Davis VP2 complaining about "Low Battery On Station 2"

[t...@tom.org]

Not great timing.. I understand that this means the battery in the ISS is low/out - this message just appeared.

I just had foot surgery and my roof is icy, so I don't know when I will get up there.

The question is: does anyone know how much time I have before I start losing data? The solar panel is facing due South and is unobstructed, but here we are right at the solstice.

Great timing, right??

[Greg Troxel]

Hard to say exactly. The ISS has a supercap and mostly the solar panel
and supercap are sufficient, but the battery is used when not. I think
I have only had to replace my battery once or twice in 9 years.

I got this alert, and didn't notice, and I think went a few weeks before
replacing it. I suspect you can limp for a while, perhaps loing
middle-of-night data and restarting in the day.

Unlike the console, this is binary, not a voltage, so it's really hard
to tell.

[t...@tom.org]

I get it... limp along.. that was a foot injury pun, wasn't it? LOL.

I can't see replacing it until I am out of a boot and well into the spring. The station is about 8 years old and I have not had to replace it so far. At 43 degrees latitude, so not a great deal of sun right now.

Fingers crossed! Thanks for weighing in.

[Greg Troxel]

"t...@tom.org" <t...@tom.org> writes:

> I get it... limp along.. that was a foot injury pun, wasn't it? LOL.

No, by the time I wrote that I had forgotten. Sorry to offend...

> I can't see replacing it until I am out of a boot and well into the spring.
> The station is about 8 years old and I have not had to replace it so far.
> At 43 degrees latitude, so not a great deal of sun right now.

The solar panel is mostly vertical, so if the sun actually shines on it,
that should be plenty. Solar actually works great in the winter, as
long as you don't have trees/ec. to the south that block.