Author Topic: WMR968 Anemometer, is it time to replace??? [CLOSED 2nd Time] (Read 15254 times)

sam2004gp · « **on:** March 25, 2009, 09:39:42 PM »

The long story....

FYI: I have two WMR968 Consoles, but only one anemometer.

Today, I got some high windspeeds (50mph) that did not match the outside conditions. So I took and observed my extra wmr968 console outside and it was constantly showing wind speeds in the 30 or 40 MPH range, the extra console connected to my computer and VWS was also showing the same exact numbers. Yet the wind cups were not spinning more then about 10 Miles an hour. There was no problem with the wind direction vane. I removed the solar battery, AAs, disconnected the sensor, reinstalled, and replaced the AAs with fresh ones. I then reset the solar transmitter and observed the transmit light working twice. I screwed all the tiny screws back in, and resynced my console. At which point I got the wind direction vane and it showed movement. But now the speed stayed at 0 mph, although the cups were clearly turning. I then spun them by hand (somewhat quickly) thru a few sensor updates and they still stayed at 0. I then removed the set screw on the wind cups, checked the condition of the shaft. All was good. Just a small tiny spider in the nose of the cup. I put it back together and gave it some spins for a minute or so, console still displayed at 0 mph. At that point I put the ladder away and thought I will need to purchase a new Anemometer. I reset the extra console one more time, just hoping, and again just the direction vane, 0 mph. 60 minutes later, I reset the console again, this time I got the direction vane, and speeds of 20 to 30 mph (again that was too high for the conditions).

Now the wierd part, after about another 5 minutes the speed settled down to between 3 and 8 mph (Our conditions at the time).

....And for the last 4 hours has been operating normally. Since then I fixed my numbers in VWS but have not resynced the VWS connected console until I make sure the wind speed issue seems corrected. I would rather have zero data on my website than erroneously high wind speeds recorded. I am going to attempt to sync the VWS connected console in the morning if the extra-console shows numbers that are within our condition range.

I received the WMR968 for a Xmas gift in December 2007. I have already replaced the outdoor temp and humidity sensor once.

I have also researched the internet and Ambient has the best price with shipping so far, About $105. Not cheap.

Does it sound like my unit is close to full failure or is this just a weird glitch? Has this happened to anyone else?

I looked back thru my data the last few days and sometimes there are 4 or 5 hours of 0 wind speeds and then numbers, I would consider normal. But this is the first I have noticed erroneously high speeds.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

SlowModem · « **Reply #1 on:** March 25, 2009, 09:50:37 PM »

Quote from: sam2004gp on March 25, 2009, 09:39:42 PM

The long story....

Sam,

I had some strange wind readings once upon a time. At first, when I was moving the sensors all around the yard trying to find a good place, I had the anemometer under some power lines (500 KV) that was causing some weird static. When I tried attaching the small ground wire to a ground, it quit working completely. I undid the ground and reset the transmitter and it's worked well ever since.

The point I'm trying to make is that for some reason, the ground wire can cause abnormalities. And, since it's been working fairly well since you got it, you might want to consider some recent stray currents/magnetic fields/interference type problems.

Other than that, I don't have any experience with bad readings. I hope you don't have to go the replacement route. But, if you do, be sure and look at ebay.

Greg

sam2004gp · « **Reply #2 on:** March 25, 2009, 09:52:43 PM »

Yes I checked Ebay, and Ambient was cheaper once you added shipping. At least with Ambient I know the "seller" won't try to burn me.

DanS · « **Reply #3 on:** March 25, 2009, 10:29:35 PM »

Sam even though our PWS's are different (2310 here) I thought I should mention that I had a P.C. ground "open" and it cause the PWS wind anemometer readings to go wild. It only effected the wind speed readings and all else looked normal. Grounded the P.C. and fine ever since.

Dan

sam2004gp · « **Reply #4 on:** March 26, 2009, 06:47:22 AM »

Thanks Dan, but this occurred on two different receiving consoles on different floors of the house and as I walked around outside with one of the consoles.

sam2004gp · « **Reply #5 on:** March 26, 2009, 07:08:19 AM »

....more to the story.

I got up this morning and was hoping to see that everything had miraculously cleared up overnight.

NO SUCH LUCK.

Overnight, I recorded a high speed wind of 89.5 mph

. So it is still erratic. Some times I get 0 mph for an hour or so, even when the wind cups are spinning; and other times I get high numbers like this 89.5.

So I ordered a NEW Anemometer with Solar transmitter from Ambient this morning.

That will also give me an extra rechargeable battery and transmitter mount (the current one has a crack in it).

As for my web page, I made a temporary current conditions .htx page that is being injected into VWS. I took the "normal" page and made an extra copy until my anemometer readings are valid again when the new one is installed. I also shut off my wind speed and direction in wunderground and metar settings.

Here is how I am dealing with it so far. ------> www.mountcrawfordweather.org

....I was just talking to the wife and I just hate having to spend roughly $100 on this to get it working correctly again.

..And then there is uninstall, reinstall, aligning to South, and the stress of testing. Uhhhgggggg. I babble on, I better get off here and go decompress in the other threads.

Any suggestions and info is still welcome.

sam2004gp · « **Reply #6 on:** March 27, 2009, 11:30:35 AM »

...today and yesterday, still getting wierd readings. On occasion, It will work fine for a few hours and then it pegs both consoles to the "HHH" on the display. Sometimes I see it do high numbers a couple times before it does.

sam2004gp · « **Reply #7 on:** March 30, 2009, 11:09:14 AM »

I think I have discovered "Anti-wind".
Yesterday (Sunday) we had a high wind warning for 25+ gusts. Most of the day my console showed 0, and then after the real wind settled down to around 5MPH, I started showing 30s and 40s on the console.

