Fine Offset Battery Meter

[AllyCat]

if it can't work at my place then it's clearly not up to all that much!

Hi Ian,

That was my point. The 50m specified by FO may be "optimistic" (although I tested my 1081 to work over that range, even with 2.4v from the batteries) but all units should work "line of sight" up to say 20m. With a few walls, etc. in the path, maybe up to only 10m (and perhaps less for the higher frequency 868/915MHz units or "unfortunate" orientation of the units, etc.). Bear in mind that the range is proprtional to the square root of the transmitter power and receiver sensitivity.

Of course there can be other reasons for poor range such as metal-foil lined walls, metallised (heat reflecting) window glass and interference from other devices (including your PC or USB connection), etc.. But if these can be excluded then the poor range may be indicative of a fundamental fault in the unit (which may be more far-reaching than just poor range).

I believe that the logger doesn't report a "lost contact" until about 6 consecutive data packets (at 48 second intervals) are not received. That implies that the wireless link is really struggling (which IMHO should never occur below 10m range). You might like to check this by simply disconnecting the transmitter batteries and see how long before the LCD and Cumulus report the lost contact.

Cheers, Alan.

[Flying Eye]

Alan,

As good luck would have it (I know that's going to look counter-intuitive!) I just had sensor loss, BUT at the time I was doing a little hoeing, and had my ipod like thing on the go at the time, and the interference was good enough to take Classic FM off the air! I reckon that's got to be what that one was about. I mean, it would be a heck of a coincidence if it wasn't, would it not? It was also strong enough to take out radio 4 too, as I checked for that when it happened. Went on for quite a while, maybe a minute or even two.

So, OK that's probably part of the puzzle nailed down, but if it's a common feature around here (not noted before but it could still be), then it could indeed spell the end of the line for me running any sort of wireless station at all. Finding the source is not going to be easy either. It's probably a very broad band of interference for a start, given we may have just seen 3 frequencies hit at once. I'm really not surprised the station lost sensor contact under that barrage!

As for the metalised and foiled things, my building is in no way that high tech! OK, I can't check inside the cavity walls, but setting that aside, it's a very old school building in the main.

[Flying Eye]

Measuring the (average) current consumption isn't easy because the transmitter draws (relatively) large current pulses.

Well, at least we now know it was eating cells quicker than one might expect. I just measured the TX cells and they are down to about .997 volts, I also measured another fresh one from the same pack and it's shown to be 1.5 and then some. Going down that quickly during one month really isn't going to be all that useful.

So, with a suspect transmitter and a suspect panel. Looking like a Friday afternoon Limited Edition special.

I have to say it has me considering another brand. Can't see one that really grabs me, as I'd have to spend significantly more, and I'm not 100% certain it can be entirely good value. Quite a few of those I might like can't work with Cumulus sadly.

[DavidDizzer]

[quote="henkg"]A bit late, because the battery indicators have been discovered (sometimes using a torch) a long time ago:
As a recent owner of the WH1080 I noticed that the Dutch / French manual offers much more information about the base station display than the English version(s):


26 Low battery indication base station (lege batterij indicatie binnenunit)
28 Low battery indication transmitter (lege batterij indicatie buitenunit)

Full manual: http://www.alecto.nl/Images/Documents/W ... -FR2.0.pdf

Descriptions, translated NL -> EN with Google translate:
1: Time Reception indicator
2: indicator DST (DST) na. combined DCF receiver
3: DCF reception indication signal
...
...

why the icon has disappeared with the number 1? I had to restart the unit. I pulled the battery, then I put it there again. But the icon with the number 1 disappeared. (Time does not work as satellites).
Why? Thanks...

[AllyCat]

Hi,

I believe that "Icon 1" indicates that the clock has been locked to the data from the wireless transmissions. When the batteries are inserted the "external transmitter" (not the Console) "listens" for a few minutes and then again every few hours (only for a few minutes each time).

In my expereince it may take many hours (or even days) before data is "received" and then relayed to the Console. I don't know if the RCC receiver has difficulty receiving the signals, or if it waits to receive several transmissions, to confirm the data in subsequent receptions.

It it quite common for RCC receivers (e.g. in wristwatches) to ONLY attempt to receive the transmissions overnight (when radio interference is/should be lower).

DST is Daylight Saving Time, but I'm not sure about the significance of the DCF icon. But the Console may not actually activate ALL the icons. AFAIK nobody has ever seen the "Low RX" (26) icon activated.

Cheers, Alan.

[Spider-Vice]

A good test would be to put almost dead batteries in the Rx unit. The DCF light comes on here, when the clock locks on to the radio signal.

[mcrossley]

My understanding is...
1 is shown when a time signal has been obtained.
3 & 5 show depending on the region to indicate the DCF (Europe) or WWVB (USA) time source is being used.