Cumulus Support

After five and a half years my CR123A Duracell backup battery finally gave up the ghost this morning. Tesco don't sell the type required for Davis stations so I've ordered online with delivery tomorrow.

Just a warning to other UK VP2 owners that you will need to buy from specialist outlets so it's worth getting a couple of spares. No records for my station today but hopefully I'll be reporting tomorrow.

Happy 2015 to everyone!

Sound advice. I buy them in bulk from eBay because I use so many! I've just checked my stocks and I'm down to my last three, so it'll soon be time to order some more

I did wonder whether it would be worth replacing my solar panel, as it's about eight years old and quite weather-worn. I do clean it regularly.

Our local Sainsburys sells them Ray, yours has lasted well though. Mine only went in in April & November '13 so if they last as long as yours I don't have to worry about them for a while

I bought from BatteryStation in Bradford. £16.94 for 5 with next day delivery. Seems a reasonable price.

I could kick myself though. These long nights hammer the battery and because I was away in Jersey over Christmas I couldn't do anything until today. It was reporting 'LOW' for 7 days until it packed up.

Steve, I never even think about the solar panel. It gets an annual wash in the spring but I suppose yours will take a battering with the salt air.

Mark, I tried an electrical outlet close to Ford Polar but didn't think supermarkets would stock them. I could have tried John Lewis but I needed to get them tomorrow so decided express delivery was my best bet.

I'll need to concoct a record for today probably using Mark's station as a guide. I'll need to read the instructions on how to do that. First time I've missed a day's records. At least it will stay dry today. I've closed Cumulus until I'm running again.

I decided that on a near-calm day wind measurements weren't that important so I've swapped the Duracell from the anemometer transmitter to the ISS. I'll still be recording wind until the sun goes down but more importantly I'll have a temperature record for the day.

Thank goodness for the second transmitter!

If you have a local Currys or RS......

Duke,

There's a Curry's in Stockport but I decided it was too specialist a battery and that they probably wouldn't have it. Useful info for others though.

What's RS? Radio Shack? Weren't they Tandy over here? The only one I knew closed down years ago. I suppose Maplins might stock them.

Not many of us would remember Tandy

RS is a specialist store, here's a link, always handy if not a little over priced. RS Components

Cheers Duke. Kept just in case.

Steve,

I've removed the Duracell from the anemometer tx but Cumulus is still reporting its status as OK. http://www.cheadlehulmeweather.co.uk/system.htm

I know you take the reading from the davis dll and I'll have new batteries in tomorrow so this is just for info.

The battery status reporting seems not designed to cater for the unusual situation of the battery not being present. For example, the console battery voltage appears to report the mains adapter voltage (or a default value) if the console has no batteries fitted. So 'Low' on the transmitter status presumably means 'the transmitter is transmitting and it has a battery fitted and the battery voltage is low. Any other condition is 'OK'.

Thanks Steve. I guess they didn't bother coding for a battery not present situation as the user would presumably be aware of that.

RayProudfoot wrote:Tesco don't sell the type required for Davis stations so I've ordered online with delivery tomorrow.

Too late now I know, but just for the record most supermarkets should/do sell CR123/CR123A batteries, including Tesco whenever I've looked. But you do have to check quite hard sometimes - the racks are often quite disorganised or badly stocked and Tesco in particular IIRC do seem to have a practice of displaying batteries in more than one place in the store so the CR123 batteries may not be in the first place you look.

Online will always be cheaper for bulk buys of course, but not necessarily true for one-offs once P&P is factored in.

Thanks John. Maybe I was just unlucky with Tesco at Handforth Dean although it is a large store. All the batteries were on the ground floor. I did ask if they had any upstairs where the electronics are sold. Sadly not.

The twin-pack 3v Lithium battery I bought yesterday was £7 and was smaller than the one I need. Multiply that by 2.5 is £17.50 so I did save even with next day delivery.

I'm amazed!

Why? Because 12 hours ago I took the Duracell battery out of the wind tx meaning it was only powered by solar and whatever charge remained in the capacitor. It's now been dark for nearly 7 hours and still there is enough residual power to transmit wind data to the console.

Hats off to Davis.

Duracell Ultra CR123A batteries to clear in our local Sainsbury superstores at £1.00 each.

I got two, even though my VP2 is only been in a month, I have till 2021 to use them.