Vantage Vue battery dead already?

Funny, batteries haven’t arrived yet but the low battery warning has stopped. Wonder why.

You might be getting a charge now that the sun is out.

See this thread on another forum, it probably isn’t the batteries so much as way it monitors them.
I think it briefly gets a false message batteries are low and this remains on console until it resets at midnight.
You can reset it yourself by entering set up mode then exiting set up without changing anything.

Current theory suggests moisture is causing issues across (unused) contacts near the ISS battery.
I think there’s more to it than that, maybe bugs or dust affect them too!

A reset of the console didn’t cure the problem for me. However, I did remove the batteries from the ISS to check their voltage, which were almost full. I then gave everything a good clean whilst it was at ground level and replaced everything as it was. That was about 6 weeks ago and since then no more battery warnings, fingers crossed for the future. :roll:

Same issiue here and I have mine for only one month. I went through the reset suggestion and it corrected itself but I am not convinced it will not appear again.

Yup…looks like it is off to the store for a new battery already, will put gell on too.

It won’t actually need a battery, but no harm in getting a spare one.

So I changed the battery and applied the gel and reset the ISS by pressing the button and rebooted the console. The LED light flashed. I cam down off the roof and ISS and console are not communicating. Guess it is time to call Davis and find out what to do next.

I called Davis and a new ISS is being shipped to me. But it will not arrive until the July 12th.

He did not even hesitate, in 30 seconds he told me he was sending a new one. They must have defective units!

I got to go with the solar panel as well. I also would call Davis as this seems to be the leading issue with their unit. Ask them what their solution is, I bet they have one.

I am noticing that on my battery powered stations that the batteries are being depleated quicker on my VP2… so I bought a fancier new battery and hopefully this will do the trick…

I would make a log of when you put in the battery and when you replaced them. I also would call Davis next week , about Tuesday after the weekend holiday and ask them what is going on… I would call rather than email because they sometimes don’t answer their email when they get behind for weeks.

I am sure there is a solution.

If everything else is fine it should run for months even without any sun on the solar panel.

aardvark, just curious, what type of “fancier new battery” did you get?

Aardvark
Is it a fuel cell type of battery? That would indeed be fancy

I have 7 stations and the non -solar grind through the batteries. I had been putting in a standard battery that I got from the Battery Station in Missouri, they have a lithium that I have been using and I got to the end of my supply and decided to give BatteryJunction a shot as someone mentioned it here.

I opted for tht Titanium Innovations CR123A 3V Lithium Photo Battery 1400mah, http://www.batteryjunction.com/tpen-tcr123a-.html
I read the test results on the site as well as others and considering the fast drop out rate, I will give them a try anyway and see . I am home for the year, I think and if the battery is a bust, I can always upgrade.

I think it is the type or brand or country of manufacture that seems to have something to do with how quickly these batteries deplete and of course on a station that can produce interesting questions.

Thanks for the info. It’ll be interesting to hear how it goes. It’s always hard to know how those high discharge current ratings relate to lifetime in a very low discharge application like the Davis sensors. I generally use the Panasonic ones.

Do the stand alone sensors use supercaps like the ISS etc?

no, they pull off the battery. Unless they have a solar panel like the wireless anenometer transmitter or the soil moisture sensor, they run off the battery.

I did have each of those solar panel units need new batteries, but considering that they have a super cap in them and the battery is for low solar days, and we have had them last month with 23 days of rain…I would guess that I will be replacing their batteries before long.

OK, I wondered if they still had a cap so that the battery doesn’t see a pulse of current when it transmits, but I guess even that pulse is a very small current for these lithiums.

My ISS here faces west, and is shaded by a building, so it only rarely gets a direct view of the sun. Even so the battery usually goes a year or more.

I had to replace my ISS battery last winter and it went several winters… but it was colder than most and more snow and stuff, so the battery just wore out. not worried.,

I have run a cable out to my ISS and supply it with 4 volts of DC power

no more problems to worry about
(unless you get a power cut…which I dont anymore )

That does solve a big problem, but with my case of the dreaded “Techno-Envy” with all the other stations I have running, that would be a lot of cables to send out.

IF the batteries are a bust, I can go back to others, but the cost was about right. If you buy a cr123A at Wall mart… it is over $5.00 per battery… so the bulk is cheaper for me.

Here is what Davis has asked me to do…THIS DID NOT RESOLVE THE PROBELM.

Please do the following steps below.

1. Dismount ISS and take indoors where it is out of any sunlight.

2. Remove 3 volt Lithium battery,

3. Leave it in the dark overnight.

4. Power up on sunshine with a “good” Lithium battery, press the button to check if you see the led lit up.

5. Wait an appropriate time for reception to resume (5, 10, 15 minutes)

5a. Checking ID#s if necessary.

6. If you still do not see the led lit up when you push the button then I suggest contacting our Tech Support@ 510-732-7814.