Heath Wx Station Notes
The weather station is a Heathkit
ID-5001 which was "salvaged." It had an intermittant
outdoor temperature sensor, contaminated humidity sensor, intermittant LCD display,
and burned out backlight. The wind instruments were covered with a light coating of green
mossy slime and were squeaky. The barometer was reading 26.00 after being recalibrated
less than a year ago. The outdoor temp/humidity sensors were in a box with corroded bolts
and bird poop. The rain gauge was full of mud, warped, cracked, and porous to the point that
light rain soaked in rather than dripping down. It was a mess!
First thing was the sensors. Swapping indoor and outdoor sensors allowed the old intermittant
and contaminated ones to work in a controlled environment for narrower ranges of temperature
and humidity. Then the barometer: once the other sensors were stable, they stopped interacting
with the pressure circuit and it was also stable. The backlight was temporarily replaced with two
wedge base 12 volt bulbs in series, and will be replaced by summer with cooler LED lamps.
After extensive research, I found that the old "holy grail style" rain gauge had a lifetime warranty
and sent it back for replacement. The wind instruments were cleaned and installed.
2/8/03 - UPDATE: Ran out of 8-conductor cable when trying to install wind sensors -
will try again next week.
2/12/03 - UPDATE: Last night I connected the wind sensors with a CAT 5 jumper
(works fine - originally the wind sensors were connected with 5 floors of 25 pair phone wiring
and was working!) and now I'm waiting for wind.
The indoor temp sensor went wacky when the temperature hit freezing, sending the barometer
down to 26.00 again along with the temperature at -40 and humidity at 180%. Swapped the temp
sensors back, and the flaky original outdoor one is stable (for now!)
It measured 7.5 volts on the black lead and 1.5 volts on the white lead when in failure mode.
We had fog at dawn, and I got to set the swapped outdoor humidity sensor at 100%.
3/1/03 - UPDATE: I got some 3000 mcd 12 volt white diffused LEDs from Digi-Key and
installed 6 of them in the top (removable) white panel above the LCD. The picture below shows
how it looked with two 12 volt dashboard lamps temporarily installed on the rear panel - they
were wired in series and run from the 26 volt supply, and made things very warm. With LEDs
installed, it's cool and runs about 60 mA in series-parallel configuration on the 26 volt supply.
The original blue color is back as well. 10 or 12 of these would provide better illumination, but the
bright "hot spots" aren't too bad with only 6.
3/7/03 - UPDATE: Got the new rain gauge on the 5th. RainWise Inc. shipped a complete unit
with a counter module for standalone use! I built the bracket and mounted it on the 6th, so rain
data will be showing on the graph pages. It was installed in the rain, of course - and is mounted
under the wind instruments in the lower right picture (picture not updated yet.)
3/13/03 - UPDATE: Joined the Citizens Weather Observation Program. Also ordered a new
indoor humidity sensor element.
5/10/03 - Moved the outdoor temperature sensor around the corner. Now for the sun
to hit it, the sun has to be at 295 degrees azimuth and between 15 and 3 degrees
elevation, which only happens in late June.
5/18/03 - Removed the intermittant humidity sensor for service.
5/20/03 - Repaired and reinstalled the indoor humidity sensor. Found the control on
the board goes both sides of zero - regular and negative slope. Also found that
some people are using a 0-5 volt solar cell array to measure sun intensity
on the indoor humidity sensor input, but APRS doesn't report it, so it's not
useful here. (See APRS telemetry for how I do that on a KPC-3!)
Ironic twist: APRS reports outdoor humidity as the "h" field, and
the Heathkit reports outdoor as "H" and indoor as "h". Same goes for temperature.
5/21/03 - Repaired the outdoor humidity sensor. Seems that the 200k pots (204 resistance
value code, if you're raiding the junkbox for one) are very unreliable. Do NOT replace it with a 100k!
If you do, you'll wind up with ONLY negative slope. To check which slope you're on, breathe on
the element. If your voltage/humidity increases, you're OK. If it decreases, you need to
rotate the pot to decrease the voltage/humidity and pass through a "dip" to the other side
where it increases again.
5/23/03 - Installed a "YTD" (year to date) rainfall display. Took a Red Lion Controls CUB3L
six digit counter (the RainWise unit only has 3 digits/9.99 in. max) and interfaced it to the rain
gauge input with a 10k resistor to a PNP switching transistor. I also cut the "reset" button down
on the front of the counter to eliminate accidental resetting.
This
weather station is connected to the APRS network via a serial port on a 266 MHz
Celeron PC
running WinAPRS and a KPC-3 (not plus) TNC on a salvaged Motorola Maxtrac radio.
