My Weather Station: Rain Gauge
I am building my own weather station utilising the HC08 MCU, I am aiming for Temperature, Rain Fall, Wind Speed and Direction recordings to be wirelessly transmitted to my PC.
Rain Gauge:
I am aiming for a completely automated rain gauge that is quite accurate and will give readings every 5min during rain fall, or when gauge is full if quicker than 5min. I will be using a 20cm diameter funnel leading into narrow tube with a 2.5cm diameter and 20cm height, giving the tube a volume of 392.85 cubic centimetres or 392.85 ml. Using a 20cm diameter funnel, 31.41ml is equal to 1mm of rain fall. This is calculated by knowing that 1mm of rain over 1square meter equals 1L, so first we have to calculate our funnels surface area.
3.1415*(200mm/2)*(200mm/2)=31415cubic mm.
We know 1,000,000cubic mm = 1L in 1mm of rain fall, so:
1,000,000/31415=31.831
1000ml/31.831=31.415ml per 1mm of rain fall.
I then plan on having 2 valves at either end to allow the water to be drained.