Topic: Acurite 5n1 changed ID??

[rct]

Because of some construction I had to take down my 5n1 sensor for a month.  When I set it back up, it wasn't being recognized by the console or "my acurite".  I was able to determine from the smarthub (and rtl_433) that the sensor was still transmitting BUT ID for the sensor changed.

I thought the IDs were fixed.   Is this a sign of a hardware problem? 

The new ID sticks even after power cycling by removing batteries.

Anyone else see anything like this?

[nincehelser]

Because of some construction I had to take down my 5n1 sensor for a month.  When I set it back up, it wasn't being recognized by the console or "my acurite".  I was able to determine from the smarthub (and rtl_433) that the sensor was still transmitting BUT ID for the sensor changed.

I thought the IDs were fixed.   Is this a sign of a hardware problem? 

The new ID sticks even after power cycling by removing batteries.

Anyone else see anything like this?

It's been mentioned at least once here, but I'm vague on who reported it.  vreihen, maybe?  It wasn't real stable, though.

There might have been a bit-flip involved in the discussion.

[vreihen]

My 5-in-1 has randomly changed sensor addresses so many times that I have lost count!  It does not seem to just be a simple bit flip, and occasionally will go back to an address that it used in the past.  It seems to be every 2-3 weeks now, and I don't even bother setting the date/time on the console any more because I'm resetting it so much.  (The console's barometer just finished its learning cycle from the last reset, so it is probably going to change address again any day now.)

I had thought about modifying my weewx watchdog process to re-scan for the new address and modify weewx.conf if it didn't hear SDR data from the old address after 10 minutes, but in the long run it was was easier to just promote my Davis VP2 to the role as primary station and keep the 5-in-1 around as a secondary.

I got my money's worth out of the 5-in-1, and it tracks nicely against the VP2 and other stations that I have...when it stays on the same sensor address.  I'm going to run it into the ground until it fails, but not in a role where I'm losing observation data when it flips addresses on a whim.....

[rct]

Thanks for the replies.  Sounds like with only two of us reporting this problem so far, it is likely to be a small incidence of flaky hardware (failing eeprom?).  Though, I suppose people that don't have the smarthub/rtl_433 might have just thought the sensor or console just lost sync or died.

My 5-n-1 has been stable in a harsh environment for 2-3 years other than the original non-coated temperature/humidity sensor died.

This was the first full winter the unit spent outside.  The first two winters I took it down because there was no internet connection so no point in leaving it outside.  Those past two winters the ID didn't change when the unit was powered back up after being inside for 5 months.

Re - The bits that changed:

5 bits that were previously zero changed to ones.  No bits changed from one to zero.

Code: [Select]

'0b100000110010'  # Original
'0b101011110111'  # New

Also, you answered one of my other questions -- I guess I need to hard reset my console to get it to start recognizing the 5-n-1 again.

[vreihen]

I just checked, and the current 5-in-1 went online in November of 2012, to replace an older one that had one of the 98% humidity sensor failures.

Maybe the 5-in-1's just don't like New York State????? 

[rct]

So far I've been unsuccessful in getting the smarthub to post to weather underground with the new 5n1 ID.   Looking at the packets it doesn't appear to be attempting to post to wunderground at all.  I'm probably missing something obvious.  It was posting just fine before I disconnected things in early September.

[rct]

About a half hour ago, the smarthub starting posting to weather underground again.  I have no idea what changed to make it start again.  Yesterday I tried removing and then re-adding the configuration from My Acurite, but it took 12-24 hours before it started posting again.  I had power cycled the smarthub after making the change.   (I have a new access in a box, but I haven't had the time to figure out all the details such as what can be done for monitoring/capturing any part of the data stream.)