Back to N3EG weather page
outdoor temperature sensor, contaminated humidity sensor, intermittant LCD display,
and burned out backlight. The wind instruments were covered with a light coating of green
mossy slime and were squeaky. The barometer was reading 26.00 after being recalibrated
less than a year ago. The outdoor temp/humidity sensors were in a box with corroded bolts
and bird poop. The rain gauge was full of mud, warped, cracked, and porous to the point that
light rain soaked in rather than dripping down. It was a mess!
First thing was the sensors. Swapping indoor and outdoor sensors allowed the old intermittant
and contaminated ones to work in a controlled environment for narrower ranges of temperature
and humidity. Then the barometer: once the other sensors were stable, they stopped interacting
with the pressure circuit and it was also stable. The backlight was temporarily replaced with two
wedge base 12 volt bulbs in series, and will be replaced by summer with cooler LED lamps.
After extensive research, I found that the old "holy grail style" rain gauge had a lifetime warranty
and sent it back for replacement. The wind instruments were cleaned and installed.
2/8/03 - UPDATE: Ran out of 8-conductor cable when trying to install wind sensors -
will try again next week.
2/12/03 - UPDATE: Last night I connected the wind sensors with a CAT 5 jumper
(works fine - originally the wind sensors were connected with 5 floors of 25 pair phone wiring
and was working!) and now I'm waiting for wind.
The indoor temp sensor went wacky when the temperature hit freezing, sending the barometer
down to 26.00 again along with the temperature at -40 and humidity at 180%. Swapped the temp
sensors back, and the flaky original outdoor one is stable (for now!)
It measured 7.5 volts on the black lead and 1.5 volts on the white lead when in failure mode.
We had fog at dawn, and I got to set the swapped outdoor humidity sensor at 100%.
3/1/03 - UPDATE: I got some 3000 mcd 12 volt white diffused LEDs from Digi-Key and
installed 6 of them in the top (removable) white panel above the LCD. The picture below shows
how it looked with two 12 volt dashboard lamps temporarily installed on the rear panel - they
were wired in series and run from the 26 volt supply, and made things very warm. With LEDs
installed, it's cool and runs about 60 mA in series-parallel configuration on the 26 volt supply.
The original blue color is back as well. 10 or 12 of these would provide better illumination, but the
bright "hot spots" aren't too bad with only 6.
3/7/03 - UPDATE: Got the new rain gauge on the 5th. RainWise Inc. shipped a complete unit
with a counter module for standalone use! I built the bracket and mounted it on the 6th, so rain
data will be showing on the graph pages. It was installed in the rain, of course - and is mounted
under the wind instruments in the lower right picture (picture not updated yet.)
3/13/03 - UPDATE: Joined the Citizens Weather Observation Program. Also ordered a new
indoor humidity sensor element.
5/10/03 - Moved the outdoor temperature sensor around the corner. Now for the sun
to hit it, the sun has to be at 295 degrees azimuth and between 15 and 3 degrees
elevation, which only happens in late June.
5/18/03 - Removed the intermittant humidity sensor for service.
5/20/03 - Repaired and reinstalled the indoor humidity sensor. Found the control on
the board goes both sides of zero - regular and negative slope. Also found that
some people are using a 0-5 volt solar cell array to measure sun intensity
on the indoor humidity sensor input, but APRS doesn't report it, so it's not
useful here. (See APRS telemetry for how I do that on a KPC-3!)
Ironic twist: APRS reports outdoor humidity as the "h" field, and
the Heathkit reports outdoor as "H" and indoor as "h". Same goes for temperature.
5/21/03 - Repaired the outdoor humidity sensor. Seems that the 200k pots (204 resistance
value code, if you're raiding the junkbox for one) are very unreliable. Do NOT replace it with a 100k!
If you do, you'll wind up with ONLY negative slope. To check which slope you're on, breathe on
the element. If your voltage/humidity increases, you're OK. If it decreases, you need to
rotate the pot to decrease the voltage/humidity and pass through a "dip" to the other side
where it increases again.
5/23/03 - Installed a "YTD" (year to date) rainfall display. Took a Red Lion Controls CUB3L
six digit counter (the RainWise unit only has 3 digits/9.99 in. max) and interfaced it to the rain
gauge input with a 10k resistor to a PNP switching transistor. I also cut the "reset" button down
on the front of the counter to eliminate accidental resetting.
This
weather station is connected to the APRS network via a serial port on a 266 MHz
Celeron PC running WinAPRS and a KPC-3 (not plus) TNC on a salvaged Motorola Maxtrac radio.
Back to N3EG weather page
Posted: Sun - May 8, 2005 at 10:20 AM
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Published On: May 31, 2005 12:02 AM
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Published On: May 31, 2005 12:02 AM