Station Master replaced the failing transmitter today with a spare part obtained from a friend’s obsolete Vantage Pro. That transmitter seems to work as should, which is great news!
Then, the idea was to service the original transmitter by replacing the obvious reason to increased battery consumption, failed superconductor. After opening the cover, it was quite clear that the conductor couldn’t work at all. In fact, the other leg of it had severely corroded and was completely broken. See the image below.
Removed the superconductor and tried to clean the connectors. Then, because there is another, neat place for conductor, soldered a brand new one there. Cleaner connectors was the idea.
Looks good, don’t you think? But… battery inserted–and nothing happened. Switched on the dip to flash the test led. Nothing. Completely dead circuit board.
At this stage checked that the superconductor +/- poles were correct. They were. Then removed the conductor (the board should work even without it). Nothing. Just to be sure, soldered the conductor to the original position (this was not going to help, but anyway…).
So something has happened to the circuit board itself during this attempt to fix it. More electronics oriented person might be able to troubleshoot the board further, but Station Master’s abilities do not allow that.
So let’s hope, that the spare transmitter works (and does not require replacing battery every other day) until the new WeatherFlow station arrives. And who knows when that will happen, given the current circumstances?
Well, after all, considering everything what’s happening globally, troubles with a some remote weather station are not the most pressing ones. But at least this gave Station Master a chance to think something else for a while!
