, as well as in Edouard's companion thread on a similar issue.
Glad you seem to have finally licked this sensor data loss problem it appears.
So far I'm also successful. I haven't had any problems for 2-1/2 weeks and it seems like a plausible misconfiguration that was causing my transmission problems.
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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I still say a Faraday Shield is all you need. It may only needs to be on that 'connected' wall, but I'd put in all the others except for the one between the console and the ISS. And don't forget the ceiling and floor! It could be one of those ground squirrel critters and his own radio system! One of those "internet of things". :o
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I still say a Faraday Shield is all you need. It may only needs to be on that 'connected' wall, but I'd put in all the others except for the one between the console and the ISS. And don't forget the ceiling and floor! It could be one of those ground squirrel critters and his own radio system! One of those "internet of things". :o
Faraday, schmaraday! Last time I went to the trouble of making a faraday hat, my hair stood up.
I think you've got it, Edouard! I guess Davis never envisioned someone using their Envoy as a repeater. Seems obvious now, but it sure was a mystery there for awhile!
Looks like I am chasing you around the forum this afternoon. Hope your weekend is a good one, my friend.
You know, I'm starting to love the 21st century a lot. This afternoon, my grandson, Logan, and I played for an hour or so over the Internet. He's in the Houston area, right on the Gulf waters, in a motel with his family. Together we have been in a longer term build process over the past week or so. We were making ourselves a home built into the side of a cliff in mostly granite rock. I had tamed a horse. He had planted a garden of wheat. We had been mining a lot for coal that we were using for heat and to make torches for lighting. Every night, with the darkness falling across the land, the zombies, skeletons, creepers and spiders would come out in abundance, and sometimes we'd go on a killing spree to get rid of them.
Anyway, today I logged in before him and set about making and marking a trail over a couple of hills and through a thick forest. I cut a lot of timber; birch and oak mostly. But, I did run into some spruce before I got done. That caused me to gather an unusually large amount of wood. At the same time, my landscaping activities and making windows for the house led me to stock up on plenty of stone. I didn't know at the time that soon I would really need a lot of those materials.
The first path I chose to open up, I went West, away from the rising sun. I hadn't gone very far before I ran into a flying creature I'd never seen before. The game told me it was a Wither, but I didn't know what a Wither was. Well, it seemed to be hostile and it was in my way, so I tried lobbing a few arrows into it to see if I could kill it. I soon found that it had more fire power than I did, so I had to back off. I went back to base camp and chose a different path. The Wither was to the West. I decided to go North.
After I had been working for awhile, Logan joined me unexpectedly. He was running around doing this and that, wanting me to watch while he killed something. Turned out to be a slime. Not interesting! And, it kept me from working on my project of the moment. But, in the conversation, I was reminded of my encounter with the Wither. I just couldn't remember what it was called, so I was telling Logan about this thing that flies and throws bombs. He didn't know what I was talking about. He's 10. ? So, I made him follow me to the place where my first trail was to end, to see if the thing was still there. I was going out ahead of him. It looked like he had stopped to pray, but I suspect he was just going to the bathroom or something. He was kinda far away by then. All the while, I was quizzing him about how to kill it. He though, by my description, that I was talking about a Ghast. When I got close enough to get the name and called out Wither, he immediately started to adopt that "I'm sorry Grandpa." tone. Someone had told him how to make it. He is the Server Administrator, so he has privileges that the regular players (me) don't have. He had made it a while back and then forgotten about it, especially since it was in the woods far from home. Actually, it wasn't that far. It just seemed far enough away to not worry about it for a 10 year old.
So I said, "How do you kill it?"
"You just shoot arrows at it." He replied.
Well I was close enough, so I notched one and sent it flying. It was slightly behind some treetops. My arrow hit, which seemed to annoy it greatly. It sized me up and fired, but the weapon harmlessly hit the top of the tree. I notched another and let fly. It got angrier! It was making noise and trying to clear its way around the treetop. I let off another arrow. I could see that I was doing a little damage, and I figured Logan would be there to help soon.
Just about the time the creature made his way clear of the treetop, I heard Logan bellow out, "RUN POPPAW!"
