Strange Lithium Battery Instruction

[Ron in BC]

Between sailing and soaring I've always been very attuned to weather conditions so I was happy to see that Santa brought me a La Crosse Wind Speed Weather Station.
Some folks fly a flag because of patriotism but I mostly fly mine to see what the wind is doing.

From the manual: This product operates on alkaline batteries. However, it is suggested to use lithium batteries in areas where the temperatures are consistently below -30*C (-22F).

Ron

[Vermilye]

The non rechargeable Lithium batteries work better at low temperatures than the alkaline type.

[alanmalk]

Originally Posted by Vermilye

The non rechargeable Lithium batteries work better at low temperatures than the alkaline type.

My packet of Energizer Ultimate Lithium AAA batteries (pink bunny) says "good from -40F to 140F".

[Ron in BC]

Well, who knew, I didn't. Guess I've never bought non-rechargeable lithium batteries.

Too bad that chemistry isn't rechargeable, it'd sure be less difficult for trailer folks using lithium batteries in cold climates.

Ron

[KirkB]

I guess I'm no Energizer bunny, my battery recharges better when it is warm out.

[HABBERDABBER]

They work better in cold temperatures because they do not contain ANY water in them. Alkaline batteries are "aqueous" electrolyte based,...aqueous being Greek or Latin for water.
Lithium batteries do not have water anywhere near around, as Lithium reacts violently in its presence.
Lithium batteries have other electrolytes (liquids) to transfer those electrons within the battery. Exotic concoctions of non water based fluids, with higher freeze temperatures..
Thus, no water......no freezing of the water. Consumer Lithium batteries operate much better in "normal" cold temps. The H20 in an alkaline battery doesn't freeze at 32F, same as the water in a lead acid battery. Get cold enough, it can.

All batteries suffer from degradation of performance, rate capability, voltage, etc with low temperature. That's thermodynamics.....physics....the "wall", if you will. We send space probes powered by batteries into that cold, dark place,,,,but they are exotic electro-chemistries that you won't ever find at Radio Shack.

There are rechargeable 1.5V lithium batteries. Tenavolts and DeleePow are 2 brands that I use. Good for 1,000 recharges, and they don't self-discharge nearly as much as NiMH rechargeables.

[Mike Lewis]

The LaCrosse weather station is pretty cool. I bought one a while ago from Costco. I have a couple of suggestions:

- the tabs and springs in the wind sensor are not stainless steel and will rust, so I suggest coating the contacts with dielectric grease before putting the batteries in. My anemometer used size "C" batteries which I could not find in lithium, but I recommend the grease no matter what batteries you use.

- download the LaCrosse View app to your cellphone and sync it up with your weather station components before mounting anything. Then you can sit in your easy chair and see the temperature and windspeed outside.

[Ron in BC]

Thanks for the tips Mike. It did cross my mind when I assembled the bottom cup that covers the batteries that maybe some sealing would be a good thing. After all the unit is out there in good weather and bad and corrosion is best dealt with before it happens.

I have the display within sight of my easy chair. Kind of addictive. Guess the novelty will wear off soon enough.

There's been some places with the trailer that I'd have loved to have had it.

Ron

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

There's been some places with the trailer that I'd have loved to have had it.
Ron

I think Jon V. uses a weather station when he is camped. I'm tempted, but I'm afraid if I put one more mast on my trailer I'll start getting banned from campgrounds.

[John in Santa Cruz]

I ran a lacrosse station for many years. it was pretty funky, the rain gauge was constatntly jamming and giving me inaccurate results, and the lacrosse software for updating a webpage was really bad and buggy. I switched to an Accurite, its been a little better. some day I'll finally break down and get a Davis or similar, but they are $$$$.

home weather data from my Accurite...
https://freescruz.com/weewx2/
(I'm not using Accurite's software at all, I'm using a open source program, WeeWX, which I'm running on a Raspberry Pi)

I also picked up a WeatherFlow station, which looked interesting, its wind and temp stuff works well enough, but its rain gauge is very inaccurate in light rains, it relies on measuring haptic vibrations of rain drops striking the rubber membrane on top.

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

home weather data from my Accurite...
https://freescruz.com/weewx2/
(I'm not using Accurite's software at all, I'm using a open source program, WeeWX, which I'm running on a Raspberry Pi)

How did you interface your Accurite with the RPi? Wireless? USB?

