Author Topic: Weird station reporting drops  (Read 3172 times)

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Offline kbellis

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #25 on: December 28, 2018, 08:02:37 AM »
What is this "base station" you speak of? With the WS-2902A there are two parts, the outdoor sensor array and the display console.

My pedantic brother, were you once a land surveyor too?

Offline galfert

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #26 on: December 28, 2018, 08:58:53 AM »
I'm just genuinely looking for clarification. To me either part could be seen as a base station. They both transmit.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2018, 09:01:07 AM by galfert »
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Offline madkiwi

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #27 on: December 28, 2018, 11:55:19 AM »
The base station is the one that receives data then relays to the internet. Duh.

To just call it a display console really doesn't describe its full capabilities. If all it did was display, then you might have a point.
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Offline kbellis

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #28 on: December 28, 2018, 12:44:17 PM »
The base station is the one that receives data then relays to the internet. Duh.

To just call it a display console really doesn't describe its full capabilities. If all it did was display, then you might have a point.

Mark, I get George's point, the users manual (v1.5) refers mostly to the thing as a console, though under 10.3 (page 53), it is identified as a base station. In any event, maybe the new update (v4.0.7) will improve things and lessen the number of dropped station reports.


Offline galfert

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #29 on: December 28, 2018, 05:05:46 PM »
What may be obvious for you may not be obvious for others. I've seen other people call the outdoor sensor array a base station.

According to the parts website link one part is a console and the other is sensor array. So think we aught to call the parts what the manufacture wants us to call these things.
https://www.ambientweather.com/amwewsrepaan9.html

Interesting that on page 53 of the manual there is an instance where the console is called the base station (I never noticed it). That is definitely not consistent anywhere else on the manual nor their website.

Glad we sorted it out. I never intended to insult anyone. Lets move on.
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Offline WA4OPQ

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #30 on: January 05, 2019, 01:06:17 AM »
I have been observing dropouts and testing for a couple of months with a 2902 array and the ObserverIP.
In every case it has been related to range and distance between the outdoor array and the ObserverIP
When I have caught the dropout a power reset will not fix it, but if I raise the ObserverIp one foot, or move it horizontally one foot it will link up again.

Offline creeble

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #31 on: January 10, 2019, 06:01:50 PM »
I have been observing dropouts and testing for a couple of months with a 2902 array and the ObserverIP.
In every case it has been related to range and distance between the outdoor array and the ObserverIP
When I have caught the dropout a power reset will not fix it, but if I raise the ObserverIp one foot, or move it horizontally one foot it will link up again.

I too have been observing many dropouts since we installed the WS-2902A.  The distance from the sensor array to the console is about 120 feet, direct line-of-sight, with nothing but a window between them.  Still, it either seems very sensitive to position / orientation, or... something else is going on.

The weather station is at a typically-unoccupied location, so I set up a wifi / internet connection monitor (sending data every 10s to a site I run). It's clearly not the wifi or internet -- multiple dropouts during periods where my monitor is fine.  The dropouts can be as long as 2-1/2 hours.  New (lithium) batteries in sensor array.

I have a WS-1401-IP at home (two blocks away), and it is rock-solid, with the Observer IP about 50' from the sensor array, though through several walls.  The 2902A is reporting only to WU.

It's super frustrating -- we (local yacht club) got the 2902A because of the reliability of my 1400, but so far the results are terrible.

I'm not sure what to do but to keep experimenting with console positioning.  Does anyone know whether the orientation of the console relative to the sensor array makes any difference?  We have it more-or-less perpendicular (i.e., as you look at the console screen, you see the sensor array beyond it), as I would guess that would be best.

TYC: https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KCABELVE30
Mine: https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KCACALIF74

Offline galfert

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #32 on: January 10, 2019, 09:03:26 PM »
I have been observing dropouts and testing for a couple of months with a 2902 array and the ObserverIP.
In every case it has been related to range and distance between the outdoor array and the ObserverIP
When I have caught the dropout a power reset will not fix it, but if I raise the ObserverIp one foot, or move it horizontally one foot it will link up again.

I too have been observing many dropouts since we installed the WS-2902A.  The distance from the sensor array to the console is about 120 feet, direct line-of-sight, with nothing but a window between them.  Still, it either seems very sensitive to position / orientation, or... something else is going on.

The weather station is at a typically-unoccupied location, so I set up a wifi / internet connection monitor (sending data every 10s to a site I run). It's clearly not the wifi or internet -- multiple dropouts during periods where my monitor is fine.  The dropouts can be as long as 2-1/2 hours.  New (lithium) batteries in sensor array.

