Topic: 2810 wind sensor water leak problem

[DanS]

So far everythink still seems to be working. However, if I have to take it apart again, I was wondering how others did it without causing the small black L-shaped piece to break off? Does the directional come off when you remove the screw on top?

The wind direction vane does come off when you pop off the little cap on top and remove the screw inside. It fits pretty tight on a shaft below. It's keyed so you can't get direction wrong when you put it back on. I smeared a light layer of silicone over the screw cap after it was back together as insurance against leakage since it's up on the top.

[jetpuf]

okay, quick update. I had the annometer secured to my fence for the past couple days as it was too windy to put it back on the peak of the house. I inspected it tonight (without opening) when I moved it back to the peak. All the dielectric grease was looking like I just put it on.

I hope all continues to function correctly. Good luck to all the others out there.

[PNWFlyer]

Thanks! I'll have to create a written procedure for doing this so if (heaven forbide) I should ever have to do this again!

[jetpuf]

ohh, and if anyone is interested, my weather station can be found here: http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KORTROUT12

[DanS]

Happy to hear your efforts worked jetpuf. Hope the station continues to work for you. I don't know if you saw this already or not but I see what the 2810 is capable of with my comparisons with the airport's equipment 1/2 mile away. Not bad and feel this unit can perform at least as good as some of the $500/$600 other models out there.





Dan

[jetpuf]

Sad update tonight. Wind stopped reporting again. I took the sensor down and was able to pour water out of it when I took it apart.

I still have not heard back from Lacrosse when I first called them. I'm going to start calling them on a daily basis until they return my calls. Hopefully they send me a new unit. Not holding any faith though at the moment, it's really upsetting because this was a Christmas gift, I know it's not replaceable for the 79.99 that it cost from costco.

[DanS]

Can you tell where the water got in past all that dielectric grease you covered it with? If you do happen to get it going again I'd suggest re-opening those 3 "drain" holes on the bottom. I believe the are drains for condensation if it were to build up inside even though there shouldn't be any moisture at all inside a sealed unit.
Sorry to hear your news and hope it works out for you.

Dan

[jetpuf]

It's really strange, as soon as the water was emptied out of the unit it started reporting wind again, however after sitting out and drying it has stopped. I'm thinking about returning it and going with something from Oregon Scientific.

[PNWFlyer]

Mine has been reliably transmitting data for about 10 days since drying it out and resealing it. We've had several inches of rain and 40-50 mph winds.  I put a thin bead of silicone in the groove on top of the O ring, which I believe is too small in diameter for the joint to seal adequately. I also disconnected the solar panel and put regular alkaline batteries to eliminate that as a possible cause of weak or no transmission.

I also made sure the loop of wire inside wasn't collapsed down (I wonder if this is the transmitting antenae?).

So far so good!

[DanS]

Mine has been reliably transmitting data for about 10 days since drying it out and resealing it. We've had several inches of rain and 40-50 mph winds.  I put a thin bead of silicone in the groove on top of the O ring, which I believe is too small in diameter for the joint to seal adequately.

I also made sure the loop of wire inside wasn't collapsed down (I wonder if this is the transmitting antenae?).

So far so good!

Glad to hear another success story with regard to the 2810. Yes, that wire looped around inside is the antenna and if it gets flattened range will be diminished. I agree with your statement about the rubber O ring and did the same with mine. I seriously don't think the alkaline battery switch with the rechargables will buy you anything. It's a pretty efficient panel for the 2 rechargables and they get recharged everyday there's sun. I even opened the anemometer early one morning and checked the rechargable batteries after running throughout the night and they read good voltages. The 2 alkalines you swapped in are steadily draining down and will need replacement sooner. I realized with mine that the wind data drop-outs were caused by the position of the display/console with relation to the temp/hygro sensor. Really strange that only the wind data would drop out and all other data remained but relocating the console cured the problem and it's been running fine since. Thanks for the encouraging news about the water seal.

[PNWFlyer]

Well, I live in western Washington, and I don't know what the stats for number of cloudy/overcast days are, but I would estimate that it's nearly 65-75% of the days in winter. I have landscape lights with tiny LED's that haven't charged enough to light up for a month. After I'm confident that the water leak is fixed, I plan to hook the solar panel back up and give it another go. I was mainly trying to eliminate that as a source of failure given the conditions, and wanted to make sure it had adequate power to transmit the signal.

[DanS]

Understand now, 65-75% of the time without the sun to recharge is a long time. Good luck and keep in touch with your progress.

