Tipping bucket Rain Gauge

thingiverse

Backround: This all started with https://youtu.be/VUqOIPVbeF0 and https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/W155288ASM1_Gerber_Solar_Powered_WiFi_Weather_Station_V2_0.html I made that weather station and wanted to add to it. I was looking to make a automatic rain gauge. I found some a good website that gave good details on making the tipping bucket but it didn't have the look i wanted, see that here. https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/projects/build-a-wireless-tipping-bucket-rain-gauge-part-1assembling-the-base/ I used the tipping bucket template from that website and made mine out of some aluminum roof flashing. I also used super glue to attached the divider between the two cups. This worked very well for me. For the funnel i wanted to use a piece of 4" PVC drain pipe. So i designed the tipping bucket holder so it would slide up into a 4" PVC pipe. There is a 1/4" hole in one of the uprights to slide a reed switch into. i thought about using a Hall sensor but the reed switch has worked fine for me so far with some denounce software. Based off the 4" ID of the pipe and the size of the cups, i get a bucket tip for every .015" of rain. This can be adjusted but i need to add some screws to the bottom to adjust how much water it takes to tip. I would love to make this a solar powered rain gauge but i have not been able to get the code part figured out. If i do or someone else does i would add a solar panel to the side of the PVC pipe. I will add more photos of my completed gauge soon.