Welcome to the Cumulus Support forum.

Latest Cumulus MX V3 release 3.28.6 (build 3283) - 21 March 2024

Cumulus MX V4 beta test release 4.0.0 (build 4017) - 17 March 2024

Legacy Cumulus 1 release v1.9.4 (build 1099) - 28 November 2014 (a patch is available for 1.9.4 build 1099 that extends the date range of drop-down menus to 2030)

Download the Software (Cumulus MX / Cumulus 1 and other related items) from the Wiki

Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Discussion specific to Fine Offset and similar rebadged weather stations
nickjwhite
Posts: 152
Joined: Thu 11 Nov 2010 4:50 pm
Weather Station: PCE-FWS 20
Operating System: Win 10 Pro
Location: Felixstowe UK
Contact:

Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by nickjwhite »

Morning chaps.

Just a little warning here for anyone buying Fine Offset weather stations that look like the PCE-FWS20 from Amazon (It's a Fine Offset under a badge)

It comes as a complete kit with all the apparatus going together on a single pole. This is okay as long as you are not mounting it on a very long pole. I initially installed on a 3 metre aluminium pole on the lower corner of my roof, the idea being that the anemometer and wind direction indicator would be in clear air (rather than in the middle of the garden) and therefore be more accurate.

Two things you need to be very aware of with this one in these circumstances

1 If the pole has any flexibility in it (aluminium is light to handle but does), then the seesaw buckets in the rain gauge will be tossed about in strong wind, therby registering enormous amounts of rain, which be an absolute so and so to try and edit back out of your logs. The rain gauge needs to be on a very solid surface.

2 In light air, on a frosty night (or day I guess), with high humidity (or fog) the wind direction indicator freezes solid. You then get a flat line in Cumulus for your wind direction unless or until either the temperature goes up enough to thaw it, or the wind gets strong enough to crack it from its frozen position. This has happened three times in the last week to me. I have to say that this is a bad design flaw. For goodness sake, this thing is meant to be out in all weathers.

Other than that, it is a very nice bit of kit for not a lot of money.

For my sins, I will now get a much shorter pole, and get right up to the roof ridge to mount it (hoping not to break my neck) and reinstall everything. I will have to devise something to fix the rain gauge onto (L shaped plant hanger?) as the cables are not long enough to reach ground level. Why don't they think of these things?

While I am here, I will sing the praises of Steve and the Cumulus team. The software is fantastic and the easiest I have ever used. The ready made web site is spot on, and I am successfully uploading to that, and to Weather Underground, CWOP, and Twitter, all with absolutely no effort. Steve has also been immensely helpful to me with the odd glitch (self inflicted). So a BIG THANKYOU to the Cumulus guys.

Nick
Gina
Posts: 1885
Joined: Sat 21 Feb 2009 12:41 pm
Weather Station: Nothing working ATM - making one
Operating System: OS X, Linux Mint, Win7 & XP
Location: Devon UK

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by Gina »

I have my wind sensors on a 20ft pole with the temperature/humidity/transmitter unit in a home-made Stevenson screen on a fence post 5ft off the ground. The rain gauge is on a very solid steel framework about 2ft off the ground. I replaced the short cable from the wind vane unit to the transmitter with a length of CAT5e network cable. You'll find all about this and my various mods in other threads. Having all the external sensors mounted together is useless for any reasonably decent results.

Oh and as for the wind vane and anemometer freezing up... I had that problem last winter. I'm going to put heaters in them soon - I'm working out what I can fit within the housings - there's not a lot of room.
Gina

Sorry, no banner - weather station out of action. Hoping to be up and running with a new home-made one soon.
nickjwhite
Posts: 152
Joined: Thu 11 Nov 2010 4:50 pm
Weather Station: PCE-FWS 20
Operating System: Win 10 Pro
Location: Felixstowe UK
Contact:

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by nickjwhite »

Hiya Gina

Now why didn't I think of cat5 cable? And I work in IT too. d'ohh Is standard cat5 suitable for outdoor use? (I suppose I can change it every year or so if not)

That all makes perfect sense. I think I will in any case remount the wind stuff on a more solid pole as I often wonder if I get slight misreads with it all waving about up there.

If you get anywhere with the heater for the direction vane, I would be interested to see what you do. Still a basic design fault nonetheless, after all it is designed to record weather.... we get that stuff, and we are not exactly in Antarctica here.

