Davis Soil Temp Stuck @ 164....

[jg]

For father's day I was given a Davis Soil/Leaf station with the Leaf Sensor and one soil temp and moisture probe.  I trenched about 150' of wire (2 sets of UF shielded 14#) to my front lawn.

At first I couldn't get either the console or envoy to register the probes, I now have them in slot 3 (I haven't figured out if you can have all four in use if you are using it for a Leaf Sensor too.

Anyhow, I had a terrible type with heat shrink splice protectors and finally thought I had it figured out.  This morning I made the splice, tested it and the soil temp was 75.  Then I melted the sleeves over the splice and it spiked to 164.  3 hours later it was 164 so I cut the splice and just did it with duct tape.  WeatherCat said the reading is valid but I can't get it to reset.  I've pulled the battery and tried switching "channels" and moved the temp sensor to 4 with no luck.

Any ideas?  Did the heat fry the sensor?  That would suck as it is perfectly buried in the lawn.  Anyone have a preferred/better way of weather proofing the splice?

[WCDev]

Did you find out what the problem was? Was the sensor u/s or was it wiring?

[jg]

Did you find out what the problem was? Was the sensor u/s or was it wiring?

Not yet, I picked up another soil probe and will return the first one if the new one corrects the problem. My Leaf/Soil station has also given me lots of transmission problems; they start at about 12:30 AM and resolve around 8, voltage is OK.  Goes out in middle of day too,  but not as much as night.

[Steve]

My Leaf/Soil station has also given me lots of transmission problems; they start at about 12:30 AM and resolve around 8, voltage is OK.  Goes out in middle of day too,  but not as much as night.

I've had this happen as well. Very intermittent; sometimes at night, sometimes during the day. Some days it is the same time for a couple of days and then nothing for weeks. The transmitter is only about 60 feet from the console, and right beside my ISS, so signal strength doesn't seem to be the issue. I think I'm getting interference on that particular channel from an unknown source.

[jg]

My Leaf/Soil station has also given me lots of transmission problems; they start at about 12:30 AM and resolve around 8, voltage is OK.  Goes out in middle of day too,  but not as much as night.

I've had this happen as well. Very intermittent; sometimes at night, sometimes during the day. Some days it is the same time for a couple of days and then nothing for weeks. The transmitter is only about 60 feet from the console, and right beside my ISS, so signal strength doesn't seem to be the issue. I think I'm getting interference on that particular channel from an unknown source.

Davis said to try a new battery.  Do you find it only happens with the Leaf/Soil unit or the Vantage Pro too?

[Steve]

Switching batteries made no difference for me, and it only happens with the leaf/soil unit. It was happening fairly regularly, but hasn't now for several weeks. I have a second leaf/soil station that I could swap in, but it is a pain to change all those wires.

Steve

[jg]

Switching batteries made no difference for me, and it only happens with the leaf/soil unit. It was happening fairly regularly, but hasn't now for several weeks. I have a second leaf/soil station that I could swap in, but it is a pain to change all those wires.

Steve

I swapped out the station today; it connected to the console immediately whereas the troublesome took the better part of day to get the connection. Fortunately I only had one soil, one moisture and one leaf.  This weekend I plan I connecting a second soil and moisture pair.  With 14 gauge wire it will get tight in there.

[jg]

The new station went through the night without a communications problem, so I think I had a bum unit.

My original soil moisture probe has been stuck at 0 since I installed it, I'm thinking the sensor is bad even though WeatherCat reports it as a valid reading.  I have it sticking out of the ground in 90 degree heat, if the reading doesn't drop from 0 I'll assume that the heat from the torch screwed it up as well (Davis said that shouldn't have affected it all since its 15 feet away from the sensor).

[Steve]

I'm glad to read that the problem is resolved. I guess if mine starts acting up, I'll end up swapping soil stations. (I got the second one used, thinking I could use it as a second soil station, but only one at a time can be recognized by the console...)

Steve

[jg]

After a few hours baking in the sun my moisture probe is finally drying out. I may soak it later today and let it dry out a few more times.