Sky - solar panel - overcast days

So I’ve been having a couple of overcast days lately. I noticed my battery level on my sky unit dropped rapidly last day or so…

Just wondering if it will hold on until the sun comes back :slight_smile: :sunny:

Although it doesnt look very promising looking at the forecast… :frowning:

You all think my sky will die?

Hi Nick! Thanks for reaching out for assistance. The solar power accessory should continue powering the SKY over several weeks with little solar input during overcast conditions.

It looks like your solar power accessory might be failing instead, it’s already stopped providing power to the SKY yesterday morning. Can you disconnect it when you get the chance and check the electrical contacts for corrosion and the possibility of water intrusion. The voltage is very low and it likely won’t power the SKY if you reattach it without trying to charge it some. We can get you a replacement if necessary.

I’m having about the same issue. However, my SKY just stopped doing anything at midnight on the 11th and has not come back online.


The strange thing is that the Hub still thinks the battery is good??

Okay :frowning: I think it died yesterday …

Its on top of a 30 ft pole… will need to mount it down first… don’t know when I have the ability…

Niklas

Is there a way to manually charge the battery on the solar unit ?

No, sorry. But I’ll open a ticket for you so we can arrange to send a replacement solar power accessory. Thank you!

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@pagerman I’ll open a ticket for you as well so we can troubleshoot your issue. thank you!

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Hi there,

I installed the solar panel for the Sky in July. It has worked just fine for weeks. However all of sudden today the voltage readings started to decline sharply (on a Sunny day). It’s as if the panel quit charging.

Hello

That doesn’t look nice indeed, Is it difficult to bring down the system and check all parts ? Like the little contacts etc (in case something makes a bad contact). Also you took out the batteries inside the Sky ? Any water that seeped in ?

If it won’t come back to life after fiddling the solar panel connection I’m afraid you have a failed unit and only option I can give you is to contact @anon84912554

Please open a ticket at http://got.wf/contact or by emailing support@weatherflow.com

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The solar charger has been working fine for about six months.
Last night my Sky crashed due to low battery voltage.
This followed our first real winter night where it got to -4 F.
A screen shot of the battery voltage is attached.

WTF?

same questions/options as for rocket289k I’m afraid

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  • I also posted to Weatherflow support*.
    I’ll post up when I gat an answer.
    Any more of these crashes out there?

Hi Eric,

Here are the answers to your 3 questions:

1 - The little contacts were fine - no evidence of corrosion
2 - The batteries were removed when the solar panel was installed
3 - No sign of water at all

UPDATE: The sun came again today and the system came back to life. I inspected the unit around 8:30 am. Between 6:30 pm yesterday and 3:30 pm today there are no battery strength readings at all. Then suddenly at 3:30 the readings reappeared (see attached screenshot)

Sounds like a bad SPA. Solar panel works but either the battery or the charge controller is bad.

Can you mention your station ID, please .

4573 s the station ID

Re-edited because Weatherflow just sent me anew solar charger.
Looks like there are a few of these.

Hi, our sky solar panel also appears to have stopped working, our system us under two weeks old, we did take it down, try with regular batteries and it was fine. The solar panel charged up on a sunny day and we reinstalled it and after 1 day the battery shows replace again. image|666x500

Put in a support ticket and you will help ASAP.

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Okay, thanks for speaking up about your issue. I’ll open a ticket for you with customer service…
I see you have one open already, we were just waiting for a reply. I’ll follow up with you directly.
Thanks! :slight_smile:

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From the summer without problems, and tonight also died.
ID 2867