Topic: Today's puzzler

[Aardvark]

my soil temperature probe at 3 feet suddenly shows a -65 temperature then goes back.  I checked it out on 3 receivers so it is the signal, suggestions?

[SLOweather]

Look for an intermittent short in your probe wire; open insulation, bare wires, rodent gnawing, shovel cut, etc.

[Aardvark]

that was my first thought.   the stinker is it is the 3 foot probe and it is spliced .   I don't want to have to dig  out the probe, fix it and re bury it.  I suppose the next best is to look for a new probe wire , run it down the conduit and be happy until next spring when I can redrill the hole.
I doubt it is a shovel or critter, but instead of soldering like I usually do. I used crimp connectors that were heat sealable, then I wrapped the wires and ran it in the pvc pipe.  it could very well be just enough contraction of the wire to break connection.

I am attaching a picture of how the leads go directly down to the right depth

[Aardvark]

I ordered a new temperature probe from Archer and it should be here next week.   I checked the wire and it looks fine, but something is flakey  so rather than pull the whole pvc pipe out of the ground, when the new probe comes, I am going to fish it down the pipe, probably hooked on to a wood dowel to the right depth.  it is going to be a bit tight since the pvc pipe is 1/2 inch diameter and has already two wires in it.   Should that work, things will be better.

to remove the old sensor, it has to be pulled up and I am not in the mood to either auger another hole or pull it up.  More to follow.