Weather Station - Rain gauge question

hellboy99

It's been raining here now for near 4 hours and my rain gauge is not reading any rainfall. I've checked inside it and the circuit board, all is fine and it reads when I pour a glass of water into it, so why is it not reading rainfall (and yes there is rain dropping into it).

Thanks.

Deep Easterly

hellboy99 wrote: »

It's been raining here now for near 4 hours and my rain gauge is not reading any rainfall. I've checked inside it and the circuit board, all is fine and it reads when I pour a glass of water into it, so why is it not reading rainfall (and yes there is rain dropping into it).

Thanks.

Not sure if this is the problem but sometimes when rainfall is very light a rain gauge will either not read it or will take a long time to register it. This is a problem I have with my Davis as well at times. Even tonight with just dribs and drabs of rain it is hardly registering anything, although do have a LaCross back up which is a little more sensitive thank God.

Out of interest, what increments is your rain gauge set to read at with each 'tip of the bucket'?

hellboy99

Deep Easterly wrote: »

have a LaCross back up which is a little more sensitive thank God.
Out of interest, what increments is your rain gauge set to read at with each 'tip of the bucket'?

The rain gauge is the standard one that came with my LaCross WS-2300 station, it's set at 1mm. Have it now since Oct 08 and this is the first time I've had a problem with it.

Joe Public

Is the see saw action nice and free with no stickiness?

Deep Easterly

hellboy99 wrote: »

The rain gauge is the standard one that came with my LaCross WS-2300 station, it's set at 1mm. Have it now since Oct 08 and this is the first time I've had a problem with it.

That could be the problem HB. I am not sure how heavy the rain is/was in Dundalk this evening but if it is anything like here it is taking well over an hour to register a whole 1.0 mm.

Do you know if there an option to configure the increments on this station? say down to 0.1mm or 0.2mm with every tip? I am not familiar with that particular weather station.

Joe Public

The rain in the east has been moderate since 7pm so no issues with too little rain.

hellboy99

Joe Public wrote: »

Is the see saw action nice and free with no stickiness?

Yes, it's fine.

Deep Easterly wrote: »

Do you know if there an option to configure the increments on this station? say down to 0.1mm or 0.2mm with every tip? I am not familiar with that particular weather station.

I can set it down to 0.1mm through the Weather Display software, i'll give that a go, thanks.

pauldry

Have same problem with my weather station rain gauge my remote one works.

Ive found that sometimes the fact that it is not completely parellel to the ground beneath can affect rain. also stickiness as someone mentioned. also sometimes if you reset your weather station it will read again. and finally if you reset and wait a few hours the figures will automatically appear in time.

This is all the rain gauge experience i have for you sorry.

Deep Easterly

pauldry wrote: »

Have same problem with my weather station rain gauge my remote one works.

Ive found that sometimes the fact that it is not completely parellel to the ground beneath can affect rain. also stickiness as someone mentioned. also sometimes if you reset your weather station it will read again. and finally if you reset and wait a few hours the figures will automatically appear in time.

This is all the rain gauge experience i have for you sorry.

Good point. Even a slight unbalance can effect how much rain is getting into each side of the 'tipper' (don't know right name ) inside the bucket. If the rain is light then maybe all the drops are falling into one side of the tipper preventing it from tipping back and forth. When Hellboy poured water into the bucket it may have been sufficient to tip the bucket due to the volume and force of the water entering

You should check its alignment with a level Hellboy to see if this could be the problem. I know from experience it can take quite some time to get it full on spot on.

CrowdedHouse

hellboy99 wrote: »

Yes, it's fine.


I can set it down to 0.1mm through the Weather Display software, i'll give that a go, thanks.

Yes but you'd have to enlarge the collection funnel ? I had to with mine (OS 200)

hellboy99

I'm baffled altogether, it's still not reading rainfall but reads when I pour water into it. I've had it apart checked out everything all is fine, tipper moves freely and have releveled it and still no joy

Deep Easterly

hellboy99 wrote: »

I'm baffled altogether, it's still not reading rainfall but reads when I pour water into it. I've had it apart checked out everything all is fine, tipper moves freely and have releveled it and still no joy

Sounds very strange HB, Did it read when you manually tipped the bucket yourself?

hellboy99

Deep Easterly wrote: »

Sounds very strange HB, Did it read when you manually tipped the bucket yourself?

Read fine when I did that. I honestly thought it was down to a level issue but releveling has not worked, that or the spirt level & laser level I have are both reading wrong. Going out to have another look at it now as it's bucketing down here.

hellboy99

I think I fixed it, seems to be working ok now.

Talk about an easy fix, read on the net that losening the base screws slighty can fix the problem, if they are too tight it can put the base out of shape and can effect the tipper by warping or stiffening the swing arm.

Deep Easterly

hellboy99 wrote: »

I think I fixed it, seems to be working ok now.

Talk about an easy fix, read on the net that losening the base screws slighty can fix the problem, if they are too tight it can put the base out of shape and can effect the tipper by warping or stiffening the swing arm.

Good stuff Hellboy.

hellboy99

Deep Easterly wrote: »

Good stuff Hellboy.

Thanks, going fine now. If I hadn't come across that on the net I would never of thought of it.