Coincidence? Two errors, same time.

[xairbusdriver]

...do you have a separate transmitter for your anemometer?

Yes, it is mounted on the west end of the house, second story. The Station is accessible by a window. The actual anemometer, on a tall pole on the side of the "doghouse", is not accessible, according to my wife! It is within ten feet of the same distance of the Main ISS, but in addition to walls, there is also the upstairs flooring. It is the only Station that is seen by the Console, no matter what ID is assigned to it. Likewise, it is the only data now being collected, since the ISS (currently ID 5) is not recognized at all.

I will hold of buying either the circuit board or the ISS until I talk with Davis. Perhaps they have a method I can use to better clean the RJ sockets/connectors. I found the un-used sockets quite full of "stuff" earlier this year. Spider webs?/silk cocoons?/dust?/bug skeletons?/etc. I'd like to be assured that those connectors are soldered directly to the circuit board, I'll take a look myself in the morning.

when it comes to the quality of that advice . . .  Caveat Emptor!

I certainly have no problems with the quality of advice here!!    

[xairbusdriver]

Scrubbed, rinsed, dried and inspected the RJ sockets. Took the circuit board out to make it easier, only four screws. I now know how to remove a plastic clip that holds the grommet around the antenna in place. Those four screws go through four holes in what looks like a white "transmitter" cover. That cover also serves to keep the screws from protruding out the back of the main enclosure, BTW. There is actually nothing "on or inside" that "transmitter" cover. It may have some radio wave shielding capabilities, I dunno. It does cover the "super cap", in case you want to ever replace that item.

Restarted the Console and the two Stations (ISS: #6, Wind: #7) showed up! Made sure to have the ISS set to #6 and that #7 was also "On". Edited the 'crippled' html pages but "index.html" didn't seem to be updating by WC! Quitting and restarting WC fixed that. WC downloaded 512 bytes of mostly invalid data in the logger. Oh well.

System is back to normal for over 40 minutes!! WOW! OK, ok, not quite a record, but certainly an improvement from "DEAD"! It will be interesting to see how the hardware handles to nefarious 11 o'clock point! Fingers/toes crossed!!

[elagache]

Dear X-Air and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Scrubbed, rinsed, dried and inspected the RJ sockets. Took the circuit board out to make it easier, only four screws. I now know how to remove a plastic clip that holds the grommet around the antenna in place. Those four screws go through four holes in what looks like a white "transmitter" cover. That cover also serves to keep the screws from protruding out the back of the main enclosure, BTW. There is actually nothing "on or inside" that "transmitter" cover. It may have some radio wave shielding capabilities, I dunno. It does cover the "super cap", in case you want to ever replace that item.

Congratulations!  You now know how to replace your ISS board if need be.  The trick is indeed freeing the antenna.

Restarted the Console and the two Stations (ISS: #6, Wind: #7) showed up!
. . . 
System is back to normal for over 40 minutes!! WOW! OK, ok, not quite a record, but certainly an improvement from "DEAD"! It will be interesting to see how the hardware handles to nefarious 11 o'clock point! Fingers/toes crossed!!

Congratulations on bringing your station back to life!     I didn't think you could get enough gunk in the RJ sockets to cause connection problems.  I stand corrected!  You have taught all of us another troubleshooting strategy that I would not have thought of otherwise.

I hope that indeed your station is back to normal!   

Cheers, Edouard 

[xairbusdriver]

Congratulations on bringing your station back to life!

Wellll... maybe not quite. Unfortunately, the "Live Data" screen claims Wind Direction, Average Direction, and all four of the Gust Direction sensors are now Invalid. Trouble is, we're pretty much in a weather/wind 'dead zone', so there is little to no wind and I expect even less over night. We'll need a little 'stimulus' before I can agree that those sensors are not working. The Wind ISS has always been the first (and earlier, the only) Station to show up on a Console reset.

So, yes, I've learned a few things, but forgot about not counting chickens before they're bought!

[elagache]

Dear X-Air and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Congratulations on bringing your station back to life!

Wellll... maybe not quite. Unfortunately, the "Live Data" screen claims Wind Direction, Average Direction, and all four of the Gust Direction sensors are now Invalid. Trouble is, we're pretty much in a weather/wind 'dead zone', so there is little to no wind and I expect even less over night. We'll need a little 'stimulus' before I can agree that those sensors are not working. The Wind ISS has always been the first (and earlier, the only) Station to show up on a Console reset.

That's certainly another twist in the plot.  It seems unlikely that your ISS and anemometer transmitter would fail at the same time.  So the only component left that is a bottleneck is the console.  Perhaps there is a problem with that?

So, yes, I've learned a few things, but forgot about not counting chickens before they're bought!

Well, by all means do keep us posted!

Cheers, Edouard 

[xairbusdriver]

I’ve actually mentioned concerns about the anemometer. The wind data has been significantly lower this year and I wrote it off as the result of large oaks along the north of our house and also two in the front yards of ours and a neighbors. There are also a large number of tall trees on all the lots across the street. I even have a new set of cups but have put off rounding up a “man-lift” because of the previous week of ISS failures.

Life is pretty busy right now and will be until the end of the month. I’ll do what I can as soon as I can but I could use some good luck!

[elagache]

Dear X-Air and WeatherCat "trying to stay ahead of life" types,

I’ve actually mentioned concerns about the anemometer. The wind data has been significantly lower this year and I wrote it off as the result of large oaks along the north of our house and also two in the front yards of ours and a neighbors. There are also a large number of tall trees on all the lots across the street. I even have a new set of cups but have put off rounding up a “man-lift” because of the previous week of ISS failures.

