Cumulus Support

Could the transmitter be ran on mains power via a 3v 80mah adaptor with battery backup if power failure, or is it just easier to stick to AA's.

Regards

Hi Jonesey.

no real reason why mains power cant be used but it will give loads of negative issues. eg

cable run, insulation, location of cable, weather proofing and much more.

I used good quality ALKALINE batteries and got 18 months trouble free before changing them while servicing the system.

It seems not worth the effort fixing a psu system unless your going to locate the transmitter somewhere easily unaccessible !

and then you will have all the issues with cables and connections.

Its interesting to note the new units have solar panels fitted.

I second that. Another point, 3v unregulated supplies will have a much higher low current voltage which could damage the transmitter. A regulated 3v supply would work but again with the possible problems above. Yes, more trouble than it's worth.

Hi
I have been running mine on a 3V regulated supply for over a year with no problems. I just used two pieces of dowel as battery substitutes with drawing pin contacts on the ends.
Power cuts are the only disadvantage.
Regards
Alan

You could run the 3v PSU off an UPS

Gina wrote:You could run the 3v PSU off an UPS

... and with a backup diesel generator to takeover when the UPS battery runs out.

Synewave wrote:

Gina wrote:You could run the 3v PSU off an UPS

... and with a backup diesel generator to takeover when the UPS battery runs out.

Oh absolutely!

How about fitting NiMH AAs in the usual place? Wouldn't the external supply keep them topped up? Or maybe the combined 2.5v they supply is insufficient to power the transmitter in event of a cut.....

Jaycar Electronics here in Aus are selling a "AC/DC Transmitter Adaptor for Home Weather Station" (AUD$29.95) with a 6 metre cable. It's for the Fine Offset clone they are selling.

Details here: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=XC0294

UPS............... Diesel generator..............

Have both, but not for the weather station, the UPS and generator are for computer hardware.

Have a Maplin (Fine Offset) 1080. The simplest solution that seems to have worked OK for me over the last 12 months is a regulated DC power supply, and 2 AA batteries in a carrier close to the PSU, with a diode wired in to only allow them to provide power. If the PSU is off for some reason, the batteries take over, and as long as I replace them once in a while, the sender seems to be happy so far. There are no batteries at the transmitter, the wire from the PSU is soldered to the battery tags. Once in a while btw is not at all so far, and we have had power outages, but no problems with the sender dropping out

Reason is that we're in a hollow, so the station is mounted on a pole that's on the chimney of a dormer bungalow, so getting to the sender to replace batteries is a major pain!

Steve