Author Topic: Atlas shut down again  (Read 1115 times)

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline Dartman

  • Village Idiot
  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 54
Atlas shut down again
« on: January 03, 2022, 04:51:51 PM »
Well, my Atlas has shut down again for like the third time. I went on chat and they asked me to take some photos of the temp/humidity sensor and it was fine. Eventually they said it's out of warranty so I need to buy another sensor.
I have a early production unit I got in September of 2018 so I had several issues I ended up fixing myself and made them aware of them so they could improved the assembly and quality of the builds, plus in case it had more issues it was on record.
Last time it did it I tore it down and seated all the connections and touched up some funky solder joints but it refused to fire up so I sat it in the kitchen and eventually it came back to life so I put it back up and crossed my fingers. That was about 10 months ago or so waiting to see if it decides to wake back up yet again.
I just added the lightning detector and had to rework the fan wires so it wasn't constantly showing phantom lightning strikes any time the fan was running and a day later it shut down again and batteries are fine.
I think I'm just going to order a new stand alone Atlas from Amazon for a good price and then at least I'll have plenty of parts around even if it decides to fire up again soon, pretty frustrating but it has been in service a while now.
Posted on the Face Book forum too.

Offline DoctorKnow

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1982
Re: Atlas shut down again
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2022, 07:59:11 AM »
What issues did you fix? Did you use a display or access as the receiver? My second Atlas would not pick up on the access, but would on the display. If the sun was on it, the access would work however...

Offline Dartman

  • Village Idiot
  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 54
Re: Atlas shut down again
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2022, 04:02:15 PM »
The plug for the U/V sensor had a wire that had gotten shoved almost all the way off the pin it was supposed to slide onto so I gently shoved it back into the plug onto the pin even with the other wires in the plug.
The fan wasn't in the cage right so I snapped it back into place and put everything back together and the fan was spinning again when the sun hit it.
The U/V index started reporting too and it stopped eating batteries after that too. So other than the weird random full no power shut down its been good since.

Offline Dartman

  • Village Idiot
  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 54
Re: Atlas shut down again
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2022, 07:16:57 PM »
And of course it's now powered completely back up and reporting with excellent signal strength like I figured it eventually would, now that I've got a new one coming tomorrow. It hasn't reported any bogus lightning strikes either but it's been cold and rainy all day so fan probably isn't running.

Offline DoctorKnow

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1982
Re: Atlas shut down again
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2022, 08:28:40 AM »
These things are so odd. I'm wondering if it's the super cap?

Offline Dartman

  • Village Idiot
  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 54
Re: Atlas shut down again
« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2022, 04:53:41 AM »
Didn't know they had a super cap. The new one is here but been raining and cold so haven't been up to swap it out or anything. Still reporting of course but 6 or 7 months it will shut down again for a few days.
The lightning detector has only reported 1 false strike since I twisted the motor wires and moved them over and taped them in place with aluminum tape.

Offline DoctorKnow

  • Forecaster
  • *****
  • Posts: 1982
Re: Atlas shut down again
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2022, 08:43:51 AM »
The super cap is under the rain bucket with the larger solar panel.
I found an atlas that shuts down after dark, and starts up at daylight... about 50 miles from me. https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KNCGREEN257
« Last Edit: January 08, 2022, 08:45:53 AM by DoctorKnow »

Offline Dartman

  • Village Idiot
  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 54
Re: Atlas shut down again
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2022, 01:06:29 PM »
I don't know if the super cap is the problem because it runs fine for months then randomly shuts down and batteries are fine. If it feeds power I suppose that could be a issue but funny it slowly wakes up and is fine again.

Offline OrangeMonkey

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1
Re: Atlas shut down again
« Reply #8 on: March 19, 2022, 05:44:13 PM »
I too am dealing with an Atlas that appears dead. The first time was several months ago. Today I took down the unit and examined the battery compartment. Each battery was seated properly. I am using Energizer Lithium cells. As before the batteries tested good and as before I used the same ones. I did notice that only two batteries on either side is enough to get the red LED flashing. I did not confirm that it actually transmits with two batteries. As before the unit was back up and transmitting to the Connect receiver and on line to Weather Underground. Other than buying a new one or installing a remote battery pack should I assume no one really knows the cause of this issue?

Offline Dartman

  • Village Idiot
  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 54
Re: Atlas shut down again
« Reply #9 on: March 19, 2022, 07:35:56 PM »
Considering it draws more current than the old 5n1 I think they run two sets of batteries in parallel to give it more long term current capacity so it doesn't go dead right away.
the new outside sensor has been up and running since my last post and reads U/V a lot higher than my first one, the lightning detection is much better too and no false positives yet. We don't get thunder storms often and it did pick up a storm from miles away that wound up quickly and was gone right away. It used to report hundreds to thousands of close strikes and now only some when there is a actual storm. I think the little one reported like 6 or so strikes.
Might have to pull apart the old one again and see if I can find that super cap. I had a receiver that would no longer hold the station memory and like that and I found a small fat electrolytic cap on the tuner board. It held the memory circuit and was bad, replaced it and it could sit for months unplugged and every thing was retained. I got it from Radio Shack and the package even said super cap on it.

Offline rct

  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 98
  • W2RCT
Re: Atlas shut down again
« Reply #10 on: March 30, 2022, 05:27:28 PM »
My Atlas seems to occasionally crash/lock up and stop transmitting. The red LED in the battery compartment doesn't flash.  I've got to pull the batteries, leaving them out for around 30 seconds.

When I put the batteries back in it starts transmitting again.

I check the batteries when I pull them. Battery voltage for all 4 cells is around 1.42Vdc.  So the Atlas should be getting around 2.8Vdc.

The problem seems to be occurring more frequently.  I've had the problem now on 12/19, 2/23, 3/21, and now 3/30.  The unit is at least 2 years old so definitely out of warranty.

Offline Dartman

  • Village Idiot
  • Senior Member
  • **
  • Posts: 54
Re: Atlas shut down again
« Reply #11 on: March 30, 2022, 08:23:59 PM »
I would still contact them as your problem may be different than the issue mine had. They'll run you through the picture taking of the usual issues and might decide you have a issue under recall or something and still replace it for you. They have replaced several devices I had that were out of warranty probably because it was a known issue with batches of certain units. This time they didn't but just the Atlas outdoor main station was pretty reasonably priced on sale at Amazon so I replaced it. I probably could have tried to push it but figured just wasn't worth fighting about considering how well I've been treated overall.

 

anything