Unrealistic Precipitation Values after Davis Vantage Pro2 Transmitter Replacement

[carloslaso]

Hello everyone,

I recently replaced the original transmitter in my Davis Vantage Pro2 with the Davis Instruments 6332 Anemometer/sensor transmitter kit. Since making the change, my Meteobridge Pro2 started reporting unrealistically high precipitation values.

To be more specific, I've received a message from AWEKAS Weather Network stating:

Code: Select all

Your station is sending invalid values to AWEKAS Weather Network. One of our operators has disabled the following sensor(s):
 new deactivation     : precipitation (reported value 430.2mm ) : 24 hour(s) until: 18.08.2023 00:00 local time
The administrator has added the following note: Unrealistic amount of precipitation -/-

I'm puzzled by this because I also have a Raspberry Pi4 equipped with an SDR dongle to receive the station data. It's been reporting perfectly accurate data with no signs of rain (aside from a minor precipitation we had two nights ago). Due to the discrepancies, I've temporarily shifted all weather service reporting to the RPi until I can troubleshoot and resolve this issue.

Steps I've taken so far:
1. Performed a factory reset on the Meteobridge.
2. Deleted the database files for a clean start. Thankfully, I didn't lose much data as I acquired the device recently on August 6th, 2023.

I would really appreciate any insights or suggestions to fix this. If the forum admin or software developer needs direct access, I am willing to provide SSH access to my device to help with the troubleshooting process. Also, for reference, I have attached three screenshots showcasing the exaggerated rain totals that Meteobridge is displaying.

Thank you in advance for your assistance and expertise.

Best regards,
Carlos

[WetterCH]

a "stupid" question:

did you plug the wind gauge into the rain gauge socket?
It is basically the same principle for both sensors (the number of pulses are counted) which a reed contact generates, regardless of whether the tipping bucket is tipping or the anemometer is making a revolution. The weather station counts these pulses and each anemometer revolution is 0.2mm of rain

[carloslaso]

I can double check (my station is on the roof), but I connected the wires with name stickers to their sockets, and I also saw which one I was connecting physically and which sensor it came from.

The weird thing is that the Raspberry Pi4 with the SDR dongle does get the correct information, which is now feeding to wunderground.

But I will still double check the connections on the transmitter.

[Mattk]

So just to confirm:

You replaced the original VP2 ISS with a 6332 wireless transmitter kit?
How does the MB receive data from the station RF/cabled etc?

[carloslaso]

So just to confirm:

You replaced the original VP2 ISS with a 6332 wireless transmitter kit?
How does the MB receive data from the station RF/cabled etc?

RF on the Meteobridge PRO2 and rtldavis on the Raspberry Pi 4

[carloslaso]

I bought the Davis Instruments 6466 Davis Aerocone® Rain Collector and watched some videos on YouTube to see how to install the rain collector. The person on the video mentioned some instructions to clear the data that the ISS had gathered:

Clear Data Collected During Testing and Installation
Now that the ISS is mounted outside, any data that was collected in the Vantage Pro2 console during testing and mounting can be cleared.
1. On the console, press the WIND so that graph icon appears adjacent to the wind data on the display. Confirm that wind speed is displayed on the compass rose.
2. Press and release 2ND, then press and hold CLEAR for at least six seconds and until you see “CLEARING NOW” in the console ticker display.

I do not own a "Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 Console/Receiver" because it stopped working long ago. I bought a "Davis Instruments 6100 WeatherLink Live" to replace the console, thinking it would be a better option (oh boy! I still regret this).

The problem is that I think neither the Meteobridge Pro2, The Raspberry Pi4 running using the rtldavis driver, nor the WeatherLink 6100 can clear data collected on the station because they only receive information; they do not send anything to the ISS (I may be wrong here assuming this). Neither the Weatherlink nor the Raspberry Pi get incorrect precipitation values, and the Meteobridge Pro2 is the only device getting unrealistic precipitation values.

If I cannot borrow a Vantage Pro2 console in my city to clear the data, the best way would be to call Ambient Weather and tell them I have a faulty unit, correct?.

[Mattk]

Just to clarify there is no data (as such) that can be cleared from the ISS, the reference to clearing data collected only applies to the console or any device that is collecting data from the ISS. There is no point in acquiring a console to supposedly clear ISS data.

[carloslaso]

Just to clarify there is no data (as such) that can be cleared from the ISS, the reference to clearing data collected only applies to the console or any device that is collecting data from the ISS. There is no point in acquiring a console to supposedly clear ISS data.

You are correct!

I recently reached out to the Ambient Weather support team for guidance. Their recommendation was:

For RF data incoming at approximately -50db, it's advisable to adjust the threshold to -70db rather than -90db to stabilize the received data.

Following their advice, I modified the setting to -70db and cleared all rainTotal data from the Meteobridge before resuming data uploads to their network.

I'll be closely monitoring the rainTotal weather data uploaded to their platform to see if this resolves the issue.