ISS Transmitting Board

[Blicj11]

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.

[xairbusdriver]

Perhaps these links will help, also:

• <Build Your Own Faraday Cage>
• <Details on Faraday Shields>
• <History, all-you-can-stand-to-know!>
• <Commercial source>

I particularly recommend the Faraday Door idea, near the bottom of that first linked article... Who knows what some one knocking on your door might be planning?! Better safe than sorry!

[Blicj11]

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.

[WCDev]

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.

[elagache]

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!

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.

  . . . Of course, these are "enterprise level drives" . . . . where "enterprise" means you can afford to replace the drives all da' time!! . . . 

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

[Bull Winkus]

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.

 

[WCDev]

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'.

[Blicj11]

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.

[elagache]

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 

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!

[Blicj11]

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.

[Bull Winkus]

Good work, Blick! Sounds like you're on your way to a solution.

 

[elagache]

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 

P.S. Still no problems on my end - still knocking wood!

[Blicj11]

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!

[elagache]

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

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!!

The things we go through so we can have instant access to the weather at our house!

I feel your pain brother! . . . .

Cheers, Edouard

[Blicj11]

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.