Cumulus Support

I don't seem to be able to find anywhere on the forum to introduce myself so I'll do it here. Hope I don't upset anyone by doing this if I do then I'm really sorry.

I'm Chris from from bright and sunny (if not cold) Norwich. he wife brought me a weather station from Maplin's about six years ago which I have loved using.

I'm very much into motorbikes and when the weather allows I can be found tear arsing around the county. Well in my dreams anyway, at my age it's becoming a gentle plod. I have two grown up daughters, one of which has decided to move back home, Oh the joy's of parenting.

For a living I'm a Postman, so I'm out and about in all weathers.

That's pretty much me. And so onto my problem.

This is my weather station.



Not sure on which particular model it is but it seems to be the popular one. I have been running it with cumulous for the past 5 years and everything has been good. Until recently.

Recently I bought myself a new lap top and tried to move all of my history over which hasn't really gone very well. My laptop is windows 8 and doesn't always recognize my weather station when I plug it into the laptop. It's a bit of pain but I can generally get it working.

My real issue that started about a week ago as can be seen on the pic is. The transmitter outside has stopped transmitting the information to the weather station. I get indoor temp and barometric pressure, but that's it. Nothing from outside.

I have replaced all the battery's both inside and out. I have pulled the two leads from the transmitter and cleaned them up. To be honest they are pretty clean before I started. I am at a loss at to what to do next. Though I do have some options.

Option 1
Buy another unit from maplin. Either the refurb one at £44.95.

Option2
Buy a new one at £70.

Option3
Buy a new transmitter for £14.95.


Could the transmitter have just packed up?

Thought's and opinions gratefully received

Cheers

Chris

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the forum.

It's a "Fine Offset" (manufacturer) station (there is a dedicated section here), and five+ years is quite good for them.

However, as you have a new laptop, it's possible that it is "radiating" interference from the USB cable, which interferes with the radio link from the external transmitter. So the first thing to do is to see if the Console displays return (within a few minutes) when the USB cable is unplugged (and ideally the PC moved away or switched off). If the console hasn't received any data for some time (hours) then you may also need to remove its batteries for perhaps a minute (so that it resynchronises when the cells are reinserted).

If the data does return, then you may need to re-arrange the USB cable and/or buy a better (screened) cable (note that using double-ended "Type A" USB plugs is relatively unusual).

If the Console still doesn't receive any data (even when resynchronised with the transmitter nearby) then a new station is probably necessary. Maplin were recently selling brand new versions for £49.99, so might do again.

Do NOT buy a replacement transmitter because Fine Offset changed the data protocol a few years ago, so the old Console will not "recognise" its data.

Cheers, Alan.

Thanks for the reply alleycat. Maplins are currently selling them for £70 for a new one so I may just wait untill they drop the price again.

Cheers

Chris

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the forum.

I agree with what Alan has said regarding the transmitter.

I was having problems with my Fineoffset WH1081 transmitter (humidity was all over
the place, and I was getting temperature spikes), and was going to just
buy a replacement transimitter but then read that the data protocol had
changed.

So I decided to just buy a whole new station for £69.99 (minus £5.00 which
I found a voucher for online). Now I have it all running again and now have spares
for any future breakdowns, i.e. anonmeter, wind vain, rain guage etc..

I can also confirm that I did try the new transmitter with my old Fineoffset WH1081 (2011)
base station and it did not connect. So was glad I bought the whole station and did not
waste money on hoping that the new transmitter would work with the old base station.

Mark