Cumulus Support

Hello all ....

I have been running a WH3080 since early this year. At first it was at the bottom of the garden and worked very well. I then moved up onto the roof whereupon the Solar side of the unit failed and the batteries died. I am awaiting a replacement from Signatrol and in the meantime have replaced the original batteries with some 2600mAh NiMh batteries and although the TX battery icon is sometimes on in the morning it soon goes off so the station is running but with any Solar data.

Now being on the roof means that it isn't particularly accessible especially as we have been getting rain for a while now and the roof is wet. Not good in the dry so a complete no-no with a damp roof. So I would like to be able to extend the cables to get the transmitter/Solar unit and rain gauge down nearer ground level (where they should be after all) for ease of access.

The proposed cable runs are (with the original wind cable being connected to a new cable inside a sealed box up on the roof bracket) ....

Wind to transmitter = 7 metres
Solar to Transmitter = 10 metres
Rain to Solar = 10 metres

Will this still work OK?

Furthermore I believe the Solar cable is 6pin as opposed to 4pin on the Wind connector.

Has anyone any suggestions or comments please.

Thanks

--
Mick
Nr Lincoln

Hi Mick,

I don't believe that those cable lengths will be a problem, but do check that all the plugs are making good contact (before final installation) because some of the RJ11/12 connectors don't mate as well as they should.

Yes, the solar Pod cable has six cores, i.e. it is an "RJ12 6p6c" extension cable (or a male-male with a separate back-back coupler), which are not easy to obtain. If you decide to make your own adapter/cables then a Cat5 cable (4 twisted pairs) can carry the two rain cores up to the Pod and the 6 back down again. Or, because the rain pair only "loop through" the Solar Pod, you could take the rain pair directly to the Transmitter and then only need 4 cores down from the Pod.

Cheers, Alan.

Just a what happened after post regarding cable lengths.

I had to have a rethink after various placement issues. As it stands now I have everything except the wind module mounted on my observatory. The anemometer and wind dir is way up on the roof. So I didn't have to run cables down the roof I drilled a hole into the loft space through the gable end of the house and poked the cable through there. This involved removing the plug first. I then refitted a plug on to the cable. That was the end of climbing up on the roof. I then made an extension cable to run to the transmitter out of the other side of the roof, down the house and under the lawn. Total run was 30 metres and it works like a charm.

It is so easy to make your own cables. The crimper is available for a couple of quid on fleabay, cable is cheap as are the plugs. Glad I decided to do it this way.