Popp Z-Rain support?

[rge]

Is anyone using the Popp Z-Rain sensor with HS3?

If so, what's the support like - are all the values such as rate of rainfall, total volume etc support?

Many thanks.

[mikee123]

I am using the Popp rain sensor, it included fine and is working well. One thing I do not like is the rain total displayed in cubic meters.
This is what it looks like:

[rge]

Cool, thanks.

What value would you want the total rain to be shown in? According to the manual, it's m3 per m2 - i.e. metres of rain. I'd guess the "General Purpose" value is the same thing in mm.

[mikee123]

Yes I wanted mm ideally. I ignored the general purpose value, maybe that is what i wanted...mm

[rge]

It also says parameter 4 is a meter multiplier - not entirely clear which value it actually multiplies, but maybe just that total.

https://manuals.zwave.eu/backend/mak...0168&type=popp

Thanks for the confirmation it works - I've just ordered one :-)

[rge]

So I've got the Z-Rain, and not really impressed.

It uses a rocking bucket sensor, which is fairly typical, but it seems the buckets are just too big and/or heavy. Moderate rain takes ages to fill a bucket, so it only "senses" the rain some time after it starts, and measures in units of 7mm/h of rain every four minutes, so it shows 7mm/h rain then nothing then more rain then nothing etc.

I may try filling the bottom of the buckets with something to decrease their volume, which will break the calibration but possibly improve sensitivity...

Overall - maybe as a statistical rain gauge it would work, but as a rain sensor it's useless.

To quote their website: "You want to be informed when it starts raining and your windows are still opened?" - buy something else unless you want a wet carpet.

[mikee123]

So I've got the Z-Rain, and not really impressed.

It uses a rocking bucket sensor, which is fairly typical, but it seems the buckets are just too big and/or heavy. Moderate rain takes ages to fill a bucket, so it only "senses" the rain some time after it starts, and measures in units of 7mm/h of rain every four minutes, so it shows 7mm/h rain then nothing then more rain then nothing etc.

I may try filling the bottom of the buckets with something to decrease their volume, which will break the calibration but possibly improve sensitivity...

Overall - maybe as a statistical rain gauge it would work, but as a rain sensor it's useless.

To quote their website: "You want to be informed when it starts raining and your windows are still opened?" - buy something else unless you want a wet carpet.

I have seen the same behavior. I haven't had it long, and when it first rained it rained hard, so did not notice. But since it has rained, and I noticed the same as you.

[rge]

Update after about 8 months...

Actually I quite like this now. It's definitely no use as a real-time rain sensor, but as an environmental monitor to show rainfall history it's kind of cool when combined with database logging and Grafana (https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...e-with-grafana).

Battery life is huge (> 1 year on 2xAA looks realistic), and it needs no maintenance that I can see.