Topic: No receive from ISS

[ws vreewijk]

Hello All,

I just wanted to let you know off my problems with the ISS,it can be off some help to others.

Last week I have seen the message on my console low battery,ok no problem after 2 years and 3 months
but after my trip on the roof and change of the 3 volt lithium battery my station received no longer the ISS
transmissions,ok no problem was my first idea  just push the done button and the - button on the same time and the console will be able to find the ISS station again.
WRONG    PANIK what was wrong
Only stripes on my display from the sensors of the ISS.   I tryed the test switch the 4 th switch in up position that will activate the led what give the indication that the ISS is transmitting but no way completely dead.

My luck was that I had read in the past about some problems according to possible leakage of the goldcap back up capacitor ,so I opened the ISS opened the white coverage inside and found only a small leakage on one connection of the gold cap just minor yellow spillage.

After a visit to a German amateur weather site I found out more people have had this problem in the past.

I replaced the goldcap and tryed the test led ....immidiality it started to flash and when I went down my reception was already ok.

Just want to mention that I discussed with some people WHY this gold cap breaks down by so many people the reason ,most have the opinion that comes up that here in europe the gold cap will in winter time not charge right as some days there is fog or heavy clouding  one guy did some measuraments and found out that with the original gold cap  10 farad 2.7 volts 11 hours transmitting is covered during the night, and with replacement with a goldcap from 50 farad 2.7 volts several days coverage, and normaly 2 hours will be needed to charge the goldcap.

So if you ever have a total loss of reception and or/low batt  and change of battery will not solve the problem check out the gold cap and if there is leakage  replace it right away  if possible for a type with more
capacity like 25 or 50 farad make shore to replace with a type of at lease 2.7 volt.

If someone needs more info please let me know,if some of you have aditional info please post it here.
And if you had the same experiance mntion it here also.

OK the weatleaf station has almost the same problem watch out the gold cap has a different value.

For your information I did not replace the goldcap for the same manufaturer NESSCAP as my confidance about them is over.

PLEASE MAKE SHURE BY REPLACEMENT TO PUT + AND -   OF THE GOLDCAP AT THE RIGHT PLACE.

Kind regards Chris

please feel free to visit my site

http://www.wsvreewijk.ucoz.com/
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[dalecoy]

Thanks, Chris. 

That GoldCap is sometimes called a SuperCap.

And your English is a lot better than my Dutch.

[johnd]

Just want to mention that I discussed with some people WHY this gold cap breaks down by so many people the reason ,most have the opinion that comes up that here in europe the gold cap will in winter time not charge right as some days there is fog or heavy clouding

But that's not the reason for failure of the supercap. The problem is typically damage to the supercap caused by incorrect installation.

The standard supercap works perfectly well in Northern Europe provided it was not damaged during installation.

[ws vreewijk]

Johnd

My davis was runnig2 years and 3  months  than I saw low battery  I changed the battery and
well read my first posting  NO BATTERY WAS REPLACED WRONG
and lots of more people have hd the same problem.

Normaly a gold caps life is 8 to 10 years

cheers Chris

[johnd]

It's the supercap we're talking about here (what I think you're calling the 'gold cap' - I'm not too sure why you're using this term, it's maybe a literal translation from another language - in English it's generally referred to as a 'supercapacitor' (hence supercap) or sometimes 'ultracapacitor') and not the battery.)

There's a detailed write-up on this topic on our VP support website at:

http://vp-kb.wikispaces.com/Supercap+fault

(NB The URL for this support site is going to be changing, but it's still OK for now.)

[ws vreewijk]

   Hello Johnd,

Thanks for this nice info.

Strange my station is not that old but has the failure as mentioned  and yes it is a supper cap (gold cap is Panasonic patent)
I will put a link on the German site so other people can benefit from your info.

Meanwhile i put in 25 farad 2.7 v green cap    if you want I send you the scope meassurament from the German amateur as it is very interresting to see.

Just let me know if you are interrested.


Kind regards Chris