Author Topic: WS80 Power sensitivity  (Read 303 times)

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Offline Mandrake

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WS80 Power sensitivity
« on: January 25, 2021, 04:17:19 AM »
Interesting observation these last few days
My WS80 has started to flag low voltage during the cold nights these last few days.
This is not unexpected since the Lithium cells have been in place since Aug 2019 though I was hoping to scrape through to March for a spring refresh of my external sensor batteries.

What's interesting is that the Ultrasonic component needs good minimum voltage while the rest of the sensors in the array operated OK and the overall sensor data was transmitted consistently.
What you see is the wind speed and direction just freeze at the last value and repeat until enough voltage returns or sunshine arrives!
For me this seems to be around 2.75V that the ultrasonic component stopped working (I have alerts setup on Ecowitt.net that send me the voltage values)
So I guess the lesson learned here is that in order to keep wind readings going I would recommend annual battery changes for the WS80 unless you live in more equatorial regions or have higher sunshine averages and set a threshold of 2.8V!
« Last Edit: January 26, 2021, 04:47:07 AM by Mandrake »
G1ZFO

Ecowitt HP2551A + WH65 Tri-Wing (Wunderground: IGUILDFO67)
Ecowitt GW1000 (Wunderground: IGUILDFO68)
Ecowitt GW1000 (Mk2) test environment driving CumulusMX on a RPi 3b
Ecowitt GW2000 (Test)
Ecowitt WS90 Wittboy - Test
Ecowitt WH51 (x6) Soil Moisture Sensor
Ecowitt WH41 PM2.5 AQM Sensor
Ecowitt WH31 (x8) Thermo/Hygro Sensor
Ecowitt WS80 Ultrasonic Anemometer (pre-prod test)
Ecowitt WH57 Lightning Sensor -test
Ecowitt WH32-EP (SHT35) + Davis 7714 Screen
Ecowitt WH45 CO2/PM2.5/PM10 -Test
Ecowitt WN34 Soil Temp Sensor -Test
Ecowitt WN34 Water Temp Sensor -Test
Ecowitt WN35 Leaf Moisture

Offline wardie

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Re: WS80 Power sensitivity
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2021, 06:26:01 AM »
Interesting - I wonder if the heat plate will also function to keep the batteries warmer and more performant? I would guess they are close by underneath, inside the main enclosure.
Froggit HP1000SE Pro-C console (HP2551-C)
Froggit HP1000SE Pro ultrasonic multi sensor with Ecowitt EC0002 heater (WS80)
Ecowitt Anemometer 5-in-1 array (WS68)
Froggit DP80 rain gauge (WH40) with spikes
Froggit indoor temp/humidity/pressure (WH32B)
Froggit DP50 Internal temp/humidity x2 (WH31)
Ecowitt Outdoor temp/humidity & RS-00001 shield (WH32)
Froggit DP200 PM2.5 outdoor (WH41)
Ecowitt indoor CO2 PM2.5 PM10 (WH45)
Froggit DP100 soil moisture (WH51)
Froggit DP60 Lightning detector (WH57)
Froggit DP1500 server dongle (GW1000A) x2
Raspberry Pi 4 / WeeWx-GW1000 API interface
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Offline Mandrake

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Re: WS80 Power sensitivity
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2021, 06:37:38 AM »
Undoubtable I think the heat plate would help keep the Lithium's performing better and perhaps eek out a little longer life.
Sadly my system was pre-production and the heat plate was not wired up so I don't have that option but so far I have not seen any performance issues in wind readings in cold temps until the batteries started to fall away.
G1ZFO

Ecowitt HP2551A + WH65 Tri-Wing (Wunderground: IGUILDFO67)
Ecowitt GW1000 (Wunderground: IGUILDFO68)
Ecowitt GW1000 (Mk2) test environment driving CumulusMX on a RPi 3b
Ecowitt GW2000 (Test)
Ecowitt WS90 Wittboy - Test
Ecowitt WH51 (x6) Soil Moisture Sensor
Ecowitt WH41 PM2.5 AQM Sensor
Ecowitt WH31 (x8) Thermo/Hygro Sensor
Ecowitt WS80 Ultrasonic Anemometer (pre-prod test)
Ecowitt WH57 Lightning Sensor -test
Ecowitt WH32-EP (SHT35) + Davis 7714 Screen
Ecowitt WH45 CO2/PM2.5/PM10 -Test
Ecowitt WN34 Soil Temp Sensor -Test
Ecowitt WN34 Water Temp Sensor -Test
Ecowitt WN35 Leaf Moisture

 

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