Fine Offset Station not found....W 8681 dead?

[souwesterly]

After some seven years, my Watson W 8681 seems to have died.
Yesterday and the day before, it hadn't registered the rain we'd had during the two days and I suspected the usual spider as being the culprit. But on checking, all was clear and the tipping mechanism worked fine, but still nothing.
And then last night an error message came up - "Fine Offset Station not found!" and none of my efforts would bring up a connection.
So I guess it's dead - or is it?

This morning I'll go and change the batteries but do you have any other helpful suggestions, other than uninstalling and reinstalling Cumulus, which I've already tried......hoping that that might be the problem.

[steve]

It's either the console or the USB connection. If the latter, then you could try a different USB port and/or cable. But I would think it's more likely to be the console.

[souwesterly]

Hello Steve and thanks for your usual speedy reply,

Hmmmm - replaced the batteries (which were marginal on power) - no change.
(Batteries in the console are new - fitted last week)
Tried several different usb ports - no change.
Checked everything for connections, etc - no change.
All that's showing on the console is the indoor temperature and the air pressure (showing as constant, even though it's rising slowly). It's even lost the correct date and time, i.e, it isn't picking up the time from the computer.

So my guess is that the sender unit is dead.
Perhaps the console is too - and since it'll cost the best part of £80 to replace them both, I might as well buy a whole new unit.
So - my next question - what to buy?
Is there a forum thread to follow, perchance?
Unless you have any cheaper suggestions!

[steve]

You may get some more suggestions from the more hardware savvy members of the forum...

[souwesterly]

You may get some more suggestions from the more hardware savvy members of the forum...

Here's hoping!
Cheers

[andrew_sinclair]

Hello souwesterly,

I may be able to help with replacement parts. I have recently changed my Fine Offset station for a Davis due to damage to the wind direction / speed sensor but I kept the remaining working parts, 1 x console and 2 x sender units. If these will help with either the fault finding process or reduce the cost of replacement I am happy to donate. I live in Cheddar so not a million miles away to send or drop off.

If you do decide to go the replace route then I would recommend the Davis Vantage Pro 2 Plus fitted with a Daytime Fan-Aspirated Radiation Shield (D-FARS) kit.

Regards

Andrew

[AllyCat]

Hi,

After some seven years, my Watson W 8681 seems to have died..

After seven years it's probably time to let it Rest In Peace. It may have been one of the longest-living FO stations on this forum.

It sounds as if the Console has failed, but there's certainly no point in trying to buy a spare part, when complete stations cost little more, and FO may have changed the wireless protocol (so a "replacement" might not work anyway).

You appear to have had a "positive experience" with the FO so perhaps just choose the "same again"? However, it's your choice whether to spend significantly less than £100 (on a FO), or more than £500 (on a Davis with PC interface). There have been several recent threads on the topic, for example this and this. Apologies for linking to my own posts, but they were the easiest to find !

Cheers, Alan.

[souwesterly]

Many thanks to both of you, Alan and Andrew,

Your thoughts are much appreciated.
Regrettably, my ever-thin finances won't easily stretch to anything as nice as the Davis Vantage Pro 2 Plus - as an old pensioner I have to think of the pennies, as they say!
But since my W 8681 has been excellent, that's probably what I'll go for again.

HOWEVER - in the meanwhile, all my troubles seem to be sorted.....it makes me somewhat embarrassed to say!

In an effort to resuscitate my station, I undid most of it, pulled it all apart, cleaned and polished everything and put it together again.
Then, before I set it back up on it's post, I brought the sender unit into the house and connected up my console. And s*d me, the bl**dy thing worked!
And it still works now I've put everything back where it belongs.....

But I'm thinking ahead now - if it's happened once, it'll probably happen again - so I will be glad to take up your offer Andrew, if I may, of a spare console and possibly a spare sender unit. I'll drop you a PM before too long to see what we can arrange.

Alan - I tell a lie - I bought my W8681 in May 2007, so it's not quite 7 years old yet!
Thank you too for the links - 'tis far easier for you to find them than for me to try to hunt them down. I'll give them my consideration later tonight, thanks.

Apologies to all of you for the false alarm, but I've learned a bit more in the process - and perhaps others will be able to make uses of your comments too.

Cheers fellas

Chris

[andrew_sinclair]

Hello Chris,

...so I will be glad to take up your offer Andrew, if I may, of a spare console and possibly a spare sender unit. I'll drop you a PM before too long to see what we can arrange.

No problem, let me know as and when..

Regards

Andrew