Author Topic: Solar radiation sensor, why and what  (Read 6410 times)

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Offline cabud

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #25 on: May 03, 2018, 02:07:20 PM »
It is the really small USB. I am using the cable from my old Oregon station.

Ok, It is probably USB A to Micro B, or Mini B....guess I'll have to wait for the weather station to arrive to make sure.... I can't find info on line. Once it comes, I'll know for sure.

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #26 on: May 03, 2018, 02:09:22 PM »
Hope these work!

Offline cabud

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #27 on: May 03, 2018, 02:16:56 PM »
Hope these work!

Thanks man! sure looks like Mini B....but I better wait for it to arrive, it's not real clear. Going into town for the afternoon, will get some mounting hardware.
« Last Edit: May 03, 2018, 02:18:45 PM by cabud »

Offline Skywatch

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #28 on: May 13, 2018, 04:24:01 PM »
Have you gotten the station yet? Let us know how the installation goes.
I live in an apartment and for the moment am not a home weather watcher.

I am a storm chaser.

Offline cabud

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #29 on: May 14, 2018, 10:57:49 AM »
Have you gotten the station yet? Let us know how the installation goes.

yep! got the station, have the console powered up, played with the settings, I have the outdoor transmitter sitting in a window, so it is communicating with the console.

I am slow at things, as I am a busy family and church man. Working on the concept for pole mounting at the moment, need to get some hardware.

By the way, I was reading some comments about installing ball bearings in the wind instruments, for longer life, with these bearings

https://www.amazon.com/Miniature-Skateboard-Bearings-MR105ZZ-L-1050ZZ/dp/B00ZHSTKCE

I could not see how the anemometer comes apart for installing the bearings. Anyone care to comment on this? Thanks!

Offline cabud

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #30 on: May 14, 2018, 12:06:10 PM »
Whoa, this is a cool site, answered my question about the ball bearing for the anemometer

Lots of great info here for the FO stations

http://lancet.mit.edu/mwall/projects/weather/

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #31 on: May 14, 2018, 03:12:13 PM »
I would plan to make a better radiation shield for the thermometer, other than that, everything else works like it should. I also don't recommend installing the rain bucket where you can't get to it for cleaning. It doesn't take much to plug up the inlet. One thing I have thought of but haven't gotten around to trying is taking some mesh metal screen and attaching it /tying over the top of the whole rain gauge to keep junk out of it. If you plan to mount it high, I would do this for sure...

Offline cabud

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #32 on: May 14, 2018, 03:32:01 PM »
I'm hoping to mount the solar/temp unit under a structural overhang to solve the radiation issue, with the solar panel facing out to sunlight.

I also had similar thoughts with the mesh cover, but had doubts about it....You could do a mesh cover as long as the mesh wasn't tight enough to deflect rain drops. I don't know how the mesh would affect accuracy by interfering with incoming water droplets.

Do you have any issues with bird perching and droppings in the rain bucket? I was going to look at making at making a spike surround similar to the Davis. I will be mounting the rain bucket in a place easy to access.

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #33 on: May 14, 2018, 04:45:07 PM »
Birds are the biggest problem, but I have moved the gauge away from my TV antennas which the birds sit on and do their dirty deeds. Tonight or tomorrow I am going to take the extending phone cord I have and move the thermometer down to the ground when I install another UHF antenna for HDTV stations to my north that are giving me issues. I've put off doing this for over a month... Last night I was picking up channels down in Charleston with two antennas, one on the ground, so that got me motivated. It's hot here, so the time is now or never before the real heat kicks in.

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #34 on: May 17, 2018, 08:50:06 AM »
I successfully extended the cable from the wind sensors a couple of days ago. Everything is working nicely, and I have my rain bucket about 3 ft off the ground now for much easier care. The transmitter is in reach now as well. One thing I will mention is that when you take out the batteries, you must go to the console and re-register the transmitter or you will have a blank screen. To to this, hold down set and use the bottom arrows to find "reregister transmitter" at the bottom. Use the up and down arrows to select "on" then press "history" on the right side of the console.

Many of the comments you see on amazon that are negative are because they are not registering their transmitters!

Offline Skywatch

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #35 on: May 17, 2018, 08:25:11 PM »
Awesome! I've had to do some calibration to get the accuracy in line with my Vantage Pro2+. This might sound crazy but my  temperature and humidity actually follows within 0.5 degree F of my Davis temperature and humidity station mounted next to it. Yes I did have to calibrate that.

When I get home I'll give you the calibration numbers I use. That's probably one of my favorite things about those FO stations is they give you control over calibration within the console.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2018, 08:26:53 PM by Skywatch »
I live in an apartment and for the moment am not a home weather watcher.

I am a storm chaser.

Offline Skywatch

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #36 on: May 17, 2018, 11:47:29 PM »
Calibration numbers.
Wind. 0.73
Temperature. -0.5
Humidity. 10
Air pressure. (Set to local air pressure)
Light. 0.80
UV. 0.65
I live in an apartment and for the moment am not a home weather watcher.

I am a storm chaser.

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #37 on: May 20, 2018, 09:24:57 AM »
Cabud,

If you want to extend the phone line, you can do so up to 25 ft. You must be sure the line is straight thru by looking at the end of the connector with the tab up. The colors should not change order, or cross over. Also you will need a coupler to join the two lines together. Ambient weather sells a kit, I bought my stuff at Home Depot.