Good to meet you.
Gina
Posts: 1885
Joined: Sat 21 Feb 2009 12:41 pm
Weather Station: Nothing working ATM - making one
Operating System: OS X, Linux Mint, Win7 & XP
Location: Devon UK

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by Gina »

Hi Nick
nickjwhite wrote:Now why didn't I think of cat5 cable? And I work in IT too. d'ohh Is standard cat5 suitable for outdoor use? (I suppose I can change it every year or so if not)
I'm using ordinary CAT5 cable but I think you can get outdoor rated cable. Not sure if it's UV light that damages the plastic or sub-zero temperatures, but yes, it would be cheap enough to replace it every couple of years if necessary. Maybe someone else here knows about this.
That all makes perfect sense. I think I will in any case remount the wind stuff on a more solid pole as I often wonder if I get slight misreads with it all waving about up there.
I agree that you want a reasonably stable mast for the wind sensors or the "flapping" of the wind vane will be even worse!
If you get anywhere with the heater for the direction vane, I would be interested to see what you do. Still a basic design fault nonetheless, after all it is designed to record weather.... we get that stuff, and we are not exactly in Antarctica here.
No arguing with that! I will certainly post about what I do with the frozen wind sensor problem.
Good to meet you.
Thank you - good to have you along :)
Gina

Sorry, no banner - weather station out of action. Hoping to be up and running with a new home-made one soon.
User avatar
Orion
Posts: 277
Joined: Mon 08 Nov 2010 5:51 pm
Weather Station: WH1081 (Maplin)
Operating System: windows 10 64bit
Location: Paignton Devon UK
Contact:

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by Orion »

I sprayed my wind vane Etc. with lots of WD40, hasn't frozen yet :idea:
User avatar
nking
Posts: 808
Joined: Thu 17 Dec 2009 2:03 pm
Weather Station: W-8681
Operating System: Windows 10
Location: Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, UK
Contact:

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by nking »

Orion wrote:I sprayed my wind vane Etc. with lots of WD40, hasn't frozen yet :idea:
I did the same when I first put up mine (no problems last winter), 12 months later and the anemometer is now starting to freeze. Looks like it might have to be an annual check along with cleaning out the rain gauge and replacing batteries. ;)
User avatar
Orion
Posts: 277
Joined: Mon 08 Nov 2010 5:51 pm
Weather Station: WH1081 (Maplin)
Operating System: windows 10 64bit
Location: Paignton Devon UK
Contact:

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by Orion »

Orion wrote:I sprayed my wind vane Etc. with lots of WD40, hasn't frozen yet :idea:
OH YES IT HAS :oops:

ok i have taken apart my old anemometer from my WH1050

To remove the cups from the bearing use 2 thin flat blade screwdrivers at opposite sides a bit at a time as its a very tight fit
will put 1 drop of oil on the bearing and see if that helps
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Gina
Posts: 1885
Joined: Sat 21 Feb 2009 12:41 pm
Weather Station: Nothing working ATM - making one
Operating System: OS X, Linux Mint, Win7 & XP
Location: Devon UK

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by Gina »

With mine it was snow getting into the gap between the rotor and the body. That little ledge was very good at collecting snow. The vane unit suffered as well. I'm looking into a heater unit to go inside the body.
Gina

Sorry, no banner - weather station out of action. Hoping to be up and running with a new home-made one soon.
User avatar
Orion
Posts: 277
Joined: Mon 08 Nov 2010 5:51 pm
Weather Station: WH1081 (Maplin)
Operating System: windows 10 64bit
Location: Paignton Devon UK
Contact:

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by Orion »

You have about 35mm x 20mm space inside the body so you could run 2 wires thru the hole in the base to a resistor but whether it would stop the bearing freezing is doubtful as its on the outside of the housing
strange that my new anemometer has frozen yet the old one in the picture above never did freeze
think I will get the new one down and put a drop of 3in1 oil on the bearing
PS never a dull moment with the fine offset sensors !!!!!
Gina
Posts: 1885
Joined: Sat 21 Feb 2009 12:41 pm
Weather Station: Nothing working ATM - making one
Operating System: OS X, Linux Mint, Win7 & XP
Location: Devon UK

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by Gina »

