Topic: My WS80 has frozen wind speed & direction

[broadstairs]

Last night around 4am my WS80 stopped sending any updates to wind and values seem frozen. All other variables are working and battery shows good. Is this a known issue?

Stuart

[giusCB]

Last night around 4am my WS80 stopped sending any updates to wind and values seem frozen. All other variables are working and battery shows good. Is this a known issue?

Stuart

have you update it ? https://osswww.ecowitt.net/uploads/20220517/WS80_V1.2.2_Upgrade.zip

[broadstairs]

No does this fix it?

Stuart

[giusCB]

try it... i think yes

[broadstairs]

As the weather here is foul at present I decided to leave a reset for now. I just noticed it started to transmit wind data on its own about 20 minutes ago! When the weather is a bit better I'll have it down and update it.

Stuart

[broadstairs]

I was checking my old emails to Ecowitt today and discovered I reported this back last February to them with a promise of an update from their engineering people but have not since had any reply. I have rattled their cage again this morning and hopefully will get a response. Weather still not good enough to take it down and reset or update. It froze again today around 0720 and has not yet recovered like it did yesterday.

Stuart

[broadstairs]

An update from Ecowitt this morning suggesting a water build up was to blame! I have told them this is a design issue as the WS80 should be more robust and at the very least a remote reset should be added to make life easier.

Stuart

[broadstairs]

Ecowitt's second reply was less than helpful saying that Davis and Tempest also have this issue and that I should look elsewhere for another device! I have replied again saying that was not helpful. I did suggest before a remote reset should be added and have done so again as I believe this is a very sensible addition to the WS80 and probably the WS90 to alleviate this wind lockup issue. So far this has been completely ignored.

Stuart

[Rover1822]

That is unusual for their support. And maybe, the firmware update will resolve the issue.

[giusCB]

Ecowitt's second reply was less than helpful saying that Davis and Tempest also have this issue and that I should look elsewhere for another device! I have replied again saying that was not helpful. I did suggest before a remote reset should be added and have done so again as I believe this is a very sensible addition to the WS80 and probably the WS90 to alleviate this wind lockup issue. So far this has been completely ignored.

Stuart

Is not possible a remote reset for the outdoor sensor. Upgrade the firmware and you'll resolve the problem.

[broadstairs]

Is not possible a remote reset for the outdoor sensor. Upgrade the firmware and you'll resolve the problem.

Well Ecowitt have not suggested that and they seem to imply that this issue will exist whatever firmware is installed. I am willing to try it but I don't think it will resolve the issue 100%. I've not found any documentation to support the idea this f/w update fixes this issue. After all is it is a combination of water build up and windy conditions then how will f/w resolve the water build up?

As for a remote reset why is it not possible. The current f/w allows loads of things to be written and I suspect it can be modified to allow a command reset to be added, after all the switch just shorts two wires which sends a signal somewhere. It is not as if the f/w does not allow writing I simply do not believe it is not possible, yes they may not want to do it but that's a different story.

Stuart

[BoDuke]

I could be wrong or even misunderstanding something here, but I don't believe a remote reset on any sensor array is possible without re-engineering the devices because they only act as transmitters.  They don't have any electronics to receive instructions.

If there's room inside the sensor array, an adventurous, capable person could add a remote receiver (sharing or with a separate power source) that either presses the reset button and/or interrupts power to the array.

[broadstairs]

I could be wrong or even misunderstanding something here, but I don't believe a remote reset on any sensor array is possible without re-engineering the devices because they only act as transmitters.  They don't have any electronics to receive instructions.

If there's room inside the sensor array, an adventurous, capable person could add a remote receiver (sharing or with a separate power source) that either presses the reset button and/or interrupts power to the array.

Yes you are of course correct, the API only works on the gateway - silly of me I was not thinking straight as I was annoyed by their initial response.

I do think they have missed a trick here needing to take these devices down to do a reset, easy enough to change the heater cable and plug to multi core and then a switch could be anywhere convenient! Mine is out of warranty now so I'm inclined to do a bit of engineering on it in the better weather and extend the reset switch and make it available inside my shed which the pole is mounted on, should be quite easy once I have access inside the WS80. I have my old one which did not work correctly and was replaced under warranty some time ago to play with initially.