So, I turned and let out running. That thing was hopping mad, because it chased me all the way back to the house, pelting me with bombs all the way. I ran up inside the house just in time to turn and look out the window. Logan was still out there hitting it with everything he had in his arsenal! Which, was really just an enchanted bow that fires flaming arrows. The Wither's bombs were landing everywhere. I had just built a pen for my horse in front of the house. The wither blew it up and killed my horse! Well, that made me mad! I went to the side door of the house and tried to use the mountain side as cover, slipping out just enough to get the Wither in my sights and let off another arrow. Bombs were landing all around me, taking away the yard and sidewalk under my feet. I fell down in a gaping hole and had to scramble to get back around to the front door to get back into the mountain house.
Logan was shouting into his microphone. "Poppaw! We gotta escape to the mine. Get all your valuables. Come with me!"
I could see that he was now running around inside the house, in a panic. But, I wanted that Wither! Two things I had just learned. 1>The Wither was healing himself slowly. If we were going to take him, we were going to have to be relentless. 2> His explosions, though they were devastating to our environment, were only doing minimal damage to me. I was wearing diamond plate armor. I was loosing a little health with each blow, but not as much as I had thought.
Back to the side door I went and began pelting the creature as fast as I could. I wasn't going to let up! Again, he knocked the ground out from under me. I was back in a hole, but I kept firing when I could get him in my sights. Trying to get a clean line of sight, I retreated into the front yard, turned and fired again. Soon, I noticed Logan had joined me. He was firing. I was firing. The Wither was firing, but it was taking damage faster now. I was loosing health! Getting down to one heart left, and it was hard to keep the Wither in my sights long enough to hit the target, but I kept going. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. The Wither was dead.
The yard was cratered everywhere! There was a giant hole in the house where the side door used to be. And, Logan was apologizing profusely.
Suddenly I started laughing! It was such a relief. I told Logan, apology accepted. Only one apology was necessary. You play and you learn.
Great weekend indeed!
Hope yours was equally as much fun!
[cheers1]
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Wow Herb. Thanks for taking the time to share in such detail. I enjoyed reading about your adventures. What is the name of the game?
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Thanks Blick! The game is called Minecraft (https://minecraft.net).
Here's a little tutorial video by Paul Soares. (https://youtu.be/B36Ehzf2cxE) He's my mentor for this game. I've learned a lot from him.
Here is a series of videos of Paul playing in Minecraft with his family. (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL543334177216A5BA) Good clean fun for the whole family!
Microsoft purchased the Minecraft franchise not too long ago. They've still been working hard to improve it, though. The version in the linked tutorial was 1.0. The current version is 1.8.9. As you might have gleaned from my story telling, it's very immersive. There is a lot to learn about, and the world is very complex. Check it out! If you start playing and start a server, let me know. I'll come play with you!
[cheers1]
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Can you design an 'avatar' that can clean any snow on your driveway? I'm thinking you might need one of those about now! Or did the 'warm' earth prevent any accumulation?
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I wish I could! We've got a nice coating of ice and sleet everywhere. The roads are solid white and appear very slick. I haven't tried it yet, but I don't hear any traffic, either. But, I do have all-wheel-drive. If I had to go somewhere, I would get out, but I would drive very slowly and avoid steep inclines.
So far, I'm sticking to horses in Minecraft for transportation.
[cheers1]
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Yeah, four-wheel drive means you can go anywhere, anytime... "Hold my beer and watch this!" FWD is great in snow and mud, but ice couldn't care less. Even horses can slip on ice! That's when you need studded tires or chains, IMHO. ;) (coming from a guy who got completely off any hard surface when traveling for a living [rolleyes2] I've even got a tow into the ramp in a perfectly good aircraft. I've also seen 'expert' instructor pilots sit in the ******pit while their aircraft slides right off the taxiway with the brakes set! It's only funny when it happens to some one else! [tup] )
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Well, 4 wheel drive is good, but all-wheel-drive is much better. That's the one with the traction control computer managing what little traction it can find. 4 wheel drive is just torque divided. Still, they all have their limits on ice! The mighty torque defeater of gravity and inertia can overwhelm the most scientifically advanced traction control systems when it comes to the near zero coefficient of friction of ice.
Maybe they need to tie those reverse thrusters to the brake pedal when the ambient temperature falls below 32? F and the traction control systems detect slipping.
[cheers1]
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To the next WeatherCatter who is reading this thread in hopes of learning something to try, this may be it.
Thanks to XAir discovering a feature of the Davis console, explained here: http://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=2088.msg19162#msg19162
I have subsequently determined that there is more background noise at my Location 1 as identified above than exists at Location 2. This may be why Location 2 works better for me.
