False rain reports are back

Can someone tell me why tempest is having these hissy fits again for no reason I can see from my location this started up after a long period of not having this happen. It’s not all the time but it has been on and off and nothing to do with strong wind either or birds or anything other then malfunctioning as far as I know. I’m wondering if there are any other reasons and why it can behave for periods of time then do this out of the clear blue?

spiders, birds? who knows

I had a military jet fly low enough over my house yesterday where it created a rain alert. Many possibilities.

Yeah I guess the only bad feature is if it creates a rain amount which can happen if it goes on long enough.

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The major issue is high frequency vibration. The vibration can be caused by anything especially if it is touching the mounting. If I lightly tap the pole with a plastic pen it will record rain. If I press a screwdriver to the pole and press my ear against the handle of the screwdriver I could use it like a stethoscope to listen for vibration.
If the mounting involves something that loosens over time or dry or cold weather that might allow some movement.
If you show a picture of your mounting it might help us understand. When others have shown photos it has been possible to see a handrail where a loose cable could have been causing a vibration that travelled along the pipe.
Imagine a sound vibration travelling from something into your mount.
cheers Ian :slight_smile:

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Ok here is a pic of my tripod standard 5ft. With padding at both locations on the mask I don’t think there is anything loose or vibrating unless I cause it to do so. It only happens on occasions just odd times and mostly it won’t register any rain, just says what the different levels are , like light , moderate etc etc. so I suppose it’s what it is from time to time not perfect. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

Here we go again for no real apparent reason I can put my finger on I received another two different false readings at different times apart. They were fairly close together and with a break in between both times my wind readings were 10plus and 11plus mph. Would those wind readings have some strange way of triggering false reports? Funny but my higher readings around those times did not trigger any false record. Far as I know my tripod is quite stable and I can go long periods days perhaps without this happening. Just seemed weird that today both times my wind readings were the same about 20minutes apart. I know anything under the sun can cause this to occur and that too is tragic.

I suppose everything has a natural resonance frequency, so perhaps at 10/11 mph your tripod is actually vibrating more than it would at higher wind speeds. Hard to know for certain, but might explain why you only see false wind at these speeds.

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If all the connections are secure under all temperature conditions then I would add some rubber or foam or silicone tape around the plastic pipe where it connects to the metal tripod. Create a cushion that sound would not go past. Also if you fill the pipe with sand it creates deadening to reduce vibrations and slow the resonant frequency.
cheers Ian :slight_smile:

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