N96GY Wind Sensor Problems

[kingstonweather]

This is just some feedback for owners of the Maplin N96GY.

I realise that this is a very cheap weather station and no doubt will be vilified by some 'hard-core' weather anoracks, but to those of you that have one of these I would like to pass on to you all a problem I found with the system.

In particular the Wind Speed Sensor. The unit becomes defective quite quickly and so far I have sent 2 of these units back. However, I have found the problem lies with the roller bearing that the Wind Speed Sensor rotates on and specifically that the roller bearing keeps sticking. This can be remedied by gently prizing off the cups from the main unit. Once it is off you can then prize the roller bearing off. Once you've done this place the bearing in some WD40 .... enough to cover it and allow it to soak. The WD40 will eventually get inside and will stop the bearing from sticking. Replace the bearing and the cups and work the WD40 in by rotating the unit in the direction it would normally rotate.

I have no doubt that this will need doing again in the future because the roller-bearing is about as cheap as you can get. Alternatively, keep forking out £2.99 for a replacement.

Anyway, I hope this helps

[peterh]

Thanks... I see that the Maplin is a rebadged Fine Offset, so this might also apply to my unit.
Of which I don't know whether it would have this problem.
Because my wife bought it for my birthday.
Which is tomorrow.
So I have yet to unpack it, let alone install it.

I might want to see if I can do this preventively.

[alexndriawx]

I agree about the quality of the sensors, but I didn't think it would fail after only a couple of days! I'll carry out the remedial work on the bearings today and thanks for that information.

I'm wondering if there is a replacement product out there that could substitute for the supplied sensor? I'm really new to the weather station hobby so don't know very much about it.

Cheers,

Aldo. (Now wishing I had spent more)

[kingstonweather]

Well now it seems the rainfall sensor has given up the game so the whole lot is going back to Maplin's AGAIN, but this time never to return. So many faults develop with this that I can't be bothered with it anymore. My advice to anyone wanting to buy the N96GY is, spend the money on a good Malt Whisky. When you want to know what the weather is doing, take a dram and then look out of the window!!!