My usual luck – weather sensor batteries fail just as winter arrives

I’ve given up clipping detailed weather charts from my weather station (unless it’s exceptional), and recently got it wrong too, as I noted a sharp fall in temperature at the end of summer, only for things to jump back up almost right away.

That’s not the case now, of course, and we’ve now got frost, and even (so far) one snowfall.

However, I missed the start of this as the first sub-zero temperature also killed the external sensors’ batteries – the temp went down, and they got too low to keep the measurement circuits working, but happily kept the wireless transmitter going, so their death was not immediately obvious.

However, once that first freeze had passed, and the readings didn’t go up – the penny finally dropped, and I had to drag the sensor head down and get a new set of batteries installed.

I should install a battery box at ground level, with an extension up to the thing – but I’m too lazy.

Things go crazy – then settle down

It’s always slightly annoying to change the batteries, as silly reading spoil the records.

Starting with external temperature, it’s the first to be obviously wrong. I just thought the temperature had hit a minimum and stayed there, but that soon becomes obviously wrong. Note also the spike, which needs a restart (batteries out then back in) to clear it. Always does this.

OH! Just look at our crazy Scottish weather anyway. All the way down to at least -5°C (even if I didn’t record it), and now heading up past +11°C as I type, with at least +13°C, or more, currently being forecast!

Although the internal temperature suffers from the same battery change spike, it’s not affected by the battery failure outside.

The RH (Relative Humidity) does fail, at least the outdoor sensor does, internal is fine, again with the irritating spiking.

Although not mounted outside, the barometer (local pressure reading) gets messed up too.

This has to have a local correction made to correct for altitude, and changing the batteries means that value is lost, and has to be input again. But, it’s fine after that.

The system notes daily maximum and minimum external temperatures, so that gets messed up as well. I’ve added this last since the timescale is different compared to the above.

Silly mistake time returns

I’m still beating myself about the head for making a REALLY silly mistake while I was replacing the external batteries.

The Stevenson type screen around the external temp and RH sensors is something of a haven for spiders, and there’s always a few egg sacks stuck inside, which I remove since I have the thing down.

Without thinking, but realising my mistake when it was just too late to stop, I tapped the thing on a brick wall to knock the loosened sacks and debris out.

WRONG!

This has spent so many years in direct, unshaded sunlight that, despite being UV resistant, this radiation has taken its toll, as evidenced by the loss of its original glossy finish, and it’s becoming brittle.

While it didn’t break, one of the louvres (not the one tapped on the wall, but above it) now has a lovely crack along much of its length.

Next time, get a brush!

Oh well.

How good (or bad) is the ‘old’ camera I used on the Forth and Clyde Canal outing?

It’s probably not fair to just show the ‘bad’ pics taken by the little old camera I took for a day out on the Forth and Clyde Canal, especially since they were shot under conditions this camera doesn’t really possess the image sensor to cop with, that period when the sun has set, and darkness is hurrying to end the day.

I’m really spoilt by being able to hand hold pics taken in that zone (using a dSLR), and even later if there’s a sniff of light to be found, reflected from clouds or, nowadays, from nearby white LED street lighting.

But that’s another subject, this is about how far today’s image sensors perform compared to yesterdays.

Less than ideal, this post contains the shots that just couldn’t quite make it, no matter how I tried, The best thing about them is that between my bracing the camera, and a fairly good image stabilising system, none of those pics show any evidence of camera shake, or movement during the longish exposures.

Apart from the camera mistakenly thinking proper focus had been achieved, and allowing the shutter to be released, the next most noticeable sign of age is the poor rendition of detail. This can be seen in shots where there are trees, as the leaves and branches just run together, in a sort of green mud, rather than showing any detail of individual leaves, or even branches. The same is true of any area that has low contrast, and everything just gets muddy, and runs together. This should not be confused with poor focus.

By way of comparison, I took a couple of example shots in the sunshine, seen below, and these show that even under good lighting, the old sensor is no match for today’s, and a look at the two pics should show that despite being reasonable pics, highlights in particular are quick to hit peak white, and lose detail. Reducing the exposure doesn’t really help, as that means shadow detail is lost.

Apart from reducing the size, the only thing I did to these examples was lift the shadows to show there was detail there, and reduce the highlights to calm down the brightest areas a little. Focus is ‘as shot’, with no enhancement. It’s slightly better than seen here, as I’ve found that reducing the size of the image also reduces the sharpness – an effect it took me some time to identify as the cause of my images being ‘softened’ when seen online.

Other than note that this camera does still work reasonably well on a good day, and shouldn’t really be taken out after sunset, I think comparing the pics seen in the two posts says more than I can.

Improvements aren’t just down to the sensor, as the camera also ‘silently’ processes the capture before delivering it, and both tames down areas of high brightness, and raises shadow detail before saving the result (unless you disable this, or are shooting RAW).

I have to confess seeing this has unfortunately set me off again, and lust after the last revision of my dSLR, as its low light ability has been boosted by four stops, something that would make my life easier as I chase down hand held shots in darkness.

It would be a luxury though, as I can take shots in near darkness already, with a little help from something to lean against.

No harm in watching for a suitable body to turn up though, the real problem only comes if one does!