Humidity/Temp/Solar Mounting Question

luke

New Member
Hi,

How is the Humidity/Temp/Solar device (HTS3-R1-A) intended to be mounted? It seems like the solar sensor would require direct sunlight, but that would leave it exposed to rain and snow. Can the protective coating handle that? Furthermore, wouldn't the sun have a significant affect on the temperature reading?

Thanks.

- Luke
 
I have two mounted outside. One of the two has been in a HB's case with protective coating for years. The light sensor comes thru the small hole in the case. Its mounted on the NW side of the house so it doesn't get sunlight all day. Last summer installed a combo board in a Pagoda. (its documented on the forum). The combo is inside the Pagoda. I didn't do anything special with the light sensor. It is mounted next to my AAG weather station high above the second floor of my home. Some folks have put the light sensors in ping ball globes and attached the globe to the top of the sensor (Pagoda or whatever). Next summer will be moving my Pagoda to a place that's easier to get to.

The whole weather station is difficult to get to (AAG, Pagoda, lighting sensor). Maybe an age thing. One day a couple of years ago I had the ladder (medium weight fiberglass and aluminum) blow off where I had it positioned. I was lucky that I had my cell phone with me and called a neighbor for help. Going up to the area is easy but coming down I have to partially slide down a pitched roof until I stop where the gutter is and hop onto the ladder. I don't really like doing that.
 
I was thinking of using this solar sensor to estimate how well solar panels might work in my area. Does anyone know how much a pagoda-ping-pong ball contraption would affect the solar readings?

Thanks.

PS: I've been trying to make this post for two days, but kept receiving a "Method Not Implemented" error. The cause appears to be a forward-slash in my post, which I had to remove...

- Luke
 
The light settings are relative.

The readings I get from having the combo device inside of the pagoda work for me.

For the pagoda ping ball setup just create a table of sensor values versus whatever values you create.
 
I used to have a HB solar sensor mounted with the photodiode directly exposed to the sun, and pointing vertically upwards. After some time the diode died and I made a guess that the solar intensity got too much for it and "burned it out". So with my next one I used the ping-pong ball idea and mounted the diode approximately in the centre of the ball. So far so good, but there is a side effect that you might need to be aware of.

With the original arrangement a graph of solar radiation versus time for a clear day looked vaguely like a statistical normal distribution, a gradual rise in the morning with an obvious peak at noon. With the ping-pong ball I find that the shape of the curve is quite different. The solar intensity rises rapidly to maybe 60-70% of the maximum within an hour after sunrise, and a similar rapid fall off in the evening. So the curve rises fast, has a comparatively wide flat top, then falls fast. I'm in Australia, the curve looks very like a silhouette of Ayer's Rock (if that helps!).

I can imagine that the ping-pong ball is countering out some of the directionality of the diode, but I also suspect that the material of the ball might not be linear in the way it transmits the light. I also wonder if the ball might discolour or degrade over time.
 
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