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By Steve
#10100
Have you ever been barbecuing or travelling with you bike or done some other outdoor activity, and you looked at the overcast sky worrying when exactly it was gonna start raining?

Well, when the rain finally hits you, it has already been falling for some time (a minute or possibly more). So I'm wondering if it's possible to create a cheap device that'll detect the exact moment the rain starts falling and warn you. A minute advance notice can be extremely valuable - you can evacuate your CDs, get everyone inside, find shelter, etc.

Reward: One such a device for me (plus free repairs)
By AaronBurns
#10187
A digital barameter and atmospheric pressure gauge would work great giving you a portable and instant time for the exact moment when the conditions turn too rain before you get wet.
Great idea! ;-D
By AaronBurns
#10191
You could even add GPS and access to real time weather readings including radar for that all in one style device.
Any way, I think your idea is a great one and I hope you have much success in this and all things in your life. ;-D ;-D ;-D
By Rishi
#10198
Steve wrote:Have you ever been barbecuing or travelling with you bike or done some other outdoor activity, and you looked at the overcast sky worrying when exactly it was gonna start raining?

Well, when the rain finally hits you, it has already been falling for some time (a minute or possibly more). So I'm wondering if it's possible to create a cheap device that'll detect the exact moment the rain starts falling and warn you. A minute advance notice can be extremely valuable - you can evacuate your CDs, get everyone inside, find shelter, etc.

Reward: One such a device for me (plus free repairs)
There are two different situations. One, the rain is falling at some distance from you in still air and you are going to enter the zone. This is trivial as you can see the rain fall like a grey curtain or hear it (if necessary using a high sensitivity microphone).

Two, the rain drop has formed fully and starts falling from a cloud above you. The settling velocity of the drop means that a finite time elapses before the rain reaches ground level. This is far more difficult to detect. Some kind of Doppler interference system using a low cost ultra sonic ranging device such as the ones used on Polaroid autofocus cameras may be able to do it. Polaroid was selling this mechanism as a hobby kit for about USD 15. If I remember right, the range was only about 20 meters. You will need a range at least 20 times this if any meaningful advanced warning is to result.

rishi
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By Steve
#10199
Rishi wrote:Two, the rain drop has formed fully and starts falling from a cloud above you. The settling velocity of the drop means that a finite time elapses before the rain reaches ground level. This is far more difficult to detect. Some kind of Doppler interference system using a low cost ultra sonic ranging device such as the ones used on Polaroid autofocus cameras may be able to do it. Polaroid was selling this mechanism as a hobby kit for about USD 15. If I remember right, the range was only about 20 meters. You will need a range at least 20 times this if any meaningful advanced warning is to result.
Yep, this is more what I was thinking of. What was the original purpose of the Polaroid kit - presumably not rain detection? :-?
By Rishi
#10205
Steve wrote:
Rishi wrote:Two, the rain drop has formed fully and starts falling from a cloud above you. The settling velocity of the drop means that a finite time elapses before the rain reaches ground level. This is far more difficult to detect. Some kind of Doppler interference system using a low cost ultra sonic ranging device such as the ones used on Polaroid autofocus cameras may be able to do it. Polaroid was selling this mechanism as a hobby kit for about USD 15. If I remember right, the range was only about 20 meters. You will need a range at least 20 times this if any meaningful advanced warning is to result.
Yep, this is more what I was thinking of. What was the original purpose of the Polaroid kit - presumably not rain detection? :-?
Polaroid were using the same gadget for focussing their cameras. The device had an ultrasound emitter and receiver. When the focus button was activated, a short burst of ultrasound was released and simultaneously a capacitor was charged. The charging was stopped when the returning echo pulse from the object (which due to the cussedness of the English language is called the Subject in photography) reached the recceiver.

The capacitor voltage was of course proportional to the distance. A small motor rotated the lens to the level decided by the capacitor voltage.The error was less than about 15 cm in 20 meters.

They just marketted this mechanism to encourage people to play about with.

