Over three years ago I had to get a new weather station. See my blog post about it.
Yesterday a storm hit and I wanted to see the measured wind and gust speeds. They were zero. As in no wind at all! This measurement of nothingness vastly differed what my eyeballs and ears could measure. Wind was strong enough to rip shingles of my roof. All possible storm wind effects were very audible also indoors. ---> To troubleshooting.
My indoors console of Davis Vantage Vue reported: Low battery in sensor 1. Darn!
VeeWX web UI confirmed the fact. Signal quality was flaky:
Notice how signal quality would plummet on dark bars (no sunlight) and recover on light bars (sun started shining into the panel). The battery had gotten its share of -30° C winters and +38° C summers. Sustaining Finnish weather isn't easy for man made objects.
I dug up pictures from my 2019 blog post:
It all came back to me vividly. Indeed, in the bottom of the outdoors unit there is a lithium CR-123 battery. Integrated Sensor Suite (or ISS) has a simple plastic cover which can be easily removed by opening the plastic screw. As the unit is well designed, the battery pack is well protected from rain, sleet and snow.
Next, getting a new one. Maybe this battery is one of those hard-to-get and possibly expensive ones? To my surprise a lithium CR-123 is easily available:
Pack of two costs 9,90€ on my local hardware store. Not even expensive!
Yet another well-designed feature of a Vantage Vue.
Unfortunately the second battery won't last till 2025 when the next change is due. Generally speaking I'd appreciate powering the unit from a cable. That way I wouldn't have to climb to my garage roof at all. Doing the climbing every three years in reasonably good weather isn't too bad at all.