Topic: 7.1 osprey humidity sensor malfunctioning

[Vossejongk]

This is the 2nd time the humidity sensor has failed in a little more then 2 years (shows 99% nearly all the time). The first time I got a complete new outdoor unit, and the reseller told me I could throw away the broken one. I kept it for spare parts  but alas, same sensor quits on me.

Is it possible to just replace the humidity sensor? And if yes which part would I need? I can't find it on the froggit replacement parts section..

Thanks

[Gyvate]

In the outdoor humidity sensor of the WH65 7-in-1 sensor array (Y-shape, I-shape), the single sensors cannot be exchanged separately. At least this is not a preset repair approach. If you happen to have (or to get) another defective WH65 where the humidity sensor still works, and have the proper soldering and electronic engineering skills, you could probably replace it.

As a regular option your only solution is to get a new array - at FRoggit this would be the "Ersatz Ausseneinheit WH4000SE (868MHZ)" around 90 EUR. The I-shaped version gives better protection against bird seating and snow building up on it in winter. The inner life is the same.

Given the 90 EUR price, and provided you are willing to pay this,  I would suggest to buy the at expondo.de the SBS-WS-600 for 99 EUR.
Amazon.de has a similar price. The Froggit price for this combination is 130 EUR.


Depending on your country of residence in Europe, expondo may have a country site - it would be worth to check their price and shipping costs and compare. But the German site ships inside the EU.
Not sure how it is outside Germany, but for the Steinberg Systems weather stations they give a 3-year warranty !!! - astonishing and unique in Europe for weather stations - and if you buy the same with Amazon, they will give max. 2 years. Just a suggestion. 

https://www.expondo.de/steinberg-systems-wifi-wetterstation-aussensensor-innensensor-10030583
You will get not only a new osprey array, but also a WH2650 WiFi (displayless) console, the most powerful Fine Offset clone console available these days (like a GW1000).

Have you tried a factory reset of your station (the array) ? Maybe the humidity reading comes back ...

[bthoven]

Ecowitt gw1000 (or a newer model) and wh25 (external temp/humidity) are the solution.

[Gyvate]

Ecowitt gw1000 (or a newer model) and wh25 (external temp/humidity) are the solution.

WH25 is an old name of the 1st generation of the outdoor Temp/Hum sensor - the new generation and name is WH32. 
See our matrix: https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=40730.0
The GW1000 and the WH2650 are technically identical - where the WH2650 is more flexible regarding the inside T&H&P sensor placement (but maybe doesn't look so nice)
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=40970.0


So the suggestion is a GW1000 (WH2650) and a WH32. The WH32 is not easy to get alone (Froggit) - you'd need to order in from Ecowitt in China. (12 EUR). It would overwrite the still working temperature values (in a GW1000/WH2650/HP2551), but not at the console of the WH65, which we don't know what it is (maybe a  WH3000SE, WH4000SE, ...?? - the original poster (OPer) wasn't clear here) and whether he wants to keep it or not.
So, depending on what the OPer wants, to get the SBS-WS-600 (=Froggit HP1000SE Pro at a 30 EUR cheaper price and longer warranty) might be the best solution for him.
Otherwise, a GW1000 plus a Wh32 from Ecowitt (50 USD, 46 EUR) from Ecowitt in China, is the cheapest version - but also the most time consuming.

My suggestion is imo the financially least expensive and at the same time most rewarding solution (apart from the tinkering approach)
if the goal is to optimize and not to maximize the saving.

[Vossejongk]

Thanks for the quick reply both. So it seems just replacing the H sensor isn't an option, pity, was hoping it was plug and play and the thing only costed a few bucks .  I like the fact that with the single unit it has the solar panel and I don't have to worry about its power reserve for a very long time, that was the difference which made me decide to buy it Vs separate sensors for everything. So while the gw1000 is an attractive alternate I'll stick with the single unit. If anyone has a wh65 laying around o could buy for a fair price or trade with my old wh65 old say so .