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Unfortunately, I am back! This is similar to Edouard's battery issue in another thread, except I don't run through the batteries as quickly. It takes me 5 months to discover the battery is running 24x7 with no help from the solar panel and/or capacitor.
WeatherCat sent me an email just after midnight alerting me that the 3 volt battery in the ISS had failed. It has been a few days longer than 5 months since I replaced that battery, which is what Davis says is the expected life of the battery when either the super capacitor or the solar panel is not working. I put my volt meter on the back of the solar panel and got 2.4 volts, which means the solar panel is working. If the solar panel reads a minimum of 2.2 volts at full exposure to the sun, it is working properly.
The suspect battery was also reading 2.4 volts, which means it was bad.
I conclude there are three possibilities:
- The solar panel was not connected to the wireless transmitter module. This is highly unlikely because I am extremely careful to make sure it is properly connected when I put the lid back on.
- The replacement wireless transmitter module is bad. This is also unlikely, but possible.
- The cable between the solar panel and the wireless transmitter module is bad. This may very well be the culprit.
Because the module is still under warranty, I am going to start by replacing it. Davis is sending me a new one tomorrow, even though I purchased it from Scaled Instruments. Davis told me they will honor the warranty because Scaled Instruments is one of their dealers. [tup]
Then I have to wait 5 months. If the battery goes bad by September, I will know the connecting cable between the solar panel and the module is bad. At least I think I will know that. There is no way I can think of to test the voltage of the solar panel at the end of the connecting cable because the female end of the connector is too small to get into for a volt meter reading.
If any of you can think of anything else, I would love to hear from you.
In the meantime, I am going through batteries to help put Herb's grandson through college.
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Dear Blick and WeatherCat station caregivers, . . . .
Unfortunately, I am back! This is similar to Edouard's battery issue in another thread, except I don't run through the batteries as quickly. It takes me 5 months to discover the battery is running 24x7 with no help from the solar panel and/or capacitor.
Bummer dude! This is really strange! :(
I put my volt meter on the back of the solar panel and got 2.4 volts, which means the solar panel is working. If the solar panel reads a minimum of 2.2 volts at full exposure to the sun, it is working properly.
. . . .
Then I have to wait 5 months. If the battery goes bad by September, I will know the connecting cable between the solar panel and the module is bad. At least I think I will know that. There is no way I can think of to test the voltage of the solar panel at the end of the connecting cable because the female end of the connector is too small to get into for a volt meter reading.
There ought to be some way to jump the current from the connector such that you could get a voltage reading. I was measuring the voltage at the end of the connector of my solar panel although perhaps the probes of my multi-tester were pointed enough so make contact. You ought to be able to send a bit of metal conductor and use that as a bridge to get a voltage reading. Maybe a sewing pin would work?
When I was dealing with my station's "issuez" a Davis tech that I spoke with said that he had never heard of of a solar panel ever failing. Certainly a cable can get damaged, but if you don't see any visible sign of damage - it would be quite a fluke.
In the meantime, I am going through batteries to help put Herb's grandson through college.
[wink] . . . . I do hope da' kid is also working some odd jobs. The commission of one battery every 5 months . . . sure won't get you much of an education at any colleges I know! . . . [lol2]
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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Hey Blick. Sorry to hear about your SP issues. Like Edouard points out, surely you can find something that you can use to make contact with the cable connector. I usually keep scrap pieces of wire from previous projects. Sometimes it is fine wire and sometimes it is stranded. So, if you have any stranded wire about, you might be able to remove the insulation from a piece about 2 inches long and separate the strands to get a tiny enough wire. If not, there is always a pin of some sort somewhere in the house. A cloths pin can act to hold it to your meter's probe. ? Just throwing things out there, just in case.
Thanks for the battery business, though. [lol]
[cheers1]
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There ought to be some way to jump the current from the connector such that you could get a voltage reading. I was measuring the voltage at the end of the connector of my solar panel although perhaps the probes of my multi-tester were pointed enough so make contact. You ought to be able to send a bit of metal conductor and use that as a bridge to get a voltage reading. Maybe a sewing pin would work?
When I was dealing with my station's "issuez" a Davis tech that I spoke with said that he had never heard of of a solar panel ever failing. Certainly a cable can get damaged, but if you don't see any visible sign of damage - it would be quite a fluke.
