Laser Sensor for Snow Depth Sensing

Thanks Guys I will probably go with a similar design to what I am using in my rain gauge (just with a little less power).

Still debating if I am going to install it this year or next year…

-Dennis

Guys,

I have finally taken the plunge to Laser Snow Depth measuring, and boy does it work well.

Just a few questions.

Are you guys running one of the Porcupine demo programs 24/7 to collect the data with WD (1 wire)? What is your upload rate back to the computer from the Range Finder? Have you had any problems with either Porcupine demo programs or the 1 wire program stopping causing it not to receive data? Are you guys turning the laser off when not in use?

I haven’t installed a heater yet, and the sensor seems to be measuring without issue (even this weekend at -14F).

Thanks guys,
-Dennis

I have mine measuring using these settings:
Centimeters, or inches if you live in the states.

Interval

1 hour.

I’m running the demo program 24/7 with the 1 wire running as well. Wd checks every hour on the hour. Leave the laser on. I haven’t plugged in my heater this year either and it’s working flawlessly so far with temps down to -32C/-26F. Do you have snow graphs running in WD? If not check our my site laity.ca I have the php stuff here as do several others if you need them.

rick

Hey Rick,

Thanks for the reply. For some reason I cannot run the demo on my computer so I am running the basic program (I have changed the interval to 30 mins using another computer).

Sometimes one or the other hangs so I need to restart the combo, still troubleshooting that problem.

I have my graphs on this page http://eastmasonvilleweather.com/wxsnowdetails.php. Maybe after sometime I will make a few more but for now those graphs are working great.

-Dennis

Hi Dennis

Glad to see that you have it working. I’m using the LRSimple program to activate the laser sensor as it seems the Dallas 1-wire reader won’t reliably enable the sensor. No problems here with the LRSimple. I do use the LRDemo if I want to change the settings of the laser ie sampling rate. I’m using 1 hour sampling. After playing with various sampling rates it appears that with more frequent sampling rates there was a higher rate of errors causing minor fluctuations in the readings. I start the LRSimple program a few minutes before the hour followed by WD as WD will report the new snowfall on the hour. As for the heater I’m using 3 - 3 ohms power resistors in series powered with 12 volts and a button type thermostat located in the enclosure which is working very well. I think the LR4/Fluke 414D combo is less susceptible to the low temp problem than the LR3/411D was. Everyone that was using the LR3/411D had problems last Winter when the temp dropped well below 0 F.

Heater operation can be seem here: http://mikeymsweather.com/extrarealtimegraph.gif but it’s too warm right now. Cycles between about 25 deg F and 47 deg.

Cheers

:smiley:

MikeyM

Hi everybody

I finally mounted the laser snow Depth sensor
It’s mounted in a waterproof plastic box with a hole cut out for the laser
After I had taken the photos, I realised I needed to add a shield around the laser hole

Tested running the demo software, alongside weather display

This will be online sometime in November 2015

mick


snowlaser2.jpg

Looks good Mick

Yes, I would definitely put some kind of a shield around