Rain alarm

I was thinking quite a bit about this problem because even if there is the slightest chance of rain I won't get any sleep.
If you're an electrician you can build something with a water sensor and a micro pc like raspberry pi but there are very little videos on it.
If there was something that detects rain 10min. beforehand it would fly off the shelves.

Since I wanted a easy quick solution to my problem and I already had a Netatmo weatherstation, I bought a rain gauge which I'm planning to modify to push me a warning at least shortly after it began to rain.


I disassambled it and will frankenstein it to detect a few drops which should be pretty easy.
I know not exactly the best solution and certainly not the fastest but I can just implement it into my weatherstation.
A few drops won't hurt my rig (I had it in light rain for 45min.) and nothing was damaged.

So I guess it's way better than no notifaction at all.

If you got some skills when it comes to circuit boards and stuff there should be a much better way to deal with rain.
Hopefully some company will come up with a refined product anytime soon, haven't found one yet.

btw: One of the videos I found explained how to build something with component likethese
But it was with a sirene which is not suitable for many.
Can't be too hard to implement a wifi but since I have no knowledge whatsoever when it comes to stuff like this I can't build it myself.

CS
Sascha

Nothing will tell you in advance if it is going to rain very soon apart from radar rainfall charts.
This Eigenbrot sensor has been  used professionally by National Met Services to detect precipitation:-
https://www.eigenbrodt.de/en/products/meteorologie/precipitation-sensor-monitor/

Note the design. Electrical tracks, that when bridged by rain, cause a signal to be sent to an instrument, that determines present weather type using other meanas as well. One of which is called a FD12P present weather instrument. The 4 sloping sides let rain fall away and not built up and the pins are for snow detection. Heating helps dry it off. Gold plating is used to avoid corrosion. Obviously this is not applicable in your case, but the design is.


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https://cpc.farnell.com/kemo-electronic/m152k/rain-sensor-capacitive/dp/HK01739?mckv=s_dc|pcrid|224646539664|kword||match||plid||slid||product|HK01739|pgrid|49734053271|ptaid|pla-1679491149534|&CMP=KNC-GUK-CPC-SHOPPING-945765023-49734053271-HK01739&s_kwcid=AL!5616!3!224646539664!!!network}!1679491149534!&gclid=CjwKCAjwrranBhAEEiwAzbhNtXijSFpQzzuacLolq-ihoRcJh-3-f76vMX2uaZLCjpAtyrdX-7R_6RoCEY4QAvD_BwE

This 2nd design should work and provides relay contact closure on detection of rain by a capacitive effect caused by rain between tracks, as far as I can tell. It is heated so will dry off. It will not connect to your phone without some sort of interface. That should help you start looking in the right direction for other sensors.

Hi Arun,

I looked quite a while for such a solution myself. I ended up buying a Hitec Astro Weather Deluxe weather station. Like @David Moore  said, nothing can tell you in advance if it's going to rain. But the Hitec Weather Deluxe is watching the cloud cover and usually can alert you in advance, if there are cloud forming. You can adjust the level of clouds or rain when the device is giving you an alert. It also can send emails. The software uses an ascom driver, but sadly it's only 32 bits. So it won't work with 64Bit software like Nina. But it has a relay output that toggles if the weather condition is unsafe. I found a small Arduino ascom safety driver and used the relay toggle to generate an unsafe condition with it in Nina. This works well. With the IFTTT- or the GroundStation-Plugin, I send some alerts to my other devices.

Just like @D. Jung I use the relay also as a sensor in my Home Assistant. This toggles at least the light at my bed to wake me up if it's unsafe.

This is not the best method and it took me a while until everything worked, but it was the easiest solution back then. Also not exactly cheap. If that may be of interest to you, I can give you a more in-depth description.

I have one more important advice. Don't use cheap and unheated rain sensors. You do need heated ones. Otherwise the forming dew will drive you crazy. Don't ask me how I know

CS

Christian

Thank you for all the recommendations.

The Hitec and Tempest systems look very interesting. Does the Tempest send alerts to your phone or via email?

Another option I am looking at is to use an app like MyRadar which is supposed to send you notifications of various weather events in your area. That would be similar in concept to Windy that Matteo mentioned.

I'm not sure a weather station is the right tool for detecting a few drops of rain.
I have one ((https://www.aercusinstruments.com/aercus-instruments-weathersleuth-professional-ip-weather-station-with-direct-real-time-internet-monitoring) and I noticed that a light drizzle was not detected.
I don't know if other weather stations are better.

Arun:

I don't know if the budget fits what you might be doing, but the AAG cloudwatcher has rain detection on it, as well as some other really nice features like SQM readings, wind, and best of all is cloud detection… so it can often pick up the cloud before the rain rather than after the rain.  Pair this with their Solo (basically a small rasp pi computer) and you get a small weather station that can be accessed remotely via a phone.

The also nice part about this is that it integrates with NINA if you use that for image capturing as a safety monitor device.  It will shut down the sequence, you can trigger events like emails, and for future growth, if you ever go with a roll off roof or dome, it can shutdown and close all of that as well… so it has many expandable uses down the road.  It's not terribly expensive, but not as cheap as say an amazon rain detector perhaps…

Gotta dig this topic up.
That there seems to be no cheap and simple way to get an alert on the phone bothered me so much, that I started to develop a prototype with someone who has lots of experience with stuff like that.
He just finished the first really simple and basic prototype and sends it over.

