digital thermometers.... arghhh

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JR.
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digital thermometers.... arghhh

Post by JR. »

I really like the concept of wireless outdoor thermometers, but have long struggled with getting good usable outdoor readings. I have had trouble for years with outdoor sensor placement to avoid the morning sun or afternoon sun temperature distortion. I thought I had it sorted by locating the remote sensor in a shaded corner of my carport that didn't see either morning or afternoon sun, but the corner was too sheltered from the weather and apparently was warmer than the true outdoors. Obvious when it a records an above freezing overnight low in the mid 30s, but there is obvious frost on the grass. Moving it out of the carport got it reading several degrees colder, but revisited morning/afternoon sunlight issues.

I had a old earlier version remote outdoor thermometer that I retired after the sensor got dropped by a wind storm... Long story short it still works so I fired up dueling outdoor thermometers. This should give me two outdoor temps to select and ignore the relatively obvious sunlight influence, BUT.... Sitting them side by side in my kitchen they don't even agree on the indoor temperature that should be the easy part. I had a third indoor temp/humidity meter, so taking a 2 out of three vote the old outdoor base station is reading 3' warm indoors. To add insult to injury, it stops receiving the outdoor sensor due to RF interference between it and the newer base station. It can maintain receiver lock when sitting about 5' away. For now the old thermometer is reading the 2' higher outside too. I don't think the error is in the base station since when I first powered it up on the same channel as the new one, it read the exact same outdoor temp, now switched to the different channel I read high both indoors and outside.

They now sell three sensor base stations to utilize all three RF channels of remote sensors. For only $30 I'll take my chances with that, not that I need 3 remote temperatures. They will surely have the RF interference issue sorted. My current fancy outdoor thermometer includes a weather forecasting algorithm built in that has pretty graphics but literally has not been correct once in the several years I've been using it. It is almost an opposite indicator. Right now it says rain and cloudy, but weather is actually clear and sunny (exact opposite).

====

On a related topic, concerned about the Chinese trying to kill me with Covid and a recent house call from my local plumber/helper with only partial mask discipline while working, I started taking my own temperature to look for a fever. I dug out a cheap digital thermometer that was probably 10YO. The battery was so weak it didn't beep but it still delivered temperature readings. Last week while food shopping I picked up a brand new (cheap $4) digital thermometer. Pretty much the same design, and surprisingly it returned the exact same temperature readings within 0.1' F. My body temperature after multiple days checking runs consistently a couple degrees low, 96-97F, if the thermometer is wrong the two are at at least extremely consistent from two different (?) manufacturers, or at least two different production runs, years apart.

Maybe I should check and see if they design weather thermometers.

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: digital thermometers.... arghhh

Post by mediatechnology »

You need a "cotton region" shelter for your outdoor instruments...

https://proaudiodesignforum.com/forum/p ... f=12&t=476
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Re: digital thermometers.... arghhh

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mediatechnology wrote: Tue Jan 19, 2021 4:43 am You need a "cotton region" shelter for your outdoor instruments...

https://proaudiodesignforum.com/forum/p ... f=12&t=476
Definitely. This is the real thing and it would look great in JR backyard. 😀
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JR.
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Re: digital thermometers.... arghhh

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I pulled the trigger on the cheap 3 banger...

Oddly my two outdoor remotes are closer in temperature to each other than the indoor temps (2' apart). Right now I have sensors in front and back of the house. The back that gets morning sun momentarily read warmer than the front this morning before the sun clouded over. Now the front sensor is showing warmer. Of course the always wrong weather algorithm indicates sunny. :roll: Since the weather feature is useless, the only other feature of any value in the fancy thermometer is a radio updated internal clock, but it is hard to lose track of what time it is these days. So I can live without that.

JR
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Re: digital thermometers.... arghhh

Post by mediatechnology »

I posted an Oregon Scientific thermometer instruction manual on the forum and its often one of the most popular downloads.
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Re: digital thermometers.... arghhh

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mediatechnology wrote: Wed Jan 20, 2021 4:17 pm I posted an Oregon Scientific thermometer instruction manual on the forum and its often one of the most popular downloads.
There is an old saying the man with two watches never knows what time it really is.

After a few days with two outdoor thermometers I see significant variation beyond the thermometer accuracy.

JR
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Re: digital thermometers.... arghhh

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My triple remote thermometer arrived early, before the batteries I ordered for it, but I rounded up enough old batteries with enough voltage to put out the remotes.

So far two different times the external remotes stopped sending signal.. both times I was able to bring them back to life by spinning the batteries. Right now I suspect the old batteries are oxidized but I won't worry about it until the new batteries show up (monday).

The sun finally came out for the first time in two days. Without sun light the outdoor thermometers tracked pretty close. Now with sunlight I am seeing as much a 7 degrees difference.

I even have a fourth remote set up on another corner... This has confirmed my suspicion that the shaded corner of my car port was not a good place to detect outdoor temps... It measures high in cold weather.

I am finding diminishing value from knowing the different outdoor temperature in four places.

The new generation temperature remotes are selectable for 3 different frequencies (1,2, and 3). The old ones were also three frequency (A,B, and C). I now have three new remotes working at the same time as one old remote so the frequencies appear to be different.
===

I notice that some new weather remotes track barometric pressure too (mine doesn't)... it seems temp, humidity, and barometric pressure should be enough information to predict weather.

JR
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Re: digital thermometers.... arghhh

Post by terkio »

JR. wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 1:21 pm I notice that some new weather remotes track barometric pressure too (mine doesn't)... it seems temp, humidity, and barometric pressure should be enough information to predict weather.

JR
Barometric pressure is the most important.
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Re: digital thermometers.... arghhh

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terkio wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 1:47 pm
JR. wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 1:21 pm I notice that some new weather remotes track barometric pressure too (mine doesn't)... it seems temp, humidity, and barometric pressure should be enough information to predict weather.

JR
Barometric pressure is the most important.
agreed... when I was a kid we had a barometer in the living room. This was old school (mechanical) and it had an adjustable pointer. You set the pointer to current pressure and use that to look for changing barometric pressure with subsequent checks. Dropping barometric pressure is evidence of a low pressure system moving in (bad weather) and high pressure indicates good weather.

Right now I am looking at cheap remotes with barometric features that track change trends over a week or more. I can imagine some simple algorithm based weather predictions... My former remote temperature gadget pretends to be able to predict weather but is chronically wrong. Perhaps it is designed to use an internal barometer that is faulty or missing.

I may repurpose my new 3 zone remote temperature gadget to track temperature in back bedroom, main room, and my attached laundry room.

Ideally the outdoor temp sensors need hi/lo memory.

I am learning more about how wrong my remote locations were.

[update one of the remotes is dead and so far refuses to come back to life]

JR
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Re: digital thermometers.... arghhh

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my batteries showed up and I have moved the remotes indoors. Besides temperature these log humidity and I keep humidity low to manage mold.

I am keeping the indoor <50% in bedroom and main room, while bathroom rises to mid 50%... the third sensor is out in my laundry room and that was 90% yesterday, today 85%.[update] I just started some new seedlings in my greenhouse, that is inside my laundry room, so I moved the remote thermometer into the greenhouse so I can track my green house temps remotely. I likey. [/update]

I pulled the trigger on a remote thermometer with barometer... I am optimistic about better accuracy predicting storms.

JR
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