I have a VP2 with separated ISS and anemometer transmitter kit. Due to issues with my original VP2 ISS, recently I was temporarily using an old Vue ISS for temp/hum/rain while continuing to use my VP2 anemometer and transmitter kit. On November 4, I installed a new VP2 ISS, replacing the Vue ISS. I had a low battery message the first night after installation of the new VP2 ISS, which went away after a day or two of exposure to the sun.
From then on, everything was perfect with the station/reception until the early morning hours of 11/23. My anemometer reception dropped to 86.8%, which is extremely unusual (usually never drops below 96%) during the 1:00-1:30 a.m. period in my WeatherLink data (I use a 30-minute archive interval). It then dropped further to 50.9% during the 1:30-2:00 a.m. period. Also, during the 1:30-2:00 a.m. period, I completely lost ISS reception at some point. Then, during the 2:00-2:30 a.m. period, my anemometer reception returned to 100%, while my ISS reception dropped to zero. It seems that anemometer reception returned as soon as ISS reception was lost. This continued for almost 12 hours, with full anemometer reception and no ISS reception, until the 1:30-2:00 p.m. period, during which anemometer reception dropped to 88.9%. Then, during the 2:00-2:30 p.m. period, anemometer reception dropped to 0% while ISS reception returned. From 2:30-3:00 p.m., ISS reception remained, while anemometer reception rose to only 9.5%. Anemometer reception then returned to 100% during the 3:00-3:30 p.m. period, during which ISS reception continued.
After that point, reception of both the anemometer and ISS were consistent. However, today, my ISS registered 12.45" of rain under clear skies and light winds. Heavy rain fell last night, which the ISS accurately measured, and very high winds, gusting up to 66 mph, also occurred. The phantom 12.45" of rainfall on the ISS did not occur until many hours after the rain had ended and after the wind had dropped to roughly 10 mph.
This afternoon, I investigated the ISS, including the tipping bucket mechanism. All appeared normal and exactly the same as it did 3 weeks ago when this ISS was installed. I unplugged and re-plugged the "rain" connector to the ISS SIM board and also temporarily removed, then put back, the battery. I also changed the ISS transmitter ID. Since then, I have not been able to re-establish a connection between the ISS and the console. In fact, the console would not even connect to the anemometer until after a few tries, and only after an extended period (~10 minutes). The ISS continues to be completely invisible.
I have now replaced the ISS battery and still cannot get any signal from the ISS. That said, it was already completely dark outside by the time I replaced the battery.
Does anyone have the slightest clue what could be wrong here? Two odd things I noticed from the 11/23 data were that 1) the ISS drop-out period was preceded by a relatively brief period of lost anemometer reception and 2) the console's re-connection to the ISS was also preceded by a period of lost anemometer reception (of slightly longer length than the first). The reception issues began when the temperature dropped to 20 degrees F, which is certainly not anything crazy for this location (I have measured as low as 3 degrees in the 5 years the station has been in operation), but it is much colder than it had been here in the preceding few weeks.
Could the reception issues and the phantom 12.45" rainfall be caused by the same issue? Could the two aforementioned periods of compromised anemometer reception have been caused by the console's issues with establishing a connection with the ISS, as seems to be suggested by the timing of the periods of lower/zero anemometer reception? I have had essentially no reception issues with anemometer or ISS in the 5 years this VP2 has been in operation. Wind data is most important to me, so I am concerned that another drop-out of anemometer reception could occur due to issues between the console and the ISS. Could temporarily (until the problem is solved) eliminating the ISS from communicating with the console prevent that from occurring again?