Topic: Alternative power for ISS???

[SLOweather]

Well, after all that I have not had time to reconnect the power supply wiring yet. But, for quickness I have simply put in a new battery and replaced the Super cap.

Silly question time. Did you put the supercap in correctly? They are polarized, and not reversible.

[dalecoy]

So, my question is this, is there a 'usual suspect(component)' that fails in such a way to draw so much current that the battery only last 3 weeks?

SIM in test mode (DIP Switch 4).
SuperCap bad (or installed backwards or ....)
Battery low voltage when installed (or wrong kind of battery).
Bad "charging circuitry" in the SIM (i.e., failed diode, etc.)

[duke666]

Firstly, thanks for your comments.

Ok, I have not replied before as I wanted to be sure/check my answers before posting and I have now got the ISS down, so....

SIM in test mode (DIP Switch 4).

Off, in fact I have never changed any of the DIP switches from factory

SuperCap bad (or installed backwards or ....)

New SuperCap installed and correctly.

Battery low voltage when installed (or wrong kind of battery).

Battery obviously discharged now but is a 'branded' battery with date code of 2022. The spare one I had purchased at the same time tests good.

Bad "charging circuitry" in the SIM (i.e., failed diode, etc.)

This may be the answer. At the top of the ISS board above the power jack/solar connection there is a diode. It appears to be open circuit.

Any thoughts?

[DaleReid]

Duke666,

For those of us with a similar concern, any chance to swap out the diode yet?  Success?  Same?  Just curious, Dale

[DaleReid]

My older Vantage Pro has a solar panel and battery at the ISS.

I poked around with the cover off, and while some of the manuals show a socket near the battery and a notation that external power plug can be inserted for external power, mine doesn't seem to have a factory wired plug.

If I want to go to the trouble of providing external power other than solar panels and climbing up the tower to swap out the batteries frequently, has anyone done a little surgery and applied a jack or such to be able to supply power externally?  I'm up for trying it unless someone has had an unexpected tragedy attempting this, and also would be enthused to hear someone has already done this successfully.

[duke666]

For those of us with a similar concern, any chance to swap out the diode yet?  Success?  Same?  Just curious, Dale

No, not yet, but I shall. I was hoping somebody would post and say they had already done this. All I plan on doing is soldering a diode across the existing one rather than disturb the PCB. All I have in stock is an 'IN4008', a bit big but will definitely do the job. I shall do this the weekend and put in a new battery but, it will be some weeks before I know if successful or not. Even with the fault as posted above it was taking three weeks to drain the battery.