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Miscellaneous Debris => Weather sensors, design, analysis, discussion, home brew => Tech Corner => Snow Depth Sensors => Topic started by: miraculon on January 13, 2016, 04:34:51 PM

Title: Prior posts about MaxBotix ultrasonic rangefinder snow depth sensor
Post by: miraculon on January 13, 2016, 04:34:51 PM

Since this is new area, I thought that I would post a link to the thread regarding the sensor build. Nothing new with the sensor lately, but here it is anyways. It turns out that I couldn't have picked a worse spot for it, the wind swirls around the house and cleans off the target snowboard sometimes. I have been pondering on how to move it to my ISS tripod out in the middle of the yard, yet get power to it and data back out if it....

(http://rogerscityweather.com/DSCN1723.JPG)

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=24547 (http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=24547)

Greg H.

Title: Re: Prior posts about MaxBotix ultrasonic rangefinder snow depth sensor
Post by: txweather.org on January 13, 2016, 04:49:33 PM

Greg,

I was following your post a when you first started and I know you had some issues with the data collection part.
Is it stable now?

Awesome equipment by the way!

Regards,

Title: Re: Prior posts about MaxBotix ultrasonic rangefinder snow depth sensor
Post by: miraculon on January 13, 2016, 05:32:50 PM

Quote from: xcom on January 13, 2016, 04:49:33 PM

Greg,

I was following your post a when you first started and I know you had some issues with the data collection part.
Is it stable now?

Awesome equipment by the way!

Regards,

I got all of the scripts cleaned up with the help of my wizard son.
When I have a bare board, the readings are very stable now and the data always flows OK.
The only issues I have are "loss of signal" (5000mm readings) due to heavy snowfall and sometimes cold temperatures. I think that the cold problem might be packed snow inside the sensor horn. Eventually the "self cleaning" seems to clear it up. I am glad that I got that option!

My "target" location is susceptible to being scoured by wind swirling around the house. Where I have it located now was driven by reasonable RS-232 cable length and power availability. The Linux box is right inside the house wall in the basement.

It is still "an experiment" basically. When conditions are right it works well. Certain very fluffy snowfall will be transparent to the rangefinder and I think it "sees" (hears?) the target board right through the snow. Other times, it is very good.

Greg H.

Title: Re: Prior posts about MaxBotix ultrasonic rangefinder snow depth sensor
Post by: txweather.org on January 13, 2016, 05:42:49 PM

I was very intriguing to read your progress!, The whole setup is from the ground up and interests me allot. It sucks though we get 0 snow here in Spring, Texas :(
Thanks for the update! :D