30-07-2021, 22:38
Hello Ian,
Those unrealistic Sunshine hours are a result of two factors:
First factor, and the most important:
On Cumulus, there is a setting called Solar minimum (W/m2), usually by default this value is set to set 0, but it can't be 0, otherwise whenever there is some light on the sky it start to count as SunShine hours, which makes that even on cloudy days, every hour with some light is counted as SunShine hours. The value to use as Solar minimum, depends on each location, usually is should be a value from 50 to 80. For my location I use 50.
Second factor:
Since you are having some readouts caused by noise even during darkness, if the Solar minimum is set to 0, every read increments the SunShine Hours counter.
Your action on line 247 isn't wrong, however if you are getting readings on the darkness over 4 (most cases they are 0 to 2), there are some things you may like to check:
Cables between the TX unit and Solar interface: Preferably use a twisted pair cable. One pair for power supply, the other for sensor signals.
Cable between the Solar Interface and the solar cell, should be as short as possible. Preferably the Solar Interface and the solar cell should be on the same box.
As with all pyranometer, the sensor (in our case the solar cell) should be placed horizontally facing the sky.
As a final note, the value of the R2 (variable resistor) on the Solar Interface should be as near to 2.7KOhm as possible. R2 is set to that value before shipping, however you may want to check it again.
Rgs.
Werk_AG
(30-07-2021, 08:27)catliNZ Wrote: On a further note with WeatherDuino_P2AT2560_RX_v9.0_b003
Using Cumulus 1.9.4, the Sunshine hours for the last week are showing as 16 to 22.
Not really a realistic value at 46[font]°[/font][font]S[/font] during winter!
Those unrealistic Sunshine hours are a result of two factors:
First factor, and the most important:
On Cumulus, there is a setting called Solar minimum (W/m2), usually by default this value is set to set 0, but it can't be 0, otherwise whenever there is some light on the sky it start to count as SunShine hours, which makes that even on cloudy days, every hour with some light is counted as SunShine hours. The value to use as Solar minimum, depends on each location, usually is should be a value from 50 to 80. For my location I use 50.
Second factor:
Since you are having some readouts caused by noise even during darkness, if the Solar minimum is set to 0, every read increments the SunShine Hours counter.
(30-07-2021, 08:27)catliNZ Wrote: During darkness the Pro2+ Rx was showing Srad at around 6 w/m2 so I have changed line 247 in RX_TX.ino to
if (RX_Data[1] < 8) RX_Data[1] = 0;
Should get rid of any noise.
Probably not much sunshine this weekend to monitor real world performance.
Your action on line 247 isn't wrong, however if you are getting readings on the darkness over 4 (most cases they are 0 to 2), there are some things you may like to check:
Cables between the TX unit and Solar interface: Preferably use a twisted pair cable. One pair for power supply, the other for sensor signals.
Cable between the Solar Interface and the solar cell, should be as short as possible. Preferably the Solar Interface and the solar cell should be on the same box.
As with all pyranometer, the sensor (in our case the solar cell) should be placed horizontally facing the sky.
As a final note, the value of the R2 (variable resistor) on the Solar Interface should be as near to 2.7KOhm as possible. R2 is set to that value before shipping, however you may want to check it again.
Rgs.
Werk_AG