Author Topic: La Crosse WS-2310 Console to Hygro Cable - RJ11 connector orientation (WS-23xx?)  (Read 2519 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline WS2310_bp

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 4
I need cable wiring information for RJ11 cable connecting the WS-2310-11S Console to the WS-2310-25S Hygro unit.  La Crosse Support is of no help for this long out of production unit.  Replacement cables are not available in the marketplace.  Manufacturing a new cable is inexpensive and easy to do.  Maybe a WS-2310 user, or possibly WS-23xx user with the same cable, can look at his/her RJ11 cable and answer my question.  I really need to know the correct RJ11 connector orientation for the flat 4 wire cable that connects the WS-2310-11S console to the WS-2310-25S Hygro unit so I can manufacture a replacement. Voltage measurements on the pins indicate the cable is indeed polarized and a reversed connector could possibly cause damage.  The cable may have a raised rib on one side making it easy to identify connector orientation without having to trace the length of the cable nor trying to see the color of the wires in the connector. The attached image should make it clear as to connector orientation.  I have been running wireless for the last year and want to revert to a wired configuration but have misplaced the last used cable.  I found one older cable and it was wired "straight through" as shown in the attached image but I need to be sure.  I believe the "straight through" cable I show in the image is the one most commonly used as a standard telephone extension cable.  It might make sense that LaCrosse would use the most common cable configuration in use elsewhere.

Here is a little more background on the RJ11 cables used by the WS-2310 for connection between the WS-2310-25 Hygro unit and the rain gauge, wind gauge, and console.  These cables do not last long in the sun and weather.  I have had to replace cables every 5 or 6 years and I have had to replace connectors more often than that when they become corroded.  Any fracture in the cable insulation leads to water migrating down the cable interior and if water reaches the RJ11 connector then the entire system fails.  To safeguard against undetected insulation failure in the cable, I learned to put a service loop of cable below the Hygro unit and put a small hole in the cable at the low point to allow water to drain from the cable before reaching the connector at the Hygro unit, or worse yet, water migrating into the interior if the Hygro unit itself.

I am a new member of this group today.  I operate a La Crosse WS-2310 weather station since 2005.  I use open source Open2300 command line software on Windows 2000 to acquire the raw weather data via my own custom Perl program.  Date is processed and graphed in Perl updating a static web page.  Weather data is also uploaded to CWOP via Open2300.  CWOP data is propagated in the cloud to numerous other weather outlets on the Internet.

Offline azkiwi

  • Senior Contributor
  • ****
  • Posts: 160
    • Maricopa, Sonoran Desert, Arizona
What you're looking at and doing is correct.  The only wires that matter are the 2 outer ones.  They connect to s psuedo board in the rain gauge on one side and on the other side is a simple reed switch.  As the tipper flips back and forth the magnet on it passes over the reed for a momentry close - this is the signal!  It really doesn't matter which way you solder the cable on, it's only a quick connect be the reed and it doesn't matter which way they're wired.
When i did mine, I just soldered the other wires on, and that was that.  No polarity involved.  HTH

Ken

Offline WS2310_bp

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 4
The cable in question is not the one from Hygro unit to rain gauge.  The cable in question is the one from the console to the Hygro unit.  It has RJ11 connectors on both ends.

Offline JRC

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 6
I just checked the cable that came with the La Crosse WS23xx that I maintain and the connections are as per your alternative.

Pin1 to pin4
Pin2 to pin3
Pin3 to pin 2
Pin4 to pin 1

John

Offline WS2310_bp

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 4
John,
I can't thank you enough!  [tup]  This posting and your reply should serve as the definitive answer to this important question for all other operators of the aging WS-2300 series where they no longer have a cable to copy.  I am considering replacing the flat cable with Cat 5 outdoor cable in order to not have to worry about the cable degrading in the weather.  I already did that with the extension cables I made to extend the distance from the Hygro unit from the Hygro unit to the rain and wind gauges.  I am going to put an oscilloscope on the 4 wires to watch the signals during data acquisition and try to figure out which wire is which.  DC voltage measurements were strangely ambiguous and did not add up measure between each pair combination.  Maybe I can configure the Cat 5 cable wiring for best noise immunity.

Had an answer to my cable question not come from this forum then I had already started a plan B.  I searched the CWOP database and made a database of operators using the WS-23xx series.  The obfuscated email addresses of almost all operators are available but I had to go to each site to grab the email address.  There were a total of 39 stations listed and only 3 did not list an operators email.  Of course by now many of those stations may have been replaced but the operators may have failed to update their station information in CWOP.  Not always is station information automatically sent to CWOP with the upload of data. When using third party software, like in my case, often only the software version may be uploaded.
Bill

Offline WS2310_bp

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 4
John,
One more question for further clarity if I may ask?  Is the raised rib on the flat cable on the RJ11 latch side of the cable both ends (ie not on the contacts side of the RJ11 connector)?  Rib on the RJ11 latch side of the cable is what I see on the rain gauge and wind gauge cables.  Thus it makes sense that rib on latch side is what La Crosse standardized for all their RJ11 cables.
Bill

Offline JRC

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 6
Bill, Yes the rib on the cable is on the latch side of the RJ plug.
The La Crosse weather station I maintain is at a local wildlife reserve. I run it wirelessly but fortunately the original cable is still there in it's original box. The station is old but still runs well apart from the odd spike in some of the readings which I believe is common on these stations.

John

 

anything