La Crosse Technology WS-1517U User manual

Model: WS-1517 www.lacrossetechnology.com/support 1
Professional Wireless Weather Station
La Crosse Technology®, the world leader in atomic time and weather instruments, introduces a Professional Wireless
Weather Station that provides accurate, real-time weather data straight from your backyard. This sleek weather station
offers weather forecasting, indoor/outdoor temperature & humidity, wind & rain data, and precise atomic time & date—all
on one comprehensive device.
Model: WS-1517U
Instruction Manual
DC: 120314

Model: WS-1517 www.lacrossetechnology.com/support 2
Carefully open the package and check that the following contents are complete:
Wind Sensor
TS805
Rain Sensor
TS906
Thermo-Hygro Sensor
TS21
Wireless Display
WS-1517
Requires 4 mounting screws
Requires 2-AA batteries (not
included)
1 hex key wrench
Requires 4 mounting screws
Requires 2-AA batteries (not
included)
Wall mount adapter
Requires 2-AAA batteries
(not included)
7.5 V AC/DC adapter
(included)
4-AA batteries
(not included)
Wind Sensor also Protected under
U.S. Patent: 6,761,065
All items, including Wind Sensor, are Protected under U.S. Patents:
5,978,738 | 6,076,044 | RE43903
Table of Contents
Contents 2
Features 3
Setup Instructions Step-by-Step 3
LCD Screen 6
Buttons 6
Program Menu 6
Language 6
City Code (Time Zone) 6
Set Calendar 7
Set Time 7
Custom Settings 7
Clock and Alarm Window 7
WWVB Radio-Controlled Time Signal 8
Manual Signal Search 8
Time Alarm 8
Alarm/Snooze Set 8
Activate/Deactivate Alarm 9
Snooze Function 9
Pressure and Weather Window 9
Pressure and Altitude Information 9
Local-Change or Set Altitude 10
Sea Level Pressure-Change or Set 10
View History Graph: Pressure, Temperature, Humidity 10
Weather Forecast Icons 10
Moon Phase 11
View Moon Phase History 11
Temperature and Humidity Window 12
Channel Indicator 12
Remote Sensor Status Icon 12
Search for Remote Sensors 12
View Temperature or Dew Point 12
Select Fahrenheit or Celsius 13
Set Temperature Alarms 13
Disable Temperature Alarms 13
MAX/MIN Records 13

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Comfort Level Statement 13
Rain Window 13
Rain Statistics 14
Select Rain Display: inches or mm 14
24 Hour Rainfall Alert 14
Wind Window 14
Wind Display 15
Wind Direction 15
Wind Speed, Wind Gust, Wind Chill 15
Select Wind Speed Unit of Measure: km/h, mph, m/s, knots 15
Wind MAX/MIN Data 15
Set Wind Alerts 15
Disable Wind Alerts 16
Backlight Options 16
Memory Reset Procedure 16
Changing Batteries 16
Weather Station 16
Remote Sensors 17
Position Sensors Outside 17
Wind 18
Rain 18
Thermo-hygro 18
Position Weather Station 18
Care and Maintenance 19
Specifications 19
Warranty Information 20
FCC Statement 21
City Codes 22
Features
Moon phase icon
Forecast icons change based on Barometric Pressure
Barometric Pressure with 24 hr. history graph
Local Barometric Pressure reading
12/24 hr. atomic time and date with manual set option
Outdoor temperature (°F/°C)
Outdoor humidity (%RH)
Indoor temperature (°F/°C)
Indoor humidity (%RH)
Wind chill (°F only)
Wind speed (mph, m/s, km/h, knots)
Wind direction compass display
Rainfall amount (inches/mm)
Time alarm with snooze (weekly and single day settings)
Calendar display: M/D or D/M in six languages
Altitude adjustment for pressure compensation
Dew point and comfort level indicators
Low battery indicators
Light sensor detects low light conditions and automatically adjusts backlight
Wireless range of 100 feet (30 meters) open air
Setup Instructions Step-by-Step
Batteries: We recommend using Alkaline batteries for the remote sensors and the weather station when temperatures are
above 32°F (0°C). We recommend using Lithium batteries for the remote sensors when temperatures are below 32°F
(0°C).

