Peony Ants Invade Tempest Test unit!

There were some hardware revisions early on in the field test. Depending on when yours was produced in that run it may have one of the poor charging setups. I don’t think there has been any battery changes as LTO cells have been around for quite a while. My oldest unit went on line on 11/22/2019. It replaced a previous one which didn’t make it through the long dark spell the PNW experienced last winter. Neither did this one for that matter. After the firmware with power saving came along I revived it long enough to get the firmware update and it has been working fine ever since. Now I have three units with different charging profiles. At this point the production Tempest I just received has what I think is likely to survive the best. The oldest and newest are what I used to come to my 200-400 W/m^2 figure. The other one seems to only charge every three days.

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gizmoev. . . I received ST-7764 back on the 29th of January. It was part of the “77 Batch”. . .(ST-7750 — ST-7790). Back in Feb & March when there were NO leaves on the trees. . .it would frequently charge up to 2.60v. . .one time in March. . .I 'bout fell over because it charged all the up to 2.72v!

But. . . then came the month of May. Leaves out on all of the old sliver maple trees. . .plus 12 days of solid overcast in mid month. . .ruined ST-7764’s reputation / ability to recover for solar charging. It dropped down to as low as 2.36v. . .and now is up to 2.40v ± .02v. It’s just one of those “things!” As long as it stays up to provide data with battery status of GOOD. . .then I’ll be satisfied. The new Tempest is working just fine…but has that " Wind Direction Strongly Biased in Tempest to North? " issue. . .which supposedly will be corrected with the soon-to-be firmware update as mentioned by dsj.

So far I am only seeing 200-500 w/m2 for about an hour a day.

I think you are a candidate for the in development auxiliary power device.

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Indeed. I would vote for that IF there was a Vote Button in the upper left!

lol need that vote button. On a positive note, the ants have not found the Tempest yet.
I will probably file a ticket and have WF look at my data, but I think my preferred site is not going to work. Guess I have hijacked this topic unintentionally. I’ll move on to somewhere more appropriate… unless I have more ant stories.

I have to say after a few weeks with the Tempest mounted at my old station site… the ants have been conspicuously absent. Seen one ant on the Tempest in that time. It must not look as inviting as the old Davis station.

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I still see a couple every now and again. . .crawling out of the radiation shield area. Now that there are two Tempests close to each other. . .I still have to be on “Ant Watch” until sometime in November when the colder temps cause “bug shutdown.”

For next spring. . .I will definitely have to put down some sort of an “Ant Deterrent Accessory” on the pole and the ground area below.

Just received my Tempest and got it working. I had a different station before, a Gill MetPack II that bit the dust due to spiders. On internet search it was recommended to use dog or cat flea collars to keep the critters out. Just wrap one around the mounting collar should discourage the crawlers from advancing on the Tempest. Hope this helps.

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I am dealing with the ant problem as well. I took mine down because I needed to address a lack of communication. Saw one ant but, after some tapping on the side, lots of larvae and a few more ants appeared. Applied a vacuum and the next day more fell out. Is there any way I can be assured they are all gone? Is it safe to spray canned air into the vents? I’ve had mine over a year now and love it. Wouldn’t you know we had the first big rain in ages this morning and I can’t measure it with my Tempest out of service.

I only used a little bit of canned airdust to blow out any ants etc. I put ant-bait traps around the base of the pole. . .and I’ve heard that wrapping a dog or cat Tick/Flea collar around the base of the Tempest’s pole mount can also halt them a little from crawling up into the Tempest. Also perhaps spraying the bottom 3/4 of your pole (if your Tempest is mounted that way) with an insecticide can also reduce ants. Problem is the insecticide on the pole will wash away during a rain and would have to be reapplied.

Thank you. Tempest support staff suggested putting Tanglefoot on the post, which I will do. At this point, I have no idea how many are still inside the unit. I never thought about the peonies before. I have lots and love them but they just burst into bloom and with that come the ants.

The Peony Ants love the sweet nectar that the bulbs produce. .just prior to Memorial Day. After the bulbs open and flower up. . .the ants no longer have the sweet juice they crave. . .then they (ants) expire! Kinda like Periodical Cicadas (Magicicada septendecim / cassini). . .after they come up to procreate after being in the ground for 17 years. . .then they expire!