Cumulus Support

I moved recently and lost the sensors of my WH-1080 (which worked fine for three years).
Order new sensors or purchase a new WS?
I decided to purchase a WH-3080 (Dutch version: Alecto WS-5000 ECO, 868 MHz)

To start with: it works.

Signal reception however was a problem, because the distance between the best sensor location and the base station in my house was 70 meters, with interfering walls.
An advice: when setting up a new weather station, begin with a close distance between transmitter and base station to be sure everything works.

Luckily there is a garden house in my garden, with mains supply. Installed a home plug (TP-Link 4220 kit, which has two ethernet ports as well as WiFi) for internet, connected the base station to a Raspberry PI running PYWWS, and the RPI with one of the two ethernet ports. (The WiFi option I only use for my tablet / smartphone).
Of course I could have used a Windows laptop with Cumulus (much better/easier software than PYWWS), but the power consumption of a RPI is much lower.

Now, with a distance of 40 meters between the transmitter and the base station in the (wooden) garden house, reception is solid.
For consulting the base station I would need to go outside. Not a problem for me, I only watch my published webpages.

Back to the WH-3080, because this forum is not about home plugs or RPI:
- It works.
- It works fine with Cumulus (my first setup, before changing to PYWWS + RPI)
- Signal reception under almost ideal circumstances is fine.
- It came with 5 Duracell alkaline batteries, so no rechargeables for the transmitter anymore.
- Later on I will rewire the solar sensor and extend the cable, so the transmitter can be placed somewhere else in the shadow.
- The solar sensor works, but I cannot tell yet if it is accurate.

The sensors, mounted on a 22mm central heating pipe. Cheap, rigid. It might need some protection against rust:
Standard mounting brackets (In the background the garden house, with the base station in it): Interested in the output? Check my signature.

I'm intending to buy a WS3080 / WH3080 but have some questions apart from misreadings by the Fine Offset stations described on other places on this forum (so I assume the station works well) :

1: Can I place the UV/ solar sensor on another place as I want to place the thermo/hygrosensor in a fan aspirated situtation and not use the default plastic screen.
If so is this easy to be done and how??

2: Does the station behave as a WH1080/1081 without solar/uv sensor if the sensor is disconnected , the reason why I ask this that if the solarsensor is broken I can switch Cumulus back to Fine Offset regular. (in short can this station used as WH1080 and WH3080 ??)

Thanks in advance.
Ron

nitrx wrote:2: Does the station behave as a WH1080/1081 without solar/uv sensor if the sensor is disconnected , the reason why I ask this that if the solarsensor is broken I can switch Cumulus back to Fine Offset regular. (in short can this station used as WH1080 and WH3080 ??)

From the Cumulus point of view, you would still have to keep the same station type, or any logger data read when it starts up would be invalid. The archive records are bigger for the WH3080, and this doesn't change if the the sensor is disconnected. I don't know what the station does when the sensor is disconnected, but I assume it would record 'out of range' values (all 'FF') and Cumulus would ignore them.

steve wrote:

nitrx wrote:2: Does the station behave as a WH1080/1081 without solar/uv sensor if the sensor is disconnected , the reason why I ask this that if the solarsensor is broken I can switch Cumulus back to Fine Offset regular. (in short can this station used as WH1080 and WH3080 ??)

From the Cumulus point of view, you would still have to keep the same station type, or any logger data read when it starts up would be invalid. The archive records are bigger for the WH3080, and this doesn't change if the the sensor is disconnected. I don't know what the station does when the sensor is disconnected, but I assume it would record 'out of range' values (all 'FF') and Cumulus would ignore them.

OK thanks for that Steve.

Remains quostion 1

Question 1: Not easy, but it seems it can be done. https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.p ... 829#p60829

At the moment I am thinking about a first solution that is easily reversible to the original state. Something for the next months, at a moment I've got nothing else to do. I will post the results here.

henkg wrote:Question 1: Not easy, but it seems it can be done. https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.p ... 829#p60829

At the moment I am thinking about a first solution that is easily reversible to the original state. Something for the next months, at a moment I've got nothing else to do. I will post the results here.

