Topic: My Heathkit ID 5001

[Mark Williams 38344]

I built this station in 1990 and she is still working perfect. [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[DaleReid]

I was in love with the design from the first time I saw it in the HeathKit catalog.

I finally saw one in real life at the Dayton Hamvention a few years later and began saving the amount of a good used car to buy a kit.

Still a great nightlight with that gorgeous blue background, which could be read across the room.

[Skywatch]

I built this station in 1990 and she is still working perfect. [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

You must take very good care of it. Looks brand new. Thanks for sharing!

[Mark Williams 38344]

I have tried to keep it in good shape. One time I thought about getting a new one but nobody makes a display even close to this one. Davis stations are nice but the displays are terrible. Hopefully they will update them soon. Until then I will keep this one running. Also you can't beat the real time wind speed.

[Skywatch]

I have a 4001 monitor that I bought off of eBay with hopes of searching for the sensors. Suppose it's like trying to find a needle in the haystack. All the more of a challenge.

[DaleReid]

I know there are some newly manufactured sensors for the 4001 and 5001, but more temperature stuff. 

I have a project to clean out the basement and the garage.  A few years ago when the 4001 was a hot item on eBay I got a couple, including one with the updated processor chip that was a good thing.

I think that they are with sensor booms too, but right now I cannot remember, and that is the problem.  After retirement I haven't had the drive, the energy nor the time to zip through all the projects I kept putting off for my retirement.

If I come across them I'll come back to this thread to see if you've found any or would be interested in them.

I know there are three, maybe four, ID-5001's.  Two of my original with crappy temp/humidity sensors, and one with a backlight that I was always going to put a new set of bulbs in.  One I did put a new Exit light transformer and set of bulbs and disabled the auto dim circuit which never worked very well to start with.  Now with bright white LEDs, I'm sure I could pull the connections off the boards for the factory original and drop in some cool running LEDs and no longer have an alternate to fry eggs on if my range ever breaks down.  Man those were hot running. 

I have all the booms but need to figure out if the IR LEDs are functioning in them or not.  Either I'll get to it, or my wife will flood eBay with the stuff.

Dale

[blizzardof78]

I have two rain gauges, a wind boom, two temperature sensors and a humidity sensor that I know will work with either the 4001 or 5001. None of this is being used. I may look to sell it in the future, maybe not. Just depends on several things.

[kcidwx]

I've had three of these over the years. The first one I built and used for about three years and sold it to buy a Davis Weather Monitor II. I liked the compact Davis unit better and thought it was an upgrade.    I missed my 5001, so I ordered another one from Heathkit and built it. I used that for a couple years and then went off to college and sold it for text book money. I figured when I graduated, I'd get another one. I heard from a Ham radio operator that Heathkit was going to drop the 5001. I got a summer job just to buy my third one before they quit making them. I decided to go with the factory assembled unit this time. It ended up sitting in the box for 20+ years. 

[Farmtalk]

Fantastic station display. One of the coolest stations I have seen through the forum! That's top of the line!

[Mark Williams 38344]

That's why I keep it running. You can read everything from across the room and I haven't seen any other stations with a similar display. The new Acurite stations have a good looking display but they are cheap made and don't hold up very well.

[DaleReid]

Mark,
What are you using for humidity sensors?

My original ones had the first design, with a 'kit' issued awhile later to replace the ones that came with the early ones.  Something about flooding the board and all parts except one with this clear solution which dried and supposedly protected the board outdoors.

Those, of course, went off calibration as fast as the original design. 

I know you can get secondary market temp sensors of several forms.

But how is your humidity holding up (I'm glad it has, if it has) because my two originals plus the two upgrades all went to pot within a year or two of construction.

Dale

[Mark Williams 38344]

All you need is the original board with the flat sensor. The board has one corner that is painted black. I use the Honeywell HIH 4000-002 sensor from Digikey. I have replaced the outside sensor twice. The current one is over 10 years old and still works great. The remaining components on the board are original. The first boards used a white round sensor which didn't last very long.

[DaleReid]

Excellent!

Now with the part number and your experience of it working, I'm motivated to get one back on line again.  I loved the display for its looks, the readability across the room and the layout, showing what you need and not much more.

I appreciate your reply, sharing your experience and love this board for the broad membership and talents.

Thank you, and thank you to the administrator for keeping the forums alive.

[kcidwx]

I never had any issues with the humidity sensors. However, I lined the inside of the top housing with mesh fabric. The same thing Davis uses on the cover of their temp/humid sensor. I think that may have prevented them from failing. Or I just got lucky.

[gwwilk]

My ID-5001 has been dark for the past year.  I've not been motivated to replace what's probably a blown fuse because it had become a beautiful clock with a reliable indoor temperature reading and not much else.  I built it shortly after the kits were marketed by Heath and it replaced my ID-4001 that I installed in my parents' house.

The original assembly instructions included bending the leads of the LED's on the wind speed and direction boards prior to soldering, but this led to premature failure of the so abused LED's.  I ended up replacing many, many of them until I finally learned that the leads shouldn't be bent for just this reason.  Once they were properly installed they stopped failing.

