andrewinpopayan wrote:Hello there all weather watchers, I have taken up weather watching because I like to fly model aircraft and do some ariel movies/photos.
I bought a gadget/easywether/maplin 8081 back in Januaryand all was well for a couple of months, then I went to download a couple of days data using "easyweather" and found no USB conection
I'm pretty familiar with electronics (well 40 years familiar) so pulled the lid off and the board out. to find pretty bad soldering on most places on the board, I redid all the joints o the board, reassembled the station and all worked alright again.
Welcome to the group Andrew.
Yes there have been many reports of dry joints on the boards of these units, and in the transmitter units as well, but if like you and I you are competent with soldering small circuitry they can be easily repaired.
The first console I had just lasted a few hours before it failed but it was instantly replace by the supplier so I didn't bother doing it myself.
I think it must be remembered that these are budget models and made very cheaply in China, but I think they are actually quite good value for money. A few years ago the cheapest weather stations were several times the price of these.
Mike.