In hardware it's like 30€.
A circuit board with a wifi controller and a conductor that reads 0 and 1
Really all you need, I will test it and develop a basic app that alerts you on different volume levels when the box says 1
It can be configured with a smartphone for the wifi. 

I think it's ridiculous to buy a expensive weatherstation if a rain warner is really all you need.
My friend told me that it was super simple to construct it, the only reason no one is selling such a device is that there is not a big market.

Looking forward to that prototype, hope it will solve my rain anxiety xD

CS

I’ve been searching for a good rain alarm, and finally found something. I think this is the answer we’ve all been looking for:

https://youtu.be/BEGjb2ogoWk?si=zKwUjoi-t-e7zhbT

There is a part 2 of this video, where he goes more in-depth, as well. 

I’ve ordered all of the parts!

Seokman Han:
I have been using this
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.mdiener.rain.usa&hl=en_US&gl=US
Although it never alerted me since I set up imaging only days that are clear whole night.

I looked at a few app-only options, but I just don't trust them. I've had two instances with rain on my gear, and both times, the weather forecast was totally clear. I think the weather in Nashville is just too all-over-the-place.

The best thing I have found that has never failed to date is to just watch your local weather. If it states that there is even a chance of rain coming in I just don't setup, once it starts
to rain, it's too late. Most observatories have a weather system setup that will just shut down the entire complex for safety reasons if clouds start to roll in, they don't wait for it to
start raining, but most of them are in the middle of nowhere and can't depend on local weather forecasts. I know this doesn't help much if you live in an area where the weather changes so fast that your local weather station can't keep up, but it works for me.

Bob Lockwood:
The best thing I have found that has never failed to date is to just watch your local weather. If it states that there is even a chance of rain coming in I just don't setup, once it starts
to rain, it's too late. Most observatories have a weather system setup that will just shut down the entire complex for safety reasons if clouds start to roll in, they don't wait for it to
start raining, but most of them are in the middle of nowhere and can't depend on local weather forecasts. I know this doesn't help much if you live in an area where the weather changes so fast that your local weather station can't keep up, but it works for me.

I don't agree with that in every case. I won't generalize it this way. I use a weather forecast which seems to be quite accurate. But it sometimes fails. I'm doing this long enough to have at least a feeling for the weather in my region, now. Especially the nights are often different than expected by the forecast. In summer, it's often better at my place, in winter and spring it can go worse. It can go either way - good or bad. So far so good. Taking the risk is basically a personal choice and I get it.

The problem is, that clear nights are rare in some regions and I found, that I get significantly less data if I treat the weather like you suggested. But there are ways to make your equipment at least proof to light rain for a short while. I covered most of the electronics anyway to keep moisture away from it. We sometimes have a significantly amount of dew in the morning, which can get even worse than a bit of rain. So there are some simple and clever ways to protect your gear from the elements. Just get creative with it...

My rigs are out 24/7 for about 5 years now. They are usually covered with Telegizmo 365s. During all this time, I remember only 2 nights when I got surprised by the rain and had to cover everything quickly. On all the other nights, clouds are coming in slowly and your guiding program will alarm you anyway way before it gets critical. I just make sure, my mains power is really well protected. The electronics on my scopes is covered with aluminium foil which hides most of the water (But I did this mostly for sun protection in case I uncover them). The scopes and the mechanical parts are drenched with dew in the morning anyway. All these years, I never had any real problem with water. And I am not living in an astro photographer friendly environment.

I won't say, problems are impossible. But the risk for me is much less of a problem than I expected in the beginning. The missing subs would be far more problematic for my motivation

BTW, I am not sure if I would buy a rain detector again. I use a Hitec weather station deluxe which works fine (but I wouldn't necessarily recommend these days). I never had real benefits from the rain alarm. I got warned by PHD2 anyway way before the alarm of the weather station was triggered. This is 99% of the time. The question for me is, if the 2 other occasions when I got surprised by the rain is worth the money. With some homework to protect your gear, you propably are safe enough.

But as already said, this is absolutely a personal decision. I never would judge anyone for not agreeing with me. These are just my two cents...

CS

Bill McLaughlin:

Arun H:
I am looking for a rain alarm that will send me wireless notifications/alarms when it starts to rain. A cost effective weather station that alarms (to my phone) when it is about to rain - say 10 mins before - would be preferred.

There do exist water alarms that will send notifications,Chill Guy Clicker but the ones I have seen will also emit an audible alarm and I do not want to bother my neighbors. Curious what solutions/recommendations people have.

IMHO one is better off using a purpose built astronomy cloud sensor/rain sensor/wind sensor such as the Lunatico cloud watcher. You can set that up with NINA (and probably other software) so that it will send you texts or push notices or even flash your home smart lighting using IFTTT!

Lunatico's idea of ​​using cloud sensors integrated with NINA and IFTTT is innovative, efficient and environmentally friendly!