Daytime Fars fitted to VP2

I ordered this from Scaled Instruments formerly Archer Trading in Florida.

That was on 21st August and it finally arrived this morning - 10th September.

USPS took nine days just to take it the 343 miles from Jacksonville to Miami, then the customs clearance here was almost as slow.

I followed it easily on the USPS and Parcelforce online tracking, and it arrived in good condition.

Buying from the US worked out about £25 cheaper than UK sellers after VAT was paid.

The concept is that in some conditions the temperature inside the white louvred sensor housing can get too high - in particular days with little wind and early/late in the day there is some evidence it can read as much as 3C too high.

This would rarely affect the day's maximum, but it's nice to have more accuracy if possible.

The kit includes the revised upside down mount for the sensor.

This keeps it drier and might prolong its life (quite an expensive one to replace).

Fitting it was mostly common sense - but rather fiddly and the instructions were somewhat unclear about some details.

After doing the first one while referring to the instructions, a second one it would be 30 minutes work! It took almost an hour from taking the ISS down to up and running again.
By that time the sun had set so it wasn't running, but I did test it earlier.
It is practically silent so will be hard to know if it is working or not!

The main difference visually is that it comes with a new front panel with dual solar cells - which appear identical.
You re-use all the original plastic parts and most of the screws and bolts.

Update 11th September.
The fan could be heard humming quietly and with light winds it was surprising how much air you can feel being blown out of the screen above the thermometer sensor,

I thought I'd put the standby Vantage Vue up alongside the VP2 this afternoon.

It was warm and sunny with light easterly winds under 4mph.

At about 5pm the Vue read 0.9C higher than the VP2.

Soon after sunset the difference was more like 0.3C

It's hard to say how much of this discrepancy is relates to the FARS and how much the larger VP2 enclosure.

The significant thing is that the difference changes as the sun warmth hitting the side of the shield varies.

I'll leave both up for another day or so and see how they change in different conditions.
Unfortunately since I only have one data logger I can't do a comparative graph easily.

hay making weather

The best hay day so far - only everyone has already managed to finish despite some frustrating damp and foggy mornings!

hot and cool

Most of the country has been having a very warm if not hot spell but here near the North Sea coast we have largely missed out - indeed many days have been rather cool with low cloud and sea fog not far away. This is not unusual here, and a common frustration for hay-making! Yesterday the wind went more to the NW and temperatures soared in the strong sunshine. There was a late maximum of 25.9C about 6pm which is the highest of the year so far - our first really 'hot' day. During the night a cold front swept through, with a few spots of rain. A freshening wind made it much more comfortable too.

VP2 Capacitor installed

Later yesterday I managed to des-older/remove the old one and stick the new one on the board.
I kind of hoped it would start up when held near a light bulb but no joy.
I suspected it would need a good kick to get a completely discharged capacitor running though. Since I’m waiting for another couple of batteries – one is in the Vue and the VP2 ate the other one – I just left it in the window first thing.

It took until about 10:30 to start transmitting which was a surprise.
The test will be how long it runs after dark - I’ll leave it in sun all day.

Must say doing the soldering was not a whole lot of fun, the tricky part is getting enough of the old stuff removed to insert the pins of the new one.
I have a kit with a syringe thing to suck it out, first time I used it and I think it would have been all but impossible (for me) without it.
You seem to need three hands to do several things at once.
Actually inserting and soldering the new one was the easy bit - but I’m still concerned it might not have enough solder on.

Having another session at it while it is working could be like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory though!
At least it seem the part Maplins supplied is compatible.

More VP2 issues

It looks as though after all the sudden loss of power the other week was a sign of problems.

The replacement battery started it running again but after jus a couple of weeks it again stopped in the night without even showing the low battery warning until it restarted about 9am when the sun got to it.

This is a documented symptom of faulty capacitor – not only does it hold less charge but there is some kind of shorting in it which drains the connected battery in days.

Anyway I’ve set the spare Vantage Vue up again for now and after a bit of research found a suitable capacitor from maplins – under £5 delivered.
Although soldering this is in place is on the edge of my ability it will be interesting to do.
I am tempted to snip the old one off (it has quite long ‘legs’) and solder the new one onto the legs rather than risk overheating the board.

I do have a quite suitable iron and solder and flux - which I used last year to do a comparable job on a webcam connector. Still working!

VP2 hiccup

Everything was flat-lining this morning, it had stopped receiving at about 2am which did suggest the capacitor had run down and for some reason the battery didn’t keep it going.

Rather stupidly I didn’t have a new one to hand but had a part used one I took out of the Vue a couple of years ago.
When I put that in it fired up immediately but unsurprisingly says low battery on the console.

The mystery is why it didn’t show that message before, it is probably not impossible the battery failed completely or was not connecting very well.
Anyway I’ve ordered two, they are only a couple of pounds.
The last one has lasted about 18 months.

Anyway at least that means it’s not a transmitter fault which was my immediate worry.
I do have the old Vue ready to go if or rather when something does fail.

Windy Morning

Late winter, and a windy bright day soon begins to dry things a little.

Late February sunrise

Sun is gaining strength now and the storms have abated for the time being.

Soggy January

After missing the worst of the storms in December we have been less fortunate through January, with about twice the normal rainfall - however 2007 was wetter and we've had far less than some places in the south and south-west.

February seems to be continuing in similar vein for now, however (surprisingly) February is one of our driest months on average, so there's a fair chance of less rainy if not dry conditions later in the month.

It could be worse, apart from imagining how snowy it might have been if we'd been 3 or 4 degrees cooler, look at this video from an ice storm in Slovenia!

More:
http://www.seattlepi.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Frozen-Slovenia-Is-Witnessing-The-Worst-5206461.php?