Newbie with a WS-2315 and some questions (pic)

My wife purchased me a WS-2315CH for my birthday last week. :smiley:

We live in Connecticut and this time of year isn’t ideal for being up the ladder and mounting the units to the house. For now, I have this unit setup on a temporary “base”. I have the wind meter on a galvanized pole, bolted to a plywood base. On the other side, I have a vertical 2x4 with a rainsensor on top…and the battery unit(temp sensor) on the side. The temporary setup is in our backyard…about 15-20’ from the house. I have the base station in our office…in a bay window that faces the station. I’d say the bay window is maybe 12’ off the ground?

I set the unit up last week and put in fresh batteries. Base station did it’s thing and even pulled in the Colorado clock in short order. That was Saturday afternoon. Sunday AM, no signal…I had the dreaded “_ _ " from the outdoor sensors.(I’m running the unit in wireless mode) Just for the heck of it, I put new batteries in the outside unit. I came inside, nothing. After a cup of coffee and a little time, the sensors were working again. Odd. Everything was fin until Tuesday AM. All sensors were working, but the wind had " _ _”. My wife went into work late, so I called her later that AM and she said all the sensors were working. Hmm. Yesterday, we had a pretty decent snowstorm here in CT. Everything was working fine until about 4PM. Then, all outside signals dropped. I tried multiple times to press the “+” key and attempt to get the unit to resync…nothing. It was still down when we went to bed around 10PM. I checked it this morning around 5:45AM and everything was up and running again.

I e-mailed Lacrosse and I’m awaiting a response. In the mean time, I was hoping some of you can help me out. Does this sound like some other electronic device is causing a problem? I don’t think it’s anything in our house. I’ve been on the cordless phone and the unit works fine. Same thing when the microwave is on…or the computer. We don’t have a wireless internet router. We’re on roughly and acre of land, so I can’t say for sure, bit I don’t think anything from the neighbors would effect it. Could it be a bad ouside transmitter?

Thanks in advance. I really do like this unit a lot. I just hope I can get the wireless feature working correctly. I’m a total newb at this. The only info I’ve been able to find has been Amazon reviews. And those only offer opinions…no technical or “how to” info.

Glenn


How cold is it? You may want to use lithium batteries where you are, alkalines don’t do well in the cold.

I don’t believe it. 8O…Niko strike again …Just the same suggestion I was going to make… :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

Anyway welcome to the forum and I’m sure that you’ll get useful and interesting info here…

About 25F last night. Think that’s cold enough to cause problems?

Are lithiums rechargeables or regular?

Just the regular…there was another thread on this today for somebody with similar problems…The Energizer ones are more pricey but they are the ones to get.

Edit: this is the [color=blue]type available[/color] here in the UK but they are the same in the USA I believe

Non rechargeable, Energizer Lithiums are pretty common in e.g target.

Great minds think alike :lol:

Wow! You guys are fast! Multiple replies in a matter of minutes! 8) I’ll give the batteries a whirl…seems like a cheap solution.

I can understand the total signal loss, but what really confuses me was the wind sensor being down…but the others working. Maybe you guys are onto something with the batteries. If they were weak, maybe the unit starting acting funky.

Almost guaranteed to be the problem…

I have put some “electrolube” on the contacts for the anemometer and rain cables at the input into the hygro/temp senso. If there is any extra un-needed resistance there and the batteries are poor then it would be perhaps possible for the rain/anemometer to individually fail… :wink:

How about dielectric grease? I sometimes use that on the vehicles/ATV/lawn equipment. Will that work as well?

Thanks again everyone. I’m really happy this may just be a simple battery issue. I’m going to stop on the way home and pick up some e2 Lithium ones that CVS carries. Hopefully, the station will be up and running for the big storm we’re supposed to get Saturday night into Sunday. :smiley:

The stuff I use is an “electrical contact treatment oil” to prevent corrosion of electrical contacts…sorry, I’m not familiar with the product you have mentioned, but it sounds like the heavy duty stuff you put on large battery contacts etc…the stuff I use is a fine oil and used very sparingly… :wink:

I don’t think I’d be putting dielectric grease in there, at least not without knowing exactly what product it is.

The dielectric is pretty burly stuff. I put it under the plug cap on my quad to keep it from arcing…works like a charm in deep water crossings.

niko,
What do they sell in the states that would be similar to what munrobaggins suggested.

This is the [color=red]closest I could get[/color] in the USA to the product that I use … :wink:…as I said, I use it very sparingly…Maybe Niko could confirm OK…I suppose it is similar to WD40 but I wouldn’t use that… :frowning:

Cool! Thanks! I’ll hold out and see what Niko says. I have a Radio Shack pretty close by.

According to Electrolube they have two distributors in the U.S:

http://www.christopherweb.com/newsite/ where I found nothing.
http://www.echeloninc.com/ where I found loads: http://www.echeloninc.com/contactlubricants.htm :smiley:

Welcome along Glenn, I have a friend close by with the same equipment and he has had lots of problems getting reliable contacts in the sockets so yes, any surface protectant and water repellant would be good for it. We both use the unit in fully cabled mode. Have fun and keep up with the comms here… :slight_smile:

Well blow me down Budgie…I didn’t look far enough on the Electrolube site to spot the USA distributor…Good spot :slight_smile: :)…I have had my spray can for about 30 years plus (I kid you not)…Mine is Contact treatment Oil-2AX…but I see that there is no mention of that specific code there on the site, so it has probably been superceded or upgraded…However, what it says on the can is: 1. Reduces contact resistance 2. Suppresses arcing and wear 3. Prevents oxide and sulphide film formation 4. Non flammable 5. Safe on most plasics, paints and rubbers.

I also put a small amount of electrolube on the battery connections too (in the hygro unit) and it seems to work well at preventing problems arising… :wink: :wink:

Lithium batteries have been installed, station re-synced…I’ll keep everyone posted this weekend. It’s going to be 17F tonight, so if any issues arise, I should know by tomorrow AM. Thanks again to everyone for helping me out with this. :smiley:

TokKiwi,
Awesome, thanks! It’s always good to get firsthand experience. What kind of protectant did he use on the sockets?