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Note: Setup all three remote sensors and allow them to run for at least two minutes before powering the weather
station. Ensure all sensor readings are received on the weather station before mounting sensors outside.
STEP 1: Complete the initial setup on a table with all components within 10 feet of each other. This allows all the sensors
to connect repeatedly with the weather station during setup to lock the signal.
STEP 2: Wind
Wind Cups
1. The wind cups are held on with a set screw. Use a flashlight to look into the mounting hole of the wind cups. Check
that the set screw is not obstructing the opening.
2. Look at the axle shaft of the wind sensor. Notice that one side of the axle shaft is flat.
3. Place the wind cups over the axle shaft of the wind sensor and gently slide them into place.
4. The set screw should connect with the flat side of the axle shaft to prevent slipping.
5. Use the hex key wrench tool provided to tighten the small set screw inside the cups.
6. Test to assure the wind cups are securely mounted on the anemometer shaft and spin freely
Battery installation
1. Remove four (4) screws from the battery compartment of the wind sensor. Be careful not to drop them.
2. Open the battery compartment and install two (2) AA size Alkaline batteries (not included) matching the polarities
shown.
3. Replace the battery compartment door and secure the screws.
STEP 3: Thermo-hygro
1. Slide the battery cover down and lift off the back of the thermo-hygro sensor.
2. Install two (2) AAA size Alkaline batteries (not included) matching the polarities shown in
the battery compartment.
3. Replace the battery compartment door.
STEP 4: Rain
1. Unlock the funnel-shaped top on the rain sensor by turning both knobs on the sides in a counter-clockwise direction.
2. Lift the funnel-shaped top off the rain sensor bucket.
3. Remove seven (7) small screws from the battery compartment cover.
4. Insert two (2) AA size Alkaline batteries (not included), matching the polarities as shown in the battery compartment.
5. Replace the battery compartment door and secure the screws.
6. Insert the funnel-shaped top into the rain sensor bucket. Turn the knobs clockwise to secure it.
Allow all sensors to operate for two minutes before starting the weather station.

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IMPORTANT: Make sure to observe the correct polarity when inserting batteries (not included). The + markings on the
batteries must line up with the diagrams inside the battery compartments. Inserting the batteries incorrectly may
result in permanent damage to the weather station. During the setup process, place the wireless display and the
outdoor sensors on a surface with 5-10 feet between each sensor and the display.
STEP 5: Weather Station
1. Connect 7.5 V A/C adapter provided, to the weather station and plug into to the wall power outlet.
Note: The A/C adaptor connection is required for automatic backlight control to function. When the
weather station operates on battery power alone, the auto backlight control function is disabled.
2. Connect the table stand to the back of weather station to place on a table or other horizontal surface.
Optional battery operation:
3. Slide the battery cover tab down and pull out to open the battery compartment on the back of the weather station.
4. Insert four (4) AA size Alkaline batteries according to the polarities shown and replace the battery compartment door,
(optional).
5. Once the weather station is powered, the display will show all available LCD segments for a moment.
IMPORTANT: Do not press any buttons during the setup process which takes 5-15 minutes. During this time the weather
station will flash the pressure and weather icon and InHg (inches of mercury). Setup is completed when the weather
station shows default settings for pressure and altitude (sea level), indoor/outdoor temperature and humidity, wind and
rain readings, etc.
InHg
STEP 6:
Set Wind Direction
1. Wait until all the sensor readings are received by the weather station.
2. Manually point the wind direction vane to the North (use a compass or map if necessary).
3. Press the SET opening located inside battery compartment with a paper clip or similar tool. This will set the local wind
direction to North.
Only press once. Continued presses of the SET opening, toggles the wind
direction between the factory defaults preset or manual set direction.
Note: Repeat this procedure every time when changing the batteries.
4. Watch for the next update to ensure the direction changed to North.
Step 7: Program the weather station. See “Program Menu” below.
Note: This weather station has been designed to work right out of the box 10-15 minutes after setup.
Language and City Code are the only required items to set in the program menu. When the WWVB radio-controlled time
signal is received, the time and date will be set according to city code selected.
There are additional operational details and suggestions for custom settings and alarms including:
The time alarms
The temperature alerts
Daily rainfall alerts
Wind alerts
Local Pressure
See “Custom Settings” for details on these optional settings.
Flashes 5-15 minutes during setup

