Re: Hydreon double tips

bruce45 · Post by **bruce45** » Sun 24 Jun 2012 10:53 pm

the reed is mounted horizotal on the tipbucket

the magnet is so close its was not untill it tipped that is did not cause the reed to release

not sure how the older ones are mounted but it is the only way the pcb can fit in the housing tried different ways and could only fit that way

bit late to get the ladders out to check my old one

AllyCat · Post by **AllyCat** » Sun 24 Jun 2012 11:14 pm

Hi Bruce,

Photos of the "old" units are here and here but it isn't obvious whether the reed (on the PCB) is vertical or horizontal (but I thought vertical).

Cheers, Alan.

bruce45 · Post by **bruce45** » Sun 24 Jun 2012 11:26 pm

from my 53 year old memory i thought the older/ normal one that i have was vertical

this was one i bought when maplins was selling them off a while ago only got it for spares about £39 if i remmember. there will be a post some where about it

if vertical when it would only close as the magnet passes

horizontal its just to close

not sure it they did software changes to the transmitter to look for this

duke · Post by **duke** » Mon 25 Jun 2012 3:57 am

AllyCat wrote:
duke wrote: how do you calculate the size of the resistor and what pins would you connect to?
Hi,

The value won't be critical, perhaps 22k ohms but anything between say 10k and 100k should be fine. Not much power so a normal "1/4 (quarter) watt" or less will be OK.

Connect between pins 6 and 7, 6 being the first pin on the lower row (of 4) which is currently being used and 7 is next to it on the same row (Ah, Bruce has given us a picture).

Cheers, Alan.

Thanks for the explanation.

So, can any one who actually has an RG11 put this to the test?

Duke

bruce45 · Post by **bruce45** » Mon 25 Jun 2012 6:53 am

for those who have the rg11 what sort of time scale did it take from ordering to receiving the unit?

i think as for the testing of the rs232 port connection it needs to be done on both a direct port as well as a usb convertor so that we can see if the results of the double tip happen with both set ups

as for the reed switch this was posted the other day https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7741

so maybe they have change other things as well

bruce45 · Post by **bruce45** » Tue 26 Jun 2012 2:23 pm

just as an update the older wh1080 which i have had since 2009 the reed on the rain gauge is mounted verticaly.
the newer one which i got about this time last year is horizontal.

as we had not had any rain untill about an hour ago i swapped the guages over between transmitters and poured water into them. nothing recorded on either unit. put them back to normal and tried them recorded on both. since it has just started raining since saturday could not be sure about how accurate one was compared to the other but both are recording the same.

fine offset must have done more changes to the software on the newer units than just the radio frequency issue listed in the other post and this would also explain the strange reading using the rs232.

laulau · Post by **laulau** » Tue 26 Jun 2012 5:14 pm

Hi,
I've put a 22k resitor between pin 6 and 7 and a relay switching every min for 50ms.
The tests are on usb to serial port, no problems of double tips seems to happen.
I'm not able to make the same test an my real serial port for the moment.

Post by **steve** » Tue 26 Jun 2012 5:57 pm

laulau wrote:I've put a 22k resitor between pin 6 and 7 and a relay switching every min for 50ms.
The tests are on usb to serial port, no problems of double tips seems to happen.

What happens without the resistor?

laulau · Post by **laulau** » Tue 26 Jun 2012 7:10 pm

It works ok too with the calibrated relay pulse without the resistor.
It works also correctly with a push button on this port, i had trouble by testing this with the push button on my real serial port.I hope i can make some tests soon with a real (PCI card) serial port and let you know the results.

laulau · Post by **laulau** » Tue 26 Jun 2012 7:52 pm

I brought the real serial port (pci add on card) alive again.

Bad connection

I have double tips with calibrated relay pulse or push button, with resistor or no

The conclusion for "my case" is that my usb to serial port works better than the pci serial port add-on card

I have an older computer with a "mother board" serial port, if needed i can make some tests on it if it brings something for that double tips problem.

Post by **steve** » Wed 27 Jun 2012 6:50 am

laulau wrote:The conclusion for "my case" is that my usb to serial port works better than the pci serial port add-on card

This may be the case for a real RG-11 with a real serial port too; we'll have to wait for someone to be able to try it.

pete_c · Post by **pete_c** » Wed 27 Jun 2012 9:36 am

So are we concluding that the "double tip" issue does exist with a serial connection? or waiting for more tests?

I'm waiting for rain here so have no means for comparision. Even though the two RG-11's are adjacent to each other; spraying them with the garden hose doesn't really provide anything other than triggers at this time. The comparison here will be:

1 - RG-11 connected to a 1-wire counter
2 - RG-11 connected to Cumulus via RS-232 (two wires, no capacitor and no resistor)
3 - Davis Vantage Vue tipping cup (connected to Cumulus)

I can add my old Dallas rain tipping bucket (connecting it to the local 1-wire network). Might do that while I wait for the rain anyways.

Earlier testing (by another user) comparing the 1-wire dual counter to just local weather stations showed similiar counts.

So this attached graph shows:

1 - Rain as reported locally via a 1-wire connection
2 - Local reporting weather stations (AWS)
3 - RG-11 hooked up to an X-10 DS10A (RF module) - RF switch pulses

Post by **steve** » Wed 27 Jun 2012 9:47 am

pete_c wrote:So are we concluding that the "double tip" issue does exist with a serial connection? or waiting for more tests?

As far as I'm aware, no-one has yet done any testing (as in: supplied a debug log) of a real RG-11 with a real serial port. The 'switch' test suggests that a double tip may occur. I don't know what to make of the issue of connecting a standard rain gauge to a serial port; but basically this facility is aimed at the RG-11; if it happens to work for other sensors, that's fine, but I don't propose to spend a lot of time worrying about that.

pete_c · Post by **pete_c** » Wed 27 Jun 2012 1:05 pm

Thanks Steve.

apenwith · Post by **apenwith** » Mon 02 Jul 2012 11:18 am

Hi
I tried the resistor from pin 6 to 7 but then got no tips at all (USB/serial adapter). Then back to a no resistor no capacitor and had multiple on/off's but no additional tip when Cumulus starts so it was the capacitor. Anyway back to the capacitor which cured the multiples and I'll just live with the extra tip on the few occasions I restart Cumulus.
Regards
Alan