Lost Sensor Contact!!

[geoffw]

Looks like my weather station is going back to Maplins! Grh!

Lost sensor contact all day today. It has spend the afternoon and evening stting in the window just eight metres from the weather station and ........ nothing!

Such a pity after a month of just occasionals 'drops' I was starting to feel confident, but this morning when I turned on my computer and started Cumulus the 'Problem' was back. I'll ring them Monday morning for a return numbers.

[Gina]

That's a nuisance

[geoffw]

Got a new RTX number this morning so my Watson Weather Station is now on its way back to Maplin. I'll keep you posted as to what transpires.

........ in the meantime no more weather reports from West Wales for a while!

[Gina]

Hope you get a replacement weather station soon Geoff I'll miss your Pembrokeshire reports.

[geoffw]

Just heard from Maplins Customer Support. They are going to replace my faulty Weather Station with a new one!

I paid £79 last year and they now retail through Maplins for £119!!

[steve]

Just heard from Maplins Customer Support. They are going to replace my faulty Weather Station with a new one!

Excellent - back on line soon, then, hopefully!

[geoffw]

Excellent - back on line soon, then, hopefully!

Trouble is they are 'out of stock' at the moment so I'll have to wait a bit!

[Gina]

Great! But a wait!

[souwesterly]

Just been reading through all the comments on this subject but I can't immediately find an answer to my problem.....

Some time on 31st March my display turned to a series of dashes.
We'd had a few days with rain which had duly been recorded along with all other readings (so I knew it was working then) - and then on 31st - nothing from outside.

I checked the on-screen display - and a little red light shone at me. I clicked on it.

Lost sensor contact! it says.....together with a log showing that it tries unsuccessfully to make contact every 10 seconds. Damn.

So eventually today, braving the showers, I brought the whole thing into the shed where I could check it over. All seemed ok except that one battery was u/s so I replaced both. A flashing red light above the batteries told me that something worked - I guessed. I cleaned everything - checked all wires and sockets, etc, etc. Then I put it back on it's pole and came indoors hopingto see a nice full screen of figures.

No - still nothing.

So now what?

I have one of those feelings that someone's going to say "it needs replacing" but if anyone has any other comments I'd be pleased to hear them.

(By the way - I bought it new in November 2008)

Cheers

[steve]

So eventually today, braving the showers, I brought the whole thing into the shed where I could check it over. All seemed ok except that one battery was u/s so I replaced both. A flashing red light above the batteries told me that something worked - I guessed. I cleaned everything - checked all wires and sockets, etc, etc. Then I put it back on it's pole and came indoors hopingto see a nice full screen of figures.

This is on the console rather than Cumulus? You could try power cycling the console to see if it can pick it up again.

[geoffw]

So eventually today, braving the showers, I brought the whole thing into the shed where I could check it over. All seemed ok except that one battery was u/s so I replaced both. A flashing red light above the batteries told me that something worked - I guessed. I cleaned everything - checked all wires and sockets, etc, etc. Then I put it back on it's pole and came indoors hopingto see a nice full screen of figures..............(By the way - I bought it new in November 2008)

Check out the manual - there is a sequence of powering up you are expected to follow.

My problem was 'Lost Sensor contact' - sometime for the odd minute but occasionally (rarely) for up to 12 hours, and then last month contact was lost for days before I sent it back to Maplins.

Fortunately for me, it was less than a year old so, they have agreed to replace it under warrantee.

[souwesterly]

Steve and Geoff

Thanks for your help and comments.

Yes Steve - it was the the weather station that came into the shed....the console stays firmly in the house (!!). I did unplug it and give it another restart but nothing seemed to happen.

I didn't get round to doing anything else apart from wonder (Geoff) if I'd followed the 'start-up sequence' properly. Then I had something else to do.....

And when I came back there it was - up and running again!

Restart was at 18.38 and I'd changed the batteries and cleaned it up at perhaps 11.30 - so it took 7 hours to reconnect itself.

Strange how machines work - especially anything to do with computers....

So, thanks for your help, again.

[chris48]

For what it is worth, I was advised earlier this week that the manufacture has fessed up to a transmitter problem and replacements transmitters (at least here in the US) may be available as early as next week. This may be totaly unrelated but it sure is coincidental. I have continued to have the same "lost sensor contact" problem after one replacement transmitter so we will see if this is a real fix or not.

[geoffw]

For what it is worth, I was advised earlier this week that the manufacture has fessed up to a transmitter problem and replacements transmitters (at least here in the US) may be available as early as next week. This may be totaly unrelated but it sure is coincidental. I have continued to have the same "lost sensor contact" problem after one replacement transmitter so we will see if this is a real fix or not.

Now that is interesting and worrying in equal measure!

Please keep us up-to-date with all the news and developments

[Gina]

I second that. Pity they didn't provide a wired connection as an alternative to wireless.