I had to use some U bolts from my Oregon Scientific WMR100 to secure the thermometer and rain gauge to a different larger mast instead of what the station came with. I still use the station mast for my wind sensors with a hose clamp to secure it to a larger mast.

Moving the thermometer by extending the cable allows for the rain bucket to be where you want it near ground level.

Skywatch,

Thanks for the calibrations. I already calibrated mine, though not nearly as much as you had to.

Mine are Wind .24, Temp, -0.5, Humidity, 5, Air press. -00.03 Rain .24 - Light and UV none.
« Last Edit: May 20, 2018, 09:39:29 AM by DoctorKnow »

Offline cabud

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #38 on: May 21, 2018, 03:48:49 PM »
Thanks so much for the calibration and location info, I do plan to extend the cables for the rain bucket.

I am working with two issues, I have the unit sitting in a windowsill for testing while I plan my mounting hardware situation.

The transmitter lost connection to the console just sitting in the wiondowsill. That didn't make me feel comfortable, so I am giving it more time to prove itsef.

Also, after I loaded the software that came with the unit, my laptop went into a reboot loop, making it unusable. I have had other issues with Chinese software loading trojan viruses, I hope this is not another case of such!

I was too busy to address it, at the moment running Bit Defender live cd scan. Hope to get the laptop running again, then see what I can do about mounting the unit. Sorry it's taking me so long. I'm an annoyingly careful engineer type  :roll:
« Last Edit: May 21, 2018, 04:01:18 PM by cabud »

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #39 on: May 21, 2018, 05:23:56 PM »
The solar pod charges the batteries. If you don't put the pod in the sun, your batteries may drain down. Mine are still going strong since last July when I installed the unit.

I think the rain bucket only uses two wire phone line, while the anemometer uses 4 wire line.

Offline cabud

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #40 on: May 21, 2018, 05:38:35 PM »
I may need to get the solar pod into more direct sunlight, would probably help.

Well, it looks like my test weather laptop is toast. It was pretty old, an XP machine that I've upgraded afew times, was running Win7 Pro with SSD, but has unrecoverable error.

I'll have to get something else up and running for my weather project.... slight setback  :shock:


Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #41 on: May 21, 2018, 06:31:53 PM »
When the laptop comes on, get it into safe mode. Then do a restore to a previous time.

Offline cabud

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #42 on: May 21, 2018, 06:58:20 PM »
yah, been thru all that, and more. I'm an industrial IT engineer in my day job....this laptop has been with me for close to 20 years, it was a heavy duty HP mobile workstation grade laptop, retailed for over 3k back in the day  :-P

Something got ahold of it, wiped the restore points...I'm thinking viruses, too bad. But, the machine has seen better days. The case is cracked, probably some hardware issues going on as well. It's traveled with me all over the place for work.

I've told myself several times to let it go, this time for good. I made my living with it for ten years, then it was my secondary PC, used it for stuff like this weather station that I don't want on my main machine. I'll have to give this some thought, come up with a solution. The laptop is toast.

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #43 on: May 29, 2018, 10:26:01 AM »
I had a transmitter failure yesterday during heavy rain / tropical moisture from Alberto. The red light on the transmitter was steady on. I could not get any transmissions to the console, and lost an inch of rain. I believe the problem was the socket under the solar pod got water in it and shorted. Before I moved things I had tape on the connection for just that reason but forgot to put it back when I reinstalled things. First I brought the transmitter inside and cracked it open. I tried cleaning things up a bit but that didn't seem to do anything at first. I put the batteries back in and the light was still on. I brought the solar pod in and dried the socket out for the rain and plugged it back into the transmitter, put batteries in and left it for a while. Eventually after about 15 min, I came back and the light was not on and so I watched and the light flashed every 48 secs, again as per usual. I got lucky it wasn't ruined. A new transmitter is $40. I hope this doesn't happen again!

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #44 on: June 13, 2018, 02:56:47 PM »
Did you install the station yet? My UV index has gone out. It's stuck on 0... I took apart the solar pod, and a spider had been living in there. That may have fried the component ? Not sure what else to think. Everything else still works well.

Offline cabud

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #45 on: June 14, 2018, 03:02:26 PM »
Hi....no ...sorry, i haven't gotten it mounted yet.....TBH, I was fairly dismayed at the build quality, once I had it in hand. I shouldn't have been surprised, but it took the wind out of my sails.

I've also been rather tied up this summer, but I will eventually get around to it...just debating whether to munt this cheap station and fiddle with it, or get a good one that I can set up and forget for a while....

We have pretty heavy winter weather, wondering if it's worth mounting this station. Still might be worth it for the learning experience.

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #46 on: June 18, 2018, 02:31:09 PM »
You won't find another station right now with the features of this one and the flexibility of mounting the sensors at different heights. I did not use the pole that came with it, as I found it was too flimsy. My UV sensor is working again. I think it was just "wet".

I do recommend taping up the rain gauge plug under the pod to keep water from bouncing up in there... and shorting things out. I have had the station 11 months now, and it has done well. The thermometer is extremely accurate once you shield it from the direct sun.

Offline cabud

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Re: Solar radiation sensor, why and what
« Reply #47 on: June 29, 2018, 10:35:29 AM »
Ok, sounds good, I do plan to use this unit.

Sorry I'm so slow in reply, my back went out and I had to deal with severe sciatic nerve

Going to MRI today. I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty slow to get this mounted, but super appreciate your interest and keeping in touch. Thanks man

 

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