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Replacement for the standard rain gauge ... ???

Posted: Thu 01 Feb 2018 8:16 am
by odintheterrible
Greetings one and all,

Since relocating to Spain our WS3083 (Fineoffset) the station has been operating reasonably well ... except for the standard rain gauge.

It works OK when the rain is fairly constant and heavy, but this Spring has been relatively dry, with what can only be best termed as light mizzal/drizzle which is enough to leave small pools of water on the swimming pool cover, and the patio tiles to be visibly wet/damp etc ... but the rain gauge on the weather station (standard tipping bucket type) seems incapable of registering it.

I'm toying with the idea of buying a stand-alone rain gauge but before I do that, I would be interested to know if anyone has discovered or made a suitable replacement for the standard Fineoffset unit or if there is a modification which will improve the accuracy of the standard unit ??

Thanks

Re: Replacement for the standard rain gauge ... ???

Posted: Thu 01 Feb 2018 5:53 pm
by sfws
You might want to read an old topic https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6941 about accuracy
or https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=5630 about modifications

Re: Replacement for the standard rain gauge ... ???

Posted: Thu 01 Feb 2018 6:21 pm
by AllyCat
Hi,

I did experiment with adding a 14 cm diameter plastic funnel above the normal FO rain sensor with the aim of achieving 0.1mm per tip. But to be honest it was rather a failure because the rain collected in beads in the funnel (even though it had much steeper sides than the FO) and didn't give an earlier warning of the onset of rain. I guess it might be equally unsuccessful recording small showers in low humidity, with the droplets evapourating before running down into the sensor.

I had planned to experiment with a metal funnel and/or a water-dispersant such as "Rain-X", but sorry, not tried yet.

Another possibility might be the Hydreon RG11 rain sensor which was discussed on the forum some years ago and is supported in real time (no logger) by Cumulus 1. Ideal for an "it's (started) raining" warning or it can emulate a ridiculously small tipping bucket (0.01 mm or less). But it's unlikely to have the accuracy of a tipping bucket and requires a significant power supply, not compatible with a simple battery power supply, even with a modest solar panel.

Cheers, Alan.