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LCD Screen
The LCD screen illustrates the five programmable sections of the display. Each section will flash an icon while active and
available to have features programmed.
Clock and Alarm icon Pressure and Weather icon Temperature and Humidity icon
Wind icon Rain icon
Buttons
Note: This weather station has a channel button and the ability to read additional outdoor sensors. La Crosse
Technology® does not plan to sell these additional outdoor temperature and humidity sensors. Therefore the CHANNEL
button has no function on this weather station. The TS21 thermo-hygro sensor does not read to other channels.
Program Menu
The SET button will move through the program menu. The UP or DOWN arrow buttons will change a value.
Language
1. Press the UP or DOWN arrow button until the clock and alarm icon flashes. ENG
2. Hold SET button until the day of week language abbreviation ENG will flash.
3. Press the UP or DOWN arrow button to select the desired language for day of the week in English (ENG.), German
(GER.), French (FRE.), Italian (ITA.), Spanish (SPA.) or Dutch (DUT.).
4. Press the SET button to confirm and move to select the city code for your time zone.
City Code (Time Zone)
There is a list of City Codes at the end of this book. A map of the USA will appear when Pacific, Mountain, Central or
Eastern time zones are selected.

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1. The default city code, LAX (Los Angeles) will flash. Use the UP and DOWN buttons to select the desired city code for
your time zone.
2. Refer to table in the back of this manual for a list of available cities. LAX
3. Press the SET button to confirm the city selection and move to calendar settings.
Note: You can stop here and allow the radio-controlled time signal from the atomic clock in Ft. Collins, Colorado to set
the time and date.
Calendar Settings
1. The year will flash. Press the UP or DOWN button to select the correct year. Press the SET button to confirm year
selection and move to the month.
2. The month will flash. Press the UP or DOWN button to select the correct month. Press the SET button to confirm
selection and move to the date.
3. The numeric date will flash. Press the UP or DOWN button to select the correct date. Press the SET button to confirm
selection and move to the date format.
4. The date format will flash. Press the UP or DOWN button to select the correct format of month and date (M/D or
D/M). Press the SET button to confirm selection and move to time settings.
Time Settings
1. 12H will flash. Press the UP or DOWN button to select either 12 hour (AM/PM) or 24 hour time (24:00) format. Press
the SET button to confirm selection and move to the hour.
2. The hour will flash. Press the UP or DOWN button to select the correct hour. Press the SET button to confirm
selection and move to the minutes.
3. The minutes will flash. Press the UP or DOWN button to select the correct minute. Press the SET button to confirm
selection and to complete the initial programming for your weather station.
Note: If you do not complete this sequence your entries will be lost.
Note: Hold the SET button at any time during the programming to return to normal clock and alarm window. All previous
settings will be cancelled.
After programming is completed, the weather station will show the default clock and alarm window.
Custom Settings
You weather station will function without additional settings. These custom settings allow more detailed settings and alerts
in each section of the weather station. For each custom setting the “window icon” for that section must be flashing for a
change to be made. We will take each section individually.
Clock and Alarm Window
The standard clock and alarm section provides the WWVB signal strength, battery status of the weather station (when
operating on batteries only), and alarm active symbols.
There are options to display:
Time and Weekday
Time and City Code
Time and Seconds

