Cumulus Support

Hi Alan,
Thanks for your reply.
It is still running on XP on the Apple - Vista on the Acer. Not quite sure what you mean by an "unfortunate" clock frequency.The 1080 ran on the Acer laptop for nearly 3 years without any connection problems whatsoever - that was on 868.3MHz. The 3080 is on 433MHz. I have tried both USB cables - the old one & the new one but it makes no difference.
The bleep comes from the console - not the computer. The screen of the console goes blank except for the pressure reading which has just changed from 1013.2 to the figures 2748 (different each time)- in the date it showed 3.80 & then reverts back to 1. 1 & the clock resets to 12.00 , then the other figures appear & pressure goes back to normal. I can hear a click when the USB is pulled in & out of the console but the corresponding bleep drowns out any other noise when it cuts out. The laptop makes a noise when I remove or replace the USB but not when the console loses contact.
Is there a special battery charger for alkaline batteries? I charged them with a Rayovac Battery charger that I use for Nickel hydride rechargeables. I charged the alkalines before I put them in outside & the console picked up the external readings.Certainly no Low TX on the console. When it goes off the radio symbol appears in the top right corner of the console above the external relative humidity symbol I disappears when the readings come through.


Cheers,
Chris

Hi Chris,

The "headline" frequency of a computer (e.g. 2.2GHz or whatever) only occurs within the microprocessor, but there are much lower frequencies on the motherboard, so it's just possible that the Acer radiates a "subharmonic" in the 434MHz band which interferes with the radio transmissions. However, the general behaviour of your console sounds as if it has a hardware fault which causes it to "crash" regularly, so a return under warranty may be required.

NiMH cells nominally work at 1.2 volts but alkalines at 1.5 volts (and they have other operational differences) so AFAIK different chargers are nearly always required. The simplest NiMH chargers just "push" some current into the cell(s), usually for a fixed time, so they may charge up alkalines as well, to some extent. But most chargers are now of the "intelligent" type and stop charging when each cell reaches about 1.45 volts, which is unlikely to charge an alkaline effectively.

The available "alkaline chargers" are actually intended (or claimed) to recharge NON-rechargeable alkalines. However the general view is that they are a waste of money as they only produce a very small recharge capacity and few satisfactory discharge cycles. Chargers specifically for rechargeable alkalines are rare, as are the cells themselves! Rechargeable alkalines are so inferior to NiMH and other technologies that I think they are only used by manufacturers who can obtain them very cheaply (and of course the voltage is "compatible" with normal alkalines so they don't have to modify the "low battery" detection, etc.).

Cheers, Alan.

Hi Alan,
I phoned up Signatrol & was put through to Martin who thinks that it is a USB socket problem. He is putting me another console in the post today to try. Very helpful. Will keep you informed.

Cheers,
Chris

Great news - the console from Martin at Signitrol arrived today & is up & running - it has not cut out once, so it was clearly a hardware problem. Great service, I only phoned him up yesterday. Many thanks.

Cheers,
Chris

Have a look at the thread with pictures of the internals of the WH1080 (the WH3080 base station would have similar electronics).
https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=640

There is a relay that switches out the batteries when the USB is plugged in. The relay is powered from the computer's USB +5v. It does this so that the USB power doesn't attempt to charge the batteries.

The problem you had with your first unit possibly could have been a fault with the components around the relay. Maybe a faulty or missing electrolytic capacitor. The capacitor holds enough charge to run the microprocessor in the WH3080 while the relay is switching over. If the capacitor is faulty or missing, it could cause the unit to reset when plugging or unplugging the USB cable. Otherwise, it could cause the microprocessor to glitch and lose sync with the sensor transmitter, which explains why some of your readings have gone blank.