@gyv quite frankly I'm not sure what the official model is I got. It's sold here by reseller Hesdo as an Alecto ws5500. The model resembles the Y shaped 7 in 1 sensor unit I saw on the pictures, it came together with its indoor station (the multicoloured led one)

[Gyvate]

It's then probably a WH3000SE in Froggit terms - or a WH2910 in Ecowitt terms.
In my suggestion you would get your sensor osprey array exchanged, could read everything as you did before - and have in addition the possibility to add more, different sensors which the WH2910/WH3000SE doesn't support through the WH2650 console.
So, a single unit (sensors) and a GW1000/WH2650 (console) do not exclude each other 

[Gyvate]

If anyone has a wh65 laying around o could buy for a fair price or trade with my old wh65 old say so .

1. where do you live ?
2. what do you consider a fair price ? (plus shipping)
3. I have a brand new spare WH65 which I can sell - if interested, PM me (= send me a personal message in the forum software).

[Jai Soone]

If by 7.1 osprey outdoor sensor array, you mean the tri-wing array, Ambient Weather sells various component parts for repairing this array. Possibly you could get your local supplier to do the same. Ambient Weather sells the WS-2902-THERMOHYGRO-ASSEMBLY Replacement Thermo-Hygrometer Assembly, WS-1900, WS-2000, WS-2902, WS-2902A currently for $27.98 US, whereas it sells the WS-2902-ARRAY Replacement Sensor Array, WS-1900, WS-2000, WS-2902 and WS-2902A Wireless Weather Station for $109.99 currently.

[Vossejongk]

I'm not that tech savvy with soldering :p @gyv you have a pm

[Vossejongk]

So I got a brand new unit from Gyvate, installed it and worked fine. Today a severe thunderstorm passed and this is the result, same malfunction. I'm sure the station didn't got hit by lightning, no strikes occured nearby. Seriously starting to question the quality of these sensors.. anyone can recommend a similar weather station that actually works for longer then a year? [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[Rover1822]

It is interesting that your dewpoint also went strange. Did you happen to note the humidity values?

What did you do with your old sensor array?, is there a chance that it is still active? (pulling the batteries is not enough)

Barring that , it is highly coincidental that 2 arrays would exhibit the same issue. The common part is the console itself as that did not change, correct? Although I have never seen a console do something like that.

Have you updated the firmware on the console (I'm not sure how that model takes updates)?

[Vossejongk]

Dew point is based on humidity 😅. I also still have the old console but you're not going to convince me that the base station decided to switch source at the exact moment this cell passed 😅 Also the other values (temp/wind ect) are fine.
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
This is the 3rd time in 2 years the humidity sensor crapped out on me, this time it lasted less than 2 months :/ every time it was replaced with a complete brand new outdoor unit...

[Rover1822]

Yeah, I was looking your wind values too, but you say those are real, OK, cool. Weird it happened with the humidity at the same time as the wind.

Don't discount errors with the console, have you updated the firmware? Again I'm not familiar with that console. I'm also a programmer, and looking at the graphs, I can see that as a potential software issue, maybe with some sort of error correction, meaning that maybe a differential in readings was received that went beyond the bounds of the software expectation and it just started uploading some default value.  I'm just guessing here. If you had a SDR , you could see the actual transmissions from the sensor array (before it gets interpreted by the console, but I'm guessing you don't (as most people don't).

This is a peculiar situation.

We have seen a lot of things in here, and have seen interference from other arrays, I know might be implausible in this instance, but having 2 arrays show the same issue is also highly unusual.

I would as previously suggested, pick up a GW1000 of the same frequency. You can run it along with your console and see if it exhibits the same issue (also fairly cheap and just useful) . Have the GW1000 upload to Ecowitt.net. This is probably the cheapest option to perform a test.

[Vossejongk]

Yep all up to date. We had the gust front of a thunderstorm pass at that moment, the weather was indeed crazy outside. Also my unit is on the roof of my apartment at about 20 metres high on a pole another 3m high, easily the highest point in the wide area.

