Another week and a few new observations. Until a couple of days ago, everything was great! AW, Fine Offset and I had to chase down a few minor bugs, but with 4.2.1 everything seemed under resolved.
Then it rained...a dead of night rain...not a downpour, in fact only about .1" over an hour so more of a heavy drizzle. The ObserverIP almost immediately dropped signal from the Osprey, but it recovered only to repeat again an hour or so AFTER the rain and then finally a complete loss a few hours later. Nothing had been done to the ObserverIP or its location (remember this is hardware that has a year of solid history from my initial WS-1400-IP installation). The Osprey's dedicated display showed NO signs of signal loss. We discovered that if the door to the closet (hollow core interior door) containing all my networking equipment was left open the ObserverIP would reacquire the signal so it appeared this was an RF signal strength issue. Even with the closet door open there was one additional signal loss occurrence about 12 hours AFTER the rain ended. We have had plenty of hot sunny weather since and oddly enough, the signal issue has resolved itself, which is making me suspicious that the Osprey may have gotten water/moisture around the antenna or onto the circuit board. I am going to pull the unit to install my now completed home-brew aspirator, so I will take the opportunity to open up the Osprey and look for any signs of water penetration as well as places where rain might leak in. I am going to seal any potential water penetration points with RTV. Had the signal issue not resolved itself after a good baking in the sun, I might have felt that the ObserverIP RF code was suspect along with the chance that the Osprey transmitter was maybe a bit weaker overall, but I now more strongly suspect the Osprey RF output was degraded due to rain penetration. I will post the outcome of this. BTW, AW wanted to point blame to a poor location of the ObserverIP but as I pointed out to Ed, this ObserverIP has been in this exact location for a year with no issues and until the rain, no issues with the Osprey.
Then it rained...a dead of night rain...not a downpour, in fact only about .1" over an hour so more of a heavy drizzle. The ObserverIP almost immediately dropped signal from the Osprey, but it recovered only to repeat again an hour or so AFTER the rain and then finally a complete loss a few hours later. Nothing had been done to the ObserverIP or its location (remember this is hardware that has a year of solid history from my initial WS-1400-IP installation). The Osprey's dedicated display showed NO signs of signal loss. We discovered that if the door to the closet (hollow core interior door) containing all my networking equipment was left open the ObserverIP would reacquire the signal so it appeared this was an RF signal strength issue. Even with the closet door open there was one additional signal loss occurrence about 12 hours AFTER the rain ended. We have had plenty of hot sunny weather since and oddly enough, the signal issue has resolved itself, which is making me suspicious that the Osprey may have gotten water/moisture around the antenna or onto the circuit board. I am going to pull the unit to install my now completed home-brew aspirator, so I will take the opportunity to open up the Osprey and look for any signs of water penetration as well as places where rain might leak in. I am going to seal any potential water penetration points with RTV. Had the signal issue not resolved itself after a good baking in the sun, I might have felt that the ObserverIP RF code was suspect along with the chance that the Osprey transmitter was maybe a bit weaker overall, but I now more strongly suspect the Osprey RF output was degraded due to rain penetration. I will post the outcome of this. BTW, AW wanted to point blame to a poor location of the ObserverIP but as I pointed out to Ed, this ObserverIP has been in this exact location for a year with no issues and until the rain, no issues with the Osprey.