Orion wrote:You have about 35mm x 20mm space inside the body so you could run 2 wires thru the hole in the base to a resistor but whether it would stop the bearing freezing is doubtful as its on the outside of the housing
strange that my new anemometer has frozen yet the old one in the picture above never did freeze
think I will get the new one down and put a drop of 3in1 oil on the bearing
PS never a dull moment with the fine offset sensors !!!!!
Yes, I have my old one's apart too. No harm in a drop of 3in1 oil on the bearing :) You're right about "never a dull moment" !!
Gina

Sorry, no banner - weather station out of action. Hoping to be up and running with a new home-made one soon.
User avatar
Orion
Posts: 277
Joined: Mon 08 Nov 2010 5:51 pm
Weather Station: WH1081 (Maplin)
Operating System: windows 10 64bit
Location: Paignton Devon UK
Contact:

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by Orion »

Here is the new one think it needs a hair cut its a bit spikey
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Gina
Posts: 1885
Joined: Sat 21 Feb 2009 12:41 pm
Weather Station: Nothing working ATM - making one
Operating System: OS X, Linux Mint, Win7 & XP
Location: Devon UK

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by Gina »

Great photo - brilliant in fact :clap: :)
Gina

Sorry, no banner - weather station out of action. Hoping to be up and running with a new home-made one soon.
User avatar
gluepack
Posts: 460
Joined: Tue 22 Jan 2013 9:20 pm
Weather Station: PCE-FWS 20
Operating System: Win 7 Pro
Location: Zlatina, Bulgaria

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by gluepack »

Hey

I'm in Bulgaria and have been providing webcam images to Wunderground for a while and thought I would like to start sending weather data too.

I've ordered a PCE-FWS 20 from Amazon.de but, as usual, I'm having to wait awhile for delivery. It'll be hooked up to a system running Win 8 and, as per recommendations that I have seen, I was intending to use Cumulus instead of the provided software. I assume it will run ok under Win 8.

My question is about dimensions. I'm not sure why they don't include information like this in the manual but can anyone tell me...
a) length and diameter of supplied rod
b) length of each supplied device connector cable
c) max. diameter of supplied brackets
d) length of USB cable

I was intending to attach it to a disused electricity supply pole that is embedded in my garage wall, approx. 30m from where the system is. The garage is a little over 2m high and the pole itself extends a further approx. 2.5m (I haven't climbed up there to measure the diameter of the pole yet). I thought that I would place the rain gauge on the garage roof (flat concrete slab) and don't have a clue where to place the transmitter yet.

I've noticed the comments re. freezing and can imagine that I would typically have the same problem here (although it was a balmy 14C today but it is likely to be -10C overnight in a couple of days) so was planning on using some 3in1 oil before I install.

Answers to the above and any other tips would be appreciated. The original ceramic? receptors for the electricity supply are on the pole approx. 40cm from the top. I assume they wont be a problem but I may need some packing in order to ensure that the supplied rod is vertical as there appears to be a lip around the top of the pole.

Pity it isn't an IP device. I specifically bought an IP webcam so I didn't have to have my system on all the time.

Thanks
Image

PWS links: WundergroundIVARNAPR3CWOP/APRSE(W)2048PWSWeatherZLATINABGAwekas10631Twitter@Zlatina_weather
Station type: PCE-FWS 20…Webcam link: View south to edge of Provadisko plateau
User avatar
gluepack
Posts: 460
Joined: Tue 22 Jan 2013 9:20 pm
Weather Station: PCE-FWS 20
Operating System: Win 7 Pro
Location: Zlatina, Bulgaria

Re: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by gluepack »

Oh well, it arrived yesterday anyway and I installed it today. It is difficult to find anything in this godforsaken country at the best of times but fortunately the two jubilee clips that came with the device were just large enough to encompass the 5cm existing pole and the 2cm pole provided. It works great and it is already active on wunderground.

One small point, the pressure reading in Cumulus reads at 10 hPa higher than on the provided display.
Image

PWS links: WundergroundIVARNAPR3CWOP/APRSE(W)2048PWSWeatherZLATINABGAwekas10631Twitter@Zlatina_weather
Station type: PCE-FWS 20…Webcam link: View south to edge of Provadisko plateau
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: Fine Offset PCE-FWS 20 wireless

Post by steve »

gluepack wrote:One small point, the pressure reading in Cumulus reads at 10 hPa higher than on the provided display.
You're looking at 'absolute' on the console. See http://wiki.sandaysoft.com/a/FAQ#Cumulu ... et_console
Steve
Post Reply