Great suggestion. Thanks. Davis told me the same thing. He told me in the 7 years he had been working there he had never heard of a solar panel failing.
Hey Blick. Sorry to hear about your SP issues. Like Edouard points out, surely you can find something that you can use to make contact with the cable connector. I usually keep scrap pieces of wire from previous projects. Sometimes it is fine wire and sometimes it is stranded. So, if you have any stranded wire about, you might be able to remove the insulation from a piece about 2 inches long and separate the strands to get a tiny enough wire. If not, there is always a pin of some sort somewhere in the house. A cloths pin can act to hold it to your meter's probe. ? Just throwing things out there, just in case.
Thanks for the battery business, though. [lol]
Herb, thanks for providing the additional details on how to probe the solar panel connector.
As for the battery business, WeatherCat newcomers will have to search the forum to figure out how you got into the battery business, assisted by Edouard and me.
Have a good one.
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Sorry to hear about the too late warning! Maybe something to add to the monthly checked items?
Check he manual/images, but I think that cable is ordinary land-line phone cable. If so, you may have some laying around the house, but it can certainly be obtained at most any hardware store. If the jacks/cables are not "phone" cable, disregard this whole post! [rolleyes2] [blush]
I'd buy a female/female junction device to connect the solar panel into one side. Into the other side, plug in a short piece of the cable you have laying around. Sacrifice about a foot of that cable, script the insulation off the cut end and separate the wires and strip off enough insulation so you can easily touch the two wires you need (maybe enough to wrap at least one of them around a meter lead).
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Today my son and I installed the replacement ISS wireless transmitter. Since we have already done this once, it went a lot faster than the first time. If you ever have to replace one of these, after you take your old one out, change the DIP switch ID on it to be something different than what you have been transmitting on. That way, when you put the new one in, it is not competing with old one at your console.
While we had the ISS apart, we used Herb's recipe to fashion some speaker wire inserts to stick down into the solar panel connector so we could test the voltage. We got a voltage reading. It wasn't 2.2 volts, but we were doing this on a very overcast day and trying to beat a snow storm so the sun was not shining. The fact that we got a voltage reading tells us the panel is working.
While we had the collector cup off, I gave it the annual Rain-X wipe down.
While the transmitter is being swapped, WeatherCat will start accumulating sensor errors because the outside sensors are all unplugged. In 30 minutes we racked up 6,794 sensor errors. They are all cleared out when you reboot WeatherCat.
In 5 months, if the battery doesn't go out, we will know this puzzle has been solved. If the battery does die in 5 months, we will know the Solar Panel should be replaced. If that doesn't solve our issue, we will be officially stumped.
Stay tuned. I'll report back in September.
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Dear Blick and WeatherCat station caregivers,
Glad you have the new ISS board in place. Yes, I can sadly attest that repetition does make the process go faster. I do hope that you'll be soon forgetting your ISS board swapping skills in the bliss of a durable and trouble-free weather station! :)
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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Sounds like you've got a good team on the job there, Blick. Good luck with the results!
By the way, we got a sale going on (http://www.amazon.com/DL123A-Duracell-Ultra-Lithium-Batteries-CR123A/dp/B002IGW15G?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00). $14.45 Prime, for 8 batteries. Free shipping! That's a buck eighty each.
(http://batteryguy.com/images/P/dl123a.jpeg)
[rockon] [rockon] [rockon]
[wink]
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Eight? Only Edouard can go through 8 in the same year. I'm just going though 1 every 5 months. It would take me 40 months to use 8. I'm more of a 2-pack guy. However, have to admit I'm liking that US$1.80 price.
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http://www.batteryjunction.com/batteries-size-cr123a.html (http://www.batteryjunction.com/batteries-size-cr123a.html)
1 dollar a battery, not bad
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Coincidentally, I just recently ran out and ordered a pack, and received it today. All checked out with > 3.24v using my Fluke 87 multimeter.
The incident is worth mentioning, because my last pack was an 8 pack as well, and I had some of the same concerns as you about buying 8 at a time. However, On receiving the previous 8 pack order, I had written the date on the box. It was in November of 2013. So the 8 only lasted me 2 1/2 years. And I always checked the voltage before installation. It was always >3.24v. But, along with the ISS, I have the wind transmitter and two remote temperature transmitters. It is the two remotes that are the most demanding. Every six months, like clockwork, 2 more batteries out of the box and into service. That's 4 a year, so I must have still had some from the previous order when I received those.
