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Forum Index : Electronics : davis weather station repair barometer
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yahoo2 Guru  Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
I have to put this in the category of MASSIVE FLUKE. The barometric pressure sensor on my davis vantage pro2 has been playing up for years. it was always slow to come up to the correct reading after it had been powered down (like an hour) and then couple of years ago it stopped working when the indoor temperature rose above a certain point, then this year it stopped altogether. I was looking at the graphs from last year thinking about it this morning and realised that when the temperature fell the sensor jumped straight back to the correct pressure. My reasoning from that was it was not loosing power so it must be the data line that was dry jointed. I pulled it apart and found the chip traced the circuit and looked at all the solder joints on the data lines, searched for a datasheet (MS5534-CM) read 21 pages of stuff and decided it was safe to remelt TX pin3 and RX pin 4 with my dinky-ist soldering iron. It also has test point pads on the board for TX,RX and power but I have no scope The sensor can be mounted facing up or down, this one has a hole in the wireless receiver board and it faces down, it has solder pads on both sides. Apparently facing it down gives it a very low profile for fitting into scuba divers watches. 0.8mm is not the smallest pads on the board but I still couldn't see the solder on the pads without a camera on macro. Anyway, I give them a jab with a clean tip (no solder or flux) and whadda ya know! it works! instant pressure readout on the display. 
I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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fillm Guru Joined: 10/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 730 |
Yahoo, Lucky ...Nice an easy, Surprising Davis is good stuff and reliable and accurate. I have the Vantage Vue and since having it most of the extended family ave now got them.What you can do with them with expansion in neat. I have one customer who has the anemometer relay control that triggers a relay and that controls the tail furling on the new 2kW OZ Turbine. Best place to buy is from Scientific Sales Scientific Sales US , just make sure if you purchase from them it a Metric Version . PhillM ...Oz Wind Engineering..Wind Turbine Kits 500W - 5000W ~ F&P Dual Kits ~ GOE222Blades- Voltage Control Parts ------- Tower kits |
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| Phil23 Guru Joined: 27/03/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1664 |
I often consider replacing my Fine Offset with a Davis, but not sure exactly what I need to buy. Looked at the Vantage Vue & Pro2. As things stand, I never look at the console. It's permanently plugged into an old laptop running Cumulus & uploads to Weather Underground. That's the sort of functionality I'd want from the Davis. The USB com's option is not what I'm sure about. Also see mentions of TCP/IP Cheers |
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| yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
Mine is an old Pro2 that is using a datalogger and USB cable. However there is a quirk, it is still running as a serial connection, not USB protocols as I understand it. so for example when I removed the power to repair it, it had a full data card and was overwriting the oldest data. When I plugged it back in and fired it up, the console clock was out by a few hours, I re-synced the time with the computer but it stopped writing data to (or reading from)the memory chip and gives a "no data to download" box on the computer. I think I need to cycle the power to the console a second time to get the datalogger to restart after I have reset the clock. I wish I could remember the exact sequence, I know it can be done without wiping the memory card and the high and low and rainfall records on the console, anyway I fiddled with it and it restarted. I am pretty sure the problem is started by the first data point written after booting up the console having an old timestamp that already exists, what happens after that I dont know. the LIVE data still streams fine, I have never had a problem with that. My problem is the office is on the mains electricity and I can lose power for up to 4 days, that means no data. you have to buy the weatherlink package/cable dongle thing that plugs into the pro2 console to make anything work and that is not cheap ($200 ?), the weatherlink software is poor and old and I think the IP version links to a davis website first and only 15 minute updates. alternatives DIY http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=18110.0 http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=13574.0 I know ocean controls do several versions of a modbus box for hooking up a logic controller. i haven't thought of a practical use for one yet. any chance of seeing your station online? I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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| yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
isn't it always the way. As soon as you do something, you find somebody else has done it better, cheaper and much more professionally. Barometer sensor replacment I got this-No pressure  I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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| Phil23 Guru Joined: 27/03/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1664 |
Hi, Long time no read. The Fine Offset is gone & a VP2+ in it's place. You can see it here. Love the Steel Series Gauges & finding MX great, just not that up to speed on html etc. Cheers Phil. |
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