Topic: This why I paid the extra for Davis VP2 PRO2+

[weather34]

Thought id share my day of celebrating 3 years of no reboots,24/7 365 days a year reaching 3 years of continuous operation this is the first station Ive owned that has reached this personal milestone with no failures .

I first purchased a weather station at the end of 2014 after deciding to retire from work (im not as old as you may think just lucky with a private pension investment) that was a Fine Offset(Ambient ws1001) unfortunately it lasted less than a year it was basically baked by our long periods of high UV but not extreme UV just periods of 8-9 for three months and no rain , by the end of summer 2015 many parts began to crumble first the wind vane and then parts of rain collection area particularly the rim began to crack and crumble.sadly by the end of autumn the whole unit was unusable and required almost monthly maintenance/modifications to keep it afloat , I plodded along with it until it was totally useless.

I replaced that with a Oregon Scientific WMR300 in September 2016 aprox in just over a year and a half the ISS CIRCUITRY was basically destroyed in a very intense thunderstorm which a close proximity strike caused some problems, on inspection many circuit board tracks had been melted or lifted off the board and quite a few failed components were black on the board afterwards ,though the temperature sensor and rain continued to function but no wind or solar power(which I fixed temporary with a DIY solar panel kit from local electronic store), I basically ended up implementing a weatherflow SKY into it to substitute the wind direction and speed but the weatherflow units using ultrasonic had its flaws some big flaws at high wind speeds and over sensitive bizarre direction readings i.e if actual was northerly at high winds there was too much back draft screwing the readings .

In August 2018 I bought a vp2 paid excess for prompt overseas delivery to turkey  and another late november that year only a vantage pro2 this one for a school project(that never got off the ground and sat in a box until this year which my neighbor purchased from me to replace a failed Ecowitt setup she bought last November !!)  and the one for myself has superseded expectations of durability.
My home Vantage Pro2+ has weathered all that has been thrown at it, a day I won't forget where the average wind speed for 6 hours the average wind speed (*note average) never dropped below 40kmh hitting a peak of 92kmh with regular 70kmh periods .
It has survived 3 long hot dry summers with high UV ,periods of flash flooding with hail the size of golf balls , dense 100% humidity fog periods (dense fog can play havoc with the best of designed home outdoor electronics devices),localized intense thunderstorms and Im happy to say 3 years to this date the console has never been rebooted and the outdoor sensors get there regular 3 month maintenance (basically cleaning out dust and debris) .
Even when I upgraded the tipper to a single spoon all I had todo was disconnect rain sensor jack from the ISS .
The ISS is aprox 9 feet above a ground level(non grass, non asphalt, non aspirated)  the wind sensor is aprox 60ft it takes a regular battering but works the same as it did the day I installed just a pain to give it a regular maintenance 

so thought id share my happiness  and say it was money well spent and I feel Ive had my moneys worth and if I get another 3 years then that's why I paid the extra .. durability is a key factor and having had the disappointment of failed hardware from other brands in the past in short timespans this is why !! im a happy bunny and sharing my thoughts

have a great weekend all ..Brian

feel free to share your experience be it good or bad sometimes a bit of luck and regular maintenance makes it plod along

[vreihen]

My VP2 has been online for almost 3.5 years now, and the only time I've had to touch it was to clean some seeds out of the aerocone rain bucket screen.

I'm about to buy another VP2, to set up as a remote APRS station located on the lakeside land that I just purchased about 800 miles from home.....

[weather34]

i aint got no trees nearby but i got hundreds of sea gulls and other relatively larger  birds to contend with dropping various objects into the aerocone , like shells,dried bread ,twigs even a pebble found its way in their last year hence the regular maintenance but hey its all apart of the hobby , like car enthusiasts gotta get your hands dirty now and again.. good luck with the new project is it a homestead or ready made property?

[PaulMy]

On a whim, thirteen years ago I picked up a La Crosse from a local store... less than a week later I returned it.  Then a bit of search, especially on Ambient Weather who were a great source for weather station information and comparisons at the time, and hands down, Davis was the choice for more serious hobbyists. I found a Canadian seller for Davis and took delivery in June of a VP2 6152.  After 10 years VP2 was still going strong and upgraded to Pro/Fars.  Now added WLL and AirLink with everything still compatible.  No regrets and money well spent!


Enjoy,
Paul



 

[vreihen]

Five acres of vacant/wooded land on a motorboat lake, where we plan to build our retirement house in a few years.  I have to go APRS and solar for the PWS, since there is no power and sketchy cellular data right now.  There's gigabit fiber, municipal water, and electric at the curb, but the county's zoning laws will not let someone hook up until construction has started.....

