Cumulus Support

Hi All
I have just has all sorts of problems with my W8681. The wind speed stuck on a few particular speeds, the wind direction disappeared from time to time and the humidity has been all over the place (mainly about 99%). The transmitter batteries showed 1.465V each (D cells in a separate box) so presumably OK. Bought a new transmitter - same thing - B....R.
In desperation I fitted a 3.2V power supply and guess what - everything back to normal. Actually I fitted a 4.5V first of all (couldn't find the correct one in my 'useful things supply') and nothing burnt out. So I think the transmitters are probably using the lower end of their voltage tolerance range and cold weather knocking the batteries low is probably the final straw. If you have mains available for the power supply I'd recommend using one.
Regards
Alan

I was thinking of using 3x AA NIMH batteries in series with a solar charging panel to power my Watson sensor unit. I have one that comes up at around 6v in what passes for summer sunshine up here at 55N, but that is probably too high. If I can be bothered to go through my old junk box, I used to have a smaller panel that would probably not get above 4.2volts which is the fully charged voltage of 3 nimh batteries in series. If I had to use the bigger panel, I could always position it in a vertical manner so it couldn't take full advantage of the summer sun. That would favour it for the lower angle mid winter sun. I'd need to work out some tests first to make sure it didn't reach 'frying' voltage for the sensor unit on a bright day.

For me this would be a bit of a gimick, now that I have extended the wire to the wind sensors and put the transmitter unit 5 feet off the ground.

It sounds like it would be a good idea for most of us to change the batteries around about November to make sure we don't start recording crazy data when the battery voltage falls off on a frosty night.