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Junction Box
Jun 10, 2011 - there have been two occasions when the
power plug has
slipped out of the jack, causing the display internal 9V
battery to be
run down. Some method of strain relief is needed to
keep this
from happening.
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Wind Speed and Direction
Note: This is the old one that's small.
This is a patented design where
there's only 4
wires for both wind sped and direction. The Heathkit
wind speed
and direction system uses a big cable of wires to handle
the same
function.
There are a couple of problem with it.
1) In order to get a wind direction reading there needs to
be enough
wind to turn the cups. If the cups are not turning
then there's
no direction indication. In the Heathkit system the
wind
direction is very sensitive to mild gusts and so even when
the cups are
not turning you can tell something is happening.
2) The cups do not turn until the wind is well above 5
MPH, so for most
of the time there's no wind information of any kind.
That's why the new version of the 2100 uses much a much
larger vane and
cups, plus maybe a different mechanical design.
The Heathkit units uses ball bearings.
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Outdoor Temperature Sensor
Not used, replaced by combined Temp-Humidity sensor.
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Outdoor combined Temp &
Humidity sensor
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Tipping Bucket Rain Gauge
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In order to get the tipping
bucket rain gauge to fit onto the mast bracket the four
mounting holes
in the TB rain gauge need to be drilled out to 3/16" so
they will fit
on the studs.
The two large holes in the bottom of the bracket are
directly below the
water outlets in the TB rain gauge.
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12 VDC @ 400 ma Wall wart
power
supply
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Mounting parts for the
Conroller
Wind speed cups and mast mount clamp
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Radio Shack TV mast
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Radio Shack TV Mast Tripod
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Installed in living room,
rather
than try an install on roof. This way all the quirks
can be
addressed and the system tested.
Confirmed that the wind speed and direction functions
work.
BIG MISTAKE
Did not confirm the tipping bucket worked!
Now that it's on the
roof I'm not recording any rain.
Shorting the rain connector in the junction box
causes the control to
display 0.01" increments for rain fall, so there's
a problem with the
tipping bucket.
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A
problem showed up when trying to set the leap year number
(0 default,
1, 2 or 3 options).
The battery icon is blinking. This happens when the
backup 9V
battery is missing or dead.
In my case the battery is fresh, which can be proved by
pulling the
power supply plug and seeing that the display stays on.
For some reason the keyboard/display unit does not see the
battery but
does use it's power. This seems to prevent entering
setting data.
- - - -
"Press "Clear" and "Alarm" button simultaneously to initate battery check
function. In a few seconds, the flashing battery symbol should go out"
The flashing battery symbol will also go out after the next midnight reset.
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30
Oct
2010 - Having called some
roofers to make a repair and seeing them on the steep
slope of my roof
it occurred to me that they were the ideal people it
install the
tripod. Much safer than me trying to climb up there.
See photo at top of page for the wind speed and direction
plus tipping
bucket rain gauge.
This is the old model (= good price on eBay) that has the
small wind
cups and small wind vane so it does not start till the
wind speed gets
to say 5 MPH. I can see tree branches moving in a
light wind
without an indication on the control.
The controls are not intuitive. That's to say you
need the owners
manual nearby to do anything.
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WSF-10049 RJ-12 to DB-9
Computer
Cable is required to connect to PC.
The cable is made up of two parts:
* DB-9f to RJ-12 adapter (154-0966F)
* 15' RJ-12 cable (6P6C)
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I tried both of these
programs
and neither one works very well.
Note: It later turned out that the problem may have
been because
I was using a USB-RS-232 converter. When I make a
direct RS-232
connection Virtual Weather Station works, and I lik it
enough to buy, so
have not gone back and tried the two programs that did not
work with
the converter.
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To go with the cable PC
software
is needed.
Weather-Display
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would not work
Weather View32 -
displays
unstable
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Virtual
Weather
Station - can operate with the Ultimeter 2100 in
either
loggingh mode or Complete Record Mode. Was having
what may be
communications problems while in Complete Record Mode so
have switched
to the much shorted data of the Logging Mode.
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7
Nov
2010 - the trial version of Weather-Display only partially
works.
No barometric pressure and the other readings look
bogus. Maybe
related to getting both the 2100 in the correct mode (Data
Logging,
Packet, Complete Record or Modem) as well as the settings
in the setup
panel of W-D.
Using Hyperterminal (2400-8-N-1) you can see the 40
character total
Data Logging mode data or the 452 Character total Complete
Record Mode
data.
The problem was the Serial-USB converter. Connecting
the weather
station directly to the computer COM 2 port solved the
problem
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VWS weg pages:
wx.htm
this
looks
like
the
screen I see on the computer
Daily.htm
statistics
usa.htm
U.S.A.
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7 Nov 2010 - The rain gauge
may
or may not be working. It's raining, but the 2100
display shows
0.00in. Have a jar outside to see if there's more
than 0.01" of
rain.
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19 Nov
2010
Non Working
Ultimeter Tipping
Bucket Rain Gauge
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The problem is at the left
of
the red socket. The idea was to just plug in the
wire leads from
the reed switch and 100 Ohm resistor to make an electrical
connection. BUT, the clear potting wicked into the
socket and
insulated the two wires making the rain gauge non
fuctional.
When you tip the bucker you can hear the reed switch
open/close.
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Fixed Ultimeter Tipping
Bucket
Rain Gauge
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The fix was to solder the
two
wires toghther.
Measured:
2 cups of water = 0.32"
500 ml of water = 0.33"
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Tipping Bucket Rain Gauge Theory
I.D. of funnel = 8.073" (for 0.01" TB rain gauge)
Area of funnel = 51.187 sq in
1" of rain looks like 51.187
cu in. The
funnel size determines the multiplication factor, so the
same bucket
can be used in different gauges.
0.01" of rain looks like 0.51187 cu in
2 cups = 28.875 cu in
28.875cu in / 0.51187 cu in = 56.41 tips
The rain gauge counts each time the bucket changes
position, i.e. twice
per cycle.
The Peet
Bros
page
says 9 to 11 cc per tip. 10 cc = 0.61 cu in which is
off from
0.511 cu in. Why?
So with 500 ml should count 50 (45 to 55)
tips. The
funnel slows down the water so how fast it rains should
not effect this
result. |
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6 Jan 2011 Frozen Waterin Rain Catching Jar outdoor
temp 30 F
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