Not that this is particularly rigorous, but I've never heard of a Davis anemometer "slowing down."  All I've ever heard of was the anemometer stopping to send data and therefore generating data errors (or nothing at all.)  The wind speed is a simple counter.  I suppose it could suffer a bearing failure that would cause it to slow down, but I've never seen a Davis station owner report that.  No guarantees, but I would expect that Davis engineers were particularly concerned about bearing durability since their stations are supposed to be commercial research grade.

Life is pretty busy right now and will be until the end of the month. I’ll do what I can as soon as I can but I could use some good luck!

When it comes to being busy and in need of some good luck that makes two of us!  Too bad you can't buy good luck at Costco - they would make a killing!   

Cheers, Edouard 

[xairbusdriver]

I suspect the "slowing down" is due to the increased wind blocking by the trees. The extra set of cups are a fairly inexpensive, if not convenient, fix, if the bearings have failed. The main problem is the necessity to climb on the 12/12 roof! I have been advised by the Chief Bottle-washer and Safety Officer, that I have passed the age of doing that task (even though I recently purchased a dark suit that will be fine for 'casket wear'  ). We are 'cursed' with a relatively small, tree covered lot, which created the need for a roof-top anemometer. Alas, I fear that the only alternative is either mounting the anemometer the way Davis provides or designing a ground mounted, tilting 35-40' 'contraption' near the current location (assuming SWMBO approves). The first order of bu$ine$$ will be to remove the roof mounting hardware.

In other news, I think I discovered (dreamed, literally!) of the last major brain-lapse concerning the reception of the Wind transmitter. "When all else fails, read the manual!" I remember seeing "Wind..." last week when I first started scrolling through the Console "Receiving from..." settings. Why do I not see anything like that now? The answer is in Step 4 in the "Setting Console/Receivers" section of the anemometer installations:

Press GRAPH to change the type of station assigned to that transmitter ID. Press GRAPH until the word “WIND” appears.

Details, details, duh-tales!!

I now have all the correct "Valid" channels showing. There has still been only very light "wind" but a few gusts are now appearing in the Wind graph and the Console shows the direction arrows changing occasionally. Only took 71,036 Sensor Errors for me to read the fourth step in the manual! Of course, it has only been a few hours... still keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks, again, for your helpful hints and suggestions!

[elagache]

Dear X-Air and WeatherCat station caregivers,

I suspect the "slowing down" is due to the increased wind blocking by the trees. The extra set of cups are a fairly inexpensive, if not convenient, fix, if the bearings have failed. The main problem is the necessity to climb on the 12/12 roof!
. . . .

My sympathies on the problem of having an anemometer that is better located to collect data, but is very hard to reach.  In my case, I just couldn't see any practical way to locate the anemometer to collect decent data, so I gave up and mounted it very close to the roof of the house.  I console myself with the thought I know what the winds are where they can do damage.  The benefit is that I can swap out the anemometer without any high-wire acts.

In other news, I think I discovered (dreamed, literally!) of the last major brain-lapse concerning the reception of the Wind transmitter. "When all else fails, read the manual!"

I now have all the correct "Valid" channels showing. There has still been only very light "wind" but a few gusts are now appearing in the Wind graph and the Console shows the direction arrows changing occasionally.
. . . .

Yes, we have all faced those "times that try men's souls" and finally had to read the manual!

I'm glad that your station is showing some signs of normalcy.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Cheers, Edouard 

[xairbusdriver]

In my trouble-shooting, equipment cleaning and general shootinging-in-the-dark exercises last week, I managed to 'confuse' the Davis Console. I had removed the batteries, disconnected the AC adaptor and even unplugged the data logger. That's generally a way, although not the accepted method, to rest/clear/remove/cancel any and all data from the Console.

A few days ago, I noticed that my "Yearly" Custom Gauge was showing zero! On the other hand, my Statistics page was reporting 40.31 inches. I've spent several hours editing the "10_WeatherCatData.cat" file. There has been no measurable rain here all month. But I found the "PY" (Annual Rain) column displayed 1019.56 on Oct 1 but 0.00 later in the month. And, after every edit, WC was still not updating my Yearly rain gauge!

I spent several hours today preparing copies of the .cat file, the "STAT$RAIN:TOTAL:THISYEAR$" WC html tag and even an html table showing each month's totals and how it closely matched the yearly tag value. Finally, I searched the forums for some related info.

I had actually posted about the real problem back in 2016 when I had replaced my Console! Frankly, I don't even remember replacing that thing! But there was the thread and the general solution: WC doesn't calculate the annual rain, it simply gets the data stored in the Console. The Console I had cleared of all that kind of useful data!

My yearly custom gauge is now back to normal! Unfortunately, I edited the Console with the value that WC has been reporting 40.31 inches. WC takes that value and converts it back to millimeters. The .cat file is file is now recording the annual rain (PY) as 1023.87. I'll see if I can enter a more accurate value in Console, but I'm not sure it's really worth it. 4.31mm = 0.169685in! If it ain't broke more than I can see, don't fix it!!

[Blicj11]

Thanks to both of you for a very interesting thread. Glad you are back up and running and hope you stop fixing things that require reading the manual first as that does not appear to one of your strengths. 

[xairbusdriver]

"Manual? MANUAL?! We doan needno stinkin' manual!!!"