[tobyportugal]

Hello,

Does a person have experience of this kind of sensor? Sensitivity? Reacts more quickly of a swing of bucket 4gr (0.2mm)?

[werk_ag]

Hello,

Does a person have experience of this kind of sensor? Sensitivity? Reacts more quickly of a swing of bucket 4gr (0.2mm)?

I don't have any experience with this type of sensor, but usually this kind of devices react with just a very few drops of water (rain), which aren't detected at all with a rain gauge with a 0.2mm tipping bucket.

Let me guess... astrophotography! Yes, I think it can be used to close a roof or something similar.

[engolling]

Hello toby,

I have such a device and like werk said it is ment to close a roof or a sun awning when it starts raining. In principle those sensors work properly.
The upper graph shows the counts of an FO tipping bucket, the graph below the relay state of the rain sensor. So it has not much reaction time, but depending of the type of rainfall. Since the reading is from this summer this was probably a rain shower starting very fast.

But according to the manual, if you disable the integrated heating you can also detect fog with this device.
https://shop.bb-sensors.com/Feuchtemesst...-12-V.html

If you want to know some specific details I also can so some tests with it to check under which circumstances it detects rain.





Regards, engolling

[uncle_bob]

My Stepfather was a Wharfie (someone who loads/unloads cargo ships) they used to walk off the job after two spots of rain on a cigarette paper
This device could be an electronic replacement for the cigarette paper

[tobyportugal]

Hello, bom dia, guten tag

 Not… I do not have an observatory… not qualified enough,   I am not rich enough, I must change woman ( ),
and I must cut 4 new posts of lighting (quite blue LED ) practical to read the night my newspaper in my garden.

This system interests me for 2 reasons:

1/ to test the RS2E: my pluviometer is gauged with 3.85ml = 0.2mm (to control with a manual pluviometer), I have an old pluviometer which I can gauge with
+/- 2.5ml = 0.13mm. If this kind of sensor is more sensitive I have a method of control to see how this RS2E calculates.

2/ There is often fine rain not sufficient to make rock a trough, the sun evaporates water to store in the trough.
I know that on the weather plan that does not respect the standards, but being given the weak price of this kind of sensor to exploit the contactor ON/OFF in WeatherDuino would be nice with a simple weak icon “drizzles”.

@engolling: Kcount = addition of the rains? Thus does this sensor react to less 0.1mm?

I hope that you understood my English of Brussels.
Good sunday with all.

[engolling]

Guten Morgen and Hello,

I think it is not so easy to adjust this kind of sensor the right way. If you switch of the heater you will get some delay, if it stops raining or also in winter. If the sensor is heated you may miss if it drizzles.
But I can do further investigation of this topic over the next weeks.

The readings, I plotted in my graph, are from my first prototype weather station (which I want to replace with the WeatherDuino). The rain gauge is just a FineOffset with 0.3mm resolution. And her you can the the overall impulse counter. The Software I am displaying it makes is kcount for kilo. So nothing special.

But what I already thought about - if I install a bigger funnel over the fine offset gauge i can make it more precise.

Nice Sunday,
engolling

[AllyCat]

But what I already thought about - if I install a bigger funnel over the fine offset gauge i can make it more precise.

Yes, I have experimented with a 15 cms diameter funnel to increase the FO resolution to about 0.1 mm/tip.  First I tried a plastic funnel but the raindrops appeared to "hang" on the plastic so it did increase the resolution, but did NOT advance the warning that "it's raining".  However, recently I have tried a "Stainless Steel" funnel from ebay (only a few Pounds/Euros, locally sourced or from China), which does appear to significantly improve the "Rain" warning.

But back to the OP, perhaps more expensive (but IMHO not unreasonable if sourced directly from the manufacturer in USA) is the Hydreon RG11 optical sensor.  It uses the same technology as automatic windscreen wipers, but has several modes of operation including "it's raining" (for roof windows, etc.) and also emulates a tipping bucket sensor with (optionally) very much higher resolution (0.01mm or even higher !).  It was discussed on the Sandaysoft Forum about 6 years ago (and has limited support in Cumulus 1) where the consensus was that it is not as accurate as a well-maintained tipping bucket, but it needs less maintenance (perhaps just a treatment of "Rain-X" every year or so).

I hope to test mine soon; it wasn't compatible with the power-levels of the Fine Offset station (a few AA cells!) but it needs less power than an Arduino Nano.  The "standard" supply is 9v+ (dc or ac) but it can be connected to +5v dc if desired.  A 5v, 9v or 12v (battery) supply could be "patched" onto the RJ-11 "Rain" socket of the Universal transmitter, but I have several more suggestions to make if an "update" to the Transmitter PCB is planned. 

Cheers,  Alan.

[engolling]

But what I already thought about - if I install a bigger funnel over the fine offset gauge i can make it more precise.

Yes, I have experimented with a 15 cms diameter funnel to increase the FO resolution to about 0.1 mm/tip.  First I tried a plastic funnel but the raindrops appeared to "hang" on the plastic so it did increase the resolution, but did NOT advance the warning that "it's raining".  However, recently I have tried a "Stainless Steel" funnel from ebay (only a few Pounds/Euros, locally sourced or from China), which does appear to significantly improve the "Rain" warning.

This was only a thought how to rise the resolution of the sensor, but it will probably not increase the reactivity as you said.

I like the RG-11 sensor
I think in comparison with mine and the one tobyportugal proposed it will do a much better job. So I will try to get such a device.

I think the integration in the TX module is pretty easy. You can supply it with the 12V the regulator of the TX needs and then solder the impulse output directly on the pads of the PCB. But it only works if it is raining and not when there is snow.


Unfortunately shipping costs to Germany and tax will cost round about how much the device itself costs.   
But thanks for the great idea.

Regards,
engolling

[JT118]

My Stepfather was a Wharfie (someone who loads/unloads cargo ships) they used to walk off the job after two spots of rain on a cigarette paper
This device could be an electronic replacement for the cigarette paper

The mysteries of the Australian waterfront may be lost on our European friends, however I do remember we could get a container of coffee from Lae (PNG) to Hamburg quicker than from Lae to Melbourne, due to the time the container sat at the dock, 4 hours in Rotterdam and 4 weeks in Australia, but I digress from weather, the accuracy of a rain gauge is a function of the cross sectional area of the collector and how well it stops "splashout" etc.rather than the tipping bucket volume. The sensor may be OK to tell you if it is raining or damp but I would think not much else.

https://meteocercal.info/forum/Thread-Fi...in-Sensors

[tobyportugal]

Hi,

Accessible solution financially



https://www.sontay.com/en-gb/products/wd...for-wd-rs/

https://www.sontay.com/en-gb/products/wd...or-wd-amx/


https://www.sontay.com/media/specs/WD-xS_PMg3H4m.pdf

https://www.sontay.com/media/specs/WD-AMX_dmJDXv9.pdf

Comparison with a VAISALA DRD11A ($$$$ !!!)

https://www.vaisala.com/sites/default/fi...EN-C_1.pdf

Google : "rain masking drd11a" The file is too large
www.cloud-net.org/.../Cloudnet_2003_Toulouse_Goddard_2.ppt