If you don’t mind a bit of soldering you can detach the sensor from the PCB and extend it, then put it into a diffuser of your choice.
Although the PCB has the coating, it should still be contained within some sort of waterproof housing as the coating isn’t waterproof it just protects against moisture.
The case is simple that, it just protects the PCB and sensor, and you can remove it if you want too.
I removed the top of the case on mine to give the sensor a better view of the sky and then put the whole thing inside a plastic tub. The tub acted like a diffuser and it worked fine.
So, in your case, the only diffuser that you are using is the plastic tub? You do not have any Ping Pong ball or something for the style?
Budgie, can you confirm me if the solar sensor only has a 150 degree acceptance angle?
I am also worried because on my location we sometimes reach the 1000 w/m2, can the sensor became saturated? (I have read that above 250mv the sensor saturates the 1-wire bus with unpredictable results)
Next week when I will get the computer to use with the sensor I will tell you how it works.
And the last thing Budgie, when you had the sensor, did you see if with the Sun the sensor became overheated?
And, now that you have the Davis; were the readings of the Hobby Boards’ sensor quite similar to the professional solar sensor?
By the time, I have a similar window to this. So, I understand that the sensor works.
If I open Weather Display leaving the Dallas 1 Wire Reader running; in “Current Reading” in the “Solar Sensor Setup” page, I am getting the same data as in the Dallas 1 Wire Reader.
It confirms that the sensor works and is interacting with the computer.
My problem now is that the data is shown in mv, not in w/m2, and I do not Know how to change it.
Another thing is that I only can see the sensor graph in the “Extra Sensor Real Time Graph” page, but not in the main graph page.
Basically, I need a bit of help about how to configure the sensor in the Weather Display program.
Is there a guide about how to configure the sensor or the different steps I have to follow?
I have never done something like this and I do not want to skip any step.
More or less I have configured the sensor; but I can not find the place to set the max mvolts, so I could not make this adjust.
The solar sensor page is empty, as you can see in the pictures. :?
Another thing is that, when the solar sensor’s data is 9 mv or lower (in Dallas 1 Wire Reader or in Current Readings page in WD), in Weather Display the readings low to 0 w/m2.
For example:
10,5 mv ---> Some w/m2
9 mv ---> 0 w/m2
More or less is near the 9 mv when it happens, but I can not confirm it exactly because now it is night here.
Is there any solution to any of these problems? :oops:
Now, I understand that where it puts 200 I have to set the max mv. And the 0 is the place for decimals.
If it is correct, then I have to tick “Use this value” and “Calculate % from raw compared to max”. But I have to leave not ticked “Plot this %” of the Labjack. Is this right? :o
After being calibrated, I have compared the readings with another weather station and the readings are quite the same.
As I have said:
I am doing a Pre-University research project about Sun that will punctuate me for the access to the university; and one part of this project will be record data of the solar radiation in my city. But it do not have to be very accurate.
So, is there some way to save the data recorded with WD?
I have seen that in “Advanced Graph” you can save the graphs of the last hours.
But I wonder if there is some other way apart from this to do that.
In summary: What are the possible methods to save the data acquired by the sensor? :?:
Hi
there is a logfile, vantagelog.txt
thats has the solar wm/2 in it
or you can create your own logfile, using custom tags (e.g for solar, time, date, etc)