[danner]

looks like we might get a little bit of rain tomorrow from the leftovers of hurricane irma.

[danner]

So far the Rainwise 8" rain bucket has been operating fine. But with no calibrated reference I had no idea of accuracy.

I recently picked up a manual rain gauge from CoCoRaHS. Since midnight the 8" Rainwise has measured 0.81" of rain and I just checked the manual rain gauge and it also has exactly 0.81" or rain. So it looks like the rain bucket is pretty level and the calibration is spot on. For comparison my commercial weather station from Ambient Weather reported 0.80" of rain. Looks good all the way around.

Should be interesting to see if there's a difference in heavy rain.

[danner]

Perfect. 24hr rainfall of 0.88" on the 8" Rainwise and 0.88" on the CoCoRaHS manual rain gauge. The Ambient Weather station came in at 0.86" of rain so not bad at all.

[danner]

Been continuing to monitor the 8" rain bucket compared to the CoCoRaHS manual rain gauge and the 8" rain bucket is always within 1 bucket tip of the manual rain gauge, so it looks good.

[werk_ag]

Thanks for being monitoring the readings. This also means that the changes on the software to display the rain readings in imperial units are working well.

[danner]

Yes the changes on the software is displaying correctly. Thank you.

[hornychz]

Hello,

Let me introduce my new heated rain tipping bucket:

I bought it in China from the company Hunan Rika Electronic Technology on Alibaba.
The device RK400-01 looks very precise even though it belongs to their "low cost" equipment.
They also offer it in a variant with a heater, but I decided to make DIY-heating due to the price.

Basic parameters:
highly polished stainless steel construction
diameter 200 mm, height 350 mm
measured rainfall intensity - max 4 mm/min
allow rainfall intensity - max 8 mm/min
resolution 0.2 mm
accuracy +-4 % (2 mm/min)
output - reed switch pulses
weight 3.5 kg

After unpacking:


The heating element I made from pieces of heating cable with a specific resistance of 33 Ohm/m,
I used 3 x 60 cm:


For 12 V supply, the resulting heating output is approximately 20W.


For control I used a purchased module with its own temperature sensor:


The total cost was almost $ 500. But I hope that this investment will pay off in the accuracy
and stability of measurement and the ability to measure rainfall even in the winter.

[danner]

Very nice, Zdenek!

[werk_ag]

Let me introduce my new heated rain tipping bucket:

Hello Zdenek,

The detail, quality and look of your constructions always amazes me! That's another piece of art.
Well, I don't know if there is any official weather station near you, but if it exists it must be jealous.


That rain gauge really seems of very good quality. I'm wondering about what will be next upgrade, don't tell me that it will be an ultrasonic anemometer...

Regards

[hornychz]

Well, I don't know if there is any official weather station near you, but if it exists it must be jealous.

Yes, unfortunately, local meteorologists have returned their college degrees ... 

I'm wondering about what will be next upgrade, don't tell me that it will be an ultrasonic anemometer...

This is certainly certain! Just save some money ...