Miscellaneous Debris > Tech Corner
DIY wireless digital rain gauge.
DanS:
This inexpensive project takes only a couple days to build. It uses a home doorbell transceiver set for the wireless portion and a scratch built 4026 decade counter circuit. The tipping bucket reed switch takes the place of the doorbell push button and the decade counter circuit input is from the doorbell ringer circuit. The digital readout is 3 places with a dot next to the farthest left digit giving 1's, 10ths and 100ths of an inch. Mine is in the final calibration "tweek" stage but believe the figures using an eight inch funnel are in the ball park. The tipping bucket tips (each side) 25 times with 200ml of water showing 0.25 on the readout. 400ml for .50, 800ml for 1.00, etc. 8 inch funnel gives a 50 cubic inch area and converts to about 800ml. All very rough but got me close enough to do the final bucket adjustments for fine tuning against a manual gauge.
Obviously lacking in the cosmetics department, perhaps some UL, made in Thailand, patent applied for, etc. stickers would help it some. :roll:
Update, Nov. 2009: We have had several rain storms where I have had the opportunity to check and adjust the bucket stops. Comparisons were done with a manual gage and my weather station. I now have it reading pretty accurately. It has kept up with some fairly heavy downpours when then bucket was tipping about every 6 or 7 seconds. The distance I am setup with between the bucket/gage and the digital readout is about 50 feet. This is through a brick wall also.
Added note: The wireless doorbell set could possibly be modified with the addition of RJ-11 (or RJ-45) type sockets on each and used to make an existing PWS wired rain gauge, wireless. Haven't tried this yet but in theory should work by plugging the rain gauge into the doorbell button part and plugging the doorbell ringer part into the rain jack on the thermo/hygo sensor, replacing the wired portion.
Downlinerz2:
Dan,
WOW!! WOW!! Absolutely incredible. I wish I was proficient in making things like that. Did I mention WOW? You make me feel like a total dunce :oops: #-o!
Mark
DanS:
Hey Mark. Lets see if it actually works first. I might be the dunce going through all this for nothing. :roll: Keeps me busy though and I like tinkering. Stuff's so cheap over here too making experimenting easier. It cost more for the gas to and from the electrical shop than the parts cost. This whole thing cost less than $25, including the wireless doorbell, digital readout stuff, etc. I'll post results when the rain returns.
Dan
SlowModem:
--- Quote from: DanS on July 14, 2009, 10:02:31 AM ---I'll post results when the rain returns.
Dan
--- End quote ---
So what measurement units do they use there? metric? Or some Asian units?
DanS:
Greg, they use all pretty much metric here so you constantly have to do the conversions. I'm always referring to charts and programs. The gas stations are the ones that give me a headache, the pumps measure in liters. Price is in Thai baht per liter. Lots of fun comparing with stateside prices per gallon. :-k
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