Cumulus Support

I have a weather eye WEA22 operating at 868.3 MHz (purchased through Maplin). It is now 12 years old and the transmitter has stopped reporting relative humidity.

I have tried replacing it with what appeared to be an identical unit purchased through Amazon but that didn't work.

Reading through this forum I now understand that later models used a different transmitting frequency and a different data protocol.

Any thoughts on what I can do now? Has anyone taken the transmitter unit apart and replaced the humidity sensor? I can use a soldering iron but don't want to wreck a partially functioning unit if I can help it.

Hi,

drf wrote: ↑Fri 03 May 2024 11:37 am I have tried replacing it with what appeared to be an identical unit purchased through Amazon but that didn't work.

Welcome to the forum. If by "it" you mean you replaced the complete Transmitter (i.e. outdoor box) with a "new" unit, then yes there can be issues with transmitter frequency and (perhaps) the wireless protocol. A (cheap) second-hand unit from maybe ebay (or this forum) might be a better bet. But I'm puzzled by the reference to WEA22; IIRC the vast majority of (Fine Offset) Weather Stations sold by Maplin were branded as Maplin and operated at 434MHz (although it seems that sometimes even their staff didn't know what they were selling! ). The radio frequency might be written on the Console label or perhaps identifiable from the internal module or antenna length. I believe that the wireless protocol was changed more than 12 years ago in the "Maplin" stations, but a few years later in the similar "Clas Ohlson" (868MHz) versions.

There are numerous types/brand of Humidity sensor and I don't believe that anybody has ever identified the part number of that installed in the Fine Offset stations, let alone obtained a "Spare Part" (perhaps Hope by name and nature ). The only success I had with "repairing" a faulty (FO/Maplin) external Humidity sensor was to swap the Humidity sensor modules between the inside of the Transmitter and Console units. I do recall that it was necessary to solder the "faulty" (i.e. uncalibrated) external sensor back into the Console to prevent its software hanging. You might be lucky and find a cheap "donor" Transmitter (or Console), but 12 years is a very good life for a Humidity sensor (or a Fine Offset station ! ) anyway.

Cheers, Alan.