The Next Project

A week or so ago the rain gauge on my weather station stopped recording. I wound the mast down and checked things over but couldn't find anything wrong. This is the second time it has happened with my rain recorders. From what I can gather it seems to be a common fault with the cheaper systems.

I had considered buying another one but got to thinking - a dangerous habit which one should try to avoid at all costs. Checking the old rain gauge mechanical bit I found it was still working OK so what about building my own rain gauge? It is a good 18 months since I last had a play with an Arduino micro processor system but that seemed the best route to take as I already had one and other associated bits in the 'junk box'.

Of course in that time the PC software for writing the Arduino programming code had been updated several times so I had to get everything up to date. The idea will be for an Arduino to count the number of times the 'seasaw' buckets in the rain gauge flip and calculate the equivalent rainfall in mm.



This information needs to be stored and retrievable on an LCD readout. This is a first test just to make sure I can send what is needed to a two line LCD module. The Arduino version I am using is the Nano, one of the smallest available, which can be seen towards the bottom of the photo.

 

There is a long was to go as my one remaining grey cell soon gets rusty and 18 months gives plenty of time to forget how to program the thing. No doubt there will be lots of cursing along the way but it is more entertaining than the pap they shove out on the idiot lantern these days.