I'm thinking of purchasing the present weather visibility and precipitation sensor. Is anyone using it that can give me a sense of its current drain, with what kind of time interval between measurements you set? The brochure just lists the current draw as 200 mA to 1 A - I'm hoping to get a better handle on it than that. Thanks!
The basic processing current of the PWS100 is <200 mA at 12 V supply. However, the sensor has two levels of heating available. One set of heaters - known as the dew heaters prevent condensation on the main lenses of the sensor. When these sensors turn on the current increases to around 500 mA at 12V. The figure of 1 A is the worst case if the input supply to the sensor drops to the minimum of around 9V (the current increasing at lower voltages).
By default the dew heaters turn on all the time the main hood heaters are not on, although they can be turned off by the user.
The main hood heaters run from a separate supply and consume 7A at 24 V - when fully on. These only need to be used in conditions then bad icing might be likely.
Thank you! That's really helping us evaluate whether or not we can buy the sensor - we have a wind generator as the power source, so we have to be pretty miserly with the electiricity. But without the 7amp hood heaters, it might be feasible.
Hi, I'm still considering the ourchase of the PWS100 as a precipitation sensor, but a couple of our sites are consistently windy, and the brochure says this will decrease the accuracy of the PWS. Is it less accurate than a tipping bucket would be in the same situation?
Short answer is that unless the raingauge is extermely poorly exposed, the PWS100 (and most similar sensors of this type) will be less accurate than a conventional raingauge.
It would still be more accurate at detecting the start, end and totals of very fine rainfall due to the its high sensitivity and not having the evaporation problems of a raingauge.
CS would not sell this sensor as a raingauge substitute.