[CSB]

Purchased my first Davis back in Dec. 2001. I had a board go bad in July 2002, Davis sent a replacement at NC. Finally died in July 2013. Probably just needed a board but after almost 12 years I figured it was time to replace it. I have a VP2 now, purchased on 8/2/2013. Running good aside for a  Super Cap. going bad last year. I just replace the the 123 Lithium Bat. every 6 months or so and I'm good to go. I'll order a replacement board from Scientific Sales and that will solve the problem. 

[weather34]

wow thats a good period of 12 years so far cant complain about that, I  do have a couple of 123A batteries , a spare temp/hum sensor board sitting in the draw , unopened wind sensor awaiting the day when they might be needed .luxury of this hardware is the ability to replace sensors etc without the need of specialist tools or even a in depth technical background ..  heres  hoping you see  another 10 years more ..

@paul we learn by our mistaken purchases fortunately you got a refund ,buying here in turkey pretty much voids any refundable outcome.. hope all is well ..

[Aardvark]

I have had my VP2 for 14 years as well. I replaced the ISS board on it one time, only because I broke my arm by falling in the driveway trying to get a bag of ice melt out of the back of the jeep.  the ice won.  Anyway,   I did take the old board after I was healed up,  fixed the supercap and now use it as an extra sensor in the garden .
   I buy CR123A batteries in bulk. I pay about $1.50  for each one.   I have of course the ISS, and 6 other transmitters.  I also have those 3000 lumen flashlights that eat those up.   Lighting up the neighborhood is always fun.

I replace the battery in my ISS twice a year.  In Iowa, the weather can be brutal and I don't want to have to replace a battery in the dead of winter or during a rain storm either.  Winters are nasty and cold  and summers can be hotter than the devils butt crack at times.   If you have a vehicle, and it stands around you know that cold and heat can wipe out a battery.  Since we have had this Pandemic, my Mazda  has gone through 2 batteries this past year.   I don't go anywhere much. In fact i have to remind my self to start it every 3 days.

My wife has a Volvo  with all the whistles and bells.  I learned that she can't just let it sit in the drive either,, those other things, even if the car is shut off, doors locked, there is a drain on her battery and I have had to have hers jump started and battery replaced.

So It makes sense to me, to replace the backup battery in the ISS twice a year. It is $1.50 and it is a fresh battery.    I keep a chart on ONENOTE of when I replaced a battery so I can see if  it is happening often.

Sure you can go 3 years like Davis claims, or you can replace the battery at least once a year, whether or not  it needs it.

[weather34]

winters here are short lived here in istanbul turkey max days of freezing is probably two to three days below 32F/0c in recent years and that generally only occurs with high pressure so often its sunshine and clear skies .. that said i will probably change the cr123a next few weeks . 14 years is impressive wonder if anyone has one longer still in full operation.

[TraderGary]

I'm celebrating one year with my VP2+ this month. I've only done the necessary debris removal from the cone. My charts are continuous with no breaks whatsoever. That's a new experience after my first two ambient weather stations had early failures. I'm happy with my decision to spend the extra and go with Davis quality.

After reading this thread, I've decided an annual battery change would also be a great idea.

[weather34]

sounds good worth buying 2 or 3 batteries stick em in the draw there not expensive just one of those things handy to have to hand .. worth looking into some other spare parts like temp,humidity sensor etc their relatively cheap and in the unlikely event another item handy to have in the draw. that said your in the USA so things like that are usually ready available within a day or two here in turkey there is no retail store just a sole distributor  who focuses on agriculture systems using Davis hardware they dont sell parts via retail etc ..so i order parts overseas with average 2-3 week delivery and throw em in the draw whether i need them or not. always plan for the worst case scenario 

[ocala]

Mine was bought in 11 but I did do a referb in 18.
No complaints though. Although I did just replace the temp/humidity sensor last week.
Just goes to show that you get what you pay for.

[Rickoo]

I had a Vantage Pro1 for 15+ years. The rain gauge was erratic and the anemometer was noisy in high wind, but everything pretty much still worked. I updated to a VP2 recently and hope it lasts as long!

[Aardvark]

on the batteries,,  do not use the rechargeable.   they do not work well

[TraderGary]

on the batteries,,  do not use the rechargeable.   they do not work well

Thanks, good to know.

