What is your Station ID or the link to your station? I was going to see if your Tempest stayed at the fully charged voltage or if it cycled like it is supposed to do when the PBA is powered by internal batteries. If it stayed fully charged then something was definitely wrong.
I just installed a Power Booster today on my Tempest. I did not install batteries and plan to run it only on AC power.
What voltage range should I expect to see? At what voltage does it kick in to provide power?
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On auxiliary power:
- the booster will keep the Tempest battery topped up, just like the solar panels do.
In other words. . .when you connect the Power Booster (WF-PBA01) using the supplied AC Adapter. . .the battery will “perk up” to it maximum voltage (~2.80v to 2.82v) and stay that way as long as you keep the booster on the AC adapter. I was one of the original Power Booster Field Testers. I connected 2 out of 3 of my Tempest° devices to the two prototype Power Boosters I have from Dec 16th until yesterday morning (Dec 27th). Both of those devices remained “topped up” to 2.82v for 11 days. I pulled them off the Boosters in the afternoon of Dec 27th to see if they would respond to sunlight on the solar panels. After a short battery drop upon removing them from the Boosters. . .both of them then “perked” back up to 2.82v all on their own. . .with the aid of the Sun on the solar panels.
So basically if you want continuous max battery voltage thru the remainder of this winter. . .suggest you connect your Tempest° device to the Power Booster and use the AC Adapter. As @gizmoev mentioned above. . .when the Tempest° is on the Power Booster. .and the Booster is using Energizer Lithium batteries instead of the AC Adapter. . .the Booster won’t be engaged UNTIL the main Tempest° battery level drops to <2.42v (by design). Then the Tempest° will trigger (trick) the Booster in providing the necessary power to “booster” the battery back up. But. . .when the Tempest° battery reaches 2.60v. . .then the Booster then cuts off (by design). The Tempest° battery should hold at 2.60v for a while then Very Slowly draw back down (by design) to around 2.53v to 2.56v. For simple worry-free “peace-of-mind”. . .I suggest using the Power Booster with the AC adapter (if you have a power cord that will reach your device sufficiently.) The Booster combined with the supplied AC Adapter is the best way to go for long cloudy periods this winter.
Thank you storm_tracker.
Looks like I’ll need to re-check all connections. The power booster was installed yesterday (12/28) at 3:30pm. The battery level was 2.73v at that time. Since adding the booster, the voltage has slowly dropped to 2.62v, so there appears to be a problem. 
Tempest Station ID: 20106
If your Tempest is not running the right firmware version, it will continually drain the batteries in the PBA when you are not running it on AC power. Power Booster - Firmware Number? - #2 by eric says you need to be at firmware 165 (or higher) on the Tempest. Many units out there are at 156, not 165 or higher … and, at 156, if you are running the PBA on batteries only, you will see continual draining of the batteries.
If you are still at 156 (or some other version below that), open a support request to get it upgraded.
Your Tempest is on firmware v172. I haven’t heard, but maybe they have changed the charging behavior when the PBA is on external power. There really isn’t any reason to keep the voltage above ~2.6V continuously, any way. Maybe @eric can check that the Tempest sees the PBA.
Thank you gizmoev, I had the same thought that maybe the newer firmware maintains around 2.6v instead of keeping the battery maxed out.
With a little luck, maybe @eric has the ability to see if the PBA is connected -or let us know if this is normal with the newer firmware.
Thanks again everyone!
I installed the booster 2 days ago, and I went from 2.11v to 2.81 (over a few hours) and it has been maintaining at 2.81 since it got to that point.
I’d your PBA using batteries or external power?
I just looked at the Tempest I have on prototype PBA #5, which is on external power, and see that the battery does cycle.
Note that it finished charging well after the sun went down at 16:32. This Tempest is on firmware v165.
Alkaline Batteries
Mine has maintained 2.81V for the last 2 days; which is good for now; I need more time to fully observe.
The batteries will die relatively quickly then, because the Tempest is essentially running on them. The Tempest should charge up then stop charging and only charge when the Tempest battery drops a little below 2.5V or so and then charge up again.
What is your Station ID or the link to your station?
50982 is the ID
I don’t disagree, but it has only been up for 2 days on the booster. There might be a firmware issue, but I don’t have enough run time to say yet.
Got the Power Booster working after disconnecting everything and reconnecting. The connections all looked and felt great beforehand -so it’s hard to say where it was.
Battery level increased from 2.58v to 2.77v in about 20 minutes and is holding steady.
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@glenngoddard Thanks for the station ID. It looks like you are still at Tempest firmware version 156 . From what I read elsewhere, the Tempest needs to be at a minimum of 165 to correctly manage PBA units running on batteries only. If it does not change soon, you should porbably open a suppoirt ticket to get it upgraded.
That being said, I got mine upgraded to 165 yesterday, but, it still ran on the battery operated PBA overnight (based the Tempest battery being at 2.81v when I woke up this morning before sunrise). I have unplugged the PBA battery compartment for today … I will see if it works better after I plug it back in.
Also, if you typically get temperatures below freezing, alkaline batteries may not be the best choice ( Which Batteries for Flashlights and Tools in Cold Weather. )
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Two days is plenty of time to know if there is an issue. As @wx3i09 said, the firmware on your tempest needs to be updated. I don’t recall how often the WF servers pole stations checking on firmware update needs, but check on it after the weekend and open a support ticket if it isn’t updated yet.
How are you able to determine other’s firmware version?
From the following URL for your station … Tempest Station Status …
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In the app go to Settings, Stations, station name, Status. On the web, just click the
at the bottom of the main forecast page.
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Just for info regarding attaching a pba to the Tempest.
Before you attach the wafer reboot the Tempest via the switch, wait 10 seconds and then add the wafer. The pba is detected +/- during the first 1 minute after a reboot for sure. After that it is is every X though I still didn’t figure out the x 
.
(if you work on batteries in the pba, see that the batteries are inserted before you add the wafer).
This can explain in many cases why it isn’t seen at first, you add it and did not reboot the Tempest … and best is to reboot via the switch.
Hopefully this will help some
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