Vantage Pro 2 issue

[bcurry]

Hi all,
Well, this was a first...
I thought my outside humidity and temperature circuit was acting up again as I got a bunch of dashes on the console. Investigating, the console was flashing Low Battery - but this time low battery on CONSOLE.
I was a bit perplexed, but I took the batteries out and then all was fine (the console has been plugged in always).
I suspect the issue may be that we had a power failure a couple days ago, and without noticing it for some reason the console read Low Battery, but didn't automatically switch to power when it came back on? Is that possible?
In any case, as soon as I took the batteries out, I still got the warning, but the console displayed properly, and I just got new C cells and put them in and it flicked Low Battery a couple of times and then went back to normal operation (no warning and all data being displayed). I knew something was off because my webpage displays from a second console linked by a WLIP on a separate page, and it was displaying its data just fine.
So, not the ISS this time, just a weird blip on the console itself...
Interesting challenge to diagnose.
Bill

[Blicj11]

Bill:

That was an interesting interaction with your console. Your hypothesis sounds reasonable to me. I'm pretty sure the last time I changed out my console batteries, it continued to give me the Low Battery warning until midnight, when it magically cleared up. Sounds like you didn't have to wait that long.

You already know this, but for others who may not, you can always go to WeatherCat | Tools | Station Hardware Options to check the battery status of both your ISS and your Console.

Glad you figured it out and are back up and running with the Cat.

[elagache]

Dear Bill, Blick, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Hi all,
Well, this was a first...
I thought my outside humidity and temperature circuit was acting up again as I got a bunch of dashes on the console. Investigating, the console was flashing Low Battery - but this time low battery on CONSOLE.
I was a bit perplexed, but I took the batteries out and then all was fine (the console has been plugged in always).
I suspect the issue may be that we had a power failure a couple days ago, and without noticing it for some reason the console read Low Battery, but didn't automatically switch to power when it came back on? Is that possible?

I've never heard of this as a feature, but it would make sense.  If the batteries in your console are low, leaving the warning in place would indicate that the batteries need replacing before the next power outage.  Did you check to see if the batteries were indeed low?  Even if the batteries got very little use, they will degrade over time.

I'm pretty sure the last time I changed out my console batteries, it continued to give me the Low Battery warning until midnight, when it magically cleared up. Sounds like you didn't have to wait that long.

That is the only aspect of battery monitoring that I'm familiar with on the Vantage Pro-2.  The errors remain until midnight and then clear.

I try to replace all the batteries on my station (indoors and out) once a year.  Even if batteries are much more reliable than in past years, one battery leak could ruin a very expensive piece of equipment.  I prefer to do all this before the weather turn bad and have the piece of mind that my weather station will work because all the batteries are flesh for the winter.

Cheers, Edouard