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

How did you interface your Accurite with the RPi? Wireless? USB?

the accurite's weather instrument outside communicates over its own wireless (not wifi or bluetooth) to a display panel you mount inside. the display panel in turn talks USB to the Raspberry. The Raspberry in turn can talk ethernet or bluetooth to your local network to upload to your web server, and/or post data to the Weather Underground.



about every two years I have to replace 4 AA's in the weather instrument head, which is up on a tall pole to clear the roof of the house to get better wind readings.

[BobG]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

home weather data from my Accurite...
https://freescruz.com/weewx2/
(I'm not using Accurite's software at all, I'm using a open source program, WeeWX, which I'm running on a Raspberry Pi)

This is interesting. I am not familiar with Raspberry Pi but notice it coming up in conversations quite often. Which Raspberry Pi are you running? The Raspberry Pi 3 B+ looks like it would work and isn't very expensive. What do you think?

[John in Santa Cruz]

I was using a 3B but bumped it to a pi 4B when I was going to give the 3B away to someone for a security camera -> webcam task... that never happened so I have them both. anyways, either will work. A Pi is just a naked board, I put mine in the nice little diecast alum heatsink/boxes made by FLIRC. Do be sure to buy a recommended power supply, too. I understand Pi's are backordered due to supply chain issues. I got mine from www.pishop.us, the Pi 4B 2GB was $45, total order with case, PSU, shipping, was $78

But setting this up requires at least some understanding of linux.

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

I also picked up a WeatherFlow station, which looked interesting, its wind and temp stuff works well enough, but its rain gauge is very inaccurate in light rains, it relies on measuring haptic vibrations of rain drops striking the rubber membrane on top.

Some of my ham radio friends in the Pensacola area have the WeatherFlow Tempest weather station. I was intrigued by its haptic rain gauge; too bad it doesn't work well.

In any case, if I were going to spend that much for a weather station I'd go ahead and get a Davis. I have the ideal location for one: in the back corner of a field adjacent to other fields, with no trees around. I'd try to mount it according to NOAA spec and secure it well, so the hurricane it is supposed to measure doesn't take it away.

[alanmalk]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

...
I understand Pi's are backordered due to supply chain issues. I got mine from www.pishop.us, the Pi 4B 2GB was $45, total order with case, PSU, shipping, was $78

Pi's are in extremely short supply. This link is for a "Pi finder" website. Note that of the roughly 200 shops listed, about 5% actually have some in stock - all in Europe.
https://rpilocator.com/

[John in Santa Cruz]

I callubrated my Acccurite vs a precision manual rain gauge over a period of months, and got it so its within 0.01 or 0.02" on any given storm.

reading my Tempest directly using the WeeWX driver, it says I got 2.5" last night. Using the Tempest software which apparently 'adjusts' the readings per calibration reports you make, it read 3.0x ". my Accurite says I got 4.53" between midnight and noon today, and my manual gauge agrees.... oh wait, I just checked the manual gauge. This one has a 1" capacity inner tube graduated in 0.01" that sits under a funnel, any rain that overflows that 1" goes into an ungraduated outer tube, so you dump the inner tube, refill it to the 1.00 mark, dump it again, counting full inches, then the fraction left over. It came up with 4.80" :-O

maybe I need to recalibrate the Accurite again. 4.80 vs 4.56" (there was 0.03" on the acccurite in the last 24 hours that was yesterday early evening, I last emptied the Stratus manual gauge earlier in the week). still thats only a 5% error, I guess thats within tolerance.

Anyways, thats way off the 3.06" 'corrected' reading the WeatherFlow Tempest software shows, and even worse was the 2.58" that my own software reading the Tempest raw data read.

[Vermilye]

Originally Posted by Mike Lewis

I think Jon V. uses a weather station when he is camped. I'm tempted, but I'm afraid if I put one more mast on my trailer I'll start getting banned from campgrounds.

I carry an Acurite 06005RX Weather Station when I'm traveling. Not all that happy with it since it only updates wind speed every 30 seconds or so.

At home I have a Davis Vantage Vue system. Much better, but far more expensive. Until I get around to making up a cable to power it via a USB port it wouldn't make much sense to take the Vantage Vue traveling - while it has battery back up in the base station, it uses too much power to run on them all the time.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Yeah, the WeatherFlow Tempest is better at winds than the accurite... But it has no display at all, the outdoor part is wireless and solar, while the inside piece talks wifi, and expects an internet connection, although people have reverse engineered the protocol so software like weewx can slurp it. The accurite misses gusts all the time.