[12/5/05] I recalibrated the humidity sensor (2.5
clockwise turns on the potentiometer) on
12/4
as I was consistently reporting dewpoints 4 or so degrees F too high. I will
keep my eye on it for the next couple of weeks and decide whether any
further changes are needed.
[1/27/06] My new computer which I recently hooked up to the
instrumentation melted down and I am offline for at least a week while
the manufacturer repairs it.
[2/14/06] Computer is finally is repaired, and we are
reporting data again.
[4/2/06] Had a problem with wind direction due to corrupt
register on unit, fixed today. Maybe that will also fix the
Mach 1 winds that are sporadically reported. Also am now reporting in
"rapid fire" mode to the Weather Underground
[4/16/06] The last couple of weeks have shown bad temperature
and dewpoint data due to water getting in a female-female modular plug
junction. The wire had been just lying on the lawn and I had kludged a
little PVC pipe + plumber's putty shield for the junction which lasted a
lot longer than it should have, actually. Yesterday
I finally redid the entire run of wire with clamping connectors for
splicing (cut
off the modular plugs) and ran it all through conduit which will be
buried soon. No more water problems!
I am still seeing spurious rainfall rate spikes. These are happening in
software. I am considering writing my own code. I am using code written
in Perl for the Ultimeter 2000 which I have been tweaking.
Final note, I am back to reporting data every 5 minutes instead of
"rapid fire."
[4/19/06] Finally found the source of my "spikes" - occasionally
the raw data stream from the unit itself is corrupted with an extra
character. This messes everything up beyond where the extra character is
found. I confirmed with Peet Bros that this is not normal and I will
most likely get the unit repaired/replaced. In the meantime, I have
found how to deal with it in software and will collect some bad data for
him before deciding where to go from there.
[5/16/06] Regretfully I am sending back the control box for the
2100 and the anemometer/wind vane for repair. I have never been
satisfied with the winds - the cup anemometer is sticky. After seeing
what a much more professional system can do I simply can't live with
this performance. And while I have dealt with the data stream corruption
in software, I am concerned it will get worse with time. So, you won't
see any data from me for the next couple of weeks.
On another note: I tore up all the phone line and wired the
temp/humidity and rain gage all with one run of cat-5e. Being
red/green colorblind made it difficult but I actually got all the wires
right the first time! No more splices, and
one cable contains all three instruments. Also, I put the wire in 1/4
inch PVC conduit, cemented the conduit together, and buried it. Simply
elegant. I noticed after doing this my relative humidity values seem
biased a bit low. Hence, I will probably end up doing another
recalibration after I get the system repaired (see 12/5/05 entry)
[7/2/06] At the Dayton Hamvention I visited the Peet Bros booth
and they were unveiling a new anemometer/wind vane which addresses the
low-wind problems I'd been having! So I called Peet Bros and had them
change my repair order to a replacement/upgrade order. It involved a
firmware upgrade on the controller box. Anyway, I finally got the
upgrade and control box yesterday. However, they neglected to send back
the base/cable part of the setup that I had sent back as part of the
repair!! ARGH! So tomorrow I will call them and request that they send
me one ASAP. So as of today I'm back online (wunderground only not CWOP)
without winds.
[7/16/06] New anemometer is finally up and running. Adjusted humidity
pot 3/4 counterclockwise turn (to the left);
dewpoints have been low - this is a correction
against my 2.5 turns to the right I did last year. Will decide whether
to recalibrate again in a couple weeks.
[2/28/09] Instrumentation has been running flawlessly. Only problem
currently is that the computer
directly hooked up to the
instrumentation is unstable, rebooting every couple of days. This can
lead to strang things happening, especially in the precipitation
reports.
[3/7/10] Flawless operation still. I disabled the wireless on
the routerboard (problems with the Linux driver) and instead have a WAP
plugged in. The routerboard has 100 day plus uptime and only goes down
when I upgrade.