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WH3080. Rain gauge stopped working. Advice?

Discussion specific to Fine Offset and similar rebadged weather stations
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henkg
Posts: 99
Joined: Sun 24 Jul 2011 8:53 am
Weather Station: WH3080 (Alecto WS-5000 ECO)
Operating System: Raspbian Wheezy on RPI B+
Location: Zeeland, Netherlands

WH3080. Rain gauge stopped working. Advice?

Post by henkg »

Fine Offset WH3080. After one year no rain is registered. Everything else still works, including solar. The rain gauge seesaw can be tipped easily (no friction by spiders or rust), but no rain is registered.
I checked all cable connectors (removed/inserted several times to remove oxidants).

But now, where to start to find the problem. What might be the most likely problem. Any suggestions?
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beteljuice
Posts: 3292
Joined: Tue 09 Dec 2008 1:37 pm
Weather Station: None !
Operating System: W10 - Threadripper 16core, etc
Location: Dudley, West Midlands, UK

Re: WH3080. Rain gauge stopped working. Advice?

Post by beteljuice »

As you have probably seen it is just a simple reed switch.

Just put a meter accross the reed to look for a 'loop' when the magnet passes (the magnet hasn't fell off has it ?)
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......................Imagine, what you will KNOW tomorrow !
AllyCat
Posts: 1124
Joined: Sat 26 Feb 2011 1:58 pm
Weather Station: Fine Offset 1080/1 & 3080
Operating System: Windows XP SP3
Location: SE London

Re: WH3080. Rain gauge stopped working. Advice?

Post by AllyCat »

Hi,

If you don't have a meter, temporarily plug the Rain cable into the Wind socket. Rock the rain sensor several times and a few km/hr of wind should be shown on the Console within 48 seconds.

If you do have a meter, the transmitter should be putting out about 20 uA on one of the the Rain pins (relative to the other). Such a low currrent sometimes can be "shorted" by mositure in the cable/connector.

Reeds are available from CPC/Farnell, or maybe the complete sensor from Clas Ohlson (but Maplin in the UK is probably cheaper).

Cheers, Alan.
henkg
Posts: 99
Joined: Sun 24 Jul 2011 8:53 am
Weather Station: WH3080 (Alecto WS-5000 ECO)
Operating System: Raspbian Wheezy on RPI B+
Location: Zeeland, Netherlands

Re: WH3080. Rain gauge stopped working. Advice?

Post by henkg »

Thanks for the advice.

Magnet is still there.
I swapped the wind- and rain plugs. After that "rain" was detected, and -after rocking the rain sensor seesaw- no wind speed.
So it looks like the transmitter is OK, but the rain sensor is defective.

My next step: contact the supplier, because there is a 2 years warranty.
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henkg
Posts: 99
Joined: Sun 24 Jul 2011 8:53 am
Weather Station: WH3080 (Alecto WS-5000 ECO)
Operating System: Raspbian Wheezy on RPI B+
Location: Zeeland, Netherlands

Re: WH3080. Rain gauge stopped working. Advice?

Post by henkg »

Solved.
26 jan: email to the Dutch importer
27 jan: reply: "We will send you a new rainsensor, no costs."
29 jan: rainsensor delivered. Installed. Works OK.
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