Another newbie here. I purchased a WS 2310 LaCrosse Weather Station. I have noticed that everyday around 2:00 p.m. my wind sensor reads WSW and doesn’t “return to normal” until right before sunset. The wind speed measurements seem unaffected. If it is cloudy during this time, it is not an issue. Could this be somekind of solar radiation “interference” or electromagnetic interference? My weather station is wired so I don’t think wireless transmission could be an issue. This is weird. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
That is a weird problem!
I don’t know how the WS2315 works, but it might be using an optical device to track direction. If light got into that then it coudl upset it. I’ve not seen anyone else report the same thing though and most people will have their anemometers mouted high up and therefore in direct sunlight for large parts of the day.
To the best of my knowledge the La Crosse 23xx series don’t not use any type of optical devices…
It may be that you are experiencing wiring issues as are widely reported about the 23xx cheap factory provided wiring.
You may want to look into changing your wiring from the original supplied wiring to Cat 5 or twisted/sheilded phone cable. Do some searches on these forums for WS-2310 and wiring should provide plenty of information…
-Bob
I wondered about the wiring problem, but the fact that it seems to be a problem from a fairly specific time and sunset seemed odd. I couldn’t think of a reason why the wiring problem would be time based, unless the wiring problem is down to the wiring picking up some form interference and that interference is present between 1400 and sunset each day.
aggieman - Can you think of anything electrical that happens in your house/neigbourhood between 1400 and sunset each day? Is there a ventilation fan/AirCon running somewhere between those times?
I agree it would seem to be strange happening at a specific time frame like that but I really can’t think of anything else that would cause bad data like that and then revert to normal again…
-Bob
Administrator,
When I called LaCrosse to ask them about this question, they asked me the same thing, did I know of any interference during those time periods. For the life of me, I can’t think of anything in our neighborhood that would be so time specific.
Here is my theory, although it may be totally off. My wind sensor is on my chimney. The wire faces west on the chimney. During the 2-6pm time period is when the sun is directly shining on the wire (2-8pm during the longer summer days). It seems that it may be the sun (or solar radiation?) causing this. The reason I say that is because during days when it is cloudy, the wind sensor doesn’t display the constant WSW direction during the 2-6pm time period and it acts “normal”. Now that I have had a chance to read other posts about the bad wiring associated with the WS 2310, that may indeed be the culprit (although those problems seemed to be related to wind spikes, which I do get occasionally as well). Any thoughts? I may try the twisted pair and see if that helps. Thanks to everybody for their suggestions!
Another thought. Is the wire stretched too tight across something that’s expanding in the heat of the sun? As an example, if the cable is very firmly fixed (perhaps using very tight cable ties) at both ends of a long steel pole and stretched very tightly between the two fixings, then if the pole heats up in the sun and therefore gets longer, perhaps the cable is being pulled too tight and is breaking, or maybe pulling loose from the connector at one end or the other. When the pole shrinks back later on then the connection remakes. When it’s not sunny the pole doesn’t get longer so the problem isn’t seen.
A long shot, but stranger things have been known!
Admin,
Actually, the wire is rather loose (to avoid the things you mentioned), but it is next to the pole which would naturally heat up. This one really has me baffled.
How hot is it likely to be in the sun? Could a connector in the cable be heating up and the metal contacts are expanding away from each other? It sounds like you should consider upgrading the cabling anyway, so maybe that’s the next thing to try?
I think that might be what is happening. In any event, I’m going to try different cabling. Any suggestions on which kind to get??
I used the Radio Shack twisted telephone cable for one run and then found some shielded/twisted telephone at a local supply house for another run myself… Others have used Cat 5 cable IIRC…
Radio Shack stocks the twisted cabling already with RJ connectors attached in 25, 50 and 100 foot lengths…
-Bob
Just for information… the 23xx wind sensors do use optical sensing for position, but pretty hard for any external light to get in there…
Thanks for that clarification Ricky and I stand corrected… 
-Bob
How much damage to the housing would be needed to get light to the sensor?
ricky,
After inspection, it turns out that the optical sensor was indeed bad. Once the sun angle hit it just right (between 2 and 6 pm), it caused the wind direction to be “stuck” on WSW. I’m going to replace it with a new wind sensor. I really like my WS 2315, other than this problem it has performed great. Some day I’ll upgrade to the VP2, when the Mrs. isn’t looking. 
Thanks to everyone on the board who helped me with this problem!! You guys are great. I’ll be visiting and posting more often.
Glad you determined the cause …
If possible can you tell what happened to cause the optical sensor to be affected?
-Bob
Bob,
From the best I can tell, it looks like there was a small crack or some kind of separation in the plastic molding where the optical sensor is located. I’m not an expert on this sensor, but the crack sure looks like what was causing the problem. The crack was on the “west” side of the wind sensor and that is where the sun would hit it in the afternoon.
Ok so there was a physical cause… Good to know and remember thanks
Good luck with the new sensor… Just food for thought you know you can replace the La Crosse annometer with a 1-wire wind sensor if using WD and get much more accurate wind speeds… Not sure how much the replacement from La Crosse is…
-Bob
Yes, I have read (or seen I guess) alot about the 1-wire wind sensor. Where can I find (or buy) a 1-wire? Thanks.
-Jeff
Hobby-Boards.com…
http://www.hobby-boards.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=92
You will also need a 1-wire adaptor, either serial or, what I use, USB:
http://www.hobby-boards.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=28
http://www.hobby-boards.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1503
-Bob