Hi Petr,
That Tempest needs to be upgraded to a newer FW to be able to run ok on batteries, it should work on power outlet though I don’t see it attached right now ??
Maybe open a support ticket to get that looked into.
Hi Erik,
the PBA is still connected and the AC adapter is in the 240V socket. It’s been that way the whole time.
So is it possible that there is some problem with the AC adapter?
And as far as I know, firmware upgrade is not needed for PBA if it is still in AC power.
The station is online and no lightning has been detected any more after the update so things are looking bright for now.
Thank you very much.
Hi all.
So after i have read all of this threads im still confused how the pba should work.
Is this correct ?
On ac power:
Start charging when battery discharges to 2.60V, and stay in full charge mode aprox 2,80V.
On battery:
Start trickle charging when battery discharges to 2.42V, and trickle charge all time until pba battery’s are empty.
Sort of. There appears to be some changes over time as to the behavior of the charging when the PBA is on external power. Initially, the Tempest would charge to full, 2.80V, and stay there. More recent firmware versions, like v165 and up, the Tempest charges to ~2.8V and then discharges to ~2.48V before charging up again as can be seen below. I believe this is the expected behavior and is how I would want it to behave. This Tempest is on firmware v165 and on prototype PBA#5 powered by an AC adapter. Incidentally, this power booster has been in operation since March 2021 and has outlasted its expected time. You can see the battery graph at Tempest.
I just moved one of my stations to a production PBA, also on external power, and it charged up to ~2.8V and is holding steady. This is a good example of what to expect when the firmware is below v165. This Tempest is on firmware v156. I’m going to watch it for a few days to see if the automatic firmware update happens when the WF system discovers this Tempest is on a PBA. Once the firmware updates, the charging behavior should switch to normal.
It appears that it might start charging at ~2.48V. My stations with the PBA on batteries charge only to ~2.6V and then don’t charge again until they are back at ~2.48V. To me, this makes sense as it is best to leave the Tempest fully powered yet able to take advantage of any solar charging it can do. If it charged to 2.8V and then the sun came out, there would be little to no benefit of the solar charging. It is difficult to see, but feel free to peruse the graph of this Tempest, which is on firmware v165 and a PBA on batteries. Note that the PBA was installed on about December 10, 2022.
Last night, December 31, 2022, at 19:28 I installed a PBA powered by batteries on a Tempest with firmware v172.
As you can see, it charged only to 2.60V before stoping.
Thanks alot for good info Gizmoev.
Long storry short , im now on my 3 replacement station.
Station nr 1 had connect to hub connectivity issues, and pressure error.
Station nr 2 same connectivity issue, only.
Station nr 3 completed with new hub also, plugged in started with wind sensor issues and charging up over 3.2-3V, same pba ac supply used on all station.
Disconnected pba to let station use battery normal and deplete to 2,40V, plugged in pba for x days, no charging.
Yesterday 31 dec i re-connected station 2, all sensors on this is good is seems from all of this issues, and now possible lucky since also new hub now regarding the connectivity issues, battery was showing 2.68V on startup has been drained in the 2.58V and still no charging from the pba ac supply. Came some sun up today so started sun charging.
All station has same firmware, latest new.
Will give it some days more, hope some clouds so battery can drain enough to hopefully start charging.
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Just found out the pba power supply is defect, measuring zero volt.
That’s why the pba stop working 
had to be issue under Station nr 3 first connect/charging.
Had a old cam supply around so connected it and now charging.
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Hate to say it, but I’ve had my booster accessory for months and my Tempest was on version 156 until I sent a request to support, who upgraded it to 173. Perhaps that’s why the eight Lithium AAs only lasted four weeks.
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Just installed a booster yesterday. I’m on batteries only right now. It has charged up to 2.76V and stayed there. From what I’ve read it should be cycling.
I’m on firmware 172.
Thoughts?
Did you power cycle the Tempest just before mounting it to the PBA?
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Nope. I missed that memo. Will do that now.
Thanks
UPDATE: That did it. Thanks again.
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How do you power cycle it?
Turn off the switch on the bottom, then turn it back on. When the Tempest boots up it checks for the presence of the PBA. I think it happens within the first minute.
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Hi All,
I have had a replacement tempest with firmware 173. Attached PBA within 1 minute of power cycle and it will only charge to 2.69 and stayed there for 24 hours.
My old one (which support confirms has a faulty controller) charge to 2.83 or 2.5 or not at all.
May I ask does anyone tempest charge past 2.7 when on firmware 173?
Are you using batteries or external power? If batteries it should not charge past about 2.6V and then wait until the charge level drops to 2.42V before boosting it back up.
Hi @gizmoev
Cheers for that, will watch what happens at 2.42.
I am charging indoors on 240v, though on my old unit I tried batteries as well. My old unit is on 2.35volts and although plugged into PBA flat lines at 2.35v
It would be advantageous if Weather flow actual posted what the policy is so that we can all monitor the expected behaviour.
You mean like in this document?
For some people the ‘KISS’ approach ‘keep it simple’ and use support if it is not covered in simple works well. For some people we want to know the details.
I suspect a document with an explanation of the PBA charging behaviour on different versions of Tempest firmware or Tempest version would be nice. And if it is required then how to update the Tempest firmware.
Perhaps add the common PBA questions to the FAQ to provide answers to PBA questions. (Currently I do not see any PBA questions on the FAQ, which may change in the future when you might be reading this comment)
cheers Ian 
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Hi @gizmoev
Unfortunately not that one.
According to @eric the PBA charges in stages up to x then flat lines and I believe it should do that at least twice but from where?.
I would like to know what are the flat line voltages and also what does it drop to before it starts to charges from the PBA.
It seems to be a common question here but no policy documented that I am aware of; just forum observations.
If we knew more we could confirm all is OK. I cannot determine the ideal with my new unit. It will not go past 2.69 V. Should it hit 2.83V ?
Alternatively a “on charge indicator” would be nice on the battery card so we can see where the power is coming from.
This has nothing to do with the charge controller but the chemistry of a battery.
At first it charges up quickly and voltage too, at some point you start to really charge the bulk of the capacity and voltage rises little or hardly (depends the chemistry) and once you reach like 80% full, the remaining 20% needs as much energy to reach 100% as the 80% before.
This is why you see often these non lineair charges (almost the same for the discharge curve, it is never lineair).
In our case once the charge stops the voltage drops almost immediately to +/- 2.6V which is the ‘rest voltage’. Once you start to pull it will go down slowly till you reach something around 2.5V and there is the bulk of the energy and it will resist long and deplete very slowly and at some point you near empty and voltage drops off the cliff as we say. This is the typical cycle of the battery used in the Tempest.
Maybe some electronics geek can explain it better 
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