WS-3081 solar cell not keeping the battery charged

[Tassie Devil]

Absolutely foul weather here yesterday with strong winds BUT the weather station did not register the wind or outside temperature correctly. Being a dull day I'm guessing the solar cell was not doing its job of keeping battery charge up. Brighter day today and readings look OK but I'm unsure what to do to make the unit more reliable in dull conditions.

I recall reading before that the solar cell can give problems but search as I might I cannot re-locate those posts. So I guess the options are:

1. Get a replacement under guarantee - Purchased late August this year so should still be under guarantee.

2. Make up a more reliable replacement (I can cope with a soldering iron etc). I see various DIY options have been posted about so seek advice about the best course of action.

BTW I live in Northern Tasmania, Australia so light levels can drop at times but temperature extremes go from -5C in Winter to a bit above 30-C in Summer. The siting of the unit for more accurate rain readings means that it only gets direct sun in the afternoon. See the attached file.

John

[Super-T]

My experience with any rechargeables is, don't use them, especially outside. Plain old alkaline last well over a year for me and cheap enough. Bit of a pain if the transmitter is hard to get to though.
You'd have to disable the charging if you went to plain Alkaline.
Thats what you get for living in Tassie mate. Even worse than Wellington.

[AllyCat]

Hi John,

I'm guessing the solar cell was not doing its job of keeping battery charge up. ...... Purchased late August this year so should still be under guarantee.

I doubt if it's a "solar cell" issue, nor probably even low battery voltage. Have you ever seen the "Low TX" battery icon showing on the LCD display?

So it's only been running for just over a month? The transmitter should run for at least a year on a pair of alkaline AAs, either the supplied "rechargeable" or normal non-rechargeable types, without any charging, unless there is a fault in the Solar Pod (which many "early" models suffered, including mine).

My advice: If you have seen the "Low TX" icon then replace the two "rechargeable" cells with a fresh pair of normal (non-rechargeable) alkaline AAs (no need to disconnect the solar panel). If "Low TX" appears again within a year then the Solar Pod is probably faulty (excessive current drain, not a failure to charge). If you haven't seen the Low TX icon then you probably need to check the radio channel for inadequate range or local interference, or perhaps just for water/corrosion in the battery compartment.

Cheers, Alan.

[Tassie Devil]

Did re modification of the setup yesterday as I think part of the problem was the location of the thermo-hygro sensor - it was not in optimal position for sunlight reception so was moved up higher as shown in the accompanying pic. This involved lengthening the wire from the sensor to the rain gauge by 1.5m. Not a particularly difficult job as there are only 2 wires in the cable with the inserted length soldered and sealed with shrink cable.

There was an immediate increase in light intensity reading. Some rain later indicated all was well with the rain gauge connection.

I finally got around to using the Cumulus program although I find the outside temperature reading differs to that shown on the inside display - maybe because it shows the wind chill termperrature correction?

John (still learning)

[steve]

I finally got around to using the Cumulus program although I find the outside temperature reading differs to that shown on the inside display - maybe because it shows the wind chill termperrature correction?

Yes, if you have the console displaying wind chill (as you appear to have in your picture), that is not the outside temperature, so will differ from the Cumulus outside temperature. It may not even agree with the Cumulus wind chill reading, as the console may calculate the wind chill differently (there are several different methods). If you switch your console display to show the outside temperature, it will agree with the Cumulus outside temperature reading.

Note also that you are displaying 'absolute' pressure on your console; it's the 'relative' reading that you should normally be looking at; it's the pressure corrected to sea level, and the one that Cumulus always displays. You will need to set your relative pressure correctly on the console if you have not already done so.

[Tassie Devil]

Thanks for replying.

Yes I woke up to the "Wind chill" mode and have changed it to display TEMP. I had also changed pressure display to REL some time ago. All of which underlines how complex the weather is!

John

[agsteele]

I had a problem with the solar unit not maintaining the battery charge. It turned out to be the solar panel unit.

Regular batteries did not have good life in the W-8681-Solar

Andrew

[Tassie Devil]

I had a problem with the solar unit not maintaining the battery charge. It turned out to be the solar panel unit.

Regular batteries did not have good life in the W-8681-Solar

Andrew

So Andrew, what did you do? Did they supply you with as new solar panel unit. Where was it sourced?

TIA

John

[agsteele]

I purchased a new solar panel (which includes the screen which slides over the thermo-hygro sensor) from Waters & Stanton in Essex. Actually they had some challenges supplying a new one as they couldn't get anything from their supplier but it came in the end. I've since seen many for sale on eBay.

I also replaced the rechargeable batteries. I had missed the fact that the supplied ones are rechargeable ALKALINE batteries. I made the mistake of recharging in a standard battery charger and that killed them off quite quickly. I tried changing the batteries first of all but that made no difference. The solar unit brought everything back to life.

Ordinary batteries worked OK but with limited life and, of course, no light readings.

Andrew

[AllyCat]

Hi,

Ah, you haven't (just) replaced the Solar (PV) Panel but the whole Solar Pod. That certainly should fix the problem since the Pod has numerous "known issues". The "Solar Screen" also has to be replaced because Fine offset in their "wisdom" decided to make it captive on the cable (the plug cannot pass through the hole in the top).

Cheers, Alan.