WH3080/3081

[robynfali]

you mean the above 3 posts all in one go, yeah, bit outta order

[steve]

you mean the above 3 posts all in one go, yeah, bit outta order

It was more the fact that "Nick Mercury" is apparently "Nick Price" who is Technical Manager at Signatrol, and has posted previously here in that guise. I wouldn't have had a problem with that, it's the posing as a customer that I object to.

[robynfali]

AHHH right, am with you mate, sorry.

Maybe some retailers should consider a paid advertisement on here? donation towards the software so they can have pride of place?

Not my decision obviously, but would be a better route than just "posting"

[nickmercury]

Hi Group.

Yes, I am Nick from Signatrol Ltd. Sorry for any agreevation caused.

We do provide links back to Sanday Soft, and often promote Cumulas to telephone callers who are purchasing weather stations.

Keep up the good work

Nick

[KetteringUK]

Hi Group.
Yes, I am Nick from Signatrol Ltd. Sorry for any agreevation caused.
We do provide links back to Sanday Soft, and often promote Cumulas to telephone callers who are purchasing weather stations.
Keep up the good work
Nick

Schoolboy error but at least you've fessed up..
How about sorting out the spelling next - Even you website has it wrong "Alternative 'Cumulas' Software"

[Charlie]

Regarding the earlier reply.

My WH3080 unit, which i got from Signatrom.com comes with Rechargable Alkaline batteries. the manual states these must be used.

I guess there are a step up from Ni-Cds and Ni-mH batteries, which suffer from the memory effect.

These are the batteries supplied below.



Cheers

Nick

A word of caution. If this product really uses rechargable Alkalines it's a big deal.

Alkalines really are not particularly rechargable, but if your application uses very little current, like this application, they can be somewhat recharged a few hundred times - so they might last 2-3 years instead of the 1-2 years stock alkalines would last. They still die of shelf life the same way regular alkalines do, although they are better in this regard.

But more important, the charging method and profile is significantly different than for rechargables like NiMh or NiCD, so you should not try to use these if it has a charger designed for alkaline. Frankly you should not try to use them anyway, they are a poor choice for this application.

Finally, unless you can defeat the charger, then using the best battery for the job, Lithium, is off the table with the silly charger connected. You are pretty much stuck with alkalines. No need to buy the expensive rechargables, I would think - regular alkalines will take this sort of charge quite happily.

This decision sounds like it was driven by customers that don't understand the problem regularly asking for rechargable support, rather than sound engineering principles, but I guess you give your customer what they ask for rather than what they need if you want to stay in business.

Note to "Nick" - NiMh have no memory effect. (Why? That's your homework assignment )

[hills]

Hi Group.

Yes, I am Nick from Signatrol Ltd. Sorry for any agreevation caused.

We do provide links back to Sanday Soft, and often promote Cumulas to telephone callers who are purchasing weather stations.

Keep up the good work

Nick

That's ok, I'm sure all will be forgiven if you offer a decent "Cumulus Forum discount"!!

[steve]

Martin Westover, co-owner of Signatrol has emailed me to assure me that this little indiscretion was not done with the consent of the company. By way of making amends, he is offering Cumulus users 20% discount on the purchase of a WH3080 from the Signatrol web site (and not from their eBay shop). The offer expires on 1st July and is limited to the first 100 purchasers.

There's a code to be entered when making a purchase; if anyone would like the code, please send me a PM.

I regard the matter closed; the discussion about the batteries is useful and can of course continue.

[robynfali]

Very gracious of Martin indeed, and have taken up the offer,

But please explain a little about this with the batteries, only saw the previous page saying they had to be alkaline rechargables, is that some sort of problem?

[nickmercury]

Very gracious of Martin indeed, and have taken up the offer,

But please explain a little about this with the batteries, only saw the previous page saying they had to be alkaline rechargables, is that some sort of problem?

Hi Rob,

We don't know of any issues with the batteries supplied with the Wh3080, or any issues with the charging circuit.
When I originally sent the message about batteries, I had seen some posts where members were suggesting they were Ni-Cd battery.
I don't understand what the previous member was trying to say. I've pasted a section out of the manual below.


Quoted directly from WH3080 Manual.
Power consumption
Base station : 3XAA 1.5V LR6 Alkaline batteries (included)
Remote sensor : 2xAA Alkaline rechargeable batteries (included)
Battery life : Minimum 12 months for base station
Minimum 24 months for thermo-hygro sensor

Remark: Be sure to use 1.5V rechargeable battery for solar transmitter.
Where outdoor temperature is lower than -20 C, make sure proper type of
batteries to be used to assure that the device can get enough power to
maintain its function properly. Normal alkaline batteries is not allow to be
used since when outdoor temperature is lower than -20 C, the battery’s
discharging capability is greatly reduced.

