Capacitive Rainmeter Measures The Sky Water Just Fine

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If youā€™ve got a smart home, or you just want to know how soaked your garden is getting in the winter, you might want to measure rainfall. There are a bunch of ways to go about it, and this capacitive rainmeter solution from [Magnus Thome] might just be the perfect solution youā€™re looking for.

Like many who came before, [Magnus] had experimented with traditional resistive-based sensors using copper traces to measure water levels. As the soil moisture measuring set learned as well, corrosion tends to promise a pretty short life for these designs. Capacitive sensors, on the other hand, can be isolated from the water itself, and thus sense the levels without being subject to such degradation.

[Magnus] pairs the off-the-shelf capacitive sensor with an ESP32 charged with reading it and reporting back to Home Assistant. Itā€™s also outfitted with a heater to keep it at a constant temperature to avoid it freezing over during those cold and snowy Swedish winters.

Itā€™s a tidy way to integrate a quality commercial sensor with a DIY smart home setup. If youā€™ve been whipping up your own neat sensor networks for your smart home, donā€™t hesitate to let us know. Video after the break.



from Blog ā€“ Hackaday https://ift.tt/zaK2tq6

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