Poor old WH1080

[Repairman77]

The wind took it's toll on the old WH1080 this morning. The strut that supports the remote box with the vent unit (pictured on my avatar) snapped (due to brittle plastic syndrome I guess) and the vent unit plunged to the ground at 4am. Managed to repair the splits in the top plastic plant pot lid with hot melt glue and respray it. The remote transmitter hung there exposed to the elements but appears to have suffered no harm.

Managed to get outside this afternoon as the wind dropped a little and climbed on the roof and did some emergency repairs with tie-wraps and tape. Will have to redo it when the wind dies away on a better day.

Has anyone else noticed brittle plastic problems with WH1080s or their equivalents? It's about four and a half years old now; not sure how long these are expected to last? There was more weight with the home made vent unit but surprised if that was the cause.

Looked at getting a newer better set up but they do seem pricey; beyond my affordability and the equivalent WH1080 appears to sell for £75 upwards.

Think I'll have to repair the old one.

Anyone else suffered damage to their systems in these gales?

Mike.

[Tau Bootis]

Hi Mike

Sorry to hear your woes it’s never good when you have to climb on the roof.
When I had a similar setup to you I was quite concerned about the extra weight that the radiation shield added to the arm and mine was located at low level out of the wind.
Since you now have to fix it I would get an extension line and re-locate your rain & sender unit at a lower level for easy access and better results, it’s a bit more work but you will benefit in the long run.

[Repairman77]

Thanks for your reply Mark.

I shall relocate the radiation shield to a more secure location as there's plenty of spare cable.

With regard to the rain sensor I have never relied on it for accurate measurements and lowering it would not work as it would be sheltered to the rain in certain directions. I have an accurate conventional rain gauge in the back garden that I record manually.

Looks like a quiet week ahead so will try and get up on the roof again and do some permanent repairs.

Mike.

[prodata]

Are you just over the road from us?

[Repairman77]

Reckon so John, on the corner of Meadow Court, I take it you're the chap with the HF beam along Wisbech Road?
Mike.

[prodata]

Reckon so John, on the corner of Meadow Court, I take it you're the chap with the HF beam along Wisbech Road?
Mike.

Nothing so grand - we're in the Espace North Building and you'll see a Vantage Vue on a pole towards the main entrance gate. Not a perfect exposure by any means but it gives us some live data for testing and demo purposes in the sales office. IT's usually online:

here: http://www.weatherlink.com/user/esnwl6/

or here: http://www.weatherlink.com/user/esnprodata/

but we also have a better exposed beta test site out in the fen with a private online URL.

But the reason for asking was that occasionally we throw out out equipment that's deemed beyond economic repair, but which might still be salvageable by anyone with time and interest to do so - dumped an old VP2 system a couple of weeks back in fact! It would have needed quite a bit of work, but... Don't think we have anything more right now but let me know if you're interested and I'll bear you in mind for the future.

[hills]

I've just replaced my fine offset after 4 years in the Australian sun and the anemometer and wind vane were brittle and one cup had broken off.

I also have a home made gill screen like yours but have it supported from both the top and bottom to hopefully avoid that happening.

Still for $100AU I'm happy with 4 years service from it, but I was wondering if we could coat them in a light UV resistant paint or would that affect their performance too much?

[alanmale]

I think a replacement is currently on offer in Maplin for about £60.
They have spares also.
Cheers...

[Repairman77]

Reckon so John, on the corner of Meadow Court, I take it you're the chap with the HF beam along Wisbech Road?
Mike.

Nothing so grand - we're in the Espace North Building and you'll see a Vantage Vue on a pole towards the main entrance gate. Not a perfect exposure by any means but it gives us some live data for testing and demo purposes in the sales office.

But the reason for asking was that occasionally we throw out out equipment that's deemed beyond economic repair, but which might still be salvageable by anyone with time and interest to do so - dumped an old VP2 system a couple of weeks back in fact! It would have needed quite a bit of work, but... Don't think we have anything more right now but let me know if you're interested and I'll bear you in mind for the future.

OK John, I thought you were the chap over the road to me who also has what looks like a WH1080 system. I do play about with all sorts of electronic stuff as retired now and have a little more spare time when the missus doesn't find me too many jobs to do, so give me a shout next time you have some spare equipment.

Mike.

[MickinMoulden]

My plastic cups on the anemometer went brittle and disintegrated in the wind at 3 years old. I'm 12 degrees below the equator and see UV up to 16. The arm that holds them was also bad. I ended up buying aluminium square tubing for Au$10 and replacement anemometer for $22. Anything in the Sun here dies quickly, especially plastics.

[Repairman77]

Hi Michael; the rest of my system appears to be OK but of course you never know how bad it is until it snaps.
I guess the plastic they use is resistant to UV but I guess there is a limit.

I've moved the transmitter unit away from the plastic arm now and mounted it on the aluminium pole so it won't fall off again.
I don't think the other sensors are heavy enough to cause the arms to break. It was the extra vent unit which did it.

Mike.