One of the most common anomalies with the Vantage Pro2 weather station is a discreet element in the Integrated Sensor Suite (“ISS”) circuit board commonly called a “Supercap” going bad.  Characteristics of a supercap going bad may include quick drainage of the on board Lithium Ion battery, sporadic or no data transmission.  Often a bad capacitor will leak its electrolytics on the terminal. Replacement of the supercap and a fresh CR17345 Lithium Ion battery will often allow the ISS to operate nominally again.

DISCLAIMER

Davis Instruments does not recommend customers installing supercaps themselves.  Any desoldering or soldering on your ISS SIM board will ABSOLUTELY void your one year Davis Instruments warranty (as well as our personal warranty).  Modification is done at your own risk. Special care needs to be taken when working with the Supercap.  Improper handling can lead to capacitor damage when forming the 90 degree bend in the leads, special care needs to be taken to assure no stress travels through the terminal lead rubber seal on the bottom of the supercap.  The 90 degree bend can be done by holding the leads with narrow-tipped pliers near the rubber seal, and bending the leads against the pliers. When installing, special care needs to be taken to assure no mechanical stress travels into the part. Similarly, solder time needs to be minimized to keep thermal stresses from the Supercap.

The Supercap also needs to be affixed to keep mechanical shock from producing stresses between the part and the leads that are soldered to the board. This can be done with double-sided foam tape, silicone gel, or similar affixing.