Long back I tried to make a smart cane for the blind with this by trying to build an audio amplifier that would give a sound output in which the pitch indicated the distance and the loudness indicated the size of an object in front. Did not succeed. Too bulky to go on a cane. With modern single chip audioamps may be worth a revisit.

rishi
By sebin
#10211
Thats an excellent idea....
Why not each town or city block have a small weather station and we cud access data from the station ,thru your mobile fone.

Secondly...certain animals (peacocks ,ants etc) behave peculiarly before a rain...70% of the time they might be correct. If we cud understand how they sense it. We cud make a device from it.
By AaronBurns
#10213
Actually on today's standard cell phones there is Doplar Radar that you can program for your area and actually see the rain coming before it even reaches you.
It is in color and very accurate with all the cell phone towers and ranges of cell phones which would be suitable for finding the rain to avoid the rain in the first place.
I know your thinking "But what if I am way out in the woods and there is no cell phone towers?". Well, if you you move to America it wouldn't be a problem! Ha! Sorry your not here and the sarcasm.
Our cell phones (If you choose the right cell phone company) can get a signal any where and every where here; you just need Doplar Radar on visual cell screens and a good signal.
The actual answer would be too add more towers. Especially in recreational woodsy areas where some one would be caught in the rain. ;-D
By Rishi
#10222
AaronBurns wrote:Actually on today's standard cell phones there is Doplar Radar that you can program for your area and actually see the rain coming before it even reaches you.
It is in color and very accurate with all the cell phone towers and ranges of cell phones which would be suitable for finding the rain to avoid the rain in the first place.
I know your thinking "But what if I am way out in the woods and there is no cell phone towers?". Well, if you you move to America it wouldn't be a problem! Ha! Sorry your not here and the sarcasm.
Our cell phones (If you choose the right cell phone company) can get a signal any where and every where here; you just need Doplar Radar on visual cell screens and a good signal.
The actual answer would be too add more towers. Especially in recreational woodsy areas where some one would be caught in the rain. ;-D
The doppler radar can be on the towers and info beamed to the cell phones.

Rishi
By sebin
#10229
Here is a suggestion...why cant we use the mobile fone signal itself.
You press a button in the mobile fone, the signal will be send and when the signal is received , the mobile fone cud analyze that signal to find out whether there will be rain or not.
So when you are travelling this cud be a better solution.

Efficiency wont be tht gud but along with your gut feeling you wont be drenched.
By Rishi
#10239
sebin wrote:Here is a suggestion...why cant we use the mobile fone signal itself.
You press a button in the mobile fone, the signal will be send and when the signal is received , the mobile fone cud analyze that signal to find out whether there will be rain or not.
So when you are travelling this cud be a better solution.

Efficiency wont be tht gud but along with your gut feeling you wont be drenched.
In a microwave oven one can see inside without the energy leaking out. This is because the holes in the metal screen in the door are less than half the wave length of the microwave, which renders the screen opaque to the radiation yet allow the higher frequency visible light through The revolving radar antenna on an air traffic control tower has much larger holes because the wave length is much larger. There is a further complication that rain drop may be transparent to a suitable radiation.

It is possible that the current tachnology of cell phones may not support such detection. However, there should be no problem on a tower mounted monitor, which can automatically beam the info within its own zone of action.

Nobody is bothered if it is raining in the next state.