So, my suggestion is, if you want to get the 8 pack to save money, order you a couple of remote temperature sensors. [lol]
[cheers1]
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$1 a battery is a good price. May be worth trying next time, if the price is still low.
Would you believe that I found an even better price? (http://www.cr123batteries.com/tenergy-propel-cr123a-3v-w-ptc-lithium-battery-1400mah/) $0.99.
But then, one must pay shipping. Depending on how many you buy, that can cut into the price difference a bit.
[cheers1]
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$1 a battery is a good price... Would you believe that I found an even better price? $0.99.
I'd be willing to pay the higher cost if it includes installation. (http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/u666/xAirbusDriver/Thinking_zps6auyy8fj.gif) (http://i1327.photobucket.com/albums/u666/xAirbusDriver/cheer2_zpsuajiabdd.gif)
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I don't know? Letting some stranger inside the weather station to mess with its fiddly bits? Sounds like a recipe for trouble pudding. [lol]
[cheers1]
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Oh, I'd have to see a background report on the person, along with a certification from Davis... after all, that what you're paying for at that higher price! :P
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$1 a battery is a good price. May be worth trying next time, if the price is still low.
Would you believe that I found an even better price? (http://www.cr123batteries.com/tenergy-propel-cr123a-3v-w-ptc-lithium-battery-1400mah/) $0.99.
But then, one must pay shipping. Depending on how many you buy, that can cut into the price difference a bit.
[cheers1]
I go through a lot of those over a year. I have 8 stations, several 1000 lumen flash lights (If I go out side at night, I want to see them critters before they get me. Three things get me outside. 1. take dog out for dump. 2. We are going to a movie. 3. the wind gauges are frozen because of the freezing rain)
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Three things get me outside. 1. take dog out for dump. 2. We are going to a movie. 3. the wind gauges are frozen because of the freezing rain
A cheaper solution:1. Get an indoorcat. They live longer than outdoor models and are born potty trained.
2. Drive a car. Most of them come with headlights and even the parking lots at the movie have lights.
3. Move to an area without freezing rain or at least one where it only occurs without winds.
Bonuses:1. Less dangerous landfill material.
2. At least one nice meal with your wife at a good restaurant.
You're welcome! [lol]
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No offense to cat owners, but I can't stand them. Louie is a ******er spaniel. He craps in the yard and the grass later is a dark green. Kitty (which by the way was the real name of a principal I had to work with. She was mean spirited and plain evil to some of us.) needs litter box changed and I have enough trouble changing the toilet paper roll.
I do drive a Jeep, 4 wheel drive, gets throw snow fine. Even has fog lights, not that I need them. Things are foggy enough.
Moving, sure right way. As soon as I win the lottery.
meal with wife, we go out to eat a lot. We know the menues by heart. :)
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8 Stations!
[goofy]
Boy, you don't mess around!
"The average rainfall on our block today is 2.21538 inches with an 8 point measurement."
Or, is there more to the story?
[lol2]
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I am a retired high school math and science teacher. I have a lot of time on my hands. I had planned on working until 70 (what was i thinking?) but the school district promised me until I died at the wheel , I could teach. We got a new principal who decided that all the experienced older teachers needed to go and started making life pure hell. Fortunately for me i had an ace in the hole and was allowed to retire the next year, the condition being the asswipe had to leave me completely alone and let me do my job. Bingo. So I retired in 2013
My latest project is to modify the soil moisture station. Davis uses these pinch clamps that have a soft plastic lever that will break. I am going to see if I can use screw bus terminal strips to by pass sort of having to fiddle with those clamps. My concept is to run a copper wire from each of the 8 pairs of wires to the block and then attach the wires there. Of course i have to wait for the blocks to arrive and to figure out how to house them. I have griped to Davis about this for 16 years.
8 stations isn't bad.
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So you mean you've got 8 soil moisture stations (https://www.google.com/search?q=davis+instruments+weather+station+soil+moisture&biw=1636&bih=1231&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwi557W115jMAhUHroMKHS69C8IQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=_)? I was assuming you were using 8 Vantage Pro 2 stations. My bad.
I'm still unclear about the project. Are you going to house the screw type bus terminal strips in a project box (https://www.google.com/search?q=project+box&biw=1636&bih=1231&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiv8M-Y2ZjMAhUqx4MKHZhIBtUQ_AUIBygC), separate from the Davis soil moisture station housing?