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Month/Day/Year or Day/ Month/ Year
Current UTC (Universal Coordinated Time Simply press and release the SET button to change the display of the
weather station (when the clock and alarm icon is flashing)
WWVB Radio-controlled Time Signal
The radio controlled weather station searches for, and periodically synchronizes to, the NIST (National Institute of
Standards and Technology) atomic clock signal transmitted from Ft. Collins, Colorado, throughout the entire continental
United States.
The NIST radio station, WWVB, is located in Ft. Collins, Colorado and transmits the exact time signal continuously
throughout the United States at 60 kHz. The signal can be received up to 2,000 miles away through the internal antenna
in the weather station. However, due to the nature of the Earth’s Ionosphere, reception is very limited during daylight
hours. The weather station will search for a signal every night when reception is best.
During nighttime hours, atmospheric conditions improve radio signal reception. A single daily reception is sufficient
enough to keep the clock accuracy within milliseconds.
The weather station should be positioned 6 feet (2 meters) from interference sources such as a TVs, computers,
microwaves, etc.
The signal reception is weakened within concrete walls found in basements or office buildings. Place the weather
station near the window for best reception.
It takes between 24 and 72 hours for the clock to receive an atomic time signal reception
Once the atomic time signal is received, the date and time will be set automatically, and the icon will appear. The weather
station is programmed to search for the atomic time signal daily each hour between 1:00 am and 4:30 am. Once the time
signal has been successfully received, the time and date will be updated automatically.
Manual Signal Search
With the clock and alarm icon flashing, hold the UP arrow for three seconds to manually search for the WWVB signal. A
triangular tower icon will start flashing next to the clock icon.
Searching for WWVB signal Strong WWVB signal
Weak WWVB signal No WWVB signal for 24 hours
Time Alarm
You can choose a time alarm that goes off at the same time every day M-F (weekly alarm), or a single event (single alarm)
time alarm. The snooze feature is programmable for up to 15 minutes and works for the same duration on either alarm.
Alarm/Snooze Time Set
1. With the clock and alarm icon flashing, press the ALARM/CHART button to select the desired alarm.
2. Hold the ALARM/CHART button and the hour will flash.
3. Set the alarm hour using UP or DOWN arrow button. Press and hold either arrow button for quick digit advance.
4. Press the ALARM/CHART button to confirm selection then the minutes will flash.
5. Set the alarm minutes using UP or DOWN arrow button. Press and hold either arrow button for quick digit advance.
6. Press the ALARM/CHART button to confirm selection. Next the snooze interval will flash.
7. Set a Snooze interval using UP or DOWN arrow button. Press and hold either arrow button for quick digit advance.
Note: both alarms share same snooze time duration
8. Press the ALARM/CHART button to confirm your selection.
9. When programming is completed, the weather station will return to the alarm selection screen.
Activate/Deactivate Time Alarms
1. Press the ALARM/CHART button to display the single day alarm or weekday alarm time.
2. If these alarms are not set, the abbreviation OFF will be displayed.

