Very simple rain sensor required - Any pointers?

[Gina]

Those ebay rain sensors look pretty good - might even get one myself OK so I know I could knock one up but everything seems to take ten times as long as it used to and time is precious:D

[arrayschism]

Those Brocott kits on ebay are pretty good

[Gina]

I've just ordered one of those. I worked out that I couldn't make such a device for much less and I've got better uses for my time

[swag72]

I've just ordered one of those. I worked out that I couldn't make such a device for much less and I've got better uses for my time

I take it though you will do something clever and computerised with yours? Mine will be so simple it will make your eye's water

[Gina]

Well I might eventually But for now I might do the same as you - connect it with a length of bell wire from the obsy to my bedroom and a bell/buzzer. One day I shall probably arrange a winch to close my roof with computer/Arduino control (or something). With the widefield rig or the dual ED80s I can just close the roof wherever the mount is pointing but the MN190 needs to be parked in a particular place to give clearance for the roof. Thinking about it for a second or two, I guess I could arrange the relay to operate the winch through a power relay and limit switch to close the roof - without involving any electronics Believe it or not, I do like to keep things as simple as possible

[steppenwolf]

This thread got me thinking of a solution using what I already have available to me. MaxIm DL has an alarm feature that can call a VB Script if the guiding system goes out of kilter by a certain number of pixels or the guide star disappears because it is obscured by cloud. I then thought that rather than invoke Skype as suggested in post #6 of this thread, perhaps I could get the observatory to page my iPhone over the home network?

I couldn't find a solution to this but after a load of research on Google, I finally came up with an alternative solution. The following VB Script is invoked by MaxIm DL and it sends an email message to me which is picked up by my laptop and desktop PCs as well as my iPhone and warns me of potential cloud cover or other impediment to imaging and, of course, cloud = rain sometimes too! The code works a treat:-

const cdoBasic=1
schema = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/"
Set objEmail = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
With objEmail
.From = "name@domain.co.uk"
.To = "name@domain.co.uk"
.Subject = "Star Faded"
.Textbody = "Check for cloud cover or imminent rain"
With .Configuration.Fields
.Item (schema & "sendusing") = 2
.Item (schema & "smtpserver") = "smtp.outlook.com"
.Item (schema & "smtpserverport") = 25
.Item (schema & "smtpusessl") = True
.Item (schema & "smtpauthenticate") = cdoBasic
.Item (schema & "sendusername") = "name@domain.co.uk"
.Item (schema & "smtpaccountname") = "name@domain.co.uk"
.Item (schema & "sendpassword") = "mypassword"
End With
.Configuration.Fields.Update
.Send
End With
 

I just love new knowledge!

[Ibbo!]

I like that idea Steve until  the spam gets to the address

[swag72]

That's a good idea Steve - Could you somehow incorporate that with an actual sensor rather than just guide star brightness. Very often the cloud that goes across and obscures the guidestar is nothing more than an annoying cotton wool ball and it will pass and guiding will continue. I wouldn't want to be woken up for that!

[kirkster501]

You are brave people imaging all night with kit out whilst you are in bed!  Gee whiz, I don't trust the Midlands UK weather five minutes into the future, never mind six hours.  I have been caught twice by one small cloud in an otherwise clear sky homing in on me and raining for a minute.  Not much rain in absolute terms but woud have wrecked the electronics had I not been there to take measures....

Even when the imaging kit is out and running and I pop in to see Madame for an hour or so (who will be watching TV drivel of some description), I am looking out the windows every 5 mins to check.

[Macavity]

Back in the day, they used to make sensors by wiring alternate tracks of "Veroboard" together.

(The PCB tracks will have narrower spacing). Then just "amplify" the conductivity of the rain drops. 

Have to watch out for the smart-bombing seagulls around here... Not quite so easy to detect...

[steppenwolf]

That's a good idea Steve - Could you somehow incorporate that with an actual sensor rather than just guide star brightness.

I have no doubt that it could be done with a small program with an input from the sensor but my programming days finished with FoxPro database management systems! However, a simple program and a USB breadboard device would do the job if you knew how!

You are brave people imaging all night with kit out whilst you are in bed!

Be assured, I am not that brave but I do come inside the house to warm up while an imaging session is running and then go outside every 10 - 15 minutes to move the dome aperture round a little. Would I risk going to bed? No way in the UK!!

[gingergeek]

Yep, I agree about not going to bed ! I imaged until 5:50am this morning and lost 2hrs of imaging time (20min susb) due to the Atik Artemis software locking up at the download stage, took several power off operations of the camera to get it working again. If I gone to bed at 1am instead of 6am I would have lost around 4hrs imaging data. I could have done with another 2hrs of OIII data as well 

Please let us know how you get on.