[MLB-WIRELESS] Debugging 915mhz weather station?

[Jeremy Lunn]

I have a similar weather station (WS2308-11), that I bought a few years ago.  I got a bit lazy and only set it up recently, though been having a few intermittent problems.  First of all, the rain gauge wasn't working, so I got the multimeter and held the buckets level and even rocked them from side to side; no reading.  Then that particular part got bumped accidentally and later on I performed the multimeter test to one of my brothers to show it wasn't doing as it was supposed to and well suddenly it was working.  

A couple of weeks later, I noticed the console wasn't working, no matter what we did.  Another brother (who knows electronics much better than me or my other brother) took it home to test it, though it was working by the time he plugged it in to test again, so he couldn't find the problem.  Though he reckons that both problems are probably dry joints.  I don't know if that would be the same problem as you are having.

Also you may want to read some more info on positioning the weather station.  I found the following two links to be quite useful:
http://www.home-weather-stations-guide.com/weather-station-set-up.html
http://wiki.wunderground.com/index.php/PWS_-_Siting

I suspect that placing the temperature sensor under the eves may not give the best reading.  The problem being that on a hot day, you'll probably get a lot of radiation from the roof above if the sun is shining on it directly.  In any case a radiation shield would probably help though I haven't tried anything yet.

I don't think I'll use mine with wireless because you get more frequent updates with fewer interference problems over the wire (you could use cat5 cable with some phone connectors to make longer cables).  I guess the only problem is that if a lightning strike does occur, I'll end up with more than a fried weather station, but a fried computer as well.  I guess feeding the cable through a surge protector might help though.  In any case if you have any roof top antennas, you'd probably have considered this problem already.  

Jeremy


On 21/03/2010, at 9:48 AM, emdeex wrote:
> There are no lights, indicators on the transmitter, so my first guess would be the transmitter is not working.  Is there a way I can detect if the transmitter is transmitting?
> 
> Any other ideas about how to debug it?