Stuart

[Rover1822]

Your idea is similar to what you find on decent IP security cams, some have a pig tail that includes an inline reset button.

I don't expect to see anything like that anytime soon.

[broadstairs]

Your idea is similar to what you find on decent IP security cams, some have a pig tail that includes an inline reset button.

I don't expect to see anything like that anytime soon.

I agree they are unlikely to do this. I guess with the WS90 powered by the mains it could be done by turning it off and waiting for the capacitor to run down. No way with the WS80 though.

I will update the firmware anyway but don't believe it's going to fix it.

Stuart

[Rover1822]

I also think a reset should be a rare thing, I don't think you would be happy to reset with the frequency of your issues. Also, I am somewhat surprised the unit started working for a while then stopped again , all on its own as you described.

[broadstairs]

It has happened 3 times now once last February and twice this week on successive days when windy and raining. I've had worse weather since February and it did not happen until this week. Ecowitt responded to my email chasing up a response from my one in February with a comment  basically saying YYGT in other words "yes you get that" and that Davis and Tempest devices suffer from the same thing.

Stuart

[broadstairs]

Well this has happened again today with wind and direction freezing at around 1pm this afternoon. When this last happened I did install the latest f/w but it has obviously not solved the problem completely. The last wind gust recorded was 22mph and while it has rained on and off most of the day we had only had around 2mm by then. Lets hope the damn thing c;lears itself as it has previously. Everything else is reporting OK and the battery is showing 3.28V.

Stuart

[Transporterman]

You were luckier with the weather today than we were in Cornwall.  A peak gust of 62.9 mph and 15.8mm of rain. 

I'm not sure our level of weather stations are quite up to living permanently in the path of destruction.    I'll be interested to see how some of the current beta testers get on with the new 'robust' roof arrays.

[broadstairs]

Yes in weather terms. What gets my goat is that the new all signing all dancing technology fails when my traditional anemometer lasted 15 years before it finally failed, never once froze. I just don't think this stuff is really ready for the real world yet. If this is water ingress which causes it then it is bad design of the case,if it is water interfering with the sensors then again it is either sensor design failure or again case design failure. I am aware that seemingly all the ultrasonic anemometers from other manufacturers have similar issues which I think backs up my belief that this technology is nit yet reliable enough for general use.

Stuart

[broadstairs]

Around 0800 this morning my WS80 managed to start showing wind and direction again with no intervention from me. I believe this must happen when there is a build up of water in or around the transducers. I can't help noticing there are many ultrasonic anemometer designs which do not have the transducers mounted in a slot like this but open to the elements on stalks, I suspect this might be to eliminate this kind of issue. It is strange when this happens as I have had many days with more rain and stronger winds and no freeze. I'm wondering if this design from Ecowitt is prone to this issue with perhaps rain and one wind direction in particular which causes the water to interfere with detection?

Stuart

[Gyvate]

https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=45241.0 might be a solution for your issue

[broadstairs]

I did contact Ecowitt about this but they suggested 1.2.4 and said nothing about 1.2.5!!! Good job I've not done anything to update it yet!

Stuart

[GeeEmm]

Any update on this problem?

My WS80 wind data has flatlined over the last 36hrs or so, moderately windy, light rain then cold night, so there seems to be a pattern emerging.

I have other priorities over the next few days, so not sure when I can do the reset, and maybe it will rectify itself unaided, I can live in hope anyway.

I hope the engineers can find a solution, although this is a first for me (WS80 that is) after around 18 months operation, and comes after multiple failures of the WH40.  Not getting a good impression of Ecowitt quality. 

[Gyvate]

do you have the latest firmware implemented ? --> our MUST READ thread or earlier in this thread, it's 1.2.5

did you do a reset
warm/soft - just press the reset button > 5 seconds
or
hard/cold - remove batteries, either cover the solar panel tightly with black tape or put it in a dark room until the blue LED stops blinking (can take up to 72 hours), then re-insert the batteries

without having done this, no point jumping to conclusions