We moved from the Beaverdale area in Des Moines to Atlanta 35 years ago. The main thing we noticed after moving was the lack of wind in Atlanta compared to Des Moines.

[Aardvark]

on the batteries,,  do not use the rechargeable.   they do not work well

Thanks, good to know.

We moved from the Beaverdale area in Des Moines to Atlanta 35 years ago. The main thing we noticed after moving was the lack of wind in Atlanta compared to Des Moines.

You were near me.  The only wind source in Des Moines is what blows out of the State Capitol and governors office.     I have a former student of mine living in Atlanta,  I tend to want to irritate him with somethings , depends on my mood.   

BUt in Atlanta, you do get the remains of those hurricanes which should be interesting

[davidg_nz]

I setup my first Vantage Pro2 on the 5th of April 2015 at a remote location 200km away (by road, about 3-3.5h drive) away from home. Because of the distance I went for the wired model - I didn't want to have to do a 6h round trip to replace a failed ISS battery. Plus the wireless model was too expensive in NZ.

The location is the third to last property on the power line and prone to power cuts with the UPS logging a disruption on average every 4 days. About 78% of disruptions require transferring to UPS batteries with average time on batteries being 18 minutes. About 13% of disruptions last more than an hour or so draining the UPS batteries and requiring everything to shut down until the power comes back. Thankfully the Vantage Pro2 has its own batteries so it doesn't care!

Internet is via 3G modem with a roof-mounted antenna pointed at a nearby hillside. 20km on the other side of that hill is an island with a cellphone tower. Cheap and reliable internet this is not. Getting current conditions out on to the internet every 2.5 seconds in under 500MB/month was a challenge though thankfully the data cap is about 2GB/month now.

The station itself has not crashed or powered down in over six years. Despite numerous power cuts, computer crashes and internet outages there are only two gaps in the archive data:

• 15 minutes from 7:35am to 7:55am on 10 September 2016, total 3 records missing: Station put into setup mode while I replaced the Temp+Humidity sensor with the more accurate model
• 4 hours 55 minutes from 2:20pm to 7:20pm on 28 February 2019, total 59 records missing: Someone turned off the wrong circuit breaker on the 28th of February. At around 2:20pm the UPS battery was almost flat so the computer (a raspberry pi) shut down. It was 9 days, 1 hour and 15 minutes before someone could get back there and turn the breaker back on. The console data logger only has space for 8 days 21 hours 20 minutes of data so some of the oldest data was overwritten.

[noctilucent]

My VP2 was installed in 2014 in a coastal location, so lots of salt and wind.  Apart from replacing the temp/humidity sensor and  wind speed bearing cartridge, both of which have a fixed lifetime and won't last forever anyway, it's run 24/7 in that time.  I've had the same CR123 in there for I-don't-know-how-many years, unfortunately I'm reading it via an SDR so can't check the cell voltage but either the supercap or the cell is holding it up just fine when there's no direct sun.

[weather34]

i think a UPS solution is an essential item for any dedicated weather enthusiast be it a remote install or home .ive had one since 2016 , this part of istanbul turkey was notorious for power outages for many years its improved vastly last 12 months from 3 day outages to sporadic hourly outages we now get an sms of imminent outages with an estimate of downtime.i paid around 50$ locally for a FSP 1500va it simply powers the console and a station dedicated low cost no thrills router its lasted 47 hours without electricity a couple a years ago .the beautiful thing is it continues to log all data to the inserted meteobridge NanoSD so even without internet when power outages are district wide it remains logging data . i dont have any batteries inserted in the console .the FSP model a no thrills model and is a computer desktop model type i guess there may be more advanced solutions at a premium price but for $50 it was another worthwhile investment..
but highly recommend a UPS solution has an essential option . just dont tell your wife and kids they can charge there mobile devices etc from it 😁 told my wife it will burn out her iPhone so she bought one of those portable powerbanks 😁

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[Mapantz]

Whilst I do love my Davis set up, it hasn't treated me well since purchasing in 2016.

On my 3rd anemometer.
On my 3rd rain tipper.
On my 2nd solar sensor.
On my 2nd temp/humidity sensor.


Not directly related, but the mount for the solar/uv sensor has pretty much perished. Sunlight has caused the plastic to go brittle and it has cracked all over. Particularly through the screw holes which allow adjustment to the level of the sensors.

[92merc]

The only wind source in Des Moines is what blows out of the State Capitol and governors office.

You know why it's always so windy in North Dakota?  Montana blows and Minnesota sucks!