[Rover1822]

I modified my previous post while you were responding , sorry

[Gyvate]

Sorry to hear that a brand new WH65 shows such behaviour ... 

what is interesting for me is that the drop coincided with an extremely high gust peak. 139 km/h (measured by a WH65, meaning, it might have easily been 160+ km/h, as the WH65 is usually under reading wind speed) is also for a sensor array device kind of a stress situation I'd say. It's possible that, as this storm was accompanied by rain - so I read your post - some 100% humidity (=water) might have touched some of the ICs and might have caused this drop.
questions:
a) is it now continuing on this dropped level, proportionally ?
b) (a rather invasive option) is it possible to take the array in, remove batteries, put it in a dark room until the LED stops blinking (might take 2+ days) ?
Then put it on a heater or blow with a hair dryer into the radiation shield for 15-30 minutes - even open the radiation screen for the procedure.
And then put it back. As said before, in this extreme situation water might have entered the enclosure.
So maybe just a hard-reset is needed (that's why the LED has to go off and the super-capacitor fully unloaded).
It might go back to normal.

As for the array itself - I have mine (an I-shaped WH65, but technically the same as a Y-shaped like yours) for 2 1/2 years now - with gust highs of 106 km/h and rain exposure of 102 mm/h, -10°C in winter and +42°C in summer (temperatures inside the radiation shield, actual device temperature might have been higher), and it's just working normally without any "misbehaviour".
And I agree with Rover1822, that the probability two times failing the same sensor out of 7 sensors in two different devices - for the same reason - it very improbable (or there would be many more such observations if it were a systematic hardware failure).

Let's see. Maybe the drying and hard ("cold") reset of the array will bring it back to normal.

[Gyvate]

On second thought, did you ever verify that your console is working properly ?
We keep on looking all the time at the sensors only, but they may be working properly ... 

The fact that it started properly again with the new array does not necessarily mean that the console worked properly before, as it had to acquire a new sensor ID etc.
It may just have fallen back into "bad habbits" after some time.
A GW1000 (30 EUR from Ecowitt but 4-6 weeks to wait or as DP1500 from Froggit for 50 EUR in 2-3 days) would not only give an answer to whether console works properly but would open the whole world of extra sensors for you.

Another option, if really the array turned out to be faulty [exactly speaking the outdoor T/H sensors of the array], you could of course get yourself an extra WH32 outdoor temp/hum sensor - it would overwrite the WH65/WS69 T/H array in the console (or precisely speaking the console would take the WH32 sensor readings over all other outdoor T/H sensors). Much cheaper than a new array. 13 USD/10 EUR including shipping from Ecowitt.
Advantage: you can place it separate from the array and get better i.e. more realistic temp/hum readings - an array is always a compromise between wind, rain and temperature as ideally all three have different best locations.

If you don't want to get you a GW1000,  I could send you a "spare" GW1000/WH2650 for test purposes on a shipping refund basis (7 EUR shipping to NL), but the costs of sending to and fro are already the price of a brand new WH32 from Ecowitt and 1/2 a new GW1000 from Ecowitt. Send me a PM if interested.

[Rover1822]

As I discussed earlier, spend the few bucks on a GW1000, and rule out the console. Just like your console the GW1000 reads the sensors directly. It does not read your other console, it reads the sensors. This is for a test situation, however, the GW1000 does perform very well as the sole console, of course no screen, but it will upload to any site you want. But because the sensors just transmits (like in a broadcast fashion)  there is no limitation on the number of compatible consoles you can use to read the sensor data. I have had earlier versions of the sensor array , 1st gen stuff , maybe 8 years or older, which were problematic, and the humidity sensor was one of the issues.

With the current product line, like yours, I have not seen an issue. Doesn't mean it's not possible for you to have 2 arrays that exhibit the exact same issue, but let's start to rule out the console. We start looking at single points of failure , and then apply basic troubleshooting , something like Occam's Razor.

