What you see here is my weather station that I've owned since August 2011, and so far it's been awesome. It's made by Davis and it's called the Vantage Pro2, model number 6153. What I'm doing is giving it a "tune-up" and replacing some of the parts along with upgrading others.

This model also includes an aspirating fan which keeps air moving across the temp sensor for better accuracy, but I'll talk about that later. This weather station has a lot of features but I don't use every single one. What I mean is, there are some sensors that I didn't think I'd use like - solar radiation. However, you can add this or buy a model that has it already installed.

The piece laying on the workbench is the anemometer, which is for wind speed and direction. This piece needs to be pointed at true North so you know what direction the wind is coming from. Also notice the two solar panels, these face to the South to get the maximum amount of sunlight.

It's time to take this thing apart so lets get started.
 

The white pieces at the bottom have become very brittle and I found this out the hard way. In fact, the arrow is showing you where I placed my hand while I was lowering from the roof and it broke a piece off. This isn't surprising because of it's age but it does concern me. The round black piece on top is the rain collector cone, which will be getting replaced too.

Inside that white section is where the temp sensor and fan are located. The fan needs replacing along with the batteries that run it during the evening.
 

With the front cover off you can see where all the magic happens. In fact, I'll be replacing this cover because the solar panel on the front is failing. The battery that you see has never been replaced and is over 10 years old. That's not a typo, it's what came with the unit when I bought it but it needs replacing. Below is where all the sensors plug into.
 

This is the old cover that will get replaced. The wire is for the solar panel on the front which powers the wireless communication for this model. Some other models hard-wired to the console and those don't have this solar panel.
 

This is looking down into the rain collector cone. Not long ago I was wondering why I was getting inaccurate readings and the reason was the hole at the bottom was covered in bird crap. Also, there is a small 'debris screen' that sits at the bottom, but I found it in the yard one day after a windy day. Not the best design here but that's about to change.