rain detector

Hi all, I want to control on/off of a device depending on whether it rains or not. Is there any rain detector for this purpose. Many rain detectors may false alarm when there is fog or dust. Any sensor that I can use so that my device starts working only if there is real rain.

Thanks in advance.

Reply to
Wills
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try looking for piezo rain detectors.

Reply to
Dennis

Take a piece of desk blotter and soak it in saturated brine, pull it out and let it dry. Put it between two clips, and hang it outside somewhere.

It needs to dry between each use, or be replaced with a new one, depending on how it fares in the rain.

Good Luck! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Cooooool.....

Reply to
Wills

I have been thinking about the same thing, and while you are at it - why not measure the amount (in mm or inches depending where you are). The idea is to have an electronic weight under it somehow, that will change when raining, eventually "jump" when drops come in. Then again, you need to empty it when done.

I have had ideas like this, but never got the time :(

Sonnich

Reply to
jodleren

The usual low-cost rain gauges I've seen are of the "tippy bucket" style. These self-empty, by just dumping each full bucket out the bottom of the gauge housing when successive buckets fill. An example of this kit (built for hacking) is over at

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(Note that the rain gauge is the box at the bottom. In a couple of pictures the assembly is laying on its side, so that the x-axis appears to be normal to the inlet hole instead of the z-axis.)

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Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA
Reply to
Rich Webb

Go to hardware store/Lowes/Home Despot... Rainbird sprinkler controllers have an add-on rain detector. ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

I was thinking of an audio device to detect hits.

greg

Reply to
G

On a sunny day (Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:06:02 -0800 (PST)) it happened jodleren wrote in :

Use metal plate with pic up coil as microphone to detect drop impacts? You will need some filtering or processing to get only rain drops.

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

I was thinking of an audio device to detect hits.

greg

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A piezo disk as a microphone, detects the # of drops as well as the drop size.

Reply to
Dennis

Thanks very much for the response. I am trying the peizo rain detector now.

Reply to
Wills

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good luck!

Reply to
Dennis

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