Annie, thanks. Belive me, after a week like this I really needed this.
It took awhile to pull myself off the floor and dry the tears ;-)
I can only add; staring at the sky with an encoded wireless switch while
listening to the old band, Weather Report ;-)

   - Tom

At 01:25 PM 8/26/99 -0700, Anne Ogborn wrote:
>You can make a cylinder with a "drumhead" of stretched thin
>plastic (a real drumhead would work), and put a mic under it.
>Amplify the mic and look for transitions.
>The sound of water drops hitting the drumhead and making
>it go "thump" will be much louder than any outside noise.
>
>I'd divide time into 1 sec packets, and flag each packet that
>has a transition.
>If a sliding window average of the last minute has > 45 set packets,
>it's raining.
>
>For even more noise resistance, put a second mic under a piece of
>thick styrofoam insulation board, exposed on the sides. If this second
>mic hears something, that sample is omitted from the window. So it won't
>go off on the 4th of July when neighborhood kids shoot off firecrackers.
>
>Other way is a funnel leading to a container with a small hole in it.
>Put a water level sensor (zillions of circuits for this out there) in it.
>the water comes in at a rate proportional to the rain, and out at a rate
>proportional to the level.
>
>Don't forget to mount your sensor where the sprinkler won't affect it!
>
>Now, the wierdest way -
>find a weather site on the net and write some software that figures out
>if the forecast includes rain for your area.  If the forecast includes rain,
>don't water.
>
>Making your own page with one of those "weather underground" banners might be
>an easy, controllable way to do it.
>
>--
>Anniepoo
>Need loco motors?
>http://www.idiom.com/~anniepoo/depot/motors.html


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Handley
New Age Communications
Since '75 before "New Age" and no one around here is waiting for UFOs ;-)