Cumulus Support

A couple of years ago, I bought a weather-station from a supplier on the net - I'm not sure of the make/model (there are no stickers anywhere on it) but it looks pretty much identical to this one from Maplin:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/silver-usb-wi ... ster-n96fy

which has a wind direction detector (Maplin do another cheaper one these days that does not have wind direction).

I think it may be EasyWeather (hence I'm posting here). It works well with Cumulus.

It worked OK for about 12 months and then most of the values on the screen just became dashes. Thinking that the transmitter's batteries had expired I replaced them with new Duracells, but the display was still the same even when I placed the display close to the transmitter. So I just left it running. A few months later I noticed that the display had started to show all of the values again, and it continued to work OK for several weeks, then most of the values went back to dashes again.

Apart from another brief period when the values all displayed OK, it has been showing the dashes ever since.

Outside temp, wind speed & direction, and rain all show as dashes. Inside temp and humidity always displays OK.

It does show the air pressure OK - does that mean that the transmissions are being received OK, but all of the detectors apart from air pressure are faulty?

Is this a well-known problem with these models that might be easy to fix?

I don't fancy spending another hundred pounds on a new unit if its only going to last 12 months again.

I'm not the best person to answer questions about the Fine Offset hardware, but I can tell you that the pressure sensor is in the console, so your problem is probably that the console isn't receiving any transmissions from the transmitter. There are a number of threads in this section of the forum about getting communication re-established, so you could have a look for those. Is the red light on the transmitter flashing every 48 seconds or so?

Thanks Steve.

I can tell you that the pressure sensor is in the console

Ah, I had assumed that it would be in the transmitter. So that would be consistent with display panel not receiving anything.

I don't remember there being a red light on the transmitter - presumably that would be flashing to show that it IS transmitting. I will have a look at it in the next couple of days (it's up a pole on a narrowboat so slightly precarious to reach!).

Hi,

Welcome to the forum. Yes, these particular stations do have a number of "issues", particularly concerning communication from the external Transmitter to the Console. But it seems that you have not tried even the basic tests to see if it's faulty.

To save battery power, the Console only "listens" for the data pulse from the Transmitter for a very brief time each 48 seconds (when the Red LED flashes). So if it gets "out of sync" for any reason, then you may get the dashes for evermore (or at least a very long time). Therefore, whenever the batteries are changed, or if you experience the dashes for a long time, first download any useful data in the Console to Cumulus. Then remove the Console batteries for a minute and unplug the USB cable, which will cause the Console to try to synchronise when it restarts (make sure the Transmitter isn't too far away).

A few other tests are possible, but generally it's not worth trying to buy "spares" (except for broken wind or rain sensors). However, the complete stations are sometimes available "on offer" (e.g. from Maplin or Class Ohlson) for around £50.

Cheers, Alan.

I didn't realise there was an issue with loss of sync in this way. I changed the batteries in the display at least once during its life, but can't remember if that was while it was displaying dashes.

Anyway, thanks - that's given me a couple of things to try. Will report the results.