Cumulus Support

Now that I *think* I've resolved the "lost sensor contact" issue by moving the base station closer to the weather station, I'm seeing a new issue where rainfall is not measured. This is NOT a Cumulus issue (everything great there!), but the base unit does not show any rainfall amounts, even though I know it has rained.

I obviously checked for spiders, loose connections, etc. Even poured a bit of water down the funnel, but no joy. Was wondering if others have experienced issues with their rain bucket? I've had the station less than 2 months. On the other hand, I kind of knew it may not be of best quality considering the low purchase cost versus a Vantage Pro or something else. You pay for what you get...

Also...is there a better site/forum to post non-Cumulus, but Fine Offset Station related questions? It just seems to me that this is the best site around for help on this station. But I don't want to get too off-topic since it's not really Cumulus related.

Thanks,
Michael

mraviator wrote:Now that I *think* I've resolved the "lost sensor contact" issue by moving the base station closer to the weather station, I'm seeing a new issue where rainfall is not measured. This is NOT a Cumulus issue (everything great there!), but the base unit does not show any rainfall amounts, even though I know it has rained.

Oh dear, that does not sound good -- especially if you have checked the connectors!

I kind of knew it may not be of best quality considering the low purchase cost versus a Vantage Pro or something else. You pay for
what you get...

I've had mine just over two years and no probs -- touch wood.

Also...is there a better site/forum to post non-Cumulus, but Fine Offset Station related questions? It just seems to me that this is the best site around for help on this station. But I don't want to get too off-topic since it's not really Cumulus related.

This is a good a place as any -- a large number of the user base on here use the FineOffset. I'm not aware of a specific forum for FineOffset but maybe someone else knows.

The rain gauge works by filling a little bucket with rain drops until it over balances and tips the water out. Then the other bucket starts filling and the process repeats. Each time the pair of buckets tip, a tiny magnet in the bucket assembly causes a reed switch to contact thereby connecting the two wires of the gauge together briefly. Now this is a very reliable system usually and I think a broken wire is the most likely culprit. You could check this out with an ohmmeter or continuity tester. Or you can simulate a bucket tip by briefly shorting the rain gauge contacts on the transmitter unit. This should result in a reading of 0.3mm of rain.

I think I remember reading a post on a another forum and we have the same model ws-2080 from ambient weather. If you do go to their site and use the online support. I think they will send you a new sensor.

Randy

If you poured water into it, you should have heard the buckets tipping. Have you taken the cover off (simple to do) to check that the tipping operation is not hindered?

Probably a silly question but you don't have your cables reversed do you? i.e Rain gauge in the wind socket

Just to re-affirm: I have no problem at all with people discussing Fine Offset stations here, even if it's not a Cumulus issue.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I did check the cables in case I reversed them, everything ok there. I actually forgot about the problem until it rained earlier today. I just now noticed that the base unit did register the rainfall, but Cumulus does not show it. I stopped and restarted Cumulus hoping it would read the rain from the base unit's memory, but no luck there.

Luckily my main purpose for the weather station is wind measurements. I already measure rain the old fashion way, with an accurate rain gauge. I did manually "reset" an earlier rain amount in Cumulus' log files (followed the wiki instructions)...I might have screwed something up there. Will have to investigate later this weekend.

Michael

mraviator wrote:I just now noticed that the base unit did register the rainfall, but Cumulus does not show it.

Have a look in the Sept log file to see what the 'total rainfall counter' did around the time the rain occurred.