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N96FY Screen Readings Disappear

For discussion of DIY weather equipment - sensors, accessories, improvements to existing kit etc
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blue2
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed 02 Jan 2013 3:46 pm
Weather Station: Maplin N96FY
Operating System: Window 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Location: Welsh End, Whixall, Shropshire, SY13 2NU, UK

N96FY Screen Readings Disappear

Post by blue2 »

Hi Gents,

A Happy New Year to you. I'm new to this site as the strife gave me a Maplin N96FY weather station for Xmas.

Its up and running mounted on a 3' steel tube pole at the bottom of the garden on the side of a brick shed. I am using Cumulus V1.9.2 and have been collecting data for the past four days but I keep losing the Outside Temp, Humidity, Rain Fall and Wind Speed on the main control screen (its mounted on the wall in the kitchen approx. 75 feet from the station sensors). The readings are replaced with dashes on the screen which disappear after a while and then the readings re-appear. Does this indicate a faulty transmitter or is this normal with this particular weather station? Or is it to do with temperature range below 10*C as mentioned in the manual (its written in a sort of pigeon English which I take to be a direct translation from Chinese). I've browsed the forum but can't find a similar thread anywhere. Would appreciate some help or advice.

Regards

Nigel
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steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26702
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Location: Vienne, France
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Re: N96FY Screen Readings Disappear

Post by steve »

Cumulus will normally be informed about this by the console, and report a "sensor contact lost" error. If you search on that in the forum, you'll find lots of posts and possibly some advice about improving the situation.
Steve
blue2
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed 02 Jan 2013 3:46 pm
Weather Station: Maplin N96FY
Operating System: Window 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Location: Welsh End, Whixall, Shropshire, SY13 2NU, UK

Re: N96FY Screen Readings Disappear

Post by blue2 »

Hi Steve,

Thanks for that, I received a warning as I was reading your response and clicking on the "Error" light the log showed a "sensor contact lost" entry, so looks like I have a battery problem which I'll sort out tomorrow. I've perused the threads on the subject and it all points to batteries, I shouldn't have used the ones that came with the station!!

Nigel

Update:

I found that the location of the Weather Station receiver in my kitchen was giving the lost contact errors! I had the receiver mounted on the chimney breast in the kitchen and the wood burner flue pipe (in the other room) was screening the signal to the receiver, once it was relocated, no more "lost contact sensor" errors.
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odintheterrible
Posts: 110
Joined: Wed 16 Jan 2013 8:18 am
Weather Station: Brandson 304577 & GW1000
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
Location: Torre-Pacheco, Murcia, Spain

Re: N96FY Screen Readings Disappear

Post by odintheterrible »

Greetings,

I'm using the N96GY system and had a similar 'issue'. Turned out that the batteries in the USB/Wireless screen were a bit low (rechargeables).
I charged them up to full capacity but they soon gave out again. Seems that the electronics in these units is quite sensitive to even small drops in voltage; so I replaced the batteries with Duracell ones and all has been well for some time now.
Not saying that this is your problem ... but it's worth checking :-)

O T T
"Qui Custodit Ipsos Custodes ? ..."

Duct Tape is like 'The Force' ... it has a 'Light Side' AND a 'Dark Side' and it binds the Universe together !
patchpeek
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat 23 Jul 2011 9:52 am
Weather Station: Maplin N96GY
Operating System: win 10 pro
Location: England

Re: N96FY Screen Readings Disappear

Post by patchpeek »

Hard to believe that the official reach for these units is 140m (450ft), but sending the signal through walls will reduce this significantly. I doubt anyone could get a reliable signal over this distance and through house walls.

Been using the Maplin N96GY for a couple of years; and had no problems whatsoever, except when the batteries were low. My sensor and unit are probably less than 15 metres away and I use high capacity batteries rather than rechargeable.

It seems 75ft and through several brick walls including the shed is probably a bit too much for the signal.
water01
Posts: 3215
Joined: Sat 13 Aug 2011 9:33 am
Weather Station: Ecowitt HP2551
Operating System: Windows 10 64bit
Location: Burnham-on-Sea
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Re: N96FY Screen Readings Disappear

Post by water01 »

I would have said 75ft is optimistic, more like 50ft at a push with no real obstructions.

I always use the Lithium batteries as they are best at producing a constant output for a long period and work well in the cold. Maplins sells them http://www.maplin.co.uk/extra-long-life ... ies-228566
David
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peterh
Posts: 150
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Weather Station: Alecto WS-5000 rebadged FO 3081
Operating System: Windows server 2008R2
Location: Nederland

Re: N96FY Screen Readings Disappear

Post by peterh »

My console is a good 70 ft away from the transmitter, with a serious obstruction (a brick wall) between them, and I have no problems whatsoever. One of the things I *did* do was move the console away from the computer, by using a 3m USB extension cable - plus I run the console on a 6v power supply rather than on the batteries.
An opinion should be the result of a thought process, not a substitution.
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