Split up La Crosse Instruments and now 24hr FARS.

I have been prompted by fellow Weather forum friends and local friends too, to try and eliminate the temperature spikes on a partly cloudy day, or excessive temps on a sunny day.

I have the La Crosse 2310 type with the equipment all split up and spread out - the only two close together are the rain gauge and the hygrometer/Temp/field hub. From the field hub to the house there is a 20m extension getting the signal to the console. This is buried in 40mm plastic conduit - its a heavy duty underground two pair telecom cable. Perhaps it should have been shielded Cat5e… and so probably more likely should have been the anemometer cable from up on the roof to down on the fence to the field hub - that cable is about 30m long. It also travels through the conduit to get to the fence posts.

For a while, I had an upturned 3L plastic container with top cut off as a sun shield - it had 1" holes all through it but I was still getting sun strike spikes. Then the idea of a solar driven fan as per the Davis unit and a friend has trialled a DIY made up kit as well using plumbing pipes as ducting out the top and over discharging downwards.

I finally managed to get all things together tonight as a rough draft of the final installation. Installed in the dark at 9pm…

The solar panel is 3 x 1.5V to make 4.5 volts high sensitivity low current, or a higher current 1.5V system for the 1.0 - 3V motor and fan. It was part of an educational solar system science or home teaching kit for $28.

The clamp for the motor is a SS muncing ring and a S/S 3/8 UNC stud cut shorter and two nuts. It fits neatly inside a reducing bush (80 x 65) and the rest is MF elbows and about 200mm/8" of pipe going down in and over the sensor unit itself. I have taken the “shroud” shield off it to give more direct access to a draught to be puilled directly over the device. I may add a length of 65 (2.5") pipe directly around the fan and make a discharge duct downwards too. I also need to add a circular bush and seal off the bucket hole to the pipe and fittings - rain can get in through the gaps at the moment. It is all just lubed and fitted without glue - it seems stiff enough at the joints, and it also needs supporting on the downward discharge fan section.

I double checked the cables with a battery to ensure correct rotation of the fan. I will upload more photos to my photo account later in the weekend and reference them from here. The solar sensor panel is facing due north with an approximate angle of elevation to match the path of the sun at midday… (guess) :smiley:

Hopefully my spiky temp curve today will be more smooth tomorrow - clear skies continuing, perhaps a few clouds - I hope!!

I have now modified the Hygro into a truly 24hr FARS with a PC power supply fan running at 7.5V and have much better temp results!!

Also added a link to a table of my photos.

http://www.inmanavenue.com/sitephotos.html

Cheers! (March 21 2008)


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Added photos of site installation… sorry it was dark when i set the fan up tonight. i also know the upturned bucket is not a proper ventilated shield ala Stevenson shield, but as i said this is a first step - if it works ok, then i may just leave it like it is.

Yes I am going to add cable ties and staples to tie the the fragile cables back - but all in another day…

Graeme


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A couple of more shots showing the anemometer up above the roofline, first shot view east - a bit wind shadow by the much higher trees, still not high enough but the mast was already there… the shot behind the wind propellor was hand held as high above my head as i could hence the bad horizon and bad centering… :wink: view north, the sun shot was due west.

Oh - how do you like the sunset left on my website from earlier in the evening?? :smiley: proud… :oops: :lol:


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My!!! You have been busy…It will be interesting to hear/see how it all works…I haven’'t done My daytime FARS for the WS2300-11 yet…will most likely wait for the spring now that there is hardly any sun anyway…but I do have the fan and solar cell combination ready…your bucket and vent looks an interesting setup in comparison to the plantpot holders etc…

It is quite interesting to compare the results of my 2 Wx Stns…Considering the huge cost differential in initial purchase price (almost 9:1) I’m V. impressed so far with the WS and Vortex combination (although it still has its full 1st winter to survive yet…)

It looks as though Spring is still to arrive with you, as the trees in the shots have little evidence of leaves yet…

See below for todays snapshot comparison. Davis vers WS/V


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good stuff Tokkiwi
hows that refurbished pc going?

It did an MS$ XP shut down this morning - waiting for confirmation from 5:15am :frowning: (found at 6:40am) and now its in a loop doing nothing and the darling wife (the “technician” ) is not home to cycle it on and off or attend to an alrm message and I have just gone through the end cycle of a day (9am) and missed it!! That’s two days this month I have missed the 9am cycle… still very frustrating, it ran for 21,000 data packets (900/hr) over the last two days but it did have very high CPU load with 2x WeatherD operating, now with a clean start this morning WD is stopping and starting or XP is - don’t know which.

I had dropped back to Build 07 and need to possibly upgrade to either 08 or 10 - no benefits from them?

Thanks for asking Windy…

(just venting my frustration a little… I was on a high getting the solar panel and fan and ducting together last night, now the bubble has burst again… :wink: )

dont use the wdwatch program (should not need to), thats one suggestion (re the 2 weatherd.exe’s running)

Ok, I will shut that down and untick the selection wherever that is… Setup list of options isn’t it?

setup, advanced/misc…

I have been less than enamoured with the solar fan setup - it was better than nothing but I guess the sun shadows and loss of power gave contrasting results from what I was expecting. It seemed to have stiction and would not start even in good sunlight so the morning temp graph had a spike and a shoulder as the dam kicked in.

I stole the power supply 12vDC fan from a disused box and trimmed the corners off to make it round and it fits the plumbing fittings I had perfectly - push fit. I ran some true-rip 1.5mm2 out there temporarily and used a multi-voltage power pack 12v and less… to prove it works. I then ran the cable overground for now and trialled different voltages. 7.5V seems to give the best flow in my upturned fully insulation lined rubbish bucket - you can feel it on your face at the discharge. :slight_smile:

So here’s hoping the sunny morning profiles are a lot smoother!! Photos will be added later.

Graeme

I added my own FARS to my Davis vp2 using the maplin’s kit, it works very well infact. I did trial a 12v PC fan but for some reason it failed after just a week of running, and so did the next one i put in. One possible reason could have been undervoltage for a sustained time, so just be aware of this in case your fan gives up .

Can you give details on this please, i couldn’t find out :frowning:

Carnt find the exact one on their site but its like this http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=BZ48C&DOY=9m2 . I found it in the store though. We have direct sunlight now and standing about 3 metres away from it i can still hear it spinning, i’ll post a few pics in a mo.

Heres a pic of my modified Davis using the solar fan kit.


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Ah…sorry i thought you was on about the actual shield at Maplins #-o
The one you got is prob the basic thats on that same page :wink: I have used it
myself but the motor didnt last too long also i didnt have enough sun in the garden
to run it, I have now gone for the internal powered one (PC Fan) :slight_smile:

■■■■■■, I have sprung for 2 of those basic solar fans to build my shield, are you saying they were not up to the job?

Not for me but others have had good millage out of them, i think it was me
putting too much power through it, them, i had 2 lol

I did read all the threads, and the one where you made your shield, but I am tired and my mind is asleep, is your shield in full sun? if so does the shield/fars combo working well? how accurate to surrounding stations?

Nope its not the basic one, it has quite a large yellow fan and a more powerful solar panel. I was really suprised when i went out into the garden to hear it spining just as fast as a pc fan.

My station only goes back till August but the sun was still on the FARS at that time of year
so take a look here to give you an idea

wow that powerfull? my prob is i dont get any sun from around October to a week or so ago, i
ts just started coming back to my garden, bout time an all lol