[jetpuf]

I'l going to keep watching this thread, however the Lacrosse is going back to costco this weekend and a WMR200 now graces my house. I really like the Lacrosse setup, the WMR200 is nicer, but costs more...

I hope that they come up with a solution for the other thousands of poeple out there who will likely have this same issue. PNW, how does your rain amounts compare to nearby stations? I was seeing double the amount of rain reported.

Information as of 10:00pm on 1-20-2010 is from the new station.
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KORTROUT12

[VaJim]

Good discussion on the problems plaguing the 2810.

Dan & PNWFlyer: Based on your experience if one felt the need to try the reseal action, can you provide a 'play-by-play' as to how you did that?  Which screws did you loosen, how, where did you place the silicone, type of silicone, etc?

In trying to isolate the real problem of no wind data transmission, if the 2810 just went through a rain/wind event, where it had no sun for 2-3 days, would you wait and let the sun come out to see if it was a matter of recharging or would you go ahead and take it down and attempt the reseal?


My 2nd (yikes) 2810 is in day 2 of a medium rain event moving up the east.  The major difference so far is that the Christmas day storm here had more wind.  It is suppose to get windy here tomorrow.  I've turned it over to God!

[DanS]

Good discussion on the problems plaguing the 2810.

Dan & PNWFlyer: Based on your experience if one felt the need to try the reseal action, can you provide a 'play-by-play' as to how you did that?  Which screws did you loosen, how, where did you place the silicone, type of silicone, etc?

In trying to isolate the real problem of no wind data transmission, if the 2810 just went through a rain/wind event, where it had no sun for 2-3 days, would you wait and let the sun come out to see if it was a matter of recharging or would you go ahead and take it down and attempt the reseal?


My 2nd (yikes) 2810 is in day 2 of a medium rain event moving up the east.  The major difference so far is that the Christmas day storm here had more wind.  It is suppose to get windy here tomorrow.  I've turned it over to God!

To address your second question first, if you haven't done anything to the anny as far as sealing it up goes and have had rain since the installation I'd take it back down to see how it did from the rain. Then while you had it apart go ahead and do the additional sealing. I feel the 2 -3 days with no sun shouldn't be an issue if it's had sun previously. Reason why I say this, mine was installed with only a couple days of sun before a rain storm came through, prompting me to take it back down to check it out. I did this in the early morning and the first thing I checked was battery voltage. This was after the batteries were supporting the anny through the night after a rainy overcast day and they still had good volt readings. (3.15v two in series).
  First question, on top of the vane is a small snap-in plastic plug you need to pry out then remove the screw under it. This allows you to remove the vane from the unit. Turn over the unit and unscrew the 6 (? going from memory here) phillip head screws around the perimeter (keep track of screw lengths and where they came from). Gently separate the two halves keeping them aligned and not twisting/rotating to protect the components inside. The solar panel wiring keeps the two halves attached but you have enough lead to lay the halves side by side.
  Sealing. Others may have done this differently. I removed the solar panel and used a small plastic coffee stir stick to apply a clear silicone bead around the edge of the panel. When you put the panel back in it's holder and screw it down it seals around the edges.
  The case rubber seal around the perimeter appears to be too small in diameter (as previously mentioned on the forum). I used a fairly good amount of lithium grease around here to seal it but still be able to open later if need be (hope not for a while). There was mention of sealing the drain holes around the bottom. I left mine open.
  The top vane snap-in plastic plug could be a source of leakage so after reassembly I just smeared a light coat of silicone across it. I guess you could use the lithium grease down inside under it as additional insurance against moisture if you want to.

Hope that answers your questions and good luck.

Dan

[PNWFlyer]

I concur with DanS's description of how to do it, and that you should check how it's done so far in the rain. That way you can dry it out before serious corrosion starts. Also, on reassembly make sure the wire in the case is not collapsed.

As for the solar panel charged batteries, I did temporarily disable the solar panel and installed regular alkaline batteries. As I noted in a post above 60-75% of the days are cloudy in winter.

To answer another post. I just checked the rain gauge accuracy with a local reporting station (5 miles away) and my total is 0.10 inches higher.

[VaJim]

Thanks Dan & PNWFlyer
I'm still keeping an eye on things.  Today is day 5 and 2810 (2) is still kicking.  Made it through nearly an inch of rain and 2 very cloudy days.  I'm wondering (and maybe one of you covered this) but has anyone did the reseal 'after' a failure and was able to bring the unit back to 'life'?

