Long weekend DIY project - Nice 20$ Weather station - Temp-Hum-Press-Illum-UV index

[Guest]

I don't think the clear plastic has a significant impact on the readings; at least not for private/non professional usage.
I would not recommend exposing the sensors directly to the elements.

some more information if you want to reproduce my design:

- I used plastic tubing (12 pieces - same lenght - about 5/8 in) over the threaded rods as spacers between the "bowls"
- As seen in pictures 2-3-8 above, added aluminium (easier to close the ends) mosquito net from top to bottom in case bugs would be tempted to use the station as a hotel.
especially the top "penthouse" =)
- The BME 280 is located center - middle height, so that its sensors are well ventilated while being protected from elements.

Cheers,
Yann

[Spudjr]

The sensors are starting to arrive. Time to play

[Guest]

Great. Have fun

here everything is running smoothly;
getting better at configuring Influx/Grafana dashboards which I then integrate in HStouch.

Also added LWT and RSSI data to check signal stability as the station is located at the back of my yard with aluminium siding / walls in between.
So far so good ( the red section was some maintenance window on the 20th )





also added some comparison data with external data sources
(ChrisGo plugin, Jon00 BBCWeather and hijacked my neighbor's weather station via RTL433; conclusion: mine is more accurate )



The only data set I was missing is rainfall so I ordered an Acurite 899 raingauge as it is supported via RTL433;
just received it today so will likely integrate it to the dashboards this weekend.



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004V1XJW0/


Cheers!

[Michael McSharry]

I had used a rain bucket with 1-wire counter a number of years ago and had the problem of organic matter such as that which clogs house gutters also clogging the rain bucket. It became too much of a hassle to keep it clean so decommissioned it. I had partenered with Campbell Scientific (Weatherhawk) at ExExpo and their weather station had an electronic rather that counter. Later I obtained an electronic unit that was originally used for windshield wipers in cars to know when to activate the wiper. In essence it does analysis of raindrops to measure rainfall rate. It kind of worked but was not something that a tended to rely upon. It is still in service, but not used for anything except data collection. For control purposes I used cloud-based providers that I hope have adequate maintenance on their rain measurement device and assume rainfall is same in their and my area.

i am curious of the technology of your unit and if would overcome issues I have had in the past.

[Spudjr]

Like the idea of a rain gauge, we get a lot of rain here on the west coast. Time to go buy a SDR and install rtl_433

[Guest]

i am curious of the technology of your unit and if would overcome issues I have had in the past.

It uses the "funnel & buckets" approach.
Which seems to be common/effective.

it doesn't retain water and self empties but
will still try to find a spot to avoid organic matter clogging it.

Will report back once I'm done testing it.

[Guest]

Like the idea of a rain gauge, we get a lot of rain here on the west coast. Time to go buy a SDR and install rtl_433

Sorry to extend your shopping spree

[Guest]

Forgot the HS device screen in my original post - for reference:

[jon00]

I had used a rain bucket with 1-wire counter a number of years ago and had the problem of organic matter such as that which clogs house gutters also clogging the rain bucket. It became too much of a hassle to keep it clean so decommissioned it. I had partenered with Campbell Scientific (Weatherhawk) at ExExpo and their weather station had an electronic rather that counter. Later I obtained an electronic unit that was originally used for windshield wipers in cars to know when to activate the wiper. In essence it does analysis of raindrops to measure rainfall rate. It kind of worked but was not something that a tended to rely upon. It is still in service, but not used for anything except data collection. For control purposes I used cloud-based providers that I hope have adequate maintenance on their rain measurement device and assume rainfall is same in their and my area.

i am curious of the technology of your unit and if would overcome issues I have had in the past.

Even my Davis Vantage Pro rain gauge has this issue. I finally resolved it by placing a fine mesh sink strainer in the funnel, similar to these from Ebay:


As the larger ones sit further up the funnel, it captures all the muck in the middle but allow the rain to enter below. Whilst it may alter the rain total slightly, I happy with that.

[brientim]

I had used a rain bucket with 1-wire counter a number of years ago and had the problem of organic matter such as that which clogs house gutters also clogging the rain bucket. It became too much of a hassle to keep it clean so decommissioned it. I had partenered with Campbell Scientific (Weatherhawk) at ExExpo and their weather station had an electronic rather that counter. Later I obtained an electronic unit that was originally used for windshield wipers in cars to know when to activate the wiper. In essence it does analysis of raindrops to measure rainfall rate. It kind of worked but was not something that a tended to rely upon. It is still in service, but not used for anything except data collection. For control purposes I used cloud-based providers that I hope have adequate maintenance on their rain measurement device and assume rainfall is same in their and my area.

i am curious of the technology of your unit and if would overcome issues I have had in the past.

I am still utilising the standard Davis Vantage Pro rain bucket and as I do not have an issue with organic matter which is more to do with the lack of tree locally rather than design.

The alternative, similar to the above you stated, is utilising an Hydreon RG-15 Optical Tipping Bucket Sensor (or the older Hydreon RG-11 Optical Tipping Bucket Sensor and you can read about integration on the Weather Exchange forum https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?board=108.0 and is supported in Weather Display for those interested)

https://rainsensors.com/products/model-comparison/
https://rainsensors.com/products/rg-15/
https://rainsensors.com/applications...t-replacement/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxVbIZfC324
http://cactus.io/hookups/weather/rain/hydreon/hookup-arduino-to-hydreon-rg-11-rain-sensor

[Guest]

I guess they eventually acknowledged the issue:

https://www.davisinstruments.com/pro...is-screen-kit/

Not many trees around so shouldn't be an issue but I'll still add something equivalent just in case.

[jon00]

I guess they eventually acknowledged the issue:

https://www.davisinstruments.com/pro...is-screen-kit/

Not many trees around so shouldn't be an issue but I'll still add something equivalent just in case.

Mine already has those. No use at all! There are also no trees around mine either. Its the fine partial dirt that seems to block the hole.

[Guest]

Mine already has those. No use at all! There are also no trees around mine either. Its the fine partial dirt that seems to block the hole.

Thanks for the tip Jon,
I'll go with a finer mesh like the ones you recommended.

[Spudjr]

123qweasd In your screen shot of Grafana showing your gauges I see you have "Field Units" of uv and lux after the value. How did you add these to grafana. Dont see these 2 in my setup. Thanks

[Guest]

edit-field-standard options-unit --> Flow-Lux
for UV index, I entered UV manually in the same field (otherwise it is 25 milliWatts per square meter for each Index unit...)