Information

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The IPFW Geosciences Weather Station consists of:
  • Davis Vantage Pro Plus Integrated Sensor Suite (ISS)
  • Davis Vantage Pro Console
  • Davis Wireless Repeater
  • Davis WeatherLink for Vantage Pro software version 5.2
  • January 08, 2008 - The battery pack for the repeater failed on December 23rd.  After replacing the batteries it was determined that the battery holder itself had failed.
  • December 6, 2006 - The weather station has been restored on it's pole.
  • September 10, 2006 - The weather station failed due to a short in the transmitter section.   The 3v battery is being drained faster than it should.  It should last two years, not two weeks.
  • June 22, 2006 - The weather station is back on the pole in front of the Science Building. After fussing with the connections and placing the unit in bright sun for a week and a half, as well as changing the batteries (3V) twice, it finally seems to be staying alive.
  • March 23, 2006 - The weather station is back in the shop. The last two batteries were drained within two days. I still don't know if the batteries were bad or if something about the station itself caused the problem. I've installed a different battery and watching how it responds. So far it's been operating for two days but the station is signaling that the battery is low.
  • March 16, 2006 - We finally got a new battery into the transmitter and the station came to life. I checked the battery that came out of the station and it is in fact dead. A 3V Lithium cell and it reads 1.9V now. It was new from the package the day it was installed. Hopefully the battery was bad and not something wrong with the weather station.
  • March 09, 2006 - Well, the weather station isn't running again. It seems that after putting it back yesterday by 6:00 p.m. it was reporting that it's batteries were running low. And yet I had just installed new batteries in both the transmitter and the fan. Everytimme I touch it it seems to want more attention....
  • March 08, 2006 - The weather station is back in place. Note that the historical temperature and wind is not accurate for the dates of March 03 through March 08. The time of installation was 12:00 a. m., after that time readings are correct. Also, the rain measured for March needs to have 0.32" subtracted.
  • March 03, 2006 - The weather station is in for maintenance which will include replacing the rechargable batteries and cleaning the rain bucket, as well as general cleaning.
  • October 26, 2004 - After the weather station was retrieved from off the pole it was discovered that a dead yellow-jacket was laying in the rain bucket. Problem removed and weather station once again operational.
  • October 19, 2004 - It seems that we have a rain gauge problem yet again. We haven't had 350 inches of rain this month. As soon as the weather lightens I'll have the station brought down for inspection and hopefully will be able to solve this descrepency quickly.
  • May 6, 2003 - We have finally re-installed the weather station, and it's working as it should. Soon I will have the past records cleaned up the best that I can. But in the mean time be aware that the text reports are not accurate. We did not have 200 inches of rain since January.
  • April 04, 2003 - It's been nearly a month since we first saw the rain gauge go bad and two weeks since we had the weather station taken down for maintenance. We're still awaiting a replacement part. For a detailed explaination of the current sitiation follow this LINK.
  • March 11, 2003 - At midnight we suddenly began to record intermittent rain event. After about 20 minutes we were recording a rain rate of 0.72 inches per hour. As the Weather Console says, "It's raining cats and dogs!" Between 12:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. we had a couple of humidity spikes to 100% and then at 11:10 a.m. the humidity jumped to 100% from 48% and has stayed there since. Ten minutes later the wind being recorded went to zero, and has also not changed.
    This is a new problem, not related to the communication problems we had earlier. We are contacting Davis to correct this problem.
  • February 5, 2003 - After replacing the repeater we have found that it requires to be moved yet again. Very slight differences in alignment cause the signal to be unreliable.
  • February 5, 2003 - Our repeater took a fifteen foot fall yesterday and died. A second repeater is now in it's place.
  • January 30, 2003 - The console has been moved to the Display case on the second floor of the Science building. For a week now, the reliability of the current configuration has been improving. We will still be adding a second wireless repeater in the hope that it's inclusion will guarantee an uninterrupted data stream.
  • January 15, 2003 - We have moved the console down to the building directory case at the southern entrance. This position is about eighty feet from the pole the ISS is mounted and forty feet below. While it's in this location we'll be collecting data and measuring the quantity of received packets here versus the number of received packets in the prior location.
  • January 08, 2003 - OK, so we haven't nailed down this problem yet...but we will!  Persistance is everything.  In the meantime, we've updated to version 5.2 of the Davis "WeatherLink software and have been trying a few more "adjustments" to the receiver.
  • December 30, 2002 - Have we found the source of our problem?  It seems that our data collection computer may be the source of our grief.  After watching how the console reacts to it's placement in relation with the computer, and it's indications with the computer turned on and off, we believe that the computer is producing enough radio noise to interfere with ISS reception.  We have separated the computer and console by several feet and, once again, we will watch.
  • December 19, 2002 - Still working on communications issues. Relocated console after seeing signal loss at 5:00 p.m. Reaquired signal and it remained steady. We'll see for how long.
  • December 10, 2002 - Still working on communications issues. Placed console in close proximity to ISS in order to verify signal consistancy from ISS. During this time the weather readings on the web page will not be updated on a regular basis.
  • November 14, 2002 - We made some adjustments to both the ISS and the Repeater. We'll be watching to see if our communication problems are solved.
  • November 6, 2002 - We seem to be having problems maintaining communications between the weather station and the console. We're in work to remedy the situation.
    (To confirm the readings on the Current Conditions page go to the Text Reports page and view the 2 day archive.)
  • November 01, 2002 11:00 a.m. - Adjusted barometric pressure back to read corrected sea level.
  • October 31, 2002 2:10 p.m. - Adjusted barometric pressure reading to show actual pressure rather than correcting for sea level.
  • October 29, 2002 11:30 a.m. - IPFW Geosciences Weather Station activated.