Cumulus Support

Great bit of inspiration beetlejuice. Thank you.

Here is the Mark 2 prototype, made in one piece and covers the majority of the lower surface. Its held in place by the debris collector that comes with the rain gauge.

Need to work on a proper template now.

Sadgit, you could probably use any teflon sheet now

Mapantz,
Sorry I missed your comment before posting.

Interesting point. I was basing the teflon solution on something shown on the Ecowitt webside where they used a Teflon spray. When I have built the final version it would be worth creating a rain shower with the hosepipe and seeing how much bounce out there is.

do you remember which spray you did you please?

in all the fun (inc building a chicken run and coop) I have lost the spiral wire thingy! magic

OK buying teflon sheets now as well as I will use the "spares" in the oven

Personally, I think I'd go the other way, rather than hydrophobic (isn't oleophobic oil repellent?), I'd try going for making the water spread like on weathered plastic and rely on gravity to pull the "spread" down. EDIT: That also has the advantage that is doesn't "weather out" over time.

Either way, from the pictures it looks like a poor design, the slope appears to be way too shallow.

Mark,
The design of the rain gauge is the problem with it being too shallow Gravity doesnt seem able to push the rain down the slope which is why we are trying to improve it.

I understand, but the problem would seem to be that the slope is not steep enough for the beads that are be pulled down.

So one approach is to make it super hydrophobic so they run down much more easily. The problem with that is that hydrophobic surfaces can degrade quite rapidly, especially when exposed to UV like the rain gauge. So you are into ongoing maintenance of the coating.

The other approach is to make the water spread, then it is also much easier for gravity to its stuff. The problem with that is that the act of spreading could reduce the signal slightly. I know with my VP2 rain gauge I tried the repellent approach, and it worked - for a while. I came to the conclusion that letting UV do its work on the plastic and just letting it spread was equally as effective.

I think the problem you have is that with untreated newish kit you are between the two, and get "sticky" droplets.

Anyhow, my POV is free and probably worth as much!

So between a rock and a hard place, or a wet and a dry one in this case.

Opinions always welcome, thats what the forum is for, especially as I am no weather expert, or a coding whizz for that matter. I'm not even an engineer but sometimes have ideas, some good, some bad. Its fun trying though, especially when in lockdown.

Appreciate the help as always.

Andy

So here is the template for the Mark2. A lot of good discussion here in this topic today and as per the last 2 posts those of us with these gauges seem to be stuck in the middle. There appear to be several options:

1) Leave the rain gauge as it and let nature takes its course. Eventually UV, weather and general "wearing in" will eventually sort out the problem but in the meantime your rain readings may be a little off due to the collection of water that doesnt fall into the tipping bucket.

2) Spray with silicone spray. Will aid the rain collection and also leaves the collector open to the elements and eventually "wear in"

3) Fit something like I came up with. Instantly solves the problem but will need checking and replacing when needed as the UV, weather etc will eventually wear down the materials properties and make it less effective. There is also the potential issue of "bounce-out".

I think I got all this right.

Its up to you

To use the new template. Print off a paper copy first and use that as a test. I would start with the cut out section in the top left and then cut along the green lines making sure you dont go past the inner red circle. Then cut the outer part of the large circle. I made the mistake of initially cutting out the shape and then found the template wasnt stuck to the teflon sheet and couldnt then cut the green lines. Its slightly tricker to cut as once the geen lines are cut it becomes vey floppy. Fit to the gauge as before once completed.

Great work Big Daddy

If people are going to maintain their kit, I would have thought a bit of playschool technology once a year wouldn't be any great hardship

Thanks Beteljuice,

Actually its been good fun and passed away a few lockdown hours. If people find it useful then great, if not then thats ok also. Now there is the template it literally took me about 5 minutes to print, cut and install so if I need to do it once or twice a year then thats ok by me. I will however keep checking it to see how quickly it weathers.

But I like the sound of the silicon spray as well as it solves the problem short term but also leaves the plastic open to the elememts to fix the problem long term as well.

Decisions, decisions.

Spray will not resolve dust / grit / algae issues, whereas a replaceable liner ...

Edit: Just looked at the new template ....

Shouldn't "And along this little section" be "And this section" with the arrow pointing to the 'segment' ?

I dont think there is a right and wrong answer here. Lets leave it to personal choice.

Thanks for the comment on the template beteljuice. I had a thought this morning so hopefully even easier now. Here are the new instructions and new template attached.

Please try using a paper template first just to ensure that the correct size is printed and also it avoids wasting your Teflon sheet if I have made an error and the instructions are not 100% clear.

1) Make sure you print on A4 size paper with your printer set to print "actual size" or "100%". DO NOT use "shrink to fit". You may need to adjust border / margin setting to "0" for it to fit on the page.
2) Once printed cut out the blue shaded section. You can cut through the red shaded section to do this.
3) Cut the blue line from the outer edge of the inner circle to the centre. This makes it easier for the next step
4) Cut the green lines from the centre to the outside edge of the inner circle
5) Cut away all the remaining red shaded area.
6) Move point A approximately to the black line near point B making sure that A passes over the top of the "glue tab". The edge at point A and the line at point B be should be paralell. This will form the "cone" shape.
7) Place in your rain gauge and make any minor adjustments so that it is a good fit. You may find that part of the glue tab needs cutting off once you have adjusted the liner to fit and that point A and point B do not meet exactly.
8) Stick or glue the liner at the back using the glue tab.
9) Insert the metal springy debris collector. This helps keep the "tongues" against the walls of the lower funnel.
10) Done !!!

I also suggest that you may want to use a very fine bead of silicone bathroom sealant or something similar around the top edge / top lip of the rain gauge to keep the liner in place and prevent any water getting underneath particularly if you are like like me and not 100% at cutting things out with scissors.

Big Daddy wrote: ↑Tue 28 Apr 2020 4:00 pm I finally received my GW1003 weather station from Ecowitt ..........

How many weeks are finally?
I did get an order confirmation on 2020-05-06 and still waiting from shipment details.
On 2020-06-11 Lucy did say

Sorry for the long waiting time due to that our factory is too busy to deal with retail order.
We'll try to ship it within next week with express mail.

It took 6 - 7 weeks for my items to arrive here in the UK.