End Quote from Manual

The units supplied by us (Signatrol) has the the rechargeable batteries supplied in the kit.
I will try and attached a image below of the battery.



Hope this puts your mind to rest

Nick Price
Signatrol Ltd.

[robynfali]

Yeah, nice one Nick, thanks for that, handy that they come with them too, not really got the cash at the moment to be buying batteries (u gotta love a credit card lol)

Can't wait for mine to turn up now!

EDIT

For what its worth, lowest i got here was -13c nearly, so no danger of problems in that respect

[AllyCat]

Hi,

Fine Offset probably recommend Alkalines because they nominally deliver 1.5 volts and most rechargeables deliver 1.2 volts. So the transmitter power (and thus range) may be smaller with rechargeables. Actually the manufacturers of primary (non-rechargeable) batteries usually specify the "end of life" as 0.9 volts (I've even seen 0.7 quoted) so really any well-designed unit should work fine with the 1.2 volts from rechargeables (which stays moderately constant until nearly discharged).

I wonder if Nick is confusing "Memory Effect" with "Self Discharge". NiMH batteries don't suffer from Memory Effect (even the real effect with NiCd has been disputed) but these rechargeables do have very high self discharge, 2% - 3% per week so they may be drained in 6 months even without any significant load. Rechargeable Alkalines have a more severe "memory" effect, the general view is that they should not be discharged by more than 25% - 50% or the number of recharge cycles may be as low as 5.

However, rechargeable alkalines probably are the correct type for this application (because the solar cell should keep them topped up) and I'm surprised that FO only claim 3 years. The shelf life of (non-rechargeable) alkalines is at least 5 years and I'd expect the solar cell to keep them topped up for longer.

So if you're buying cells (for a "solar assisted" supply), my recommendation is to go for normal Alkalines or the new "Hybrid" (long-shelf-life) NiMH batteries. Or the 1.5 volt Lithium AA type, but I've seen no data/comments on how they behave if attempts are made to charge them.

Cheers, Alan.

[robynfali]

Well fair do's to signatrol, quick bleedin delivery off them, 3 days (and that includes the weekend)

All i need to do now is wait for these high winds (30-40mph) to drop to get it up on the roof!!

[archae86]

the new "Hybrid" (long-shelf-life) NiMH batteries.

While a couple of the brands use the word Hybrid as part of the model name, a more general technical term for this category of NiMH batteries is "low self-discharge"--by which name you can find them at Thomas Distributing--and a more common marketing label is "pre-charged", which seems to appear in at least half the brands.

I did some fairly extensive testing of multiple brands of low self-discharge NiMH AA and AAA batteries, between 2007 and 2009, and documented some results in a couple of threads at Digital Photography Review, including this one. In quick summary, I observed the claims for drastically lower self-discharge than conventional NiMH (or NiCd, for that matter) to be well founded, and I found not very much difference among brands. In constrast to conventional NiMH, where label capacity claims seemed poorly correlated to actual performance, these products seemed to be quite close to meeting their label capacity. As to the voltage comments made earlier, in a low-drain application such as this one, the NiMH will still be above 1.25V when half through capacity, so I've personally found only a very few low-drain applications where Alkaline worked better. One, oddly enough, was a set of very old Oregon Scientific thermometers, for which the receiving qualities of the base stations are noticeably impaired by the use of even recently charged NiMH. Those thermometers are my last remaining use for rechargeable alklalines, which I tried hard to use for years, and found generally to have very poor performance in service, being suitable only for low-drain applications with a need for single-cell voltage above 1.3V. Other than that, they were expensive, low in useful capacity, prone to leak, especially when used in applications with moderate or higher discharge rates, and requiring recharge after only a small fraction of capacity use in order not to lose capacity extremely rapidly with recharges.

[Rexz]

Martin Westover, co-owner of Signatrol has emailed me to assure me that this little indiscretion was not done with the consent of the company. By way of making amends, he is offering Cumulus users 20% discount on the purchase of a WH3080 from the Signatrol web site (and not from their eBay shop). The offer expires on 1st July and is limited to the first 100 purchasers.

There's a code to be entered when making a purchase; if anyone would like the code, please send me a PM.

I regard the matter closed; the discussion about the batteries is useful and can of course continue.

Hey Steve, Do you still have any of the discount code? Looking to buy the WH3080 and would like to cover the VAT cost

Thanks
Rexz