Siphon-based Rain Meter

A rain meter without moving parts. It will be an add-on module for Elektor's USB Long-Term Weather Logger (100888)

A rain meter without moving parts. It will be an add-on module for Elektor's USB Long-Term Weather Logger (nr. 100888).

The Siphonic Rain Gauge project (nr. 120554) was published in Elektor Magazine of March 2015.

Discussion (3 comments)

Colin55 3 years ago

This is a very clever concept. The hose/pipe/tube is open at one end and sits 1mm from the bottom of the "tank" The other end passes out the bottom of the tank and it must continue some distance lower than the tank. The gauge needs a funnel to amplify the water collected in the tank and it rises in the pipe and fills the tube and spills over the top of the bend in the tube and fills the descending tube. The water in the descending tube must be greater than the ascending part of the tube and when this occurs, the tube acts as a siphon to empty the tank. The bore of the tube must be small enough to allow the surface tension and meniscus of the water to create this effect.

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Totche 11 years ago

Hi,

Nobody talks about the surface (diameter) of the tube.

As the measure is in liters / millimeters² or m², it depends of the diameter.

I think the measure will be more accurate if the diameter of the inlet is bigger than the tube.

And also the rain don't fall verticaly all the time, so bigger the 'funnel' is, better will be the measure .

(I have read somewhere that the normalized diameter was 400mm²)

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Bobbylebob 11 years ago

Hi Clemens,

What is the physical principle used for measuring water level ? I thought it could be a capacitive measurement (a capacitor made of two electrodes glued on each side of the vertical pipe, in which water level would change its value), but it seems that you used something else...

Regards,

.David.

DaveGadgeteer 8 years ago

What has happened to this siphon meter project?
I can't seem to find any detailed description of its design.

Lucky 11 years ago

I'm taking over the project in the Elektor lab now, the meter will be connected to the hardware of the USB weather logger 100888.

ClemensValens 12 years ago

hi David, It is not my project, but a project that is currently in the lab. The principle is an overflowing siphon, the overflow rate is determined by the amount of rain. This technique is supposed to create water pulses that can be counted. Regards, Clemens