[werk_ag]

I have one of these which I intend to hook up to the weatherduino.

http://texaselectronics.com/products/rai...ucket.html

Currently, my efforts in the development of the WeatherDuino Pro 2 software goes in the direction of adding support to as many as possible weather instruments.

Following adding support for the Inspeed wind instruments, the next step will be adding support to virtually any tipping bucket rain gauge, which generates a click per tip.

There is already some work in progress. For the user, it will be just a question of define the collector type in terms of the correspondent mm per tip, and do an adjustment in the Cumulus multiplier.

I may need some help in this task, especially with feedback from those who want to volunteer to actively test a beta software version.

[JT118]

I have one of these which I intend to hook up to the weatherduino.

http://texaselectronics.com/products/rai...ucket.html

Currently, my efforts in the development of the WeatherDuino Pro 2 software goes in the direction of adding support to as many as possible weather instruments.

Following adding support for the Inspeed wind instruments, the next step will be adding support to virtually any tipping bucket rain gauge, which generates a click per tip.

There is already some work in progress. For the user, it will be just a question of define the collector type in terms of the correspondent mm per tip, and do an adjustment in the Cumulus multiplier.

I may need some help in this task, especially with feedback from those who want to volunteer to actively test a beta software version.

I am prepared to help if I can, I do teach engineering irrigation and a bit of hydrology so am not too bad at water volumes etc, and have reasonable grasp of rain gauge arithmetic. Incidentally I got my FO rain gauge from Maplins today. A quick measurement shows it is 54.80cm2. (dimensions 50mm x 110mm, less a little for the rounded corners.)I suspect they do their maths on the assumption of a 55cm2 collector. This means that 10mm of rain would be 55ml of water. For calibration purposes one normally uses 20mm of rain equivalent dripped into the gauge over 1 hour, therefore use 110 ml of water to calibrate.

If FO are assuming 0.3mm is represented by one tip, 110ml should tip the bucket 67 times. I will be surprised if it does; given the very ordinary build quality and the very vague bucket mechanism.

I have a Davis 7852

7852_SS.pdf Size: 151,67 KB  Downloads: 322

tipping bucket on my station ( www.ayrshireweather.org ) and will connect a Texas Instruments TR-525 to the Weatherduino once I have finished building it. (nearly there!)

The international standard for tipping buckets is 0.2mm per tip and most higher quality gauges use this as their standard; and a 154mm ( 6" ) diameter collector, research grade are often bigger. They have a sharp edge on the collector to ensure a definite cutoff and that any rain falling even slightly outside 6" diam falls out of the collector and not into it. One cannot accuse the FO gauge of having a "sharp" edge to the collector. It is very vague. For the money (£4.99) it is OK; but I suspect that you would have to assume a potential 20% error on this gauge from the actual rainfall.

I shall do some calibration exercises this week and see if it gets near to what I think is its specification. ie 55cm2 and 0.3mm per tip. Of course any inaccuracies in accuracy will be compounded by its lack of precision ie no sharp edge; splash out etc.

[werk_ag]

I was thinking, if you could test the operation of the TR-525I. It is a 0.2mm Rain Gauge tipping Bucket, as the Davis ones.
For now my main concern is about hardware functionality, but some additional precision tests are most welcome.

Soon I will have a beta test software version. Then I will contact you by PM.

[JT118]

Just checking in the TX program there is the following line;

const float RAIN_FACTOR = 0.3; // Datasheet value = 0.2794

Is there a data sheet available? is 0.2794 from a data sheet? I cannot find a spec sheet anywhere on the internet. Is this the correct line I am looking at.

[werk_ag]

Argent Data Systems sell a rain gauge that is just a renamed FO model.

This is from a doc from Argent Data Systems:

"The rain gauge is a self-emptying tipping bucket type. Each 0.011”
(0.2794 mm) of rain causes one momentary contact closure that can
be recorded with a digital counter or microcontroller interrupt input."

Just a note: Be aware that with the current software, just changing the value of the RAIN_FACTOR variable is not enough to make the system work with other rain gauges.

[JT118]

Ah! this means they have assumed an imperial measure based machine, which I expect was to suit the American market. I doubt very much there is any difference at all, and just written in a spec for the American market on the basis that near enough is good enough.

I note your comment on the code and will not change anything. Thanks.

[werk_ag]

Hi JT118
To talk specifically about FO rain gauges it's better using this thread:
http://www.meteocercal.info/forum/Thread...in-Sensors

This one is for alternatives to FO rain gauges. Other models, other brands...

[Denis Bill]

Hello Werg_AG,

At present I have assembled my PCB's and I am testing my weatherduino Pro2 before final instillation I have a davis rain gauge with 0.2mm tipping bucket and would like to volunteer with testing new software if I may.

Regards,
Denis

I have one of these which I intend to hook up to the weatherduino.

http://texaselectronics.com/products/rai...ucket.html

Currently, my efforts in the development of the WeatherDuino Pro 2 software goes in the direction of adding support to as many as possible weather instruments.

Following adding support for the Inspeed wind instruments, the next step will be adding support to virtually any tipping bucket rain gauge, which generates a click per tip.

There is already some work in progress. For the user, it will be just a question of define the collector type in terms of the correspondent mm per tip, and do an adjustment in the Cumulus multiplier.

I may need some help in this task, especially with feedback from those who want to volunteer to actively test a beta software version.

[werk_ag]

Hello Werg_AG,

At present I have assembled my PCB's and I am testing my weatherduino Pro2 before final instillation I have a davis rain gauge with 0.2mm tipping bucket and would like to volunteer with testing new software if I may.

Hi Denis

Thank you for your offer, I really appreciate it.
I haven't yet finished a beta software version with support for user configurable bucket value. The main changes will be on the TX software, but of course it will require some changes on the RX software too.
As soon as I have a beta software version (middle August, I hope), I contact you by PM.

[werk_ag]

Just some info about what is going on in this matter.
WeatherDuino Pro2 v1.5, is already in beta2 state.

Here is a list of the currently tested rain gauges.

Wired Models
- Fine Offset (PCE, Watson, etc) / Tipping Bucket: 0.3mm
- Davis 7852 / Tipping Bucket: 0.2mm (metric models) - (in test by Denis Bill / Current State: working)
- Texas Electronics model 525 - (in test by JT118 / Current State: working)
- Virtually, any tipping bucket rain gauge

Wireless Models (all have 0.25mm tipping Bucket)
- Auriol H13726
- Ventus W155
- Hama EWS 1500
- Meteoscan w155 w160
- Alecto WS-3500
- Balance RF-WS100