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Davis anemometer old style v Sonic


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Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield

I recently replaced the old Davis with a sonic model and had to mount on a pole in the garden rather than on the chimney stack as getting people to go up and change it each time it broke was getting more difficult and rather expensive. The last two broke to the plastic cracking due to UV from the sun. Anyway I replaced with a UV and expected a reduction in speed which I got but not perhaps as much as I did get. One day I was watching the garden and all the bushes were going crazy and it was registering 2 mph then a few seconds later 12 mph.

I read elsewhere about the model missing gusts in comparison to the older model. So since I've also got the new Davis Weatherlink live bought the older model. Then with a friend lowered the mast and added that to the mast. Comparing the two shows a 2 mph difference in wind speed around 10 mph and a 4 for 5 mph at 20 mph . with the Davis old style recording the higher gust speeds. Sadly no windy weather forecast for a while but it would be interesting to compare at higher speeds too see if the difference widens or narrows the higher the speed gets.

I suppose then later I could remove the sonic and have that at lower level to reflect the different speeds.

Edited by The PIT
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  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield

After some testing the conclusion is that the sonic one misses gusts I've seen up 8 mph difference in speed. The higher the speed the bigger the difference.  I wouldn't suggest buying one unless you're anemometer is located in a difficult place to get to.  Less maintenance on the sonic model.

Also interesting that the weatherlink live measures speeds slightly less than the vp2 console.

Going to email davis about that.

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  • 8 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield

Time to update this. After a big of dialogue with Davies who looked at the records suggested that their was interference on the channel it was using. So changing the channel and letting it run for a while and the discrepancies came down to expect values of 1mph to 2mph.

At the moment I still have two running . The last two analogue units have been destroyed by the sun where the casing cracked jamming the device which isn't good if you need a friendly person to go up onto the roof and take the old unit down. Luckily this new unit is one a pole which can be easily lowered.

So I would say buy the sonic one and if your capable modify the unit so the battery can be easily replaced if access is difficult. This would void your warranty of course.

Edited by The PIT
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  • 1 year later...
Posted
  • Location: sunny sunny Bournemouth
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Bartlett style mild and benign
  • Location: sunny sunny Bournemouth

Are you still using the sonic anemometer?

 

My mechanical one has failed (direction stuck north), considering the sonic one as a replacement. Should need less maintenance as I have to get my friendly aerial man to help with maintenance.

You mention about "changing a channel" - is it not cabled?

Have you had any issues with rain or ice affecting readings? I seem to remember others having issues with 3rd party sonic models before Davis brought their own out.

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Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield

The davis vp2 I've got is wireless. Since I've got two the iss only supports one I have another wireless anemometer repeater. I changed the channel due to descrepsies between the two.

I've heavy rain effect the sonic one once for one reading so edited it out of the data.   Novembers 2020 snow knocked both the analogue out and the sonic the snow filling the cups of the analogue and covering the senors on the sonic. So I had several hours of either zero readings or readings too low before the wind and rising temperatures removed the snow.

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Posted
  • Location: Skirlaugh, East Yorkshire
  • Location: Skirlaugh, East Yorkshire

I currently have a frozen up standard anemometer here too. It hasn't recorded any gusts all day.

It could be genuine as its totally calm, but more likely iced up. Hopefully it comes back to life tomorrow.

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Posted
  • Location: sunny sunny Bournemouth
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Bartlett style mild and benign
  • Location: sunny sunny Bournemouth

Thanks for the response. Snow is so rare down here I'll almost never have a problem.

 

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