I was going to have a big whine about how after a lot of rainy days and brief periods of sunlight that my station was not charging back up… I removed it so I could do the reset trick, but below is what I found! Hopefully the picture came through. I have done some searching and will look at greasing the pole as well as some duct tape with the sticky side out. Had to evacuate the little blighters.
4 Likes
damn, that doesn’t look good. Hopefully you get it to work again.
Those “dad-gum” ants. . . they messed a Perfectly Good Tempest! How dare them!
1 Like
Told you the Tempest had bugs.
(dad joke)
That photo is…indescribable…
4 Likes
Leave them a surprise, maybe a packet of 9% fipronil! 
1 Like
Gross!!! 
Hopefully you can get it working again.
Wow. I never even thought of that happening. I would not be able to fix that.
DIY: NONTOXIC METHOD TO KILL ANTS
http://myfrugaladventures.com/2012/07/diy-nontoxic-method-to-kill-ants/
After thoroughly cleaning that detritus up with 99% IPA or whatever!
1 Like
Give Muhammad Ali a shot at it…
1 Like
lol
Love the comments 
Well I have it apart as you can see and cleaned. One of the ribbon cables lost some of its gold pins when I cleaned it with isoprol, the other came up clean. I think the combination of weather and ant waste lifted them. I have worked out (from previous posts) that you can open the tophat to where the cable goes. Tempest say that they do not supply this cable but have offered me another station at a discount which I will take up.
I am an electronics technician so there was no heavy handedness in getting the bits apart. The ribbon cable connects to the top circuit board through the middle of the unit. It looks like some security screws to separate the two parts deep inside it, I do have this driver but not that skinny a shaft to get to them!
Wil lsee how I go with getting a small ribbon cable but hopefully this helps others. Pretty much I had it too close to the ground. Did not want to mount it on my roof as that is iron and would reflect heat!
Found some! We have a supplier here in Australia, and I think pommie land as well, called element 14. If anyone is chasing a ribbon cable the description is below for you.
Click Here fro element14 part description.
2 Likes
I just took my Tempest off to reset it - battery was fine, but it was losing connectivity nearly every day; very erratic. Found lots of tiny ants. Shook them out as best I could, and cleaned the mounting sleeve in soapy water; it was filthy.
I’m really worried that the inside of the Tempest might look like this, and I’d like to clean it, but I’m not sure I can dismantle it as you have. Is it just a matter of removing the two bottom screws? Any tips?
Yes try removing the screws. More pictures here:
https://community.tempest.earth/t/disassemble-repair/21063/11
cheers Ian
Link is broken
Any pics ?
It still shows for me. Try again, maybe you can see the picture now.
Thanks I see it now.
Had ants in mine. It has since stopped reporting info to my hub. Pressing the button to reset/repair does nothing . It still shows weather in real time though just not connecting to Hub . Wondering if ants did something so I want to open and clean