VP2 inventing rain

[mcrossley]

I don't know you turn your back on it for a week or so to go away and the thing starts playing up.

Last night it clocked up nearly 200mm of rain and has been doing similar tricks since about Tuesday.

I checked the tip buckets - OK, the ISS is damp inside with condensation, so I have left it open since late this morning to dry out. Then about 15:00 it clocked up about another 60mm of rain. I have now disconnected the rain cable from the ISS to see if that makes any difference.

I did think the condensation may be shorting the wind speed to rain cct?

Anybody else got any ideas?

[steve]

Damp in the rain connector socket?

[mcrossley]

It looked dry when I took it out, nothing apparent on a piece of kitchen paper either. I'll leave it disconnected overnight and see what happens. I'll try and get a hair drier on it before I close up the ISS in a bit...

[mcrossley]

No more rain since I dried out the ISS, but that was with the rain sensor disconnected.

I checked the sensor reed switch, it is OK.

I have found the source of water ingress - the PV panel on the ISS case. It had a very narrow bead of clear silicone sealant to water proof the PV panel to the case - this is had failed in multiple places. I have re-bedded it into a nice thick bead of white electronic grade (no acetic acid released during curing) silicone sealant.

Whilst the PV panel was out, the plastic 'window' which had gone cloudy and matt was buffed up with some metal polish. It is now back to a nice clear shiny appearance.

Let's hope this fixes it - otherwise I suspect a new SIM board will be required.