Thanks Henk for the link, well thats not the way I expected unfortunally I think I've to reconsider to but a WH308X

Hi,

nitrx wrote:

henkg wrote:Question 1: Not easy, but it seems it can be done. https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.p ... 829#p60829

... well thats not the way I expected unfortunally

Personally, I have extended the Solar Pod cable on two systems and the improvement when located "up with the wind sensors" can be very worthwhile. I have devised three methods, basically "simple", "moderate" and "difficult". The first two methods require the rain sensor cable to be long enough to still reach the solar pod (or also to be extended). Basic details concerning the cable requirements are in my post linked above.

Firstly, I used a "spare" mast bracket (as used for the transmitter or rain sensor). If you're re-locating the sensors for better peformance then one of these may be already spare, or many people end up buying more than one FO station anyway! Then I used a short section of 20 mm (approximately) diameter plastic pipe (e.g. as used for water) to join the "square key" on the bracket (having drilled a hole through its centre for the cable) to the "round key" on the underside of the solar pod. If you wish to keep the RJ12 plug on the cable then you will need also to file the hole out to a square.

The issue of the pod cable being "captive" to (i.e. passing through) the solar screen can be solved in several ways: The plug can be cut off and a new RJ12 plug crimped on the cable (the special tools are only a few Pounds on ebay) after removing the solar screen. Or, unsolder the wires within the pod and solder on a longer cable; but beware that many "pre-assembled" cables now use aluminium or a very thin copper "ribbon" (around a "string" core), so soldering can be very difficult.

The "simple" solution is to leave the screen on the cable and mount it all at the top of the mast (where it may act as adequate weather protection for a purchased RJ12 extension cable/coupler). Of course you will need a spare solar shield (or maybe make something better ! ), and I haven't really devised a "tidy" method to attach the screen to the mast bracket.

The "difficult" method (which I attempted for one station) was to re-use the "rain" socket on the pod (which does have 4 contacts) for the wind sensors, and run a new CAT5 (8-core) cable down from the pod to the transmitter. BUT, the "spare" pins are connected by tracks on the PCB AND the earth pin is different. Then, it's necessary to make a "wiring harness" to connect the CAT5 and Rain cables to the correct "Rain" (Pod) and Wind sockets on the transmitter.

Cheers, Alan.

@Alan: Thanks. This information helps!
I will try the "simple" method first, because it is non destructive. Later on I might use the same rj12 extension cable for a soldered connection to the solar pod. However, "Soldering can be very difficult": yes, the cheap CCA cables (copper cladded aluminium) are very difficult to solder, so maybe I will stick to the simple solution.

Where to buy a rj12 extension cable. I found one, 3 meters, for EUR 3,95 at (Dutch supplier): http://www.allekabels.nl/rj12-kabel/740 ... -rj12.html

Results? I will post them here, before Christmas ...

@Alan and Henk thanks for the suggestions , soldering is no option for me 'I've two left hands' = a Dutch verb Maybe the 'simple solution is the best for me. I think I need 15 metres of extra phone cable is there a limit for this cables the have some resistance I think. The cable must have 6 separate 'channels' ?

Ron

Hi Ron,

The resistance of the cable is unlikely to be a problem, but the inter-core capacitance might be an issue with very long cables. It certainly was a problem with "old" 108x stations because "crosstalk" could occur between the wind (speed) and external temperature sensor (which shared an Analogue-Digital converter), but the design is different in recent models.

The 308x Solar Pod has a "6-core" cable with a RJ12 plug called "6P6C" (6-Poles, 6-Contacts), but only 5 cores are actually connected. Of these, one carries the rain sensor signal and one core is a "common earth". So, if you don't mind making your own cable harnesses, there are various possibilities, such as to use the spare core to carry the rain signal up the cable, or connect the rain sensor directly to the "transmitter" and use only a 4-core downlead (plus the 4-core wind cable of course).

