Weather Station

My weather station went down after years of service.

Changed out the THREE rechargeble alkaline batteries and it ran for a week but now dead again.

Probably the solar panel not recharging the batteries.

Pain to get down.

Need suggestion on finding a replacement solar panel.

I can just stick on the outside of the weather station rather than tearing into the unit.

Need an all weather (Southern California, no snow or ice) solar panel.

What might the open circuit voltage of the solar panel be ?

Links please.

Reply to
OGX
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Model is: Ambient Weather WS-1200-IP

Reply to
OGX

I have a weather station that uses three AA rechargeable alkalines. It stopped working but a reset of the indoor unit fixed it.

Reply to
Lucifer

It started working and worked for about a week after just replacing the batteries. No reset was necessary.

Resetting "Outdoor Reset" does nothing to fix the current situation.

I am pretty sure it is the solar panel.

Reply to
OGX

Ya know, you're gonna have to take it down to fix it anyway. You didn't say if you tried another set of batteries after they died. Or rather than buy yest another set, since you have to pull it down one way or the other, put in another set and see if the weather station works.

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"I am a river to my people." 
Jeff-1.0 
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Reply to
Fox's Mercantile

not on for a wild goose chases.

I guess no one here knows much about solar panels or charging 3 AA cells and what is needed.

Reply to
OGX

I guess you just want to waste everyone else's time asking questions instead of doing anything useful.

--
"I am a river to my people." 
Jeff-1.0 
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Reply to
Fox's Mercantile

You don't know what you're missing [1].

True. Nobody here knows anything that will help you deduce what has failed without you taking down the wx station, cleaning out the inevitable corrosion, inspecting the batteries, and making a few measurements. However, you're in luck here. I've had some experience with both the WS-1200 and WS-1201-IP.

Spare parts. Sorry, no solar cells: The WS-1200 uses rechargeable alkaline batteries. Rechargeable alkaline batteries are only a little better than junk. They cannot be recharged to 100% of original capacity and are only good for a limited number of partial recharges. It doesn't take much to kill them: The capacity of a recharged alkaline battery declines with number of recharges, until it becomes unusable after typically about ten cycles. So, every time you run the weather station batteries down to zero (such as after a cloudy winter), you kill one of the 9 lives of this cat. Ambient is apparently aware of the problem as the newer WS-1201-IP uses a super capacitor instead of batteries. I suspect you could replace the 3 AA cells with a super capacitor: Note: The WS-1201-IP replaces the WS-1200-IP. The WS-1200-IP uses rechargeable batteries that are charged by a solar collector. The WS-1201-IP uses a super capacitor for energy storage, and is charged by the solar collector in the day, and non-rechargeable batteries at night. I think you'll find that the batteries are dead, your solar cells are just fine, and you'll either be making a phone call to Ambient to see if they offer an upgrade to the WS-1201-IP, or buying 3 more rechargeable alkaline cells.

[1] I've been doing morning exercise walks in a local county park, which feature a pond inhabited by a family of Canadian geese. I've been watching three little goslings grow up very rapidly: I know all about chasing wild geese, or rather about being chased by papa wild goose for getting too close to his family. Wild goose chases can be fun.
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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Well, your weather station isn't a low cost unit from Walmart, so it's not exactly fair to flame the rest of the world for not having THE RIGHT ANSWER at the tips of their fingers. You haven't said anything about your electronics knowledge. If you have none, or very little, you might be out of your league from the start. Now, do you have a multimeter of any sort? Have you attempted to measure the unit's charging voltage and/or current? How about measuring the solar panel's voltage in full sunlight? How about the voltage and current (if any) it's putting into the charge controller? Knowing that information can tell you whether your problem lies with the batteries, the solar panel or the charge controller. Chances are that a schematic is not available for your station. You might send an email to the manufacturer and ask for the schematic. That little piece of paper could be invaluable for you (of someone who is able to read it and determine where the problem lies. Just guessing here, but if the unit uses 3 AA cells, that means that the solar panel will likely be rated for 6 - 9 volts open circuit, at maybe

50 - 100 mA. You need to make some voltage and current measurements and report them, then someone might be able to help you get it going again.

Cheers, Dave M

Reply to
Dave M

Canada geese Jeff. No citizenship granted...

Reply to
John-Del

Ummm... thanks for the pedantic correction. By the gooses name, I just assumed that they vote in Canadian elections. I guess not.

I suspect the geese in question might be refugees from Denver: "Canada geese in Denver parks culled for meat"

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Common mistake I used to make. A Canada guy corrected me when I said it..

Reply to
John-Del

I think ogx is trolling. Or maybe is only 6 years old. Maybe both. Did I just get caught? Eric

Reply to
etpm

The problem is that it doesn't quite work the same way south of the border. In Canada, it's a Canadian citizen, and a Canada Goose. In the USA, it's an American citizen, but also an American Elk, American Black Bear, American Alligator, American Bison, American Beaver, American Otter, American badger, etc. The distinction is perhaps understandable as the results of our previous presidential election suggests that some of these animals may have voted.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

My weather station uses rechargeable alkaline AAs. When they failed after several years of use the outdoor unit continued to function in daylight but not in the dark. At first I replaced them with Nicads but that didn't work. I found one place on ebay selling the proper ones and they are working. Oddly enough after an extended power outage the weather station started displaying the symptoms of failed batteries. A reset of the display unit fixed that.

Reply to
Lucifer

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