rishi
By AaronBurns
#10240
I agree with Rishi.
What we really need is a much larger range or distance from the towers weather station to the cell phone's current capabilities to see the rain coming with it's doplar radar which extends about 200 miles in radius.
To boost the signal we would only need to transfer the doplar radar to the towers, but that's obvious.
We all ready have live real time visually active doplar radar read outs as you watch on the phones, but what Steve is saying is slightly different than a general read out of rain coming at you.
What Steve is saying is too create a new version that tells you when it comes to you within seconds or minutes with out guessing the time on the doplar radar.
We have the option of the radar or GPS systems with the GPS tracking you too within 3 yards.
My only answer to the cheapest route would be to have the GPS configured to calculate rain to with in 3 yards of you.
A digital and voice activated screen that shows and tells you exactly when your particular camp site is about to be hit.
There is the option of tools (Unrefined) like barometers and materials that react to weather like Bear fatty tissue but what Steve is saying is new and quit genius too have the rain down to with in yards and seconds of the rain hitting you.
It could be possible to use GPS systems and satalites that are weather stations then you set up a small reciever center like Dish TV (A three foot Dish) that can locate you and the weather and remotely tell you down to the second when the rain is about too hit you.
So, my suggestion would be too combine a new satellite technology to solve Steve's mystery.
Make a Live Real Time GPS/Weather satellite that would be used strictly to pin point your location by the small dish reciever (The Dish at the camp site) and let you know that way.
You could also watch satellite TV in the woods.
Hard one to solve Steve but vastly necessary.
We need to shrink the Technology and scrap any idea of weather stations on towers and modify existing technology simply for the practical reasoning of cost.
If you subscribe to the service then some company would see an open market niche and produce your idea for sure.
Sorry about the tower idea Rishi, but I think that would be in the Billions to produce and no one company would produce new tower equipment strictly for weather, but also think of more ways.
This idea is a great one and if we work together with Steve I will be one of the first (When the price comes down! Ha!) to buy in to this product for personal use.
So far no one on the planet has the ability to tell in yards, feet, or seconds when rain or bad weather will hit.
A completely original idea which should continue to work on
Please let me know how we can combine our ideas to make this work.
Signed,
Too excited! ;-D
By AaronBurns
#10246
I have thought of a very easy and cheap solution to this rain detection with in seconds!
The rain causes a vibration in the air that slowly gets closer to you increasingly so you have to have a rain vibration meter like a seismograph for rain.
I think it could start telling you from a long distance and then even tell you when it hits directly before it gets to you.
What do you think? :-o
By sebin
#10261
It is a nice idea...is there any device where in we can listen to sound from far away devices then we can think work on it?
Here is an another idea....like Aaron said we could use GPS satelites. But our receiver is slightly modified in such away that it recognises the signal strength from the satelite.

If there is any clouds then the signal from the GPS satellite gets altered so by this we can determine wheteher there will be rain or not.

Regards
Sebin
By spannerintheworks
#10817
GPS is not the magic bullet for a one solution to solve all

To actually test the signal variation due to atmospheric discrepencies is quite difficult as it only affects the GPS co-ordinates by 1-2 metres.. Of course this does not mean clouds. You can see the clouds in the sky.. The discrepreanticies are caused by the change of saturation in the atmosphere. This would mean the water will need to fall a particualar distance before it is actually detected.

Giving the fact that a GPS signal only broadcasted once every 30 seconds.. Any rain that starts falling will only be checked only once every 30 seconds... which means you have on average 15 less seconds.

Also forget about any kind of satatilate imagery.. since the clouds are blocking.. Any infraded temperature measurement might work. They already use it to detect that the earth is warming up and such..

Remember the joke about the rock weather detector.. if rock is wet then its raining. But this is a serious concept.. just like the one about the solar powered torch.

But the sensor that is wet is on a glider that uses thermal lift, hill lift and wave lift to stay up. It probably neeed some other power source to fly up at altitides of 15,000 feet. From my memory Rain clouds are generally quite low I think like 2-3 third lowest up when it comes to clouds height

Its need to fly outside commercial aeroplane flight path and need to be large enough to come up on radar.

Alternatively solution is a weather balloon. But these generally are one-use. Unless you have some kind of homing beacon or drive system that locks the ballon to a geo-centric orbit. That way it should land where you launched it. These should stay up for 3 weeks to 1 month.

Here is the signs

if wet it is raning.. You'd probably get 30secs warning. not sure whats the terminal velocity of a rain drop.. But I assume its around 300km/h

if the sensors get fried.. well theres a lightning storm brewing..

Also baramotic pressure can be used to predict when it rains.

Either way all this stuff pretty much exist in one way or form..

What doesn't exist is a way for a people to know when the rain is falling.

This can be offered through a simple SMS service or email service

1) Weather balloon or glider gets wet
2) Signal is transmitted to base station.
3)Base station gets signal and sends a Mass SMS service to subscribers or via the internet through mass emails.
4) You get a SMS.. or you get a Email with a specific message title and your pc will alarm you.

In the end you will save your precious cds and no one gets rich.
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