Solar w/RJ45 Erratic Readings

[comweb]

Eric,

I recently purchased a solar w/RJ45 board and AAG wind from you. This is my first experience with 1-wire. I am using Weather Display to read the sensors. The solar sensor will, for example, be showing around 100mv reading and then go to 0 mv or 200mv occasionally. The conditions outside have not changed that dramatically.

I noticed this happening when I tested the unit inside on a short cable and the AAG wind not connected and now outside with about a 60' CAT5 cable and the AAG wind connected. I do not use external power.

The solar board is mounted in a 6" glass frosted globe (from a lighting fixture). Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

Bill

 

[ericvic]

Bill,

We recommend using external power and that could be your problem. However, one thing you can try (if you haven't already) is to remove the jumper on the board. It should only be in place when using external power.

Eric

 

[comweb]

Thank you for your reply. The jumper on the solar board was removed. Certainly when the solar sensor was connected inside with the 3' cable and no AAG wind connected, there should have been enough power. Could I have a bad solar board?

Bill

 

[ericvic]

Bill,

Is there anyway you can try it with external power?

Eric

 

[comweb]

Eric,

I don't have any 1-wire power supplies. Can I use 12v DC from say a computer power supply?

Bill

 

[ericvic]

Bill,

You can use any 9 - 24v DC power supply. The current draw is very very small.

You can either hook it up through the CAT5 or use the screw terminals on the board.

Eric

 

[comweb]

Eric,

Thanks for the help. I probably won't try it till after the holidays as I am going out of town in a few days. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Bill

 

[ericvic]

Bill,

Merry Christmas to you too and let me know how it goes.

Eric

 

[comweb]

Eric,

Finally got some time to add +12 volts DC to the solar sensor. I have been watching it on and off for the last 2 1/2 hours and so far so good. Yahoo! The readings seem very stable. I used +12V DC from the computer power supply and connected it to pin 7 on the RJ45 connector at the solar sensor. Thanks for your help.

Can you tell be the maximum mv value of this solar sensor (with RJ45)? I have been playing with diferent values in the Weather Display solar setup between 200 & 250 mv.

Bill

 

[ericvic]

Bill,

Glad to hear that you got everything working.

The maximum input on the DS2438 is 250mv but you will have to play around a bit to determine what constitutes max brightness in your situation.

Eric