Arduino Weather Station Part3, Rain

So one of my last projects was adding a weather vane to my Arduino weather station.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Wind-Chill-Machine/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Weather-Station-Part2/

This Lazy Old Geek decided to add a rain gauge to it even though we don’t get much rain in the high desert. Most digital rain gauges are based on something called a tipping bucket. Here is a good diagram complements of:
http://park18.wakwak.com/~weather/archive/RainGauge.htm

There are actually a lot of rain gauges for sale. Amazon.com has some tipping buckets for around $20. But I’m a Geek where’s the challenge in that, so I decided to build my own.
 

Step 1 Parts List

Parts List:

USB Freeduino (Arduino-clone) $22.50
Adafruit Data logging shield $19.50
http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17_21&products_id=243

SD Card $ 6

Aluminum NoTrespassing Sign $ 2
2 Ethernet Couplers                       $1.40 (ebay.com)

1 empty Cashew nut plastic jar
1 Funnel (5.5" diameter)                 dollar store
1 ¾” pipe strap                                  $ 0.59
2 #8 nylon washers                          $ 0.17 @
1 small magnet (10 for $1 at Harbor Freight)
Honeywell SS461C Hall Effect IC $1.86 Digikey

Prices US dollars March 2011

Useful Tools:

Drill/drill press
Rotary tool (Dremel/clone)
Syringe ($0.99)

Any USB Arduino should work but it is easier to wire it up to an Arduino shield so the clone would have to be shield compatible. There are some good deals on ebay for Arduino Duemilanove 2009 for about $18.
 
The syringe is actually a cattle syringe for veterinarian use. I am a vet, close enough. Actually, this worked pretty good for calibrating my rain gauge.
 

Comments

[benstead]

That is awesome!

[msuzuki777]

Thanks. This was a project I've wanted to do for a long time and finally got it going. I actually use it most every day.

Lazy Old Geek