Sunday, October 28, 2012

The oncoming storm got me off my duff and put an old tipping bucket rain gauge left over from a failed weather station.  I haven't a clue how much each tip counts toward inches, so I just going to count them for the time being.

If history is any indication - the wind will blow the rain gauge over (away) it usually did in the past.  I looked around for a cinder block to anchor it down with, but am fresh out. (BTW - try and find a flashlight anywhere around :-)

If the wind gets that bad - will probably knock out the power and this long chain of technology (Arduino -> nrf24l01+ -> arduino -> serial -> Desktop -> C# -> COSM ) will break and that will be that. Everything is battery backed up except for the desktop, the weak link in the chain.

The data can be seen @ https://cosm.com/feeds/74950https://cosm.com/feeds/82947 I know it is really, really messy, but the good stuff is there.  Look for outside temperature (OT) OutsideTips (count of the rain bucket tips), and the Barometric Pressure. The Barometric Pressure should see a really low value if it gets bad.

Now all I have to do is knuckle down and build the anemometer, the last part of the weather station.  I have this insane desire to use a child's pinwheel to measure the wind - all i really need to know is 1)is is calm, and 2)blowing light, medium, hard.  If i need facts - weather channel, weather underground, or AccuWeather will give me all that.

That and get it all working with a Ethernet card of some kind. (Raspberry Pi?)