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High readings when station loses communication with sensor

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steve
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by steve »

It seems that it gives 51.0 m/s for wind speed (confirmed on the Open2300 site), so I'm ignoring 51 or above, 110% for humidity, (so I ignore everything above 100 - of course) and 69.8 for outside temp (which I believe is its 'normal' maximum value), so I'm ignoring everything above 69C.

I was already doing some filtering during normal running, but not for the archive data.

Steve
cilldara
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by cilldara »

steve wrote:I think I've worked out what values are returned when contact is lost, I'll have a new version shortly which attempts to allow for it.

Steve

Cheers
cilldara
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by cilldara »

TgT wrote:huh, cilldara, quite lots of bad data there, you really have it that much away from the main unit? Or have you tried connecting a station with rs232(comport) instead of USB?

My friend gets just temperature spikes around 83°C i think... steve, what is your "hack" now? Does it ignore those readings or any other way? If i may suggestion a special editbox where people can add their ignored numbers ...

The outside sensors are about 30feet away from the base unit which should be OK I think, though I'm hoping to move them farther away from the house to a more exposed location.

I don't think its bad data, I only get problems when the base unit is showing a - in the outside reading slots, and Heavy Weather does ignore the gaps. As Steve has said he's working in the dark, trying various things to get it working, I don't think he even has access to a unit.

My original plan was to use an old PC to run weather software 24/7 and act as a file/backup server but it died beyond economic repair so I'm keeping my eye out for something decent but also economical to run 24/7.
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beteljuice
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by beteljuice »

Easy fix for La Crosse 23xx reception.

Open the base unit and you see a length of wire wrapped round loosely inside.

That's your receiving antenna, get a soldering iron and replace it with twice the length.

You can still get drop-outs through external batteries / sub-zero temperatures, but it should help stop your unit being so volatile.

You could run cabled (as I do), if the base is 'mains' powered then the outside sensors are powered from the base BUT if there is a nearby lightning strike it can take out the COM port of your PC (don't know about USB / serial adapters)

It happened to me :x
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......................Imagine, what you will KNOW tomorrow !
Doc D
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by Doc D »

As a newcomer to a WS2350 and to Cumulus (great software BTW - many thanks!), I have been following this thread since I have also been receving similar aberrant readings, again (I think) relating to reception fall-outs. The dubious readings so far are not constant, but include:

Max temp > 50C (multiple values in 50-60 range, but clustered around 58)
Mac gusts > 120 km/h (multiple values)
Min pressure as low as 50 hPa (multiple values)

Not sure if any of this helps, but I thought that I might mention it!
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steve
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by steve »

I don't think any of the changes I've done are going to help with those values :(

Which version/build are you using?

Steve
Doc D
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by Doc D »

1.8.4 build 605.

BTW, I am a complete novice in this malarky, and the set-up is very recent (last week) and still being finalised - hence please accept my comments with due caution. Nonetheless, I thought that the errant readings might be germane to the discussion. FWIW, equivalent errant readings did not seem to occur in Heavy Weather, but I have not used that as much.

Apologies for any confusion stemming from my contribution!
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steve
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by steve »

No, that's fine, no confusion at all. I am somewhat relieved to see you say you're using 1.8.4, as I've done some changes in 1.8.5 which appear to have solved a lot of the false data problems (other than this latest lost communication business).

I think you will find that installing 1.8.5 will improve things for you - but I think you might as well hold on until the next build before installing it - unless you're really keen :)

Steve
Doc D
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by Doc D »

Very keen, but even more incompetent - I shall wait for the next biuld, and try to optimise existing siting and set-up in preparation!

Thanks again for your time and effort!
helresa
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by helresa »

Just to confirm that I am seeing the high readings on my system as I am awaiting a replacement for the external transmitter to arrive from the UK as mine died after 2 years of service
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steve
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by steve »

Latest build attempts to fix the 'lost communication' data issues:

http://www.nybbles.co.uk/downloads/beta ... sSetup.exe

Steve
cilldara
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by cilldara »

Thanks Steve,

I've downloaded and installed the new version, the station has been behaving itself for the last day or two, so I can't tell if its made an difference, I'll let you know how it goes if and when the problem recurs.


John
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steve
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by steve »

OK - thanks, John.

Steve
Doc D
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by Doc D »

Hi,

I have installed the new build but am still obtaining aberrant readings. Since these include data measured at the console, I am not sure that reception breakdown is the sole explanation. What I notice (e.g. for pressure readings) is that the wacky data contain elements of the preceding and following readings, with the problem seeminly affecting the digits preceding the final two: e.g.

1007.2
77.2
1007.2

1008.6
88.6
1008.6

Dunno if this is of any use, but in case it is...

Many thanks!
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steve
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Re: High readings when station loses communication with sensor

Post by steve »

The pressure data is returned in 3 bytes of BCD, so this suggests that the least significant byte, representing the 7.2 in your first example, is OK, but the other two, representing x100 (the x is part of the pressure in inHg) are not. But the data is checksummed, so I don't understand what could be going wrong. The checksum isn't very sophisticated - add the bytes and take the least significant byte.

I'm not actually logging the entire packet to the debug log, just the data, but could you turn on the debug log and let me have it when you see the problem again? And I'll look into tracing the entire packet including the checksum.

Steve
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