Sandaysoft

9hrs run time now since I applied the solder fix and fixed the short in the solar panel wires.

If it makes it through tomorrow I'll declare it a success

They really should not be releasing products with inadequately earthed oscillators!

Happy new year to all.

Hi Stephen,

You are lucky the crystal seems to have fixed the issue. It was the first thing I did and it did not work, has not worked for others as well.

Its after 8 am here and mine is still working (at greatly reduced light exposure via an old white sock) this is basically a record for me - nearly 22 hrs. So like you if I make it through today I will be happy that I have found the possible issue with mine at least. Just need to work out if its the Light Sensor or UV Sensor.

I just have to deal with the supplier now. I emailed him again yesterday and he has progressed to blaming static electricity for the problem (previously it was too close to "tin" but I have no tin I have concrete tiles!) and he also says "its not a fault with the unit". He suggested I move it (which I actually did 3 days ago to get better wind readings) and it may help if I try the reset procedure I have done 15 or 20 times in the last 6 days.

This is a confusing response because if he believes static electricity is the problem then in my book he is also admitting the product is poorly designed, perhaps defective, certainly not fit for purpose and it should be recalled.

<Rant> If he continues down that track its off to Davis I go and I will mail the two weather stations back to him smashed into 1000's of pieces to abate frustration and save postage. Seriously - its working great as a basic PWS, its just that I feel if they supply a solar / lux unit then they are responsible for making it work reliably - as reliably as its other parts is not an unreasonable expectation and whilst they are not perfect (e.g. wind dir sensor) at least they work without intervention every day. < Rant over>

Phil

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http://www.auzhq.net/weather - using a VP2+

Thats a big shame that they can't stand behind their product, it was definitely the Oscillator in mine because I'm almost up to the 24hr mark now and its been running all night and into the morning.

you shouldn't have to have a sock over it to get reliablity....

There should be a recall for these stations I do agree, the average joe isn't going to know what to do even when told and shown photos, its just lucky I'm tech savvy and I'm lucky it was just the oscillator, static electricity haha clutching at straws.

If you don't start getting somewhere its time to contact fair trading...

Its made my day someone understands...

I don't think its worth the hassle to go down the fair trading route for a $110 weather station. I am more inclined to somehow attenuate the sensor responsible and deal with that separately.

Steve - if you are reading this, assuming its a simple matter of attenuating the light (lux) sensor can we have a calibration factor (probably just the multiplier) for Lux? I will hunt down the suggestions section and add it there as well. I personally believe we should have a mult factor in any case as the two solar units I have differ by about 20% or so with the second unit going well over the theoretical max W/M2 even when I change the factor to 90% which is probably unrealistic.

Back to the issue - I think its going to be the Lux sensor. I say this because this sensor is a two wire thing, probably an LDR behind a diffusior. It will be great if it is because a simple variable resistor / trimmer will probably be all I need.

I don't think its the UV sensor as this appears to be a semiconductor with a few pins so I am willing to bet it outputs 0-14 UV as a digital signal as opposed to the Lux which is probably an analogue input to the processor. Still its possible that the UV semiconductor "freezes" if UV is high causing the processor to lock up, but unlikely as I would expect this UV to Processor coms to be TWI or I2C or the likes meaning external devices should not be capable of locking up the processor.

I now think its time to isolate the sensor responsible, might make that tomorrows task.

I am going to fish out the photos I took of the solar board and temp / hum board and post them in another more related link. I will update this thread when done.

Phil

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http://www.auzhq.net/weather - using a VP2+

I'm not sure what you do with the 'raw' Lux figure, but you can control the factor which Cumulus uses to convert Lux to W/m2 by adding a line to the [Solar] section of cumulus.ini thus:

LuxToWM2=x.y

where x.y is the conversion factor you want to use. The default is 0.0079.

Steve

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Steve
Sanday Weather
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OK thanks Steve.

Regarding the raw Lux figure, how does it come out of the WS console? Is it not the same value we see on Cumulus?

I was hoping that we can apply a factor to it like you have done with other sensors to make it more realsitic. EG if the value is 180,000.0 Lux as displayed on Cumulus, on a bright sunny day and we know that on such a day the max expected is [Edit] 100,000 - 130,000 [End Edit] (as per Wikipedia on Lux) we can put in the appropriate factor to correct it (in this case 0.722).

The W/M2 calc uses the Lux (I think thats right) so if we get the Lux roughly right then the W/M2 should be roughly right.

I just would like to get both figures right on Cumulus, adjusting the W/M2 factor won't fix Lux (will it?) and as I mentioned two different sensors yield vastly different Lux values which affex W/M2.

