I was wondering how often the Sky must be cleaned.
Does the Sky need any special maintenance over a period of time?
Or just clean it with a damp cloth once in a time?
Especially for the UV and brightness sensor.
I perform a monthly maintenance of my weather stations. For the SKY, all you need to do is gently wipe down all the areas with a wet paper towel. Gently wipe the top of SKY so that the Haptic surface and UV/Solar sensor area is clean. The last thing you can do is clean the wind path area with the wet paper towel as well. Inspecting the four sonic transducer sensors is a good idea to make sure there is no debris.
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Thank you for your information.
Will do it monthly. Especially in the winter and autumn.
Spider webs and other debris and filthiness.
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in addition to cleaning, what do you think to apply a wax so that the rain does not stay on the SKY?
because I have the impression that when it is soaked in water it does not see the fine rain
Wax makes water bead up before the drops grow large enough to fall off, which I suspect will impact (pun intended) the sound made as subsequent raindrops fall. Plus, beaded drops in the wind slot will surely mess up the ultrasonic sensor flight pathsā¦
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Maybe putting a small umbrella over the sky will help with the rain buildup.
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Just add a trained hamster to tap on the SKY to simulate the rain and youāll be set. 
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We are short on hamsters here. Will a squirrel do?
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Only highly trained ones. I hear there are many of them in Colorado. Come to think of it, given Washington and Colorado laws, we both can probably find some high-ly trained ones though I hear they are a little slow at processing. 
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Hi @WFsupport,
How should we clean the special coating under the sonic transducers?
This is a photo of my Sky #4834 after 52 days outside after some gentle rain:
This is a video squirting water across it trying to clean it:
This is a photo after the squirting:
And after a gentle horizontal shake trying to remove the droplets:
It appears to me that the special coating was either inconsistent or might be wearing off causing the puddle?
I have not touched any of the surfaces inside the gap and this squirt of water is the first time I have tried it.
Wondering what else I can do?
cheers Ian 
the super hydrophobic coating does a relatively good job of reducing water build up in certain situations however there are some things that kind of work against the use .
- most super hydrophobic formulas especially consumer type needs redoing every so many months to retain its effectiveness . cold freezing weather can effect it quite badly when the defreeze kicks in.
- long periods of hot sun exposure can dissipate the formula,coating.
- works better when the surface is angled , flat or relatively flat surfaces the droplets that form have no where to run or move so you may see a build up.
tilt it 45 degrees you theoretically see it roll of .
i used a consumer spray on helmet visors it does quote regular replenishing ā¦replenishing every season would be the best advice .a trip to your local motorcycle specialist might reward you a solution there are different types that may have similar characteristics to the one used by wf ā¦no guarantee but worth looking into
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A competitorās consumer-grade ultrasonic wind unit uses a type of fabric (for lack of a better description) on the flat lower plate surface instead of a coating. I have no idea what the longevity of this material is, but it may eliminate/minimize the need for periodic cleaning.
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My Tempest will be arriving in the next week or two. This is my first weather station and have a few quick questions.
- Iāve read that the tempest doesnāt have to be that high off the ground compared to other weather stations. is this true?
- I would like to mount my Tempest to the frame of my garden in the back corner of my house ( 6"x6"x8ā non-treated timbers). I attached a pic. Any suggestions on how to do this? Iāve read through https://help.weatherflow.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047672153-Example-Installations
Iām thinking of using a 5-7ft PVC pipe at Home Depot. Iād like to avoid digging a hole and using cement with a metal pole. Any good suggestions on how I could attach the PVC pipe with the tempest to the wood around my garden?
You can use a flange and then attach a galvanized pipe to it in the length you feel fits your needs.
Hereās a link for the flange:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/LDR-Industries-1-in-Galvanized-Iron-Floor-Flange-311-F-1/100537306
Hereās a link for a five foot galvanized pipe:
Not quite I would say. The higher you mount you Tempest, the more āaccurateā your wind readings will be in comparison to official observations (like those from airports etc.), as they will often observe the wind at the standardised height of 10 m.
That being said, if you canāt mount your Sky that high thatās fine. It will still work perfectly OK and will measure a more localised wind speed that is applicable to your garden. This is not a problem and you shouldnāt be worried about it
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To add to Peterās comments, also look around where you want to install the Tempest. Youāll have to find a sweet spot and maybe compromise a bit
It has to be as open as possible to allow wind, sun to reach the sensors (shadows from trees, walls ā¦)
Also try to avoid installing it to close to walls etc as those can radiate heat and influence temperature and as last not too close to plants etc as that can influence on humidity.
As said, most probably no way to find the āidealā spot like most of us so try to investigate what is most important for you, take time to look the eventual spots over daytime to see if shadows etc will come to play etc ā¦
Regarding fixing Iād go for a mount like the image and also fill the pvc with white sand (this dampens eventual vibration coming from the wooden beams that can provoke false rain)
For sure youāll find other ideas in this topic
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Great suggestions! @eric that base may be a bit too wide, not sure, where did u find that pic? Home Depot? @MiamiWX thanks for the links. That might be perfect (and if I fill the poll with sand as suggested).
The photo is in the SE corner of my lot. I would say it gets at least 10+ hours of sun during the summertime as my house doesnāt start shading that area until late late afternoon.
I would need to make sure I get a wifi signal that far out in my yard, correct? Or does the hub need to be close to my wifi access point only?
I canāt really offer shops where to buy for you as Iām the other side of the wide ocean and we donāt share the same shops 
I used simple āpole base mountā in a search engine ā¦ you get many return. Just find the one that suits you and a decent price point.
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Correct, only the hub needs to be in WiFi range. The hub doesnāt use WiFi to communicate with Tempest
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