NRG 200P Wind Vane stopped working

[Traveller30]

 Hi

I'm using the NRG 200P wind vane for wind direction on the roof of
a building.

Several days ago my sensor stopped working , so I opened it , and
found a lot of rust inside , I cleaned it up , but still the sensor not working
any more , it always gives me the same reading , 5V ,(I feed the power chords
with stable 5V) , I can?t understand whats gone wrong?

I
saw a capacitor inside, it was rusted and not functional, but I can?t believe it?s
the reason, I think its purpose is to reduce noise.

Any
ideas what gone wrong?

I
added a photo of the open sensor

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwE-Ba3ePCwOQWc3ZmJkdlRUd2s&usp=sharing

 

Tnx
in advance

Roman

[David Carlson]

 I have attached testing instructions to this post: Testing200PVane.pdf

.Testing200Pvane.pdf

Have you performed these tests? 

 The pictures you posted do
show a fair amount of corrosion. If the sensor fails the tests in in the
attached document the potentiometer may be damaged.

 

The component you saw is not a capacitor, it is an ESD protection device to short all voltage spikes to ground.