Also if attenuating the Lux sensor fixes these Fine Offset WH3081 stations then this will be invaluable for these folks to get reasonable readings (me thinks?).

You already have one for UV so Lux would complete it nicely.

Can I tempt you with a $50 AU donation

Cheers

Phil

EDIT: Here are some Lux readings taken by someone with a 3% accurate lux meter. Not sure where in the world though.

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http://www.auzhq.net/weather - using a VP2+

as promised:

WH3081 Sensor Internals (Solar / Outdoor Temp)

_________________
http://www.auzhq.net/weather - using a VP2+

A Lux calibration factor wouldn't be hard, and certainly not worth $50 AU. But if you think it would be useful...

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Steve
Sanday Weather
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Like Cumulus and want to support it? Please donate!

Steve,

The factor may not be worth 50 bucks but your software certainly is not to mention the support you give here.

Donation has been made. I certainly don't expect the factor capability right away - when you can fit it in will be fine.

I think it will be worth doing for reasons mentioned.

Cheers

Phil

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http://www.auzhq.net/weather - using a VP2+

Good news and Bad news.

Good bit - My attenuated system still working

Bad bit is the guy I bought off has had a negative feedback from someone saying "Part of the wether station does not work" (and its not me!). I am willing to bet on which part it is! (the surprised looking smilie is sarcasm if there are Sheldons out there)


Edit: UV / Lux module progress

56 Hrs and all is good - (convinced now its high light levels that's the issue)

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http://www.auzhq.net/weather - using a VP2+

ahh well it still isn't good enough we have to go to such lengths with these products but the fine offset crowd is a bunch of tech savvy people at heart hehe.

over 24 hours straight of operation here, beautiful readings rise to report 14/16 UV at the peak period of the day and watching it slowly crawl down as the day draws closer to an end.

A preliminary success I wish it was as simple for other people.

Just got through 3 days (56 Hrs) without a problem with the UV / Lux sensor.

I have now removed the sock on the unit and will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.

Phil

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http://www.auzhq.net/weather - using a VP2+

3 days solid operation here now into day 4 of Operation but not concurrently

I removed the new Stevenson screen off the station and had my WH1081 stevenson screen on it yesterday as the new one was receiving it's obligatory coat of vivid white gloss which has brought readings into range with my manual Mercury thermometers which reside in a wooden screen.

UV/Solar sensor has needed 3 resets but all I have done is held down the reset button for 30 seconds then as told the down arrow on the station and its found sync every single time! very very easy procedure!

It seems to have settled in now though after being removed and taken offline I expected a few hiccups upon restart

As for the temps, they are spot on

I did the same to my WH1081 screen and found it cured the over reading issue in full sun

Great news on all fronts guys. Phil - excellent work on this, thanks very much for your efforts. If I get time before we head away camping I'll put my bad solar unit back up with some 'attenuation' on it. Funnily enough when I was running a 1-wire system it had an almost identical problem with solar sensor overload. The common solution was an opaque cover along the lines of an old milk container or pinpong ball half etc etc.
Just to clarify my dealings with FO (I see that the web site is back on line too) - I had been looking at re-selling the 3081 line here in NZ, so the sales guys were looking after me pretty well. I've had excellent communication and advice from them in general. The unit I have is pretty much a pre-sales sample (even though I had to buy it at retail from an Australian supplier from eBay), because there was no way I was going to contemplate selling them unless they were reliable and there was good factory after sales backup. I'd like to get this problem sorted and will be feeding back what we find here to my FO contact so hopefully they can get it fixed. I know they have Chinese New Year coming up so I don't expect to have much contact until later in Jan.

Cheers
Colin.

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Hi Stephen, Colin.

Thanks for the encouragement guys - Nice work on the screen Stephen, I might look at doing that when the dust settles with the light sensor.

And - Fine Offset got back to me and are very eager to help as I am to help them. Watch this space for the outcome of that. 10 out of 10 for support from them. 0 out of 10 for the eBay chap I dealt with. so I am convinced that dealing with China is better than dealing locally

Yes it failed again with the sock removed - just the once at about 8am so it survived 2 hours. So what I did (before FO emailed me unfortunately) was open up the unit again and replace a SMD resistor that's in series with the light sensor (some sort of semiconductor diode device - was expecting an LDR). I worked out that the resistor with the sensor is forming some sort of voltage divider network. Anyway when reassembled the light levels were now 25% lower. I know this because I did a before and after test with a halogen lamp at a fixed distance from sensor on a template to record relative positions.

It promptly went back in and endured continuous operation for the rest of the day.

I will post details and pictures but I will wait to see what the outcome from any assistance FO give me and my trial. They may determine my fix is either unrelated, by chance or even inappropriate.

Phil

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http://www.auzhq.net/weather - using a VP2+