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3D Printed Radiation Shield for Meteo Stations - Part 3

Assembling the main body of the Radiation Shield

Having all the 3D printed parts at hand and the M4 rods already cut with the needed size, assembling the whole body of the Radiation Shield its an easy task, that doesn't require any special tool.

After having 3D printed all the required parts and having the M4 rods already cut with the needed size, assembling the whole body of the Radiation Shield its an easy task, which doesn't require any special tool.

Start by doing a mark on each M4 rod, at 1cm of one of the extremities. This will help you to know how much you should screw each M4 rod on the holes of the top plate. With the help of a pliers, it should not be hard to screw each M4 rod. Do it up to the 1cm mark.



Before going further, decide if you want to have an aspirated Radiation Shield, or not. All WeatherDuino transmitters have a port to control the RS fan. The software allow the users to define in which conditions the fan should be turned ON. Having a fan always on, or just during the day light time, in most cases don't bring any benefits. For more info on this matter, please refer to some scientific studies (search the forum, you will find info and links to them), which clearly identified the conditions where having an aspirated Radiation Shield is important. Mainly such conditions are, high temperatures together with week winds.

Continuing with our assembling.

If you decided by having an aspirated RS, take a small 12 Volt 40mm fan (you may reuse one from an old computer hardware) place it in the underside of one of the middle plates, then do a mark corresponding to the four fixing screws of the fan. Next, using a drilling toll, do the four holes.
Before fixing the fan, verify the direction of the air flow, it should NOT be blowing the air in the direction of the sensor, but aspiring the air from inside the RS.
In the end, you should have something as shown in the picture bellow.



Continuing...
If you have a plate with a fan, start by inserting it on the M4 rods. It should be the first plate counting from the top plate, then insert the next four plates. If you decided by not having a fan, insert the five plates on the M4 rods, one at a time. The holes on the plates have been designed to allow an easy insert.
After having inserted all the five plates, insert the piece which is used to later fix the sensor mounting part. Pictures below show the correct position of this part.

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By last, insert the wall (or pipe) mounting piece.
If you don't want or need the optional small box under the RS, its time to put one washer in each rod and tighten the whole set using the three nuts. The assembling of the main body of the RS is finished. It should end up looking like the picture below on the right.

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On next post, we will talk about the physical and electrical installation of the sensor, and why choosing to add the optional small box below the body of the RS, can be an wise and important decision.


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