I have a problem with my VP1. I’ve done a lot of trouble shooting over the past year, but nothing has fixed it. So I’m going to throw this out to the forum members and see what you think. This is over the past year, so hopefully I can remember my troubleshoot details correctly. WARNING: Long post ahead! It's so long, I wrote it in Word first.
I bought a VP1 back in late 2003, put it on my PC in 2004. I had it mounted above my old house until last July. I had no reception problems at all. ISS was about 30 feet from the console. Last July, I moved into a new bigger house. I put the ISS above the roof with anemometer like the old house. I put the console in the basement near the PC. Console was probably 20 feet from the PC. I was noticing a lot of L’s and R’s. Then I started getting blank displays on the temp. I don’t recall if wind dropped since it has been a year now, but I know the temp/hum dropped.
About that time, a forum member put a VP1 ISS, console, and wind anemometer transmitter kit up for sale. I bought it all. Console for upstairs, “spare ISS”, and the wind kit so I could bring the ISS down off the roof. I thought my rain readings were off because I’m now out in the country with lots of wind. So being above the roof made a difference for me. Bringing the ISS off the roof brought the readings to the same as my CoCoRahs style gauge.
Thinking my reception issues could have been the ISS board; I setup the new ISS on channel 2 and put it in the backyard. I setup the “new” console upstairs, and put the wind transmitter on channel 8. Everything worked for a month or so. But then, same issue. Dropped temp/hum sensor. But now with the wind on a different transmitter and channel, that kept working. Weird part is the “new” console kept working, only the original console had issues. It could be a console issue, but I also had my original ISS board too. So I swapped that into the “new” ISS. Things worked again for a few weeks, then dropped reception.
So now I thought it had to be my original console with a reception issue. I put wiring in my laundry room and moved it upstairs. That worked, for a couple months. Then start losing reception again. So now my thought is it is the console going bad. I rented a Davis updater and updated the “new” console to the latest firmware. I manually entered all of my monthly/yearly highs/rain, etc into the “new” console. I then swapped consoles. Same story, it would start losing reception in about a month. Now I’ve moved my console back downstairs thinking maybe I have interference in the house. Even though I never lose wind reception.
When I moved the data logger console downstairs, I decided to try some new channels. Channel 1 was the original channel I had when I moved. Channel 2 is what I changed to with the new ISS. So I tried 3, 4, and 5. All had L’s within minutes. Channel 7 took an hour before it happened. So I’m down to channel 6. It worked. I left it. Knocked on wood…
Everything works for 2 months now. I wake up this morning and dropped temp/hum again. Dang! Temp/hum drop out, but still reading wind. The second is console working normally.
Here’s the weird part. Whenever these drops happen, either console, I could go into the console, change the altitude by 1 foot, and then go back out. Console starts working again. It might work for a week or 2, maybe a month. But then out of the blue, it’ll act up. When the data logger console does act up, my second console reads just fine. Even after I swapped them.
Usually I don’t notice the drops until morning. It might have died when I went to bed and I didn’t see it. At one point, I was able to catch it in the afternoon and do some testing. I turned everything off in the house that could emit a radio signal. Wifi, cordless phones, cell phones, wireless keyboard. I dang near killed the main power to the house. Same thing would happen. So I would have to surmise if it is radio interference, the problem is coming from outside the house. A buddy of mine who lives 300 yards from me had to change from 900 MHZ phone to a new 2.4 GHZ after he moved in too because of reception issues. My cordless phones are even higher in the GHZ range I think. Whatever DEC6 is, but I have no cordless phone issues.
I’ve come down to this conclusion. With 2 consoles, 2 ISS boards, and all the swapping and moving I’ve done, my problem is either:
1) I just have some 900 MHZ interference and I need to move to the VP2. I don’t know why it doesn’t affect the wind readings though.
2) The data logger is somehow screwing up my console. This is the only part that hasn’t been changed out with all the swaps. I don’t know how a logger could do this, but my troubleshooting skills have to admit it is possible.
I’m a frugal guy, I don’t like to spend more than I have to. So buying a VP2 seems to be a bit of a waste. It’s not that I can’t afford it. I’d just rather spend my money elsewhere. But if I do have to buy a new VP2, I’ll probably go the whole she-bang and do one with solar/UV/FARS, plus Envoy for PC, wind anemometer. I think I might even buy a new serial logger just to say I’ve replaced everything. But I don’t know what else to do.
I apologize for the long post. But I thought posting my experiences might at least help someone else with their troubleshooting. I’m just hoping I can find a solution to my weather frustration, short of finding a new hobby. I am open to suggestions at this point, even though I’ve trouble-shot the hell out of this.