Lost Sensor Contact!!! error

[fireman5214]

Hello all, this is my first post here, I have read the faq and my readme file and get find the correct answer for my error that I am sporadically getting. My station is mounted about 100-120 feet away from my base station thats connected to my Dell Inspiron 17r laptop running windows 7 with an i3 core processor. I just started running cumulus on Jan 1st with my new weather station, so as far as I know I have the latest version of cumulas for windows. Every now and then I get the error that is on my screenshot below. Sometimes its when noone is awake and other times its when people are awake. I am not finding what is making the error so any help is greatly appreciated.

[steve]

It's the console reporting that it isn't receiving the signal from the transmitter. If you search the forum for "lost sensor contact", you'll get lots of hits from other Fine Offset users, and some suggestions on how you might improve things. Checking the batteries is a good place to start. I'm wondering if your transmitter and console are just too far apart.

[fireman5214]

well its fresh batteries in the base station, and rechargeable by solar in the weather station, but it says max distance is 330 feet, but me being 100-120 feet away, it shuld be well within reach

[mstrandbo]

I get this error once or twice a week, which is ok. But the error make me think it's lost contact, and not regained it. But it always has. How can I know if the error is still active? I do check the timestamp, though.

[steve]

It will be repeated every 10 seconds if it's still active (i.e. every time Cumulus reads the data).

I suppose I could check whether it's been reported, and then add a 'contact regained' message when it stops being reported. But basically, if the last message is more than 10 seconds old, you can assume contact has been regained.

[mstrandbo]

Aha, thanks - that does help.

[AllyCat]

it says max distance is 330 feet, but me being 100-120 feet away, it shuld be well within reach

Hi,

Is that a perfect "line of sight" path (open field), or are there any obstructions? In any case, all the FO specifications tend to be "typical" (if not rather optimistic), not "guaranteed".

The "lost sensor contact" message just corresponds to "--"s on the Console LCD display. Do you ever see those if the the PC is disconnected/off? If not, then there may be radio interference transmitted from the PC and/or USB cable.

Cheers, Alan.

[fireman5214]

it says max distance is 330 feet, but me being 100-120 feet away, it shuld be well within reach

Hi,

Is that a perfect "line of sight" path (open field), or are there any obstructions? In any case, all the FO specifications tend to be "typical" (if not rather optimistic), not "guaranteed".

The "lost sensor contact" message just corresponds to "--"s on the Console LCD display. Do you ever see those if the the PC is disconnected/off? If not, then there may be radio interference transmitted from the PC and/or USB cable.

Cheers, Alan.

the only thing it has to go through is my back wall from my backyard on top of my shed. I do get the ---- 's every once in a while when I notice the lost sensor contact. It worked for 6 days straight and then all of a sudden it started doing this error. Its not cell phone interruption, we tried that. We have fire co. radio's and pagers in the house as me and my dad are volunteer firefighters, its not that, those are 500 mgz and my station is 915mhz. We thought it could have been the portable phones (land lines) but not when we are all sleeping and it goes off and comes back on, and that also takes care of the LCD HDTV. I am not sure what it is. Hope this may help someone. Oh also has fresh rechargeable energizer batteries, they were charged when installed and then the solar charger is supposed to take over for charging them daily.

[WestOz]

I get the same problem on what appears to be totally random occasions with my WH2081 unit. I can't work out what causes it. Usually it reconnects quite quickly but yesterday it was off for about 2 hours (see attached) while is was out of the house.

Normally if I see that it's off-line and it doesn't reconnect I just shut down Cumulus, disconnect the console from the USB cable and move the console to the back of the house, nearer the transmitter and it reconnects again without a problem.

Ian

[AllyCat]

Hi,

At 915MHz, a single wall might be sufficient to halve the range, but anyway many FO users would be happy to get even 100 feet range reliably!

also has fresh rechargeable energizer batteries, they were charged when installed and then the solar charger is supposed to take over for charging them daily.

Are those NiMH or "Rechargeable Alkalines"? However, both have "issues". NiMH cells only deliver a nominal 1.2 volts each, so the transmitter power may well be reduced from that with fresh 1.5 volt Alkalines. But Rechargeable Alkalines (which the manufacturer "recommends") are basically a "rubbish" technology and may soon fail to charge at all, to a satisfactory voltage.

Probably the best technology to try is NON-rechargeable Lithium AA cells. Expensive, but they deliver about 1.6 volts per cell over most of their (long) life (assuming that there are no other faults with the FO Solar Pod).

Cheers, Alan.

[cutter]

Do not ask me why but try touching the memory section a couple of times this is strange I know but it cured mine.Alan

[Dave Parker]

As the owner of a Ambient Weather WS1090 I have had most if not all the problems others have reported here in the forum. I have had this station for about 10 months now and have tried several different locations. At present the wireless transmitter is located directly outside a north facing kitchen window and the console is mounted on a wall in the kitchen. Line of sight distance is less than 20 Ft. I still get an occasional lost sensor contact error, maybe 1 or 2 a month, but no major problems. I know the book says 330 ft. but I think that would be under perfect conditions with no outside interference. I have used extension cables to mount the sensors further away from the wireless transmitter. The book says 50 ft. but I suspect you could go 100 ft. with no problems. I use non rechargeable Lithium AA batteries and have had no problems with them. They seem to be the best choice for cold weather.

From Greene county AR.
Dave

[fireman5214]

ok well I will be looking for lithium non rechargeable batteries and give them a try, I mounted the base station up higher on the wall with a 30.00 usb extension cable and it seems to go out more at a higher location then when it was lower. OR is it because of the rainfall currently occuring. Thanks for the information and I just thought the solar charger would charge the batteries longer to keep it full battery life. I dont know if i should lower my base station or not.

[WestOz]

Hi,

At 915MHz, a single wall might be sufficient to halve the range, but anyway many FO users would be happy to get even 100 feet range reliably!

Mine is 433MHz