goo in the plug

I received my anemometer transmitter and noticed a gel in each of the plugs. I had the time and called Davis. They said they are now putting in a conductive gel in the sockets and around the ISS board to help reduce corrosion . That it shouldn’t be removed. they started doing that with the more recent units. So they are not saying what we have known is that the metal connections do corrode or oxidize and that is their cure.

I also asked if they could give me a new foam plug. The foam plug is for the ISS port on the station to keep out critters. I noticed that mine has broken down and is becoming brittle and falling apart, which makes sense. One end is in the sun and heat and the other is not… The tech said he would have to go back to the repair dept and see if they had some. I tried to ask him if the case was being modified in the future and he would say one way or another… but it is interesting that it had to be found…

I could well be wrong, but I don’t have any hard information so I can speculate freely: I wouldn’t personally expect a major revision of the VP2 model for at least 2 years. When there’s a significant new/revised Davis product this is typically announced in the next annual catalogue (even if actual delivery of the new product is sometimes late vs the target date). So it’s reasonable to guess that the 2010 catalogue will contain details of the new budget Vantage Vue station, with probable availability roughly coinciding with the catalogue release, ie this coming Dec/Jan.

Then, given that major revisions can have a gestation period of 2 years (in very rough terms, one year for redesign + early validation and then thorough in-field testing plus production work-up in the second year), this VP3 - or whatever it might end up being called - might be pencilled in for the 2012 catalogue.

Are these single pin plugs, or multi pin (e.g. RJ12, RJ14 or RJ45 style)?

If multi pin I suspect that this might actually be a NON-conducting gel (e.g. dielectric grease) which the individual physical connections push out of the way in just the right places. A conducting gel in a multipin connection might have undesired side effects…

I’m sure that must be the case - nothing else would make any sense (these are RJ11 4-pin sockets). I think it was just a slip of the tongue or typo.

Using an silicone spray lubricant, thats compatible with plastic, will also keep out the moisture and bugs. Stuart DW0581

yes it is normal to put gel into connectors that is used outside,
it is often seen in cars, specially on battery connections,
the gel will prevent acid and water to travel in between the two conductors and corode its connection.
if you need more of this gel simply ask local car shop for the kind of gel they put on battery poles and other connectors,
it is cheap :slight_smile:

oh by that way : about Davis vantage sensor, the tiny hole where all wires goes tru
almost drove me into axe-killer-mode a few days ago !!
imagine hanging up in your tower and fumbling with the darn wires the last one just cant go tru
and you are tired and hurt and it soon gets too dark, I have UV and sun sensors too,
so less space for the last one… ARGH !! give me a big drill and I fix it, this is one of the main things they should improve !

The foam plug rotted. I figured with one end being in the cool side and the other in the hot iss box. They sent me three extra foam plugs, they are huge… You have to work with it a while to get it in the little port opening… It will fit, but a tight fit… I asked them if they were sure that was the right plug, and they said the old plugs were not sealing out the elements as well.

I think there are threads here with people getting corrosion on the ISS board and this is Davis’ answer to it.

I hate opening the port as I too have the temperature, solar, uv, wind and fars. so this plug fits in the little opening with a big end in the iss box. had to disconnect the solar panel to get the right leverage …

oh, I did not even bother to put the foam thing in there,
was a bit tired of crawling arround in that darn tower for so long,
but the holes points down, and the board is fully varnished,
so I assumed it will even run fully under water :slight_smile:

I can see your point. I have been up in some strange places like that… I do recall when I was in grad school, we got the idea to build our own radio telescope to see if we could build a working prototype. We decided to put it on top of the the astronomy building annex. I remember standing on the top edge of a door helping move the thing up there and hoping no one would close the door. I had to do that several times, once putting up a tray to collect micrometeorites. I gave up the latter as someone closed the door, left me hanging on the edge and the rest of the crew laughing their asses off.

I did get revenge later.

I’d have to say that’s inviting problems though - the circuitry may have some weatherproofing measures in place but they’re not perfect. A SIM compartment without the plug will very likely start to suffer problems after a time.

Makes it a very inviting bug habitat too :smiley:

nope, under water… there has been quite a few cases of corrosion on the circuit board. The plug does a nice job. I do wish the opening was bigger, but thinking about it, you only run your wires in and out of there on rare occasions. I’d put it in . you could get some bees or wasps in there and making a mess of your board. It might be worth the trip up to do it.

I think the point has been made to Davis on many occasions about the SIM compartment design. What’s frustrating is that they had a perfectly good box design in something like the anemometer transmitter or the 6345 box with a solar panel on the door with fairly well-protected cable entry ports in the bottom. This would doubtless have cost a couple of $ more to use and maybe a slightly more bulky ISS assembly, but it was a tried and tested solution. Maybe in the VP3? (Not that that’s on the horizon AFAIK - I’d guess at least a couple of years after the Vue finally appears, since that will presumably have been consuming all the development resource in recent times.)

Yeah, that big sliding O ring seal makes me nervous too :roll: In my experience the downside of the 6345 style box is that the door catch becomes brittle and snaps off, but overall it is a much more robust design.

I haven’t tried it but how about using foam earplugs to replace the foam thingy? I think those are closed cell foam which might be better.

I think whatever will fill the gap and not contract in the cold would work. the sliding one’s are not the best design, but again… probably the only thing to run wires. with my soil moisture station, I have 4 pairs of wires through each grommet… in the slight space caused by distortion, there is an opening… and these slimy bugs crawl in there. someone mentioned to put in plumbers putty on them, I did so from the outside of the unit and it seems to be working.

I recently got a can of “liquid electrical tape”. I’ve been really impressed by its usefulness.

I’m not a Davis owner so I don’t know the exact nature of the hole your dealing with, but I think it would probably do the job there too. You apply it with a brush so you could get it right in between the wires to fill all the holes. It sets to form a skin. When you later need to rearrange things you can tear off the old skin (at least I have been able to do so so far - I’m assuming that it ages reasonably), then paint on a fresh one when you have finished.

Plumbers putty was my idea. I’ve used it for years with my Texas Weather station, as that is what they send to seal up wire holes. I’ve actually got one glob of p putty that’s been used over and over again probably better than 5 years now.

Never had any issue with bugs or water getting past the PP.

well, I followed your advice. In fact I normally use waterproof epoxy putty to seal the end of my pvc pipes that I run station wires in. I am trying your plumbers putty on those ends . It should be interesting to see how it holds up on a freezing or below freezing Iowa winter.

IF it keeps the critters and weather out… just peachy