Thanks very much for taking the trouble to add some brain power behind this problem.
My brother lives about 2.5 miles away.
I’m pretty good ad debugging systems and I always ask myself “What’s new?”. This has been working fine since Jul 2008.
The only thing new is my FIT-PC Slim server. It’s really tiny - about 3.5in x 3.5in x 1in and I bet that means it radiates like hell. It is interesting that when I pulled the USB cord out of the PC and disconnected the power cord from the base station it instantly connected with the rain gauge. I think that’s the key clue. I don’t think it’s something else interfering - after all, all of the sensors broadcast on the same frequency and all of the others are being received just fine. They’ve all got solar power but the rain gauge has fresh Duracell alkaline batteries so that’s a puzzle then.
If I bring the rain gauge into the house and put it in the next room it connects right away. However not much rain falls on it in the house - I fixed the roof leaks
So I’ve ordered a 2m USB extension cable which should be here either tomorrow or on Monday and I’ll move the FIT-PC Slim well away from the weather station - at present it’s about 2ft away - and see what happens then.
I also notice some of my USB cables have ferrite loops to shield them from picking up mains hum and other interference - I might remove one of those ferrite loops and place it in this cable and see if that helps.
I live in a sleepy little crescent where nobody has things like auto garage doors. If there’s a technology nut out there then I guess it’s me
So I’ll report back shortly.
But please don’t get me wrong - I really do appreciate you taking the time to make suggestions. I think this is a great forum with loads of people interested in weather and willing to help each other.
Interesting idea for the Fit-PC as noise source. Mine’s nowhere near the WMR consoles or RFXCOM receiver, so I hadn’t noticed any such problem.
Odd that it should just affect the rain gauge - but that does seem to be the ‘weakest link’.
Sorry for whittiling on.
To some extent taking a few minutes out to ponder on your problem was a relaxation from a quite different task!
PS. I think the USB cable that came with my WMR200 had a ferrite core at both ends already - but that was in December 2007 and maybe via a different supplier?
Well, the extension USB cable arrived this morning and I re-sited the FIT-PC Slim so it is now twice as far away from the weather station which of course means any radiation will be 1/4 of what it was before.
As you said, it turns out that the WMR200 USB cable already has an inline ferrite core so no problem there.
The rain gauge did not come back online as a result BUT to be fair it is not in the same position that it used to be in. Before it was on the roof about 20ft away from the weather station (which is upstairs) and now it’s in the back garden about 30ft from the weather station and 12 ft lower down.
When it stops raining then I’ll get the ladders out and put it back on the roof again. If it still doesn’t connect then I’ll walk it along the roof until it’s directly overhead the room with the weather station in and that should do the trick hopefully.
I seem to have picked up the dreaded UK winter flu bug - not too bad today but yesterday was a bit rough - so will not be risking going on the roof if it’s windy.
Saturday has a good forecast here - I hope it’s right as it’s my turn to have our shared airplane and I plan to go flying. However I should be able to find time during the day to sort out that rain gauge
There was a reasonable but brief break in the rain at lunchtime, so I got the ladders out and put the rain gauge on the roof directly overhead of the weather station. It’s back up and running now at last. It must have a really weak signal compared with the other sensors which are much further away and working just fine.
I have been following this thread for a few days with great interest as I have a WMR-100 and 200. So I decided to carry out a simple test using a remote sensor, not the rain gauge. The result was very surprising, the 100 would pick up a signal at a much greater distance than the 200, both having four 4 inch thick concrete block walls, plus cavity wall insulation between the console and sensor.
It would appear that the 100 has a much better range than the 200.
Most earlier comments about WMR200 range have focused on the change in sensor design when compared to the WMR928.
Directly comparing the WMR100 & WMR200 is a very interesting alternative consideration. Great idea. Thanks for sharing.
