The Accurite Therm/Hydgro Mod

Just a couple suggestions to anyone doing this mod (btw it is a great one). If you are getting the "Hi F", chances are that you may have a cold solder. That means that it looks like it is soldered but it is not actually making contact. Try undoing the solder joint, and redoing it. Also, the bad temp reading and possibly the same "Hi F" error are due to polarity. Most electrical temp probes are made of two types of wire (they will look the same but are different materials). Without going into why they have two types of wire lets just say the legs of the sensor need to go back in the same hole of the circuit board. I would need to open one up when I get home to see if that is this case. Good chance it is.


If you are worried about wether or not your hygrometer is accurate here is a link to a simple test you can perform at home. It is very similar to how they are calibrated and set up in an industrial setting. BTW, I calibrate laboratory
instruments for a living.

Hygromter Calibration

interesting mod but definitely not for everyone

awesome. i did it with my acurite (its a black one with the indoor/outdoor temp and humidity). I messed up on the first one, but it was broken already anyways and was nothing more than just practice. The second one worked GREAT. For the humidity sensor protective piece, i used an old analog hyrogometer and gutted it, then placed the sensor in there and hot glued it, being sure that i didnt seal it up but was adequately protected. Its working great. Thanks again for this DIY.

Did this mod today. Readings are within a degree of my other new, un-modded unit. Whew! Now I've got two more to do... Thanks for posting this.

i was wondering where everyone was purchasing these from. are they at local stores or are they an internet bought item. sorry if its an obvious answer. ive found some online but they dont seem to be the same product. i didnt know if i could use any of their products and then use the sensors inside and use wire to extend the probes. from what i saw on here there were probes supplied with the product and the wires were remanufactured to suite the needs for the mod. thanks in advance for any help.

Interesting but I just want to point out that adding wire between a resistive sensor and board will change the reistance it is calibrated for and reduce the accuracy more than it was orginally. By how much I can't say it might be next to nothing and it might be quite substancial. The probe digital ones I have are effected by pinching the cord in a hinge, I'd expect a change of some sort. In my experience the accurites are not paticalluraly accurate to start with, I'd be hesitant to mod one.

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Originally Posted by mdwagoner

i was wondering where everyone was purchasing these from. are they at local stores or are they an internet bought item.

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You can get the Accurite Therm/Hydro @ Wal-Mart. They have a 'new' design out now that looks a little different than the one he used for the mod. They are about $12.

Did this yesterday and works good I only took the humidity sensor out I just need to work on something to protect it and attach it before i really put it to use. Thank you. I will be working on more of these.

Awesome mod, thanks for the write up.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Interesting but I just want to point out that adding wire between a resistive sensor and board will change the reistance it is calibrated for and reduce the accuracy more than it was orginally. By how much I can't say it might be next to nothing and it might be quite substancial. The probe digital ones I have are effected by pinching the cord in a hinge, I'd expect a change of some sort. In my experience the accurites are not paticalluraly accurate to start with, I'd be hesitant to mod one.

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If you are talking about "scientific grade" electronics, then I agree with you, it would be easy to throw off the readings with ANY changes to the resistance (solder choice, wire type/length included) of a calibrated sensor. However, these are cheap electronic units ($10-$12) that (as you said) aren't super accurate anyway. They have generic sensors that probably aren't even calibrated to begin with. LOL.

I posted this mod for others as a way to improve the Accurite's functionality without the need to spend a lot of money on fancy "scientific grade" units (most of which cost 2-3 times as much as an Accurite). So bash my mod if you want and by all means, please don't use it. But discouraging remarks about a useful mod (that has already been proven numerous times by other members) on an already cheap piece of equipment, aren't necessary. I'm sure there are plenty of members on here that can't afford, or don't want to spend their money on expensive thermometers etc...

Oh, and I just want to point out that spell check is done by right clicking ;)
(speaking of accuracy :D )