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my station is going down

For discussion of DIY weather equipment - sensors, accessories, improvements to existing kit etc
JohnDon
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue 14 Sep 2010 10:09 pm
Weather Station: Smart Weather 2080
Operating System: Win XP
Location: Ireland
Contact:

my station is going down

Post by JohnDon »

Hi All
I am running build 1.9.1 ver 955
I noticed over the past few days that the live wind data would stop so I would shut down Cumulus and restart it again and away it would go again.
It has been raining all night and now all that is working is the Barometer. Yesterday I made one change, I put a cover over the PC and receiver of the weather station because they are both in a cold attic. The problem is. its 100 miles away and the only contact I have is logmein.com. Could it be just the software because if the Barometer is working so should the temperature so I hope the station isnt faulty already. Any thoughts, I have rebooted the pc a few times
http://www.weather.carnebeach.com
John
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steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26702
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
Operating System: None
Location: Vienne, France
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by steve »

The barometer is in the console, as are indoor temperature and indoor humidity, which are all reading OK. So it looks like you have lost contact with the outdoor sensors. Could the cover you've put on be impeding the signal?
Steve
Synewave
Posts: 642
Joined: Mon 25 Jan 2010 1:55 pm
Weather Station: Watson W-8681
Operating System: Raspian
Location: Brighton, UK
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by Synewave »

If you can still Logmein to the PC, have a look at Cumulus and see if there are any Lost Sensor Contact messages in the Error page.
Synewave
Posts: 642
Joined: Mon 25 Jan 2010 1:55 pm
Weather Station: Watson W-8681
Operating System: Raspian
Location: Brighton, UK
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by Synewave »

Actually, it has lost contact. I just looked at your realtime.txt and the value for sensor contact lost is set to 1 meaning it has lost contact.
User avatar
steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26702
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
Operating System: None
Location: Vienne, France
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by steve »

Synewave wrote:Actually, it has lost contact. I just looked at your realtime.txt and the value for sensor contact lost is set to 1 meaning it has lost contact.
Ah, good thinking! I was going to suggest to John that he included the 'sensor lost' web tag on his web page, but I'd forgotten it was in there.
Steve
JohnDon
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue 14 Sep 2010 10:09 pm
Weather Station: Smart Weather 2080
Operating System: Win XP
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by JohnDon »

The best I could do was get a friend to take the batteries out of the receiver and unplug the USB for a few min's and I thought YES its back. What it did do was transmit yesterdays data again, So it looks like I have to go and pull the batteries out of the station on the roof too.
The friend also took the receiver out from under the cover and left it out, he said the signal strength was 75%. Its only about 40 feet between the sensors and the receiver.

John
JohnDon
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue 14 Sep 2010 10:09 pm
Weather Station: Smart Weather 2080
Operating System: Win XP
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by JohnDon »

I should have said thanks for your replies on my last post, sorry about that.
Just as a thought, is it normal for a station to freeze like this from time to time.
If so I have a plan, I am going to put a relay on the pc, so when I reboot the pc once a week it will also reboot both the receiver and the transmitter on the sensors. The easiest and quickest way would be to attach a 12vdc relay to one of the spare leads on the computers power supply and on the N/O side of the relay run 2 wire's to the transmitter and use them to brake the contact at the battery. I think I can simply leave the batteries out of the receiver and power it from the USB so it will loose its power on a reboot

John
JohnDon
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue 14 Sep 2010 10:09 pm
Weather Station: Smart Weather 2080
Operating System: Win XP
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by JohnDon »

Hi All my station is back on the air :clap:
One of the batteries in the receiver was completely flat. They were a new pack of Panasonic batteries so I just put in 2 new Duracell. We will see how that goes, so we are all ready for the big storm

John
JohnDon
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue 14 Sep 2010 10:09 pm
Weather Station: Smart Weather 2080
Operating System: Win XP
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by JohnDon »

Hi All again. there is something seriously wrong with the weather station or Ireland is about to sink. It tells me that we just had 433mm of rain today Grrrrr.. The rain catcher is on the pole and I havent made any modifications and I checked the software that there is no changes in the calculations section.
I am using the v1.9.1 961 is there a calculation problem with it or is my system gone to pot or fallen into the sea :lol:

John
User avatar
steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26702
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
Operating System: None
Location: Vienne, France
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by steve »

Common problem with Fine Offset stations. Lots of possible causes, RF interference etc, and if your rain gauge is on the anemometer pole, on the roof, then quite likely the wind is making the buckets tip.
Steve
JohnDon
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue 14 Sep 2010 10:09 pm
Weather Station: Smart Weather 2080
Operating System: Win XP
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by JohnDon »

Thanks Steve

I am just looking at the trends and it looks like its a lot more than just the rain sensor, everything is reading wrong again. I am starting to think I was unlucky and got a faulty one :cry:
http://www.weather.carnebeach.com/trends.htm
Its looking the same as it was last week before it froze

John
User avatar
steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26702
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
Operating System: None
Location: Vienne, France
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by steve »

Yes, the shape of your graphs suggest a fault, rather than the common interference 'spikes'.
Steve
JohnDon
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue 14 Sep 2010 10:09 pm
Weather Station: Smart Weather 2080
Operating System: Win XP
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by JohnDon »

I wrote to Gadgets in the UK and asked if I purchased a second weather station off him and returned the first one in the box and packing, would he give me credit, but no reply. I reset everything at the weather station again this weekend but its lost connection again with the sensors. Today I got a new weather station from Maplin. Only 70 euro, on special offer. Next weekend I will replace my station and wait a few weeks to see if the new one is ok and then I will return the faulty one and hopefully that will be the end of all the bad data I am getting

John
JohnDon
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue 14 Sep 2010 10:09 pm
Weather Station: Smart Weather 2080
Operating System: Win XP
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by JohnDon »

Hi All

3 weeks ago I bought a new weather station from Maplin and replaced the one in Carne. I set up the "faulty" one at home and now both seem to be working perfect. Strange but true.
Happy Christmas all

John
RayProudfoot
Posts: 3372
Joined: Wed 06 May 2009 6:29 pm
Weather Station: Davis VP2 with Daytime FARS
Operating System: Windows XP SP3
Location: Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, England
Contact:

Re: my station is going down

Post by RayProudfoot »

Hello John,

This isn't related to your problem but I noticed your latitude / longitude places you in the Netherlands. As you are located in Ireland I'm guessing your longitude should be W not E. ;)
Cheers,
Ray, Cheshire.

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