IocTober Day 27 - Wireless rain gauge

We’re creating an IoT solution for every day of “IocTober”.

I love the design of the “tipping bucket” rain gauge. A funnel magnifies the area of the gauge, dropping water into one of two buckets, which tips as the weight of water increases. A magnetic sensor notices the tip, and thus a single moving part measures each unit of rain (0.3mm per tip event).

To connect our wireless rain gague to the outside world, we need:

• One solar panel
• One ESP32 microcontroller module with battery
• One tipping-bucket rain gauge

That’s it. Since the ESP32 microcontroller has a built-in “Hall Effect” magnetic sensor, we don’t need any other parts to sense the movement of the magnet embedded in the tip of the “tipping bucket” rain counter. Sometimes simple is beautiful! The “Blynk” app framework is ideal for graphing your rain events.

Embrace your inner cardigan, amaze your neighbours with your knowlege of the minutiate of recent inundation.