Solar and UV sensors going off line - fix?

[Feek]

Two days in and I'm (touches wood) still going strong on a pair of Eneloops.

[mspec]

Since I have tried nothing else I thought I would try some different batteries , I put in a set of new energizer's which of course straight from the packet would not have been fully charged. This resulted in receiving the low tx symbol on the receiver unit but I still was receiving data. It only lasted 2 hours though before the dreaded -- came up though.
I do not want to start pulling things apart and soldering things mainly because I paid xx amount of dollars for a working unit and I do not see it my responsibility to fix things. I fired off an email to the sales email address on FO's site but so far no reply here's hoping I get something. If anybody has a better email address to send it off to it would be most appreciated.

[aussiewmr]

Hi Jason,

PM Sent - I hope they can help.

Cheers

Phil

[Feek]

Mine's been good for a week now on Eneloops.

[aussiewmr]

12 Days now with the FO replacement.

I hope they find something with my two returned units - though its Chinese New Year now.

Phil

[robbo]

Phil (Aussiewmr) Good news that the replacement unit is working well. Are you still getting the full range of UV measurements out of your replacement unit?

David

[Feek]

Two weeks on Eneloops. Looking good.

[Tony01]

Hi All,
I purchased a WH 3081 off ebay in September last year and for the money it seemed like a bargain. I set it up and it worked perfectly for about three weeks until it lost the UV and light readings.

After a few emails to and from with the ebay seller he replaced the solar sensor. Again once fitted it lasted about four weeks and the same thing happened. More emails to the seller and he admitted that Fine Offset have problems with this weather station. In fact he suggested to google wh3081 as he knew there was discussions about this weather station and possible fixes, so here I am.

I have soldered the crystal and changed the batteries in the solar unit from 1.5v to 1.2v. I have tried putting a piece of opaque sticky tape over the UV sensor but nothing worked, when reset it would last no more than 1 hour. I spent a whole day mucking around with it.
Almost at the point of tossing it in the bin I noticed the little red light on the remote sensor was only flashing once and the console was updating the outdoor temp, humidity, rain, wind speed and direction. I pulled out the manual and it states that outdoor temp, humidity rain, wind speed and direction are updated every 48 seconds and illumanence every 60 seconds. So I figured there was an issue with the remote sensor and console communicating with each other.

Time for a complete reset. The instructions say to install the batteries in the remote sensor first then immediately into the console. This is what I done. I put one battery in the remote sensor and two in the console then at exactly the same time with my left hand I pushed the third battery into the console and the second battery into the remote sensor with my right hand. Everything started working and it has been 36 hours since that reset.

So if you are still awake after reading this try a reset using this method and see how it works on your unit.

Good Luck, Tony.

[41south]

Wait until the memory errors start (Cumulus loses comms with the base unit) and the only way to fix them is to power down the base completely, and then you have to reset everything

But my solar sensors are great!

I love my FO station

[aussiewmr]

Hi Tony,

Yes very frustrating isn't it.

Now I am going to see if I can make YOU go to sleep

Just a couple of points that may make life easier until the issues are properly sorted.

1. To get solar working again you needn't do quite what you describe.
Pulling the batteries in the temp humidity may not work if the solar unit is still connected and there is a fair amount of daylight around.
All you really need to do is push the reset button under the solar unit for say 3 seconds. The temp / humidity LED should be steady on for 2 or 3 secs following that after which it should bloink every 48 secs and the solar every 60 secs. After that you need to go to the console and put it in discovery mode. I can't quite remember how that's done - I think you hold the Up Arrow for > 5 secs (might be the down arrow - check the manual). You should see the receive indicator on steady (top RHS of console) for a couple of minutes. After that all should be good.

So in summary push solar reset then after that put console in discover mode.

2. The trick I found to getting a faulty Solar unit working was not to use opaque tape on the UV but it was to put semi transparent material over the light sensor (the white dome on the top RHS of the solar panel). Probably easier to cover the whole unit but it would affect UV as well.
Originally I used an old (non smelly) sports sock over the whole solar unit head as a test with then I later opened the plastic cover (remove 4 screws - which can be difficult) and covered only the white dome with something semi transparent (eg white plastic, whit material etc)

I hope that helps you out.

And yes - as 41south points out there may be a few more surprises coming your way (like mine suddenly decides to stop talking to cumulus very 10 days or so. You will need Easy Weather software shipped with the unit to put it all back to how you set it up.

To be really fair / objective this PWS costs about 100 bucks. It does all the things a 700 to 1700 dollar (depending where you buy one...) Davis does - pretty much. Its just not very reliable. So its certainly a case of you get what you pay for. That said, it does not really matter how much you pay for something, it should work as intended - just for how long and how accurately are the big questions!

[Zed_Man]

Time to return something to the forum I've been looking at for some time.

