Yet another duff Fine Offset......
Posted: Sun 15 Mar 2015 7:59 pm
Hi....thought I would share my tale of woe.....with a happy ending...!
My Maplin Special Fine Offset has been working well for years - think it was summer 2008 I bought it, so it has done me well....
Anyway, over winter, the wind speed stopped reporting - spins fine but no data (not the usual bearing issue).
Next was the wind direction.... would only report some of the compass points....
I had a quick search online and was very pleased to see Maplin had spares, so for something like £12 I had two new sensors.
Fitted them up....now that weather is kinder....great I thought.....and a week later, humidity sits at 100% for most of the time!
AGH! - its like an old car...once things start to go wrong.....etc etc...
Anyway...had read previously the posts about the sensors failing, and decided to buy a new transmitter from Maplin... at £15, thought it was a bargain.
Transmitter arrived..... no joy..... speak to Maplin...they confirm its the right part for an early 433 station.....so they sent me another....no joy either. I guess the only spares they have are for the later protocol....to which their support seem to be unaware.
So...a good friend has the same station and identical vintage. He stopped using it when the rain sensor died... so its been in his garage for 5 years plus.
Paired his transmitter with my indoor unit and it fails to show wind speed or direction....plan B...move the humidity pcb over to my transmitter.
Easy solder job...but nae luck...my unit pairs ok....humidity varies between 85-100% and no wind speed or direction. Put my humidity pcb back in the transmitter.... and move over the other humidity sensor to my pcb...still no joy! (Measured capacitance of both and they were pretty much the same, so assumed good).
After an hour with google.... consensus is that the wee pcb also handles wind... so who knows why I ended up with what I have!
ANYWAY (if you are still awake).....the good news is that a quick check with Maplin revealed that they are selling refurb weather stations for £42 delivered... which if I had known that a month ago... I would have swapped the whole damn lot out and saved me several hours hassle!
At least I have a few spares now I guess!
David
My Maplin Special Fine Offset has been working well for years - think it was summer 2008 I bought it, so it has done me well....
Anyway, over winter, the wind speed stopped reporting - spins fine but no data (not the usual bearing issue).
Next was the wind direction.... would only report some of the compass points....
I had a quick search online and was very pleased to see Maplin had spares, so for something like £12 I had two new sensors.
Fitted them up....now that weather is kinder....great I thought.....and a week later, humidity sits at 100% for most of the time!
AGH! - its like an old car...once things start to go wrong.....etc etc...
Anyway...had read previously the posts about the sensors failing, and decided to buy a new transmitter from Maplin... at £15, thought it was a bargain.
Transmitter arrived..... no joy..... speak to Maplin...they confirm its the right part for an early 433 station.....so they sent me another....no joy either. I guess the only spares they have are for the later protocol....to which their support seem to be unaware.
So...a good friend has the same station and identical vintage. He stopped using it when the rain sensor died... so its been in his garage for 5 years plus.
Paired his transmitter with my indoor unit and it fails to show wind speed or direction....plan B...move the humidity pcb over to my transmitter.
Easy solder job...but nae luck...my unit pairs ok....humidity varies between 85-100% and no wind speed or direction. Put my humidity pcb back in the transmitter.... and move over the other humidity sensor to my pcb...still no joy! (Measured capacitance of both and they were pretty much the same, so assumed good).
After an hour with google.... consensus is that the wee pcb also handles wind... so who knows why I ended up with what I have!
ANYWAY (if you are still awake).....the good news is that a quick check with Maplin revealed that they are selling refurb weather stations for £42 delivered... which if I had known that a month ago... I would have swapped the whole damn lot out and saved me several hours hassle!
At least I have a few spares now I guess!
David