Failure - Oregon Scientific BAR388 Wireless Weather Station

[@mediumcoeli9661]

The solution is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqrGo6Wmpr10fK8 The part to blame for the failure of the station is the quartz clock resonator 32.768 kHz.

[@IsikUgurlu]

Thank you! Sorry to respond this late. I didn't see your message. Today I changed the quartz resonator. I seems it works, but the screen contrast is so dark, I cannot read anything, all LCD segments are active. Perhaps I damaged something else on the board while hopelessly trying to repair it :( Thank you again.

[@Raysea88]

I wish I could help but mine does exactly the same. Oregon Scientific phone # is always busy or I would ask them.

[@IsikUgurlu]

Thank you for your reply. Mine is irrepairable, since I overly powered the device before I found the fix. There is a crystal to be replaced on the board. A Russian guy made a video about it. I Will post here when I get back home in a couple of days. Cheers!

[@SidneyCritic]

It might be a power supply problem, ie rechargeable batteries that don't have enough capacity.

[@IsikUgurlu]

Thank you for your comment. I also installed alkaline batteries. Didn't help. I even tried USB power (5 volts, 500 mA), no luck... So I don't think it is a power supply problem.

[@SidneyCritic]

I bought a cheap Ebay WS and I can't read the display with the std batteries - that why I'm looking at vids for solutions -. I made a variable power supply from 0 to 3.8 volts and slowly turned up the voltage, and it does what yours does when the voltage is too low. My unit works perfect between 3.3-3.4V, which is faulty because it should run between 2-3V. Mine uses 2mA running so it doesn't look like an internal short, maybe it's a bad soldered joint. Maybe yours is like mine - check it -, so maybe add another battery to bump the voltage. These things don't have much internally but if it has an electrolytic cap maybe change it out.

[@IsikUgurlu]

Sorry to hear the trouble you have with your Ebay WS. Perhaps it is a bad soldering as you mentioned, that behaves like a resistor in the circuit. Earlier I tried to open it's cover to see if there is a bulged capacitor or something. But I wasn't successful, I don't want to force and break it. After reading your message I connected my good old diy variable regulated power supply. Starting from 1.5 V, I increased the voltage up to 12 V. No improvements. At 12 V the screen was completely blank. In between the above values, display is all the same, garbage. Perhaps I will force to open it and give it a last chance before I send it to recycle :( Thank you for your advice anyway. Good day!

[@SidneyCritic]

No luck with mine either. I changed a few elec caps - they were out of spec -, touched up some solder - hard because SMD is so small -, and it's still the same. Will build an external 3.3V power supply to get it working. It could be the zebra strip not connecting the PCB to the LCD, so maybe press the PCB down on to the LCD and see if it starts working. Or maybe the full voltage isn't getting to the PCB, so maybe check it on the PCB. You've got nothing to lose, so might as well hack it.

[@IsikUgurlu]

I was finally successful to open the cover without much damage and inspected visually. A tiny surface mounted ceramic disk capacitor, which I believe soldered during post manufacturing stage, short-circuited. After removing it, the unit showed some signs of life; beeping when reset, searching for outdoor unit, etc. But the display is over contrasted, unreadable. Changing the input voltage resulted similar to yours. My unit now displays temp, humidity, time, date only between 2.1 and 2.5 volts (although it is rated as 4.5V). The barometer shows only HHHH, but this may be because I didn't install batteries in the outdoor unit yet. So I left it running at 2.2 volts until tomorrow. Let's see if any changes happen till tomorrow.

[@frown]

Use real, brand name batteries for starters, not those Russian dollar store batts. Looks like you have a loose connection somewhere, open her up, check around the screen especially.

[@IsikUgurlu]

Thanks for your message. Problem was solved, I pinned the message for further information. Have a good day!

[@hydroforce1000]

Ran off a subcarrier band..MSN Direct Band Network operating on 67.647 Kilohertz. Which Microsoft stopped all services to all Oregon weather systems network. Thank you Mr. Gates!