[DanS]

I believe jetpuf brought his back from the dead (page 2 of this thread) successfully. Maybe with the bottom drain holes left open and you do spring a leak it can drain enough to keep the water from rising to the circuit board. Happy to hear 5 days and counting and all is well!  I have 3 more days to go for a month of finger crossin'.

[jetpuf]

If I was able to r&r the wind sensor a second time I would have allowed the three "drain" homes to stay open. Believe however that there is a good amount of water that comes in through the wind vane and the housing. There is no moisture seal for that.

I also think there is a production split somewhere on these things. Some people got good units and some didn't. My 2810 wa also reading twice the rain fall amount as was actual. Not everyones does.

I'm not implying that there is a coorelation there though.

[DanS]

Yeah I was wondering about that rain gage issue too. I'm seeing some people complaining about it while others seem to be o.k. (or haven't noticed it yet?). Mine was reading high like you say yours was.  Hopefully everything is now as it should be. We haven't had rain for a while to check things.

[lou]

I found this a another site, hope it will be helpful..

HERE’S THE FULL RESET PROCEDURE PER LACROSSE TECH SUPPORT:

LaCrosse WS-2810 Full Startup/Reset Procedure

1. If the battery in the wind sensor has not charged in full sun (facing due south) for at least three days, do this first.
2. For this procedure, chances of success are better when the distances between the display unit and other sensors relative to the temp/humidity sensor are within 50 feet. Line-of-sight orientation and fewest possible intervening obstructions are desirable. Further separation can be done after start-up.
3. After solar battery is charged, go to the display unit and follow the following steps as, and in the order, listed.
4. Press and hold the Set button. Release when the display ‘blanks out’.
5. Repeatedly press and release Set button until the “rES off” message appears at bottom of screen.
6. While in the “rES Off” mode, press and release the Up Arrow to change the message to “rES On”. Then press the Set button (once).
7. A counter at the bottom of the page will now appear showing the value “127” and then it will begin counting down to “0”. When zero is reached, the display will show “rES dOnE”.
8. At this point, remove the batteries from the display.
9. While batteries are still out, press any key on the display at least 20 times. (This helps to drain any residual charges in the circuits)
10. Now remove the batteries from the rain sensor and the temp/humidity sensor.
11. Leave everything as-is for at least 10 minutes.
12. Now go to the wind sensor and press and release the reset button recessed in the little hole on the bottom of the wind sensor. Use the provided plastic ‘rod’ or a straightened paper clip. The switch is approximately 5/8” straight inside the case. The actuation requires very little pressure. If you do it carefully you can feel (but probably not hear) a soft switch movement.
13. Now replace the batteries in the rain sensor and temp/humidity sensor, followed by replacement of batteries in the display unit.
14. Leave everything as-is and display untouched for at least 10 minutes.
15. Everything should now be linked and the display should show connectivity and activity of all the sensors.
16. If something is still not functioning, you should call LaCrosse technical support.

[DanS]

You should also note that all MIN/MAX and weather data stored in the console's internal memory will be erased. The communications link between the console and the PC will have to be resynced as well.

[Duck Fan]

Hello, Great forum! I have a ws2810 that I got for Christmas and it all worked great for about a week. Then the wind sensor quit working. After going through all the motions I found this thread and went ahead and opened it up and the circuit board was corrosion beyond repair. I put it back together very carefully and called Tech support. I didn't say anything about taking it apart, just said it wasn't working. She said send it in along with Thermo-HygroSensor and they would check it out. They received the unit on Jan. 26 and I am patiently waiting......


Thanks for all the good info on this forum

[DanS]

Hi Duck Fan and welcome to the forum!

 Sorry to hear of your corroded anny. A common problem with this model. You are lucky in one aspect, that LaCrosse not only answered your complaint but was willing to ask for it back for repairs. Almost like they're trying to build a name for themselves.
 Hopefully you get back one that has the bugs worked out and you get up and running soonest. Let us know. It will be interesting to hear the results.

Thanks,
Dan

[GWD]

Could it be that the Costco unit, which has no "2810" designation on the box or the unit that I can find, is different from the 2810 unit purchased elsewhere?

I had to search the Internet to find out the Costco unit was a 2810 - or at least something similar to the 2810.

It went back to Costco last week after three months of use. Failed anemometer and double rain gauge readings. A Davis VP2, Envoy, and WeatherLink are on the way (at 10x the price of the 2810).