Wesley, others have already mentioned the standard tipping bucket rain
collector. I decided to buy a commercial unit from Davis Instruments for my
PIC-based weather station. It's very accurate. You get a switch closure each
time the bucket tips which is equal to 0.01" of rain. They also have a
metric version. I installed mine around 4 years ago. Davis charges $75 but
if you shop around you can probably find it for $60-$65. It's used in
several weather station packages from Radio Shack and others.

   If you want to build one, the October 1993 issue of Electronics Now
has detailed plans. There is also plans for building an anemometer and a
wind vane. The same author, Fascinating Electronics, now sell kits. Their
rain collector kit is around $35 I think. In both cases, you need to
calibrate it.

   Another source is Dallas Semiconductor's weather station using their
IButton 1-wire devices. The basic weather station is around $80 and the rain
collector is around $50 but needs calibration. This is probably the best
overall package for the money. Especially for interfacing to a PIC.

   For more info, take a look at:

      http://www.davisnet.com/weather/products/sensors.asp
      http://www.gernsback.com/
      http://www.columbia-center.org/fascinating/obs/observer.html
      http://www.ibutton.com/weather/index.html

   - Tom

At 02:48 PM 2/17/00 +1100, Wesley Moore wrote:
>I have a friend interested in making his own logging weather station. I
>was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to measure rainfall for such
>a project.
>
>___________________________________________
>Wesley Moore
>RMIT - BEng/BApp.Sc. 2nd Year


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