Davis Vantage ProII Red Switch for Tipping Bucket

My Davis Vantage ProII is living in kind of extreme weather conditions, but it has been delivering stable weather data for years and years. The only problem has been related to a battery change during winter time with poor lighting conditions for the solar Power.

For almost a year ago I did experience problem with the tipping bucket registering the rain rate. I have had a hard time finding good information related to this problem, both on the Internet and through the dealer network. I did however get a good response from the support point at the official Davis web page - the problem could be caused by a broken red switch at the tipping bucket!

The Norwegian dealer was contacted, and after a couple of months I had 2 red switches delivered!

The mounting of the Red switch into the tipping bucket is not well documented online. Here are some photos describing the process:

Remove the tipping bucket by pressing the plastic base gently to the sides, removing the axle

Remove the tipping bucket base from the base unit by firmly pressing the two latches

The red switch is located under the red switch cover

Release the red switch cover from the bottom side of the tipping bucket base

Remove the red switch cover

Use a soldering iron to change the red switch

 

 

When the weather station has been assembled, you can actually hear a tiny "tick" once the tipping bucket is passing through the red switch. This tick was not present at my weather station prior to this fix.

 

My weather station is now as good as new, and the weather situation is captured and published directly to the internet by use of the Hautespot HauteWIND HR-IXPWINDi appliance! 

 

There are some good description of other Davis Hardware fixes at irelandsweather.com.