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3. To enable or disable any of these alarms, press the UP or DOWN button arrow button.
4. Press the ALARM/CHART button to confirm your setting. The alarm symbol will show when that alarm is
active.
Note: Press the SET button anytime during alarm programming mode to return to the default clock display.
Snooze Function
When either alarm sounds, press the LIGHT/SNOOZE button to activate the snooze feature for the time interval set.
Note: The alarm will automatically “snooze” if no buttons are pressed after the alarm sounds for 2 minutes. This will occur
three times only.
Pressure and Weather Window
This section provides detailed current and historical data on Barometric Pressure, Weather Forecast, Moon phase,
Temperature and Humidity. You can view history data for pressure and moon phase.
Pressure and Altitude Information
Pressure can be displayed as local pressure or sea level pressure. Pressure and altitude work together.
*Set either the sea level pressure or the local altitude but not both.
Press and release the SET button to alternate between
Sea Level Pressure
Local Pressure
Local Altitude settings
Local Pressure reflects pressure changes at your specific location (house). The local altitude/elevation must be
programmed according to GPS readings, internet, etc.
Sea Level Pressure reflects pressure changes in your surrounding metro area. The sea level barometric pressure value
can be adjusted according to the local weather reporting station (Sources–local TV, radio station, Internet, etc.).
Sea Level Pressure and Altitude are interdependent.
Adjust altitude and the weather station will calculate sea level pressure.
Adjust sea level pressure, and the weather station will automatically calculate altitude.
You can only adjust one of the two–either sea level barometric pressure or altitude.
The default settings are: InHg (Inches of Mercury), and 33 feet.
Changing or Setting Altitude (Local Pressure)
1. Press the SET button until the local altitude value will be displayed. Feet
2. Hold the MEMORY button until the altitude unit is flashing, feet or meters.

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3. Press the UP or DOWN button arrow buttons to set altitude in feet or meters
4. Press MEMORY button once to confirm your selection
5. Hold the SET button until the altitude digits are flashing.
6. Set the altitude value with the UP or DOWN arrow buttons. 33
7. Hold the UP or DOWN arrow button for faster digits advancement.
8. Press the SET button to confirm your selection.
Changing or Setting Sea Level Pressure
1. Press the SET button until the local pressure with the word “SEA LEVEL” is displayed.
2. Hold the MEMORY button until the pressure unit is flashing, InHg, mmHg or hPa/mBar InHg
3. Set the pressure units with the UP or DOWN arrow buttons
4. Press the MEMORY button to confirm your selection
5. Hold the SET button until the pressure digits flash. 29.91
6. Set the sea level pressure using the UP or DOWN buttons to adjust the pressure value.
7. Hold the UP or DOWN arrow buttons for faster digits advancement
8. Press the SET button to confirm your selection.
View the Sea Level Pressure History
1. From any mode, press the HISTORY button.
2. When the Sea Level Pressure is displayed, press and release the HISTORY button repeatedly to
view the sea level pressure history for the past 24 hours, in one hour intervals.
3. If no buttons are pressed for 5 seconds, the weather station will automatically exit the history mode and return to the
Pressure and Weather Forecast mode.
View the Pressure, Temperature and Humidity Bar Charts
The pressure bar graph shows barometric pressure variations over the past 24 hours. This is very useful for
understanding the Barometric trends that are used in weather forecasting. Each bar icon represents 0.06 InHg.
Alternatively, the bar chart can be used to display 24 hour trend data for sea level pressure, outdoor temperature or
outdoor humidity (channel 1 only).
1. Select the Pressure and Weather Forecast window.
2. Hold the ALARM/CHART button to change the bar chart title (right bottom corner).
3. Alternate between Pressure, Outdoor Temperature (thermometer icon) and Relative Humidity (dew
drop icon).
4. The single bar on the far right indicates rising or falling trend.
All the bar charts are read from left to right.
The left is the oldest history data.
Reading from left to right indicates the rise and fall of the reading.
The bar chart will constantly scroll to avoid LCD burnout.
Weather Forecast Icons
The weather forecasting feature is estimated to be 70% accurate. The weather forecast is based solely upon the change
of air pressure over time. The icons are predicting 12-24 hours in the future, not current conditions. It may be sunny out
your window, but the pressure is falling so the forecast station will show clouds with rain icon. The SUNNY icon indicates
clear weather, even when displayed during the night-time.The icons displayed forecast the weather in terms of getting
better or worse, and not necessarily sunny or rainy as each icon indicates.
Note: After initial set-up, icons for weather forecasts should be disregarded for the next 48-60 hours. This will allow
sufficient time for the weather station to collect air pressure data at a constant altitude and result in a more accurate
forecast.