Cheers, Alan.

AllyCat wrote:Hi Ron,

The resistance of the cable is unlikely to be a problem, but the inter-core capacitance might be an issue with very long cables. It certainly was a problem with "old" 108x stations because "crosstalk" could occur between the wind (speed) and external temperature sensor (which shared an Analogue-Digital converter), but the design is different in recent models.

The 308x Solar Pod has a "6-core" cable with a RJ12 plug called "6P6C" (6-Poles, 6-Contacts), but only 5 cores are actually connected. Of these, one carries the rain sensor signal and one core is a "common earth". So, if you don't mind making your own cable harnesses, there are various possibilities, such as to use the spare core to carry the rain signal up the cable, or connect the rain sensor directly to the "transmitter" and use only a 4-core downlead (plus the 4-core wind cable of course).

Cheers, Alan.

Alan thanks for your info , I don't want to solder I've attached the wiring of the solarpod and rainsensor (what a stupid wiring..) I marked the solarpod with a red arrow , this is the 6 core I assume, the marked blue is 4 cores chained throug the solar pod.

I've (tried LOL) to draw the new wiring in the other image , green is a RJ12 splitter near the transmittor both sensors are connected directly to the splitter so the wire to the solarpod will be extended with a 6-core wire and the rainsensor goes to the splitter with the supplied 4-core cable.

Do you think this will work ? (assuming there is no interference and the splitter has 6 cores too)

Thanks
Ron

1 altenative wiring

2: original wiring

Hi Ron,

Yes, I believe that will work electrically. The two potential "stumbling blocks" are finding a 6-pole RJ12 coupler and making a waterproof enclosure for it (or a bigger/better Solar/Stevenson Screen), because it won't fit within the original FO Screen.

One possibility for the coupler/splitter is to use a RJ45 type (8-poles). The RJ11/12 plugs do fit, but the sideways location (positioning) is not good so I'd suggest fixing small pieces of card or plastic each side of the plug.

Alternatively, "crimping" bare plugs (using the correct tool) is probably not as difficult as soldering, to make a custom wiring loom. But you do need good eyesight, patience, perhaps a continuity tester (multimeter) and a few "spares" so that you can "start again" if it doesn't work first time.

Cheers, Alan.

Alan thanks for your info , well perhaps I ask my wife she is very good in soldering andso-on

Update: from first (2014-11-10) to second impressions (now: 2015-01-09).
My WH-3080 still works fine, not one problem encountered yet.

Same setup as I mentioned earlier (distance between transmitter and console: 40 meters (line of sight, only obstruction is one wooden wall).
At first with an RPI running PYWWS. Why not Cumulus: For real time data Cumulus needs a PC running Windows 24/7.

A week ago I joined the Cumulus MX beta program, now my RPI is running Cumulus MX beta. After a few updates this beta is stable enough (for me!) to forget PYWWS. For those of you who do not have any experience with Linux and/or a Raspberry: stick with Cumulus (1) for Windows, and wait for the final release. Furthermore Cumulus MX will (might?) be licensed, not donation ware. Not a problem for me: having so much fun, for just a few USD/GBP/EUR!

Back to the WH-3080:
Solar problems?
No problems (as far I can tell during only this past fall / this winter). Nice to see –on an extremely sunny day a few days ago- that the measured data is almost identical to the theoretical max calculated by Cumulus.

Transmitter battery problems?
No problems (with the supplied non-rechargeable alkaline batteries)

What remains:
- The very nervous wind direction
- The inadequate radiation screen
- The solar pod mounted directly on the radiation screen. I still have to mod this.

So, I am quite positive about the WH-3080. Maybe newer versions are better than the early ones, or I am just lucky ...