Weather Station Hardware > Rainwise Weather Stations

New Rainwise MK-III and 3000 interface

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AA4HA:
Hi,
I just bit the bullet and purchased a Rain Wise MK-III with the CC-3000 interface. I did not need the long range unit as my weather station mounting point is a 20' fiberglass mast in the middle of the yard, about 150' from the house. I am replacing my long ailing Davis Vantage Pro III that I had in-place for about ten years.

The Davis was disappointing to me in that the tiny solar panel was just not enough to keep the unit operational all night long. I had already been through a battery and a remote motherboard replacement with Davis and did not want to upgrade my console software to continue using the computer interface. The little white plastic cover has fallen off several times and let the weather into the unit and looking at the Rain-Wise it appears to be a more robust unit.

Once I get back on the air with Weather Display I can again be putting info up on the CWOP and APRS networks (amateur radio operator) and install an APRS digipeater IGate. My area is a bit underserved on the APRS network. I also contribute as a weather observer for one of the local ABC affiliates.

Wish me luck, I am certain to have some questions over the next week or two over the MK-III

Weather Display:
sounds like a "super cap issue" with the VP ISS?

DanS:
Good luck with your new station and welcome to the forum! There are several members on here that use that station also and may be able to help out if needed. :-)

ed2kayak:
Good luck. report back.

AA4HA:

--- Quote from: Weather Display on April 15, 2012, 06:22:15 PM ---sounds like a "super cap issue" with the VP ISS?

--- End quote ---

I did find a good home for the VP to a gentleman a few miles north of me. It just happens that we both report through muc.appriss.com (local ABC affiliate). He is "old school" and still gets out there with his rain gauge and thermometer to do his reports. Once I get the MK-III up and running I will take the VP-III down and make a gift of it to him (it really needs tender loving care).

When Davis replaced the motherboard the supercap was replaced as well. The triple AA battery (like a cordless phone battery) was also replaced. I think the problem has to be with where the station was mounted. At the most it would get sunlight from 9 am until about 2 pm (during the summertime) due to the way the trees and terrain are in this area. Trying to squeeze a full charge with at the most, 5 hours of sunlight a day was just not cutting it.

Learning a lesson I am relocating the MK-III to what I call "my helicopter landing field" (that actually is big enough to land a Huey in, my former spouse was a Vietnam 1/9th aviator and said he could easily put a bird in that spot, using the main blades to do a little bit of weed whacking). From that spot I will get more consistent temperature, wind speed and direction readings . Where I am located at before I think my precipitation was under-reporting (rain bucket on the side of a power pole) and wind was obstructed by other issues. I have been half-tempted to put an orange wind sock up out there and a white tire to mark a landing field.

One of the things I noticed about the plastic rain buckets and this has applied to every one I ever had, going back to one of the transparent plastic gauges is that for trace precipitation I really need to keep that plastic clean. On the Davis what I resorted to was a buffing wheel with a high quality carnuba automotive wax to polish up the funnel. Water, instead of wetting the funnel would drop straight down into the little tipping buckets that rocked back and forth. Periodically I had to open up the davis to gently clean and polish those plastic-chromed buckets as sediment would build up in them. Surprise-surprise when one time the rain gauge stopped working and I pulled the gauge top off to find a wasps nest in the bucket (they made their way in along where the cable entered the Vantage Pro's bucket.

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