Application of a low-cost water level circuit for an accurate pulse detection of a tipping-bucket rain gauge as an alternative method for reed switch sensors

This paper introduces a data acquisition mechanism working on similar functionality to that of conventional tipping-bucket rain gauge (TBRG) but unaffected from magnetic and electromagnetic interferences. Unlike the common reed switch application, the mechanism of this study only uses a two-wire water level sensor for tip detection. Specifically, a different method of detecting the tipping count of the rain gauge through a switching type scheme is introduced without using the conventional magnetic detection concept. The designed electronic two-wire TBRG has so many features, with its low-cost and its resistance to metallic or electromagnetic interference the most important. The sensor design makes the circuit assembly applicable to any cylindrical or cube-type rain gauge sizes. The only important thing to properly mount is the placement of the wire contacts. A bottom-feed design was implemented in this study. The RI approximation resulted in relative errors − 5%, − 3.27%, and − 4.73 from the sample flow rates 11 mL/min, 32 mL/min, and 57 mL/min respectively. Underestimations of 0.09 mL (approximately 0-mm water depth), 2.48 mL (0.45 mm), and 5.65 mL (1.03 mm) were recorded from calculating the tips made without the calibrating algorithms from the 10-mL, 40-mL, and 70-mL samples respectively. Although it proves its measuring ability through its slight underestimation results, the hardware and its corresponding mechanism have proven reliable in accordance with its functionality. The measuring performance of the device proved that it has the capability to work in similar to the conventional TBRG.