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Hi All,
I'm still working on building the TX board for the WeatherDuino and in the mean time have been trying to keep my old Fine Offset station working, however today it may be broken for good. It had been doing the usual 'lost contact' trick for some time so I decided to change the batteries. Now it's not working at all. I put the new batteries in and after a short delay the red LED flashes 5 times and the unit is dead. I suspect this is some sort of diag it does on power up?

Anyway, the point of all this is to ask for recommendations for a new wind speed/direction and rain counter. I was planning to use the old one from my Fine Offset but now I'm not sure if it's any good. It's also getting a bit damaged from being out in the weather for several years. 

So does anyone have any recommendations for a 'stand alone' anemometer/direction and rain tip gauge that works well with the WeatherDuino?

Thanks in advance,
Gord
There are many options but if you want good quality often it is ebay for ex research stuff;

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Met-One-034B-Wi...ctupt=true

https://s.campbellsci.com/documents/us/m...indset.pdf

It is so far as I can see a pulse switch for speed and a potentiometer for direction so will fit weatherduino really well.

and then this for the rain gauge;

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TEXAS-ELECTRONI...ctupt=true

https://texaselectronics.com/products/ra...gauge.html

and you will have a research grade station with weatherduino electronics which are also research grade.

add in this for the very best;

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RM-YOUNG-CO-mul...ctupt=true

http://www.youngusa.com/products/2/11.html

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Instead of above but cheaper and good; try this which will fit weatherduino really well. All Davis wind and rain systems are suitable for weatherduino. (but don't bother with the "Davis Vantage Vue") Davis Vantage Pro is great though. (or the older ones Davis weather wizard etc)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Davis-Instrumen...ition=3000

or


https://www.ebay.com/itm/DAVIS-INSTRUMEN...SwlS1cfsBT

a bit battered but easy to repair for weatherduino.

You can always sell the ISS board and t/h sensor back to ebay and the TX board will fit neatly into the ISS housing.

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Best search terms for ebay are; "Tipping Bucket Rain" and "Wind speed sensor" or sometimes "anemometer".
I'm still using my Fine Offset sensors. They work OK, even better than with the old WH3080.
Thanks for the comments/suggestions.

How did you make the connections between the fine offset and the WeatherDuino board?
I haven't taken my fine offset apart (much) but I believe seeing a ribbon cable running from the direction/anemometer to the other side. I'm not sure the best way to connect it to the rj-11 connectors on the WeatherDuino.


here is a photo of the outside of my fine offset, does it look like yours?
It is possible that your combo unit uses the same pinout on the RJ12 connector.
You can check it easily:
With the TX board unpowered connect the RJ12 connector from the unit to the RJ12 connector on the board:
- While rotation the anemometer, check continuity between pin 3 and pin 4. Contact should close twice on each rotation. If it does, anemometer is working.
- While slowly rotating the wind vane, check resistance values between pin 3 and pin 5, if they change for each cardinal point, wind vane is working. If your wind vane uses resistors with the same values than the stand alone unit, then you can use it. Later, when you finish the board you can test this by looking to the readings from the wind vane. TX software includes some debug options, which will help.

Regards
Well, I haven't torn into it too much, yet, but I believe the connections inside are made using a ribbon cable(s). Not sure if there are RJ-11 style ends on them, I think not.

I'm just thinking of the best way to use the ribbon cables (if that's all I have to work with). or perhaps I'll have to remove them and attach something completely different?

Cheers.
(15-03-2019, 20:15)WetCoast Wrote: [ -> ]Well, I haven't torn into it too much, yet, but I believe the connections inside are made using a ribbon cable(s). Not sure if there are RJ-11 style ends on them, I think not.

I'm just thinking of the best way to use the ribbon cables (if that's all I have to work with). or perhaps I'll have to remove them and attach something completely different?

Cheers.

Hi WetCoast,
You shouldn't need to tear into it. You just need to figure which pair of wires need to go.
What I'd do in this case is, cut off the RJ11 connector at the end. Do as Werk advised above. Once that done, solder the wires to PCB RJ11 jacks and terminate them to strip connector or such, then connect your combined anemometer.

Another option that might be easier and better, just cut a phone cord in half and "break out" the correct two pair to either end of the phone cords. IE, make a "Y" type cable.