Have had the earlier touchscreen Fine Offset WH-1801 station for a long time. It finally died with humidity readings flipping from 10-99% with nothing between. My upgrade to the WH-3081 was painful to say the least - first unit only read 0 or 299Klux solar radiation, second did not read wind direction properly, and the last one had the same issues as everyone else - the dreaded --- display. As I now have two units to play with, and a little electronics knowledge, it's time to experiment.

The rechargable alkaline batteries used in this unit have a higher internal capacitance (slow recovery) than other rechargables (eg. NiMH) but have a higher voltage (1.5V instead of 1.2V). The solar sensor part of the unit needs a full 3.0V to work properly and high current for a brief while. Both of my solar units failed regularly when the UV/solar radiation dropped or increased suddenly, something that happens frequently in the tropics. This seemed to indicate the battery was unable to recover quickly enough while transmitting, so causing a lockup of the solar sensor.

The fix I applied to both units has not failed in over a month. As per photo 1, the marked capacitor is a 100uF 10V electrolytic capacitor. This smooths the power to the solar sensor board.

Photo_1_800.jpg

In photo 2, the addition is a 2200uF/10V low ESR electrolytic added to this capacitor. NOTE** this MUST be a low ESR capacitor. A dollop of hot glue or silicone will hold it in place, as the area it is in is reserved for a transmitter circuit, but not being used. Make sure when soldering, that the negative lead of the new capacitor goes to the correct connection.

Photo_2_800.jpg

You'll need a fine soldering iron and a steady hand.

Now my next effort is to go to FAR setup with solar, or convince the weather bureau their readings should not be taken in a white box!!!

Kris.
http://weather.thecomputerblokes.com.au

[aussiewmr]

Hi Kris,

I am pleased this worked for you.

I did the same thing (back on page 3 of this thread) and it did not make any difference.

What did make a difference was attenuating the light signal 1st by an external means and later by changing a resistor.

Anyway all the details are earlier on. I wish you luck.

Phil

[Tony01]

Hi 41south & aussiewmr,

Thanks for your replies. 41south I may need more info on the errors when they come up (hopefully not).

Frustrating is one term I have used for this weather station, others should not be posted here.

With my unit, pushing the rest button no matter how long (I tried a quick push a 30 second push and everything in between) and then pressing the down arrow on the console the UV and light reading would last no more than 1 hour. My remote sensor was only flashing every 48 seconds, no 60 second flash.

The only way to get my unit working, which is now 3 whole days with no intervention by me, fingers crossed, was to do as I posted the other day. Not sure what has changed but it is still working. Having said that my first solar unit went for three weeks and the current one four weeks before they lost the UV and light readings.

There is a question I ask myself, does the remote sensor trigger the data transfer to the console or are they both on timers and sync at the same time (48 & 60 seconds). If both are on timers is it possible that either the remote sensor or the console loses its timing after a while, let’s say 3 to 4 weeks hence the data loss for the UV and light. Interesting!!

Regards, Tony.

[aussiewmr]

Hi Tony,

I am 99.99 % sure that the console turns on its receiver when it expects to hear from each sensor. This timing is based off the initial sync when the down arrow is pressed. And I suspect (at least I would do this) that the console would reset its 48 / 60 sec timer each time it hears each sensor. That way it should not drift unless something was really amiss or the sensors were unavailable for a long duration.

If the sensors stop for more than a few cycles, the console does go into receive mode again apparently but not for long then it gives up.

That all said, the key is the flashing LED on the solar unit. For me that stops flashing when it fails. I never ever had a moment where the LED was flashing (on the solar) and no solar / UV updates on the console. So that points to the solar processor going wild or something.

Also I have a hand held radio scanner and with that on 433.92 MHz I can clearly hear the temp and solar units at their 48 and 60 sec intervals. Every time the solar failed the 60 sec transmission was not present (and the LED not flashing). From my investigations the solar unit clearly uses the same transmitter in the temp unit (the solar has provision for RF circuitry but no components).

I hope that all makes sense and perhaps sheds some light on things.

Cheers
Phil

[41south]

To clarify I think what may be happening, from something I read elsewhere, is that there is possibly a bad memory block (or 2 or 6!) in the FO (or maybe even just a bad firmware design!) that causes Cumulus and the supplied Easy Weather software to stop being able to read the base station. On mine the only way to clear this fault has been to remove both USB and batteries (effectively the BIG reset) and start again. It's a complete mystery to me why this has to cause all of the settings to be lost - have they never heard of nvram

My restart sequence does not involve anything at the sensor end (it's all in a difficult to get to place on the roof). I just push the down arrow so putting the base into manual search mode. This often fails the first time around but 99% works the second time - with a third very seldom needed. Patience appears to be the key.


Colin.