[ntmhamilton]

Hi All,
I´m gathering parts for my WeatherDuino, and am thinking about alternative sensors, in particular for wind and rain.

I have searched the forums and found some discussion on wind sensors (Davis and Inspeed for example) but little on interfacing rain gauges than 433MHz wireless linking (which is probably the easiest way).

Has anybody thought about interfacing tipping bucket gauges which have no wireless interface, but only the reed switch output? Or have I missed something incredibly simple?
Many Thanks for any advice!

[Brett]

Hi All,
I´m gathering parts for my WeatherDuino, and am thinking about alternative sensors, in particular for wind and rain.

I have searched the forums and found some discussion on wind sensors (Davis and Inspeed for example) but little on interfacing rain gauges than 433MHz wireless linking (which is probably the easiest way).

Has anybody thought about interfacing tipping bucket gauges which have no wireless interface, but only the reed switch output? Or have I missed something incredibly simple?
Many Thanks for any advice!

The expectation is that the rain bucket is connected to a TX unit over a wired connection. There's no expectation the rain gauge on it's own is wireless.... perhaps I'm mis-interpreting your question too, but teh standard Fine Offset rain gauge is definetly hard wired to the TX

[ntmhamilton]

Hi Brett,
Many thanks for the response. Can you shed any light on what signal and level the Tx unit is expecting? And if the tipping bucket is unpowered will the Tx unit provide current?

I guess I should spend some time with the block diagram and schematic........

Hi All,
I´m gathering parts for my WeatherDuino, and am thinking about alternative sensors, in particular for wind and rain.

I have searched the forums and found some discussion on wind sensors (Davis and Inspeed for example) but little on interfacing rain gauges than 433MHz wireless linking (which is probably the easiest way).

Has anybody thought about interfacing tipping bucket gauges which have no wireless interface, but only the reed switch output? Or have I missed something incredibly simple?
Many Thanks for any advice!

The expectation is that the rain bucket is connected to a TX unit over a wired connection. There's no expectation the rain gauge on it's own is wireless.... perhaps I'm mis-interpreting your question too, but teh standard Fine Offset rain gauge is definetly hard wired to the TX

[werk_ag]

The system is designed to use a standard Fine Offset rain gauge. Just plug it in the corresponding RJ11 connector on the TX board, and it will work.

[moolight0551]

My understanding is that the "Fine Offset" type of rain sensors are a passive type of sensor. By that I mean there is simply a switch(a reed switch) inside the unit that is closed by a magnet attached to an arm on a tilting bucket which fills and tilts with a certain amount of rain. The bucket tips from side to side continuously emptying itself but operating the switch each time. Two wires are extended to the Tx Unit which sense the closure of the switch and so register a measured amount of rain. I think that any type of rain gauge sensor which operates using this principle could be used, but there would need to be adjustments to the Weatherduino program(s) depending on the amount of rain that is needed to close the switch. This may be difficult to carry out.

Dave

[Brett]

Hi Dave,

the fine offset rain gauges work exactly that way. You have to detect the tips as the switch changes state. The hardware and software are set up to do that.

I am still not sure what you're asking about these - they are expected as standard, are cheap, and don't need any intelligence. They are just the "simplest" solution as the software expects them, and the hardware is set up for them. You started talking about them as though they weren't an option to use, but actually they are the only feasible one. So is there another question behind this ?

[werk_ag]

Dave, your description about how the Fine Offset and almost all other rain gauges work, is absolutely correct.
Also is correct your assumption that any rain gauge that works in the same way could be used with the WeatherDuino Pro2 system.

And I tell you more... for a particular rain gauge, if you know the amount of rain that is needed to make tilting the bucket, changing the code to use it, is super easy: just change the value of one single variable (you also need to change Cumulus rain multiplier accordingly).

If you want more info about this, just ask.

Unless you already have some other rain gauge, as Brett said, why not start with a Fine Offset unit? They are cheap and easy to find.

[moolight0551]

So is there another question behind this ?

Hi Brett

I was just trying to help out ntmhamilton as I thought they were asking about active(with a radio link) vs passive(with a cable connection) rain gauge sensors and which type to buy. I thought I would explain a bit about how they work.

No, I already have my sensors which I think are Fine Offsets sourced from Sparkfun a few years ago.

Dave

[ntmhamilton]

Hi All,
As I started this I shouldn't let others suffer on my behalf ;-)

I don't have a Fine Offset sensor system, and in spite of their low cost was musing aloud whether I could find an alternative, perhaps better, (read more reliable, and maybe accurate) off the shelf rain gauge system.

What I didn't know was how the Tx board read the output of the rain gauge. Now I know that it simply counts the number of closures of the reed switches in the gauge. So any tipping bucket system will work :-)

Sorry for any angst created, will let you know what I decide to do.

So is there another question behind this ?

Hi Brett

I was just trying to help out ntmhamilton as I thought they were asking about active(with a radio link) vs passive(with a cable connection) rain gauge sensors and which type to buy. I thought I would explain a bit about how they work.

No, I already have my sensors which I think are Fine Offsets sourced from Sparkfun a few years ago.

Dave