Watson W8681-Solar station looks as though it's flatlined

[Feek]

I set up my Watson W8681-Solar last weekend and moved Cumulus to a dedicated computer (Apple Mac Mini with an XP SP3 partition) a couple of days ago. Yesterday I bought a spanky new domain and have configured Cumulus to upload to it along with Weather Underground and CWOP/APRS.

This afternoon I've noticed that a number of graphs on the site seem to have flatlined.

Is this the symptoms of a lost connection between the console and the transmitter which is on a 20ft pole mounted 8ft above the ground?

To see the graphs, have a look at the station here: http://www.kirbycrossweather.co.uk

Thanks.

[mcrossley]

Yes, because your indoor readings (temp, humidity, and pressure) are still continuing to be read.

[steve]

If the console has detected the loss of connection, it should be setting a 'flag' in the data and Cumulus should be flashing the error light.

[Feek]

I'm at work though so I can't access the computer from here to see what Cumulus is doing. I've called home and asked my daughter her to push and hold the down arrow button for five seconds.

[Feek]

I think it's gone again. Why would it run fine for four days and then lose connection twice in a few hours?

[Feek]

It recovered by itself yesterday and the same thing has happened again already twice today.



Is there any reason this would happen? I'm taking the station down tomorrow to change the batteries and move the rain sensor but this repeated loss of comms between base and transmitter is annoying, to say the least.

They're only actually about 30ft apart so I'm sure it's not distance.

[steve]

Mine goes for weeks at a time and then loses contact... and then recovers, without intervention. Quite a few people have similar problems.

[AllyCat]

They're only actually about 30ft apart so I'm sure it's not distance.

Hi,

It definitely could just be distance, the Quality Control of the FO kits is poor and the range of different units can vary considerably. Or you might have a local interference issue.

The console doesn't show or report any lost contact until at least 6 consecutive "messages" are lost, so the comms can be rather poor without it being obvious. But in fact there seem to be lots of short "flat-lines" throughout your graph, so it does look as if the receiver is struggling nearly all the time.

Cheers, Alan.

[dpmiller]

how have you the transmitter orientated?

[Feek]

Hmm, I see what you mean. I could understand some interference if I were running a few hundred watts but I'm at work again and it happened earlier so I know there's no stray RF kicking around.

I'll be quite disappointed if it's a distance thing though, they're really not far apart.

When it comes down this weekend I'm going to be fitting ferrites to all the interconnects anyway, especially as one will run all the way down to the bottom of the pole.



At the moment the station is around 28ft up, you can't tell due to the perspective but it's about the same height as the rotator cage on that picture.

[AllyCat]

Hi,

With the sample of solar kit which I tried (3080) the reception seemed particularly poor immediately below the transmitter; the antennae (transmit and receive) may well be "optimised" for horizontal range.

As far as interference is concerned it's most likely to be other 434MHz equipment, cordless phones, WiFi (or particularly Powerline), etc. near to the receiver.

Cheers, Alan.

[Feek]

That's interesting, thanks Alan.

I might also try lowering the transmitter down a bit as it doesn't need to be right at the top of the mast where it is. My only issue then is finding a way to mount the 20mm clamp on the 2 inch pole.

The only other equipment I have that uses 434MHz is cordless phones. I wouldn't have powerline stuff in the house if you paid me!