[Weather] dual drains -- was Re: conversion help

[David Fullmer]

I don't remember where I found it on the internet, but has anyone else seen a piezo-transducer based rain gauge.  It was kind of a slick design - no moving parts (in the classic sense).  It had a flat, horizontal, circular, stainless steel surface with a lip that curved down to protect the sensing element(s) directly below on the lower (back) surface.  It integrated the rain impact energy over time to determine rain fall amount and rate.  Not a One Wire solution, but still an interesting device.  The rain then just ran off of the surface over the edge.  No tipping buckets, no drain holes to clog, no bug issues, no temperature sensitivities, but I don't know how severe wind might effect it nor how well it would measure very, very light rain.  I would think that anything that produced vibration might/could be an issue, but maybe that's been designed or filtered out somehow in the waveform processing of the sensor output.  Probably not a cheap instrument either.  But sounds like it might be an interesting project to turn into a kit somehow. 

- Dave -

>>> Mark J <Mark at poppyland.plus.com> 11/21/2006 11:33 AM >>>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

In message <45634CE7.9000407 at usa.net>
          claude felizardo <cafelizardo at usa.net> wrote:

> Mark J wrote:
> 
> [snip]
[snip]
> > It needs fresh thought, and no; I haven't any sensible suggestion
> > either :-)
> >   
> 
> So what about two separate sets of rain gauges?    One designed for 
> light rainfall, the other for down pours.  Then possibly subtract the 
> light rainfall measurements from the downpours?  I suppose you'll still 
> have the unknown amount sitting in each bucket...
> 
> claude
> 

- I can't see how that would work, since either would be accumulating
inaccurate readings when they were out of design range. You might
switch between them and reset their individual counters at
appropriate moments, but you'd need a third gauge to be an
administrator to decide which gauge was the most suitable for the
prevailing conditions, and that gauge would presumably have to be
accurate throughout the range, which would make the other two
redundant :-)

I've a sneaky feeling that if the bucket could be bested it would
already of been done so. Ultrasonic, flow, weight... but add leaves,
insects, wind vibration, temperature extremes, inaccessability...

  [snip]

-- 
E.Mark Jolliffe
www.poppy-land.co.uk 

_______________________________________________
Weather mailing list
Weather at buoy.com 
http://www2.buoy.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/weather