Merewether Weather, Merewether Tides and Solar Power Monitoring for Merewether, NSW, Australia - Newcastle Weather

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New Rain, temperature and humidity sensors Installed

Date:
By Mangrove Mike

The rain collector on my Davis Instruments Vantage Pro 2 has been broken for a couple of months and the temperature and humidity sensor died two weeks ago - it was time for some maintenance.

I ordered the Davis Rain Collector II from www.davisnet.com.au (http://shop.davisnet.com.au/davis-weather-stations/station-sensors-davis-weather-stations.html/7852m-rain-collector-ii.html) and to get a new temp/humidity sensor I had to order from Rain Man in the USA (http://www.rainmanweather.com/7346-166-TempHumidity-Sensor-Board-digital-VP2-Jan-2006-or-later) - I did it via Amazon as I had some gift dollars.

The installation of the temperature / humidity sensor was straightforward and I also took the opportunity to clean the disks.

The rain collector was another story altogether as I assumed the rain collector would go straight on my ISS - my fault, as I didn't read that it was a stand alone rain collector. Strangely Davis doesn't offer a replacement Rain Collector that does fit the ISS.

After some careful examination, I removed the separate plastic base containing the tipper buckets and reed switch from the rain collector base. You have to apply a bit of force to prise the plastic tabs holding the base into place.  Removing the same component from the Rain Collector II base was simple - they have changed the way the tabs are designed and are much easier to remove.  

Installing the new collector was easy but with the 40 feet of extra cabling I had to cable tie things to get it reasonably tidy. I have read that others have cut the cable and redone the RJ45 connectors - but I only had limited time (and no crimping tools at home).

I put it all back together and all is now good again. A new temp/hum sensor, new rain collector and new rain collector bucket with debris shield.