Ecowitt Gateway - Storm Rain

[Steeple Ian]

This is a question for Gary Roderick.

I have been asked by several users of the skin I maintain if storm rain can be added including the time at which the current storm rain period started. 

This is very straightforward for Davis Vantage users as it can log both the current status of the storm rain period and a persistent start date.

For Ecowitt users this is not the case. As far as I can see from running weewxd, there is a value for storm rain but not a persistent start date/time for the current stom rain period.

Therefore my question, is it possible within the gw1000.py to generate a start date/time which persists until the storm rain period ends, at which point the start date/time reverts to Null.

Thank you,

Ian

[matthew wall]

On Friday, November 10, 2023 at 4:05:13 AM UTC-5 steep...@btinternet.com wrote:

Therefore my question, is it possible within the gw1000.py to generate a start date/time which persists until the storm rain period ends, at which point the start date/time reverts to Null.

You might want to implement storm rain as a standalone weewx service, instead of tweaking each driver.  The service could use storm rain from a driver, if it is available. But design the service so that it works even with drivers that provide nothing more than rain measurements.

That way your skin, plus the weewx-stormrain service, would work with any station that provides rainfall measurements.

m

[steepleian]

Thank you Matthew, that is where my thoughts were leading me. I need to see if I can fathom that one out. It is getting the start time to persist for the duration of the storm rain period which is stretching my capabilities at the moment.

https://claydonsweather.org.uk

On 10 Nov 2023, at 12:39, matthew wall <mwall...@gmail.com> wrote:



--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "weewx-user" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to weewx-user+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/c58747d3-d4a0-4428-b266-447aced6ff91n%40googlegroups.com.

[Greg Hall]

This is close to a function that I'm keen to work on. 

As I wrote in https://groups.google.com/g/weewx-user/c/fE7NOpSK7_Q and got some helpful replies, our 'People's Pluviograph' initiative needs reporting of hourly rainfall.

-

The available Wx can report instantaneous intensity, and summarise it daily, etc. but that's not what tells those downstream to get ready for a flood.

I've bought a couple of 8" tipping bucket gauges, and am playing with Arduino code to keep daily, tips per minute files, on a local SD card, to be relayed on to a LORA-APRS system (o.n.o), and as last resort, on a local display.

While that's coming along, some tips on how we might wrangle WeeWx to count up bucket tips and generate an hourly register would be very helpful.

-

And yes, the advice that stream gauges tell a fuller story is well taken. We're also evaluating ultrasonic and microwave sensors for this.

Greg

VK2GTH

-

[Graham Eddy]

river level sensors:

  * my dragino lorawan ultrasonic sensor has been fine, though it has condensation problems (to be fair, it is mounted under a bridge a couple metres above normal river level)

  * my dragino lorawan microwave radar has been a failure. i get neither accurate nor consistent measurements and can’t see any way to use the readings i get

  * my old aquagauge differential pressure sensor - proprietary radio network - has worked precisely for years, but is not sold any more. after the failure of the microwave sensor experiment, i would like to get a lorawan diff pressure sensor but they are too expensive - alternative is another ultrasound sensor

⊣GE⊢

[Greg Hall]

Graham,

I see that your ultrasound sensor is the https://www.dragino.com/products/distance-level-sensor/item/161-ldds75.html

available from https://www.iot-store.com.au/collections/sensors/products/ldds75-lorawan-waterproof-distance-detection-sensor 7500mm range for $139

or the sensor alone from https://www.digikey.com.au/en/products/detail/dfrobot/SEN0313/11202720 for $51

I'll order one, thanks.

-

Regarding the failure to obtain meaningful results from the microwave sensor, I'm wondering if that could be related to the rather wide acceptance angle of the device?

I'm guessing that yours may have been the $229 24GHz device at https://www.dragino.com/products/distance-level-sensor/item/197-lmds200.html which cites 'Horizontal Angel: 78° Vertical Angel: 23°' (sic!)

The $229 60GHz device at https://www.iot-store.com.au/products/mds120-lb-lorawan-distance-sensor quotes 'Measurement Angle: 25 degrees horizontal and 23 degrees vertical' may be more suitable for the applications. I'm flirting with ordering one of these...

The images of these show no antenna horn, so I'll look into making up a horn to contain the uWaves into a narrower beam. The very short wavelength (~12.5mm) will doubtless make for a challenging build, also that the Tx & Rx antenna are separated.

Perhaps you could do some beamwidth tests on yours? If it really is 78 degr wide, then perhaps that axis could be aligned up/downstream, to avoid bridge pylons and streambank?

We envisage attaching the devices to a public bridge, on many of these the 7.5M range limitation would not reach to the normal water level. Therefore I'm also looking at the microwave devices with their claimed 20M range.

Your site is an inspiration!

Thanks

PS: Regarding the immersion pressure sensor, I did buy one of these, but due to the requirement for a metal tube to contain it, and our intended placement on public bridges, we are looking instead at the remote sensors. You might consider https://core-electronics.com.au/gravity-throw-in-type-liquid-level-transmitter.html $86 and https://www.iot-store.com.au/products/serial-bridge-lorawan-converter $129.

Greg Hall
0265504481
0428850144
VK2GTH
-

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "weewx-user" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/weewx-user/S6kDlgFXW38/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to weewx-user+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/weewx-user/A8B843CA-75A4-4EF5-9616-D640B7CCDEB0%40geddy.au.

[Graham Eddy]

microwave:

i have the wide beam aligned up/downstream to mitigate its width.

my readings are always larger, not smaller, than they should be. successive readings that should be nearly identical can be more than 20% different, and i notice a general daily oscillation of about 50% but i could not correlate it with temperature or humidity. i think the variation is much larger than can be accounted for by random large ripples at the peripehery of the beam (giving larger distances) but i will be interested to see if your horn reduces it

⊣GE⊢