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no, only if I had an Envoy 8x and right now they don't work with Mac, the evil beings.
I have the following
1. iss
2. Soil/Moisture
3.temp/humid (attic)
4.temp/humid (basement)
5 temperature station (Soil surface temp)
6.wireless anemometer (I have two anemometers. One I installed about 15 years ago and one lower. I'll never be able to replace the one on the pole. I got older0
7.temp/humid ( crawl space under family room)
8 2nd soil moisture unit (right now not being used)
The screw terminals might not fit in the box so I might have to put something to the bottom . OR I might face reality and give up. Depends on how I feel at the time.
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Back to my original thread with an interim update. We are sanding and re-staining our log cabin this week. Because I have an aerial man lift on property, I decided to inspect my ISS. It was full of dirt so I'm glad I took a look. My ISS battery clocked in at 3.1 volts. It has been installed for 4 months now. I think the threshold for replacement is 2.8 volts, so I am well within range for good operation.
One idea, which I have not tried yet, for checking to see if the capacitor is working is to take the battery out of the ISS and see how long it will continue to transmit readings. On a new wireless transmitter board, on a sunny day, that capacitor should continue to operate for several hours. Davis says it can go for up to eight hours, but should go at least two to four. Of course, you have to ignore the low battery voltage warning, which removing the battery will generate, but that should give me an idea of the solar panel/capacitor generating and storing power.
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I hope you remember to replace the battery before turning in for the night... You could set an alarm/email from WC, but asking the wife to remind you will probably be more reliable. Just tell her it's something you did wrong! My wife has a memory like an elephant for those kinds of things!! [banghead] [lol]
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Dear Blick, X-Air, and WeatherCat station caregivers,
One idea, which I have not tried yet, for checking to see if the capacitor is working is to take the battery out of the ISS and see how long it will continue to transmit readings. On a new wireless transmitter board, on a sunny day, that capacitor should continue to operate for several hours. Davis says it can go for up to eight hours, but should go at least two to four. Of course, you have to ignore the low battery voltage warning, which removing the battery will generate, but that should give me an idea of the solar panel/capacitor generating and storing power.
Since I've also had transmitter board woes I can confirm that the board will continue to transmit without a battery. In fact Ryan from Scaled Instruments recommends that you turn on the LED on the board you are getting rid of to discharge the super-capacitor as rapidly as possible, otherwise the old board might interfere with the new one you are installing. I've watched the old board flash the LED for hours. You could certainly let it run for an hour or two with the LED on to make sure the super-capacitor is providing the rated power.
Cheers, Edouard
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An update here, just to say that this problem seems to have been solved, finally. It has been exactly 10 months today since I installed the third wireless transmitter module in the ISS. Since the battery is still good, that means I have gone twice as long as Davis says it will take to run the battery down if the super capacitor is not connected or otherwise not properly functioning.
Bottom line: Either the super cap went bad in the original transmitter module or something else on that circuit board went out, the second transmitter module was faulty from the factory and the super cap in the third module is working properly.
Thanks to each of you who helped me figure this thing out. This saga started in the summer of 2014 and I am happy to put it to rest. I am now able to return to replacing the battery annually and choose to do so during the spring on a sunny day.
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An update here, just to say that this problem seems to have been solved, finally. It has been exactly 10 months today since I installed the third wireless transmitter module in the ISS. Since the battery is still good, that means I have gone twice as long as Davis says it will take to run the battery down if the super capacitor is not connected or otherwise not properly functioning.
Bottom line: Either the super cap went bad in the original transmitter module or something else on that circuit board went out, the second transmitter module was faulty from the factory and the super cap in the third module is working properly.
Thanks to each of you who helped me figure this thing out. This saga started in the summer of 2014 and I am happy to put it to rest. I am now able to return to replacing the battery annually and choose to do so during the spring on a sunny day.
]
and it took only 97 posts to figure it out. wow
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Dear Blick, Weatheraardvark, and WeatherCat station troubleshooters, . . .
An update here, just to say that this problem seems to have been solved.
. . . . .
This saga started in the summer of 2014 and I am happy to put it to rest.
Glad to hear that indeed this problem has finally disappeared!
and it took only 97 posts to figure it out. wow
Be glad you weren't the person struggling with the station for that long. Having also had a ISS episode that lasted many months I can assure you - nobody want to be in this predicament! [banghead]
Cheers, Edouard