I have a WS-1401-IP at home (two blocks away), and it is rock-solid, with the Observer IP about 50' from the sensor array, though through several walls.  The 2902A is reporting only to WU.

It's super frustrating -- we (local yacht club) got the 2902A because of the reliability of my 1400, but so far the results are terrible.

I'm not sure what to do but to keep experimenting with console positioning.  Does anyone know whether the orientation of the console relative to the sensor array makes any difference?  We have it more-or-less perpendicular (i.e., as you look at the console screen, you see the sensor array beyond it), as I would guess that would be best.

TYC: https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KCABELVE30
Mine: https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KCACALIF74

As a test you could bring your ObserverIP and use it with the WS-2902A sensor array. Then you would know if the weak link is the WS-2902A display if the problem goes away. If the problem persists then I'd say the conclusion is that WS-2902A sensor array puts out a weaker signal.
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Offline creeble

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #33 on: January 10, 2019, 10:08:08 PM »
Whaaaaat? I can use my 1400’s ObserverIP on the 2902A? Amazing!

Does it just use the closest sensor array? There’s no mutual coding between the two?

Wow, I wonder if I can find another ObserverIP somewhere. It would be great if it worked - I have my ObserverIP set to a forwarding proxy so I can capture the data, it would be awesome to do it with the 2902A!

Offline galfert

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #34 on: January 10, 2019, 10:22:21 PM »
Whaaaaat? I can use my 1400’s ObserverIP on the 2902A? Amazing!

Does it just use the closest sensor array? There’s no mutual coding between the two?

Wow, I wonder if I can find another ObserverIP somewhere. It would be great if it worked - I have my ObserverIP set to a forwarding proxy so I can capture the data, it would be awesome to do it with the 2902A!

Yup you can. As you can see from my signature I'm using an ObserverIP with my WS-2902A. Ambient stations don't have any coding to pair with the sensor array. It will as you say pickup the nearest signal. Any device (display console or ObserverIP or SDR) can pick up the signal. What will mater though is that you are interpreting the signal correctly. You'll have to upgrade your ObserverIP firmware to enable it to properly see the WS-2902A sensor array. There is an option setting in the ObserverIP (with updated firmware) to set the station type as WS-1550-IP or WS-1600-IP so that it will probably work with the WS-2902A sensor array.

You can buy an ObserverIP directly from Ambient. You'll also need the indoor temperature humidity barometer WS-1000-BTH.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2019, 10:23:52 PM by galfert »
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Offline creeble

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #35 on: January 11, 2019, 06:57:26 PM »
Veddy interesting.

I'm on v3.0.8 on my ObserverIP because I want the version where I can telnet into it and set the host for WU updates.  This is how I run the forwarding proxy server so I can get my data.  I think versions after 3.0.8 turned this off.

And presumably 3.0.8 won't work with the 2902A...

Ah well.  I guess I could run WeeWX on a Pi on that net or something.  But I digress...

My WS-2902A console had huge dropouts over the last 24+ hours.  I updated the console firmware to 4.0.8 (or is it 4.0.3?) and fully rebooted, and now it's reporting again with no dropouts.  It takes about 5 days, and then dropouts start happening, eventually just completely dropping off the earth.

I'm hoping the new firmware is an improvement.  It clearly isn't my wifi (did a test there), and I don't think it's the positioning of the console any more, as a reboot brought it back to life with 100% reporting again.

My ObserverIP on 3.0.8 eventually gets slow at reporting, after maybe a month.  I reboot it and it's happy again.  Later firmware probably fixes it, but I can live with it since it's easy for me to fix (and I still get to to proxy between it and WU to collect my data).

I wish I had a development environment for the ObserverIP and could write my own firmware...

Offline creeble

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #36 on: January 11, 2019, 07:01:10 PM »
I should note that I've been watching the thread about using an SDR and a Raspi to decode the sensor array on a 2902.  Could go that direction.  I've never set up an SDR dongle on a Raspi, but it looks pretty well-documented.  I don't really care about WeeWx, I just want to post data to my own server like it does for WU; I store it there and can do my own queries / display.


Offline galfert

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Re: Weird station reporting drops
« Reply #37 on: January 11, 2019, 10:52:13 PM »
You can go up to version 4.2.1 on the ObserverIP to gain WS-2902A compatibility and still have Telnet capability. See my thread on ObserverIP firmware:

https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=34948.0
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anything