Cumulus Support

What are the signs of a failing sensor?

My readings are getting stuck at the same values for several minutes at a time..

You would think a failing sensor would either produce silly or random values or zero, not persist the same value?

When my solar sensor failed on my old VP1 it gave a reading of 5w/sqm at night constantly. Stranger things happen!

Stuart

I can't work it out, that's for sure.

It sticks on the same value for as much as 10 or 11 minutes sometimes.

mcrossley wrote: ↑Mon 03 Jul 2023 1:58 pm You would think a failing sensor would either produce silly or random values or zero, not persist the same value?

Well, while I was troubleshooting, I unplugged both the solar and UV sensor, but the WLL will continue to show the last value. Perhaps that's what's happening to the solar sensor?! It stops sending a packet of data, and so the WLL continues to show the same value until it receives a new packet?

If the ISS does not detect a signal from the solar sensor for a while (not sure how many reads it has to miss) it stops reading it every 50 seconds and only reads it every 10 minutes. This is to save battery power overnight.

If you have a decent multimeter and ideally have a 6p socket you could test the sensor yourself with a 3V battery like the CR123v the ISS uses, or a couple of AAs.

your not having much luck with failing sensors on your Davis System.