What mods have you made.........

[keithatrochdale]

Reading some of the other threads, it seems that people doing mods to help increase the accuracy of their equipment.

How about sharing them with the rest of us?

[harrym1byt]

1. Stevenson screen added, made from several plant pot drip trays upside down, with their centres cut out (all but the top two) all held together with three threaded rods plus spacers. Sprayed white over all it keeps the sun from the outdoor temperature sensor unit.

2. Longer tail added to wind vane, to stop it spinning. Just some doubled up duct tape, so it sticks to both sides of the tail and long enough that it almost hits the anemometer. Make a very noticeable difference to the graphs.

3. There is a modification to improve reception of DCF, which I have found no need to try. Just a matter of making the DCF ferrite antenna horizontal, instead of the angle used by the manufacturer.

[keithatrochdale]

Thanks for sharing those, would it be possible to post pictures please?

I see somebody mentioned keeping spiders out......

And altering the outlet so wind does not cause false readings.......


Any other tips and pictures of your setup and site layout?

May well be useful to us new boys.......

[dc1500]

Aha! The spider. I thought it was just a one off. I got some very high readings actually during a rain event. Didn't have a clue what it was but when I opened it up a particlarly heavy bodied spider had spun a web around the tipping mechanism. Whether it was running backwards and forwards to try and keep dry I don't know!
By the way, what is the solution?
Dave

[keithatrochdale]

From another post (I can't claim the credit) some fine mesh over the holes in the bottom.

Also somebody has suggested lengthening the wires to the sensors, to allow better/more convenient positioning of the sensors. Could also aid access for battery replacement.

I suggested running an umbilical cord from the unit to a lower position for the batteries, so you do not have to drop the unit to replace batteries.

[arthurhh]

1. Stevenson screen added, made from several plant pot drip trays upside down, with their centres cut out (all but the top two) all held together with three threaded rods plus spacers. Sprayed white over all it keeps the sun from the outdoor temperature sensor unit.

Not built specifically for the FO1081 but close enough
http://tok.myphotos.cc/index.php?cat=3

[goldrush]

If using any station on a long metal pole, run the cables inside the pole instead of nicely strapped to the outside. This helps reduce interference from mobile phone transmitters, car and baby alarms etc etc.
However, the cheapo Fine offset models for the European market are better in this respect than many, in that they use the "868" Mhz band rather than the 433 Mhz band for the interlink which at present is generally less crowded.

Re the lenghtening of leads from the sensors.
I suggest you use Cat5 screened twisted pair cable, (normally 8 wires arrange as 4 twisted pairs plus screen) as used for Ethernet connections and preferably of the "outdoor" type.
If purchased "ready made" the cable will have RJ45 plugs on each end.
If you do not wish to cut the existing cables, then a twin RJ45 female connector will accept the smaller RJ11 plug from the sensors without modifcation. Ensure that it is a crossover connector.
Similarly, you can use a few inches of RJ11/12 to RJ11/12 male cable ("modem" lead?) to connect the cat5 cable to the transmitter unit.



Although this cheapo station is far less susceptable to interferance than some of the more expensive types due to the use of a lower impedance sensor system (I mentioned the La Crosse) it still pays to connect all the unused conductors to the screen and "drain" wire. With the made up cables, the screen and drain are already connected to the metal outer shield on the plugs at each end.
The connectors are normally made in 2 moulded halves loosely pressed together with ample wire lenghts and so it is easy to join the unused wires within the connector. Solder together the outer 2 wires on each side, (a total of 4 wires) and run another short wire through the outer case (it will sit happily alonside the socket on most connectors) join and solder to the metal "shroud" on the plug (unless you obtain shielded RJ45 connectors). The connections used on the RJ11 sensor plugs, luckily follow convention and when the plug is inserted in the RJ45 connector it couples the correct wire pairing.

Earth the shield (outer metal plug shroud) at the transmitter end only.

As mentioned, I currently have my station running with a 50 metre lead from the anemometer/ direction unit to the transmitter. This has an added benefit that the transmitter unit can be mounted a "low level" allowing easy replacement of the batteries.
It pays to weatherproof the existing plugs and sockets and battery compartment with a sealer.


I would like to reduce the data sample/read time from the currect 48 secs, but have not yet delved into it.
(this was another dissadvantage of my La Crosse, the update period was over 2 minutes when used as a "radio" link, but luckily around 8 secs when used as a wired system).

Simplest method of joining the unused wires is to simply melt the insulation in the center of each wire with the iron and solder together.

[dc1500]

Thanks for all that useful advice. I think I may wait till the summer though!
Dave