Rainfall Counter

[teg]

I've had a problem with very large rainfall reading after disconnecting and reconnecting the rainfall and wind speed leads to the remote sensor. Cumulus reads the total rainfall counter as held by the station and logs it into the monthlog.txt file. This was recording 1350mm - a spuriously high result. Clearing the data of the station did not help, neither did taking the batteries out. What did finally reset the rainfall counter was taking the batteries out of the remote wireless sensor. This was a surprise - I did not expect the total rainfall counter to be stored in the remote sensor. Anybody else come across this?

Regards

Trev

[steve]

Yes, this seems to be common on all types of weather station; the sensor keeps the counter and periodically transmits its value to the console. It makes sense, really, if you think about it, as the most reliable method.

[Gina]

Reliably keeps all the **** too!! Having to unplug the transmitter batteries to clear erroneous (and enormous) rainfall is a real pain. Then on top of that you need to power down the console so that it recognises it's own transmitter again! I think this is one of the worst aspects of F.O. stations.

I too am having virtual rainfall trouble. I feel yet another modification coming on!!

[steve]

Yes, it does have the disadvantage that when the counter goes wrong, it's a pain to sort out

But for 'normal' situations, it's a reasonable way of doing it.

[teg]

Many thanks for the replies - I thought I was going mad when the phantom rainfall figures kept being downloaded even though the consul was reporting no rain.

A thought though. If Cumulus uses this rainfall counter stored in the remote sensor then what happens when the batteries are changed? The rainfall count will be reset to zero again. How does Cumulus calculate the rain then? The Easyweather software does not appear to use the total rainfall count but the hourly figure from the consul.

Regards

Trev

[steve]

A thought though. If Cumulus uses this rainfall counter stored in the remote sensor then what happens when the batteries are changed? The rainfall count will be reset to zero again. How does Cumulus calculate the rain then?

By noting that the counter has gone to zero and allowing for it (as best as it can). Example:

Start of day counter = 200
Counter gets up to 210, rain so far today = 10
Counter gets reset to zero.
By the end of day the counter is at 15, total rain today = 25.