I have an offline Tempest connected directly to Arduino in AP mode extracting UDP broadcasts. My hub is about 10 feet (and one exterior door) from the Arduino (average RSSI: -51), and my Tempest is about 50 feet (with line-of-sight) from the hub (average RSSI: -68). During a recent powerful storm (extreme rain, heavy wind, near located lightning, ~22°C temperature), I observed a dropout of “device_status” and “obs_st” data feeds, but maintained “hub_status” and “rapid_wind”. The last three RSSI readings I have from “device_status” and -72, -80, -76, before losing those two data feeds. It should also be noted that the time between those three samples increased to 120 seconds after a steady 60 second interval before the storm.
Unfortunately, I moved the sensor closer to the hub before the rain completely stopped, but the Arduino did eventually resume receiving all four data feeds at the expected frequency.
I’ve looked for other similar problems in the forum, but it seems that an attenuation in signal usually leads to a total drop out of data. It’s not a power issue as the sensor voltage remained at 2.76V. Although it seems unlikely that mounting orientation would impact the signal at ~50 feet, I do have the tempest oriented such that it’s NNW sedecimant(?) is facing the front (opposite side from the charger port) of the hub.
Have there been similar issues with partial data drop outs during rain/lightning events? Is rain/lightning enough to degrade the 915MHz signal at 50 feet? Is there some sort of handshake or data validation between the sensor and hub?