Topic: Shutting down Wireless Vantage Pro 2 for maintenance

[EW1628]

I've ordered a Daytime Fan-Aspirated Radiation Shield Kit for my Vantage Pro 2 and wanted to know how to properly shut down the station to do the installation. The instructions tell you to disconnect the Solar Panel wire on the SIM and then disconnect the anemometer cable from the
SIM. Will this prevent the ISS from recording anything during the installation of the kit? I'm primarily concerned about the rain gauge tipping as I remove the ISS from it's mounting pole. Should I also remove the battery from the SIM before taking down the ISS? Should I do anything with the console before taking down the ISS like putting it into setup mode?

Any advice is appreciated.

[Bushman]

Enter Setup Mode by pressing DONE and the - key at the same time. Prevents tips (or anything else) from being transmitted.

[SLOweather]

BZZZZT. The ISS will still register any spurious rain gauge tips and transmit them. Tips are not sent as a single event, but rather a number that increments every tip until it reaches a top value and rolls over to zero, I recall. That way, communication problems don't cause rainfall to be missed.

Unplug the rain gauge too.

Even without the solar panel and battery, the SIM will transmit until the supercap is discharged.

Enter Setup Mode by pressing DONE and the - key at the same time. Prevents tips (or anything else) from being transmitted.

[Bushman]

Well I dunno then... I was up on a snow covered metal roof in the Monashees a couple weeks back wrestling with the power on my handicapped ISS but before I did that I put the console in setup mode and NOTHING  registered on the console.  I think the manual even tells you to do it this way, BICBW.

[EW1628]

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll put the console into setup mode AND disconnect the rain gauge just to be safe.

[Bushman]

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll put the console into setup mode AND disconnect the rain gauge just to be safe.

Can't hurt I guess.

[C5250]

If you want to totally power down the ISS...

Remove the battery.
Unplug the solar panel connector.
Turn on position 4 of the dip switch.
Plug a spare VP(2) wall wart (NOT plugged into a wall outlet) into the connector on the SIM board above the battery compartment.

When the LED on the SIM board stops flashing, all power has been drained from the ISS.

[EW1628]

I finished upgrading my Vantage Pro 2 with the Daytime Fan-Aspirated Radiation Shield Kit, and everything went well. It's a good thing I unplugged the rain sensor, because the console didn't stay in setup mode the whole time. I put it setup mode before I started, but when I finished about an hour later, the console was already back into normal operating mode. It switched back to normal mode all on its own. If I hadn't unplugged the rain sensor, I would have registered a bunch of erroneous rain gauge tips.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

[SLOweather]

You're welcome!

[johnd]

I put it setup mode before I started, but when I finished about an hour later, the console was already back into normal operating mode. It switched back to normal mode all on its own.

Curious. I would have expected that behaviour with a Vue console (exiting set-up mode automatically after 10 mins) and also of course with an Envoy console (though that's not really comparable), but not with a standard VP2 console. Would be interested to know what firmware version the console is running - perhaps there's been an update in a recent version that's given the VP2 console the same characteristic as the Vue.

[Bushman]

Mine stayed off for close to 40 minutes last time - manually restarted.

[EW1628]

Curious. I would have expected that behaviour with a Vue console (exiting set-up mode automatically after 10 mins) and also of course with an Envoy console (though that's not really comparable), but not with a standard VP2 console. Would be interested to know what firmware version the console is running - perhaps there's been an update in a recent version that's given the VP2 console the same characteristic as the Vue.

I'm running firmware version 3.0.0