Cumulus Support

When I recently purchased and fitted the Daytime FARS to my 6162C Vantage Pro2 Plus, I noticed that one of the supplied shield plates looked like it was designed for both the daytime and 24-hour systems ie there were two places to hold batteries.

Has anyone converted a daytime system to 24-hours?

John, does the daytime fan aspirated radiation shield come with its own solar panel - I looked at all my documentation for the Davis Instruments products and could not find anything positive.

I have the 24-hour fan aspirated radiation shield and it has its own solar panel as you can see in the following image: The dedicated solar panel (only for the FARS) is the one located below the SIM (sensor interface module) and mounted just above the radiation shield (to the right of the picture).

The battery sockets are there to store two NiCad C-cells - two covers with rubber seals are used to keep the batteries dry. The batteries are used whenever the FARS solar panel cannot supply enough energy/power to the internal fan (cloudy days and during the nighttime).

You will need to purchase additional parts including 24hr SPARS ISS Solar Panel and Bracket, two 24 Hr Spars ISS Battery Cover, two 24 Hr Spars ISS Battery Cover O-Ring and two 24 Hr Spars ISS NiCad Rechargable Battery...

Hi Ray,

The daytime FARS kit comes with a replacement SIM cover having two solar panels instead of the one panel as shown in your photo. As I have the cabled 6162 it only uses the lower panel.

John, I am sure there is a reason (and a need) for the separate larger solar panel - otherwise Davis Instruments would have installed a SIM (sensor interface module) with double solar panels on a station such as mine...

I there Ray (how long... ) and John.

I rise up this topic because I also bought a few weeks ago one Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus cabled weather station, and the brand offers only the Daytime FARS shield for this version of Davis. So I had to buy the Daytime FARS.

However I believe that there will be a way to get around this and turn it into a version 24H FARS version.

Front Photo:


Back Photo:

I converted mine a little while ago and there are two routes you can take.

1/ you can either purchase all the parts required from Archer Trading
or
2/ Save yourself a lot of work, as yours is a cabled version, is it possible for you to connect a "2 volt" PSU to the fan?

I went with option 2, no batteries to change, a lot cheaper or wonder if the fan is still running

duke wrote:I converted mine a little while ago and there are two routes you can take.

1/ you can either purchase all the parts required from Archer Trading
or
2/ Save yourself a lot of work, as yours is a cabled version, is it possible for you to connect a "2 volt" PSU to the fan?

I went with option 2, no batteries to change, a lot cheaper or wonder if the fan is still running

Hi Duke!

First of all thank you to reply

Can you tell me where can I get these 2 volts?

You should be able to pick up a 2V PSU from any good electronics store in your country. If you can only find the more popular 3V models you can put a diode in-line with '+' connection which will drop to around 2V. 3V is definitely too high and the fan will spin like a jet engine.

Diode 1N5408 is perfect to drop 3V to 2V.

duke wrote:You should be able to pick up a 2V PSU from any good electronics store in your country. If you can only find the more popular 3V models you can put a diode in-line with '+' connection which will drop to around 2V. 3V is definitely too high and the fan will spin like a jet engine.

Diode 1N5408 is perfect to drop 3V to 2V.

Ok I will study this option!

Many thanks Duke!

This thread should help you. However, if you do proceed, make sure you use the diode option and not the resistor option