Topic: Does solar sensor need to be on primary station for WL to calculate ET and THSW?

[fkapp]

Hi,
Am looking at options to move my radiation shield to enable AC FARS.
Doing so will move it away from the ideal location for Solar and UV sensors.

So question is does solar sensor need to be on primary station for WL to calculate ET and THSW?

If no then makes it easier as dont need to extend sensor cables.
If yes, then have a conduit run and wire extension to do.
Not a lot of work, just want to not lose functioanlity

[johnd]

So question is does solar sensor need to be on primary station for WL to calculate ET and THSW?

The answer is likely to be yes, but you haven't defined your question in enough detail to be totally sure. What does WL mean here? Weatherlink for Windows; weatherlink.com; Weatherlink Live etc?

[fkapp]

Sorry WeatherLink live

Am wondering if I use this as iss Transmitter 3 for the uv and solar,  iss 1 for temp humidity and rain and 2 as anemometer station if avoids the cable extension and retains et and tshw

[mcrossley]

Answer is yes. The Solar has to be connected to the primary ISS for ET and THSW to be calculated. Mad, I think as one of the selling points of the WLL is support for multiple transmitters.

Like a few people I know of, I have moved my solar to the wind transmitter to get the sensor high up above shading.

I have raised this with Davis, but nothing has happened, perhaps you could try as well?

[fkapp]

Thanks for the confirmation.
I will raise with Davis as well.
Would hope as seems like app software development vs HW/ firmware changes they will implement.

Thing is probably will take a long time.

Do you have a console display as well?
Ask because with the solar moved to the wind transmitter does this require toggling screens on the console to see the solar or does it show along with the primary ISS sensor data on the console without toggling?

I am going to setup a PI Meteobridge later this year, maybe ET and THSW is something that may be made available in a future release of MB.   would be nice feature as the ecowitt etc stations could also benefit.
(just thinking outloud as believe these are just formulas but  above my ability to write code in a local DB etc)
 

 

[mcrossley]

What they need to do is have the option (like they do with the wind sensor) to configure which transmitter to use as the primary solar sensor. In theory you could 8 of them, just like you could have 8 wind sensors.

I think it would need a WLL firmware update as well as it is the VP2 console that does the calculation. They are trying to make WL.com just a data accumulator and not do the calculations - though there are some things it does such as AQI calculations.

I do have a console as well, it will only detect a solar sensor on the ISS. I use a "relay" to combine my wind and ISS data transmissions into a single ISS which it re-broadcasts for the console to receive. That way the console still shows my solar and calculates ET/THSW.

[fkapp]

Yikes. Thanks.

Looks like splicing wire extensions is route I need to go.

Too bad with the wl live potential.  Maybe someday

[johnd]

Another option, if budget would allow, is to leave the present configuration as is and to add a 6332 transmitter plus  6832 FARS shield and to receive this as a second T/H sensor at the WLL. Not cheap but it would get close to what you want, ie having a secondary T/H reading that was fan-assisted.

[fkapp]

Hi John,
Intersting but pricey.
Will a secondary t/h station report to decimals of degrees or whole degree?
I believe whole but want to confirm.

Thanks
Frank

[johnd]

If received by a WLL then temperatures will all be reported to tenths. (Temperature is always broadcast by the sensor transmitter in tenths, but the legacy VP2 console is only able to display/log in whole degrees F. WLL on the other hand is able to pass through the full transmitted temperature in tenths.)

[mcrossley]

I let Cumulus MX calculate the ET for my WLL. No THSW yet though.