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  • Author Author: ntewinkel
  • Date Created: Date Created
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Sometimes it's not actually a glitch.

ntewinkel

Have you ever had one of those moments where the data just looks out of place?

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The above chart is from 2 temperature sensors. The one shown in green is connected to my hummingbird feeder (insulated, with a small USB-powered hand-warmer heater on it), and the other is hanging under the eaves to allow me to compare heater performance to outdoor temperature. It's set up using 2 Wemos D1 Minis with a few PHP scripts on the server side. It was a quick independent solution to get some quick data for my hummingbird feeder heater projects, so I expected some issues.

 

And the graph shows a sudden 3 degrees C dip in just 15 minutes from approximately 6:44 am to 7:02am!

 

In my case the above sort of graph glitch usually leads to digging a bit deeper and fixing some bugs. I thought maybe the power or WiFi was out for a bit, but the points actually show the gradual decline.

 

However, this time around it seems the weather had a glitch, not my project!

 

The last 24 hours of data from our weather office shows a sudden dip in temperature too (2.5 degrees C), along with a shift in wind direction (SE to NNW) and clearing up (as seen in the visibility and conditions columns). Their data only shows the rougher hourly increments, compared to my by-the-minute reports.

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Interesting, to me anyway image

 

Also interesting and useful to me is the fact that the hummingbird feeder dropped rapidly in temperature too, even though it is insulated and heated... it's possible the heater didn't kick in during that time, or maybe I need a more powerful heater and better insulation.

 

I bought this little USB powered cup warmer for my next heater to try. Canadian Tire, for $15 CAD - that's about 1/3 the cost of a purpose-built hummingbird feeder heater. Seems expensive for a cup warmer, and probably not very effective for that purpose (just buy an insulated travel mug!), but it appears to be perfect for keeping hummingbird feeders frost-free in my climate!

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Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm and safe out there!

 

Best,

-Nico

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  • Nice piece of analysis, Nico.

     

    I presume you have updated your graphing software to the new(ish) Google standards??

     

    Mine stopped working a while ago and although I've looked at the new standards, I haven't got around to changing my code. Hence no graphics, just inspection of the files image

     

    Neil

Comment

  • Nice piece of analysis, Nico.

     

    I presume you have updated your graphing software to the new(ish) Google standards??

     

    Mine stopped working a while ago and although I've looked at the new standards, I haven't got around to changing my code. Hence no graphics, just inspection of the files image

     

    Neil

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