100% solar reading under completey cloudy sky.

My title says it all… since last Friday, (I updated WD to b39 on Thursday) each morning when the ‘Dawn/Dry’ text changes to ‘Cloudy’, the solar reading shoots up to 100% and it stays that way for best part of an hour. After that, it settles down and works properly all day… 'til the next morning.

Am I right in thinking that somewhere in WD is a setting whereby I can choose to ignore the solar reading for a stipulated time?

If so, please tell me where that ‘somewhere’ is.

Thanks

John

(I’m suing WDL 6.05)

One of the solar control panel tabs in WD has the setting you need to adjust. The problem is that the values both expected and real are so low at dawn (and dusk) that using a percentage means you are very likely to see this unless it is very dark and overcast at dawn or dusk then it does not always happen.

Stuart

I went into Control Panel/Solar Sensor… Is the tab you are referring to called Thresholds/Icon/Solar description?

John

Yes John that’s the one, you set the value where it says Minutes after/before sunrise/set before being able to increase sunshine hours. Mine is set to 15 minutes for this very reason although it wont stop the icon showing sunny if its 100%. As far as I’m aware there is no way to stop that, the problem is how would WD know what to display? Also on that same screen make sure the VP adjustment factor is no greater than 100% (it’s below the minutes value you need to adjust).

I am a little surprised that yours stays at 100% for nearly an hour, that does seem excessive. For my location the expected w/m

Thanks for your very welcome help, Stuart!

I’ve attached a screen capture, but my location has hill to the East which prevents any registering on my solar sensor for at least 30 minutes (normally) all year round, hence my 30 minute setting.

I’ll wait to see what happens tomorrow.

John


Yes sorry I got engrossed in the 100% value thing and forgot the settings just above. It is ages since I looked at that control panel. Anyway hope it clears up your issues.

Stuart

Fingers crossed, Stuart! :slight_smile:

Hate to butt in here, but may I ask if that % setting in the panel you reference ONLY adjust the incoming values if you have a Davis Vantage Pro system for solar, or will it tweak any value that WD is ingesting?

I have my lines running a bit high and it would be nice to slightly lower them. I just don’t want to screw stuff up, not that my weather logs are NASA quality or anything.

What I don’t know is how WD works at getting data in. If it treats all incoming data regardless of what station is sending it, then it would seem logical that this tweaks all stations’ solar numbers.

Dale I have only ever had a Davis solar but my understanding is that the only thing on that control panel which is Davis specific is the adjustment factor. Hope Brian will correct me if I’m wrong.

Stuart

its not davis specific

Nah!.. It still acts crazy 15 minutes after sunrise, so I can only put it down to a faulty sensor.

I’ve turned it off in Control Panel and removed it from WDL.

Thanks for all the help.

John

John does your sensor read anything at night? When one failed on me it was reading non-zero at night time.

Also what actual w/m

Stuart, at night it said 0%, and stayed that way until it would go crazy next morning.

I can’t remember what the w/m2 reading this morning, but somehow it is still producing the gif in webfiles (see attachment).

As you can see, all the data is ‘normal’.

I’ll upload this gif tomorrow while it is acting crazy.

John


customscreen12.gif

Looking at those w/m

Hey Stuart, you’re starting to lose me!:slight_smile:

Here’s the current reading now, and I’ll upload same, plus the gif tomorrow morning.

John


cr.JPG

That will be fine John, the only extra I need is the exact time the screenshot was taken. We may be able to progress a bit with what’s happening. Can you also post a screenshot of the ‘Max Solar Time of Day/Time Zone/Lat/Lon Fudge offset’ tab on the solar control panel please.

Stuart

Here’s that screenshot, Stuart.


And here’s the solar max.


Fine… that just leaves the Current Readings tab screenshot when it goes mad in the morning.

Stuart

Stuart: Is it possible there’s a time zone or other problem here that’s causing the calculated value to be out of sync? Isn’t there a way to plot the calculated max on the graph with the actual?