[WA4OPQ]

As mentioned before, Ambient sells replacement modules, the thermometer/hygrometer array is US$27
Ambient has now announced that they ship worldwide. You may consider calling them and confirm the shipping costs.

https://ambientweather.com/amws2902thermohyfroassembly.html

[Gyvate]

As mentioned before, Ambient sells replacement modules, the thermometer/hygrometer array is US$27
Ambient has now announced that they ship worldwide. You may consider calling them and confirm the shipping costs.

https://ambientweather.com/amws2902thermohyfroassembly.html

That's in general a good hint - but I doubt Ambient sell spare parts for 868 MHz devices. 
The OPer lives in Europe and uses 868 MHz hardware.
Unless that spare part is frequency independent and only the WH65/WS69 array transmits for all the sensors with one separate module.
Apart from the fact that's marked "out of stock".

It might however be an option to contact Lucy @Ecowitt and ask if and for what price they could send that spare part.
I've dropped a note to her as this may be an interesting question in general for our European (or, if frequency independent, to our world-wide) users.

[WA4OPQ]

Only the central portion of the tri-wing device is frequency dependent, as it contains the transmitter.
When I replaced my rain gauge assembly it came with the thermometer/hygrometer installed, an added bonus. I can assure you it is frequency independent.
But being out of stock makes it a moot point. I was hoping someone would contact them them to see if shipping parts to Europe is viable.

[Gyvate]

Received the Ecowitt reply:
They sell - on request - a Temperature/Humidity and rain gauge sensor replacement kit (with instructions, see attachment) for the WH65/WS69 for 15 USD including shipping.

[WA4OPQ]

This is good news.
I wanted to build up a small stock of replacement parts, their price is almost half of Ambient's.

[Vossejongk]

Sorry to hear that a brand new WH65 shows such behaviour ... 

what is interesting for me is that the drop coincided with an extremely high gust peak. 139 km/h (measured by a WH65, meaning, it might have easily been 160+ km/h, as the WH65 is usually under reading wind speed) is also for a sensor array device kind of a stress situation I'd say. It's possible that, as this storm was accompanied by rain - so I read your post - some 100% humidity (=water) might have touched some of the ICs and might have caused this drop.
questions:
a) is it now continuing on this dropped level, proportionally ?
b) (a rather invasive option) is it possible to take the array in, remove batteries, put it in a dark room until the LED stops blinking (might take 2+ days) ?
Then put it on a heater or blow with a hair dryer into the radiation shield for 15-30 minutes - even open the radiation screen for the procedure.
And then put it back. As said before, in this extreme situation water might have entered the enclosure.
So maybe just a hard-reset is needed (that's why the LED has to go off and the super-capacitor fully unloaded).
It might go back to normal.

As for the array itself - I have mine (an I-shaped WH65, but technically the same as a Y-shaped like yours) for 2 1/2 years now - with gust highs of 106 km/h and rain exposure of 102 mm/h, -10°C in winter and +42°C in summer (temperatures inside the radiation shield, actual device temperature might have been higher), and it's just working normally without any "misbehaviour".
And I agree with Rover1822, that the probability two times failing the same sensor out of 7 sensors in two different devices - for the same reason - it very improbable (or there would be many more such observations if it were a systematic hardware failure).

Let's see. Maybe the drying and hard ("cold") reset of the array will bring it back to normal.

Sorry for late reply

My array is on the apartment rooftop at 23 metres high, with no obstructions at all from the the whole north through west to South wind directions so any wind from that angle doesn't slow down. The roof edge also had to be reinforced because of this wind .

https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/IZUTPHEN29
  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ] .

I will pull down and try your suggestion. If that fails then I'll see if I can order the replacement part from ecowitt. Thanks for all the help.

Ps this is the 3rd unit that has failed the humidity sensor maybe I should add an extra shield to protect it from the high wind/rain combo..

[bthoven]

Great! Do you know they ship internationally?

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