When I moved to a new townhome in 1992 I bought new outdoor temperature and humidity sensors and cabling for the wind/rain sensors so I could just leave the old ones behind.  Besides the temp/humidity sensors were out of calibration.  Unfortunately the calibration of these sensors just didn't seem to last for more than a few years at most.

About 18 years ago the bearings on the wind cup assembly froze up, but replacements were easy to obtain and install.  Similarly about 10 years ago the power supply board failed, so I found a new one online to install.  Over the years the backlighting fluorescent tube lasted from one to three years before failing and needing replacement.

The rain sensor's thin gauge wire was broken when I fished a cable through my conduit to power my Davis' rain gauge heater, so it stopped working as well.

The real-time wind speed was fantastic!  I still miss it and my wireless Davis Vantage Pro2+ comes nowhere near it.  I recorded a maximum wind speed of 134 mph during a De Recho in 1993 that flattened trees from Kearney, NE on eastward to past Lincoln.  The suction produced on my roof caused a loud crack and my ears popped as the gust whooshed over.  The number of downed limbs and trees, all blown over to the east, made streets nearly impassable, and a billboard with steel I-beam supports firmly anchored in the ground on Superior street near Salt Creek was flat against the ground, again to the east, with bent I-beams near ground level.

The display was and is unmatched.  Until I got my first Vantage Pro I offloaded my data onto floppies via a primitive laptop, but that data is now lost because of floppy failures.

My Davis units have been much more reliable and accurate, but oh, do I miss that ID-5001 display!

[DaleReid]

Yikes!  Some wind gust.  Next to a very close lightning strike there isn't anything like a severe gust that shakes things to make my hair stand up and certain muscles tighten (or is is loose control?).  You were lucky to have been watching the gizmo when it happened.   I know that there will be those who say that there still is a lag as the cups spin up and the electronics measure time pulses, but it is as close to an instantaneous read on will get short of the ultrasonics, which in my area get filled with snow.

I don't know much about LCDs but this one was a stroke of genius.

I like my Davis, but I really like to see what's going on, and that Vantage Pro display is as close to worthless as they come.

People who just feed a database or look on their phone might be able to get by with such a poor display, but after seeing how snazzy the Heathkit was, to follow with such a poor one really makes me think that the day they finalized the system one of the chief engineers and two of the marketing team were on vacation.

I need to update my VP, and won't until the 3 comes out.  And will have to think very hard if they haven't significantly improved their display.  I have a Peet Brothers Weather Picture which is only LED but readable from far away, and is not a bad system, either.  Think of all the new systems Davis could sell if they came up with something that came even close to the blue soft glow with truly readable numbers!

Sex sells, and the 5001 was indeed something to lust after, from the first time I saw it as a youngster to even now when one graces the messages here or on eBay.

Thanks for all the memories and stories people share here.  I really like that.

Now, if I could just get this weather radar from an old plane mounted high enough to see over the trees.....

[kcidwx]

I had to recalibrate everything on mine about once a year. The barometer I probably tweaked every three weeks. One thing I completely overlooked when I sold it for a Weather Monitor II was that every time I wanted to view a different reading on the display, I had to push a button. I wore out the buttons on the Weather Monitor II and kept thinking to myself, now why did I get rid of that Heathkit. Although I never had to recalibrate the Weather Monitor II.

[Mark Williams 38344]

I wanted to show a pic with the rate of change indicators. I have a another new complete system that has never been used and I plan on using it when this one quits.lf anyone wants to get one set up that is not working I will gladly help. Thanks for all the response.

[DaleReid]

Where are the Raspberry Pi and Arduino gurus that will take the serial data out of Wx Station X (substitute Davis, Peet Bro, Texas Weather Instruments, Rainwise, etc) and interface to drive this display?  I'd gut my unit in a heartbeat to send top quality, reliable data to the screen.  But I don't know how the LCD was driven, probably a custom chip of some sort.  No need to change anything but would be nice to have max/min functions work and reset.  I guess that the keypad keys could be read and assigned to change values in the little computer's memory for this.

After all, Rainwise and Peet Bro have remote displays that run off the serial output of the station already.

[thomas]

Yes, this was my favorite station of all time.  Kind of needed a lot of work to keep it going.  The optical wind count sensor was great.

[kcidwx]

The slight barometer increase when the alarm is sounding annoys me. No excuse for that.

[VaJim]

mark...thanks for sharing....that is one heck of a nice display.

When I worked in the DC area during late 80's, one of the TV stations had one and I always marveled at the way it look.

I agree, I wish someone like Davis would change their displays.  Not a big fan of LCD.

[Mark Williams 38344]

Kcidwx.     You can set the rate the alarm will sound to whatever setting you want. I keep mine at about 20 for the alert and 30 for the alarm. That takes a pretty good change in pressure for the alarm to sound. Or you can turn it off completely so it won't sound at all.

[Mark Williams 38344]

After reading another post I just realized what you were saying. I honestly have never noticed the barometer jump. It may also do that so I will try to find out.

[blizzardof78]

You know what I'd like to see? If a couple of minutes of video of that fine lookin' 5001 in action during a breezy day!

Here is where you can find video of my 4001 in action during a breezy time period. (Enjoy!) 

https://youtu.be/katbGZ3IxUU