Anthony · « **Reply #8 on:** March 30, 2009, 02:34:02 PM »

Sounds like them darn wind gremlins again.

mackbig · « **Reply #9 on:** March 30, 2009, 03:16:30 PM »

speaking of gremlims, mine is back
http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=2282.0

Andrew

sam2004gp · « **Reply #10 on:** March 30, 2009, 04:53:29 PM »

Yes Mack, I noticed your other post. These things are as frustrating as a one armed paper hanger.

Anthony · « **Reply #11 on:** March 31, 2009, 08:04:27 AM »

Or a one legged man in a butt kicking contest.

sam2004gp · « **Reply #12 on:** March 31, 2009, 05:43:36 PM »

Since the weather was somewhat nice today, and the new anemometer is still in a UPS truck somewhere in Ill. I went ahead and removed the malfunctioning Anemometer. At least when I put the new one up, it will reduce my "repair" time now. Tonight after dinner, I am going to disassemble it and see if I can find any obvious malfunction cause.

SlowModem · « **Reply #13 on:** March 31, 2009, 07:24:59 PM »

Quote from: sam2004gp on March 31, 2009, 05:43:36 PM

Tonight after dinner, I am going to disassemble it and see if I can find any obvious malfunction cause.

DISASSEMBLE?!?! NO DISASSEMBLE!!!! NO DISASSEMBLE!!!

sam2004gp · « **Reply #14 on:** April 01, 2009, 12:48:14 PM »

Sorry Johnny Five, er I mean Slow Modem.

The disassembly is already done, and of course all I found was some integrated circuits, and no apparent physical cause. So I put it all back together and stowed it away as a spare parts unit.

Now it's just a matter of waiting for the UPS guy to ring the doorbell.

sam2004gp · « **Reply #15 on:** April 02, 2009, 10:42:45 AM »

Well according to UPS tracking the new anemometer should be here today.

DanS · « **Reply #16 on:** April 02, 2009, 10:56:43 AM »

Yee haaa!! fingers are crossed!! I just hope it isn't the same driver that Charlie and Don used for that PWS deal, http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=2995.45.
Hoping for the best! $\:D/$

sam2004gp · « **Reply #17 on:** April 02, 2009, 08:34:54 PM »

UPS delivered the replacement today. The intial test looked good. I have mounted it on the back deck to test so more, but strangly we have no wind to register on it. Our current weather has been slow cold rain for the last 2 days. So it is been too wet to think about climbing the metal ladder steps as they become slippery. Tomorrows weather calls for more the same. So it looks like Saturday will be the day. I just wish I could have some "faithful" windspeeds now.

At this point I am not going to reactivate windspeed readouts on my website or in VWS until it's mounted for good.

DanS · « **Reply #18 on:** April 02, 2009, 09:03:14 PM »

Sounds good Sam. Hope it all works and everything is back to normal again, Dan says, slightly winded.

SlowModem · « **Reply #19 on:** April 03, 2009, 07:06:39 AM »

Quote from: sam2004gp on April 02, 2009, 08:34:54 PM

The intial test looked good.

<--Initial test?

DanS · « **Reply #20 on:** April 03, 2009, 08:18:35 AM »

"You have anything in here for little ol' me?"

"No but if you drop it I'll will give you a size 9 1/2 where the sun don't shine!"

Sam replied with a firm delivery!

sam2004gp · « **Reply #21 on:** April 05, 2009, 01:37:41 PM »

Final Update, I got the anemometer fully installed on Friday after a break in the weather. Saturday we had a wind advisory and all things seemed to work well. Also I revisited my "Calibrating wind direction for due South" procedure and noticed I was most likely off originally by about 15 degrees. A new compass is always a good thing.

I now have a much more accurate wind direction reading.

So in the long run I have a new anemometer with better accuracy. I just hope it lasts a long time.

And now to put it in words that MadALwx uses some time.
[Closed]

sam2004gp · « **Reply #22 on:** June 03, 2009, 08:15:16 AM »

We had an electrical storm last night. I did not notice it until this morning, but the Anemometer on the console was --.--
I noticed it here at work, so I called home and had the wife go thru the console reset procedure on both of my two consoles and that did not bring it back. So I guess I will have to go and do a reset on the transmitter. <--- Hoping that is the "Cheap and Easy" Fix.

Don't you hate checking things when you are away from home and notice a station problem and knowing you can't even look at it for hours. And then thinking, is it just a glitch or how much is this going to cost me. It just sort of ruins your day.

DanS · « **Reply #23 on:** June 03, 2009, 08:35:34 AM »

Man, hope the tx'r reset does it. Enough already! Let's us know later when you get to it.

sam2004gp · « **Reply #24 on:** June 03, 2009, 04:17:48 PM »

Yay!!!! $\:D/$ $\:D/$

I got it back.

It appears that a channel rescan or re-search does not always get the OS WMR968 Anemometer back up. <<-- I had learned this the last time. So I tried it again and sure enough I had to remove all power from both consoles and set them back up. After that wind speed was registering good again. Then I had to enter a rain calibration into VWS, because the "stored" rain amount that I had before in the console was now reset to zero again. Once I got that, all is working fine on my end.
The only issue I have now is not my fault, I hope.

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=4385.msg38313#msg38313

Also my custom charts web page shows some goofy charts for last night, but they will clear out after some time passes in the next day or so. I don't want to even attempt to edit the VWS database .bin files.

News:

Author Topic: WMR968 Anemometer, is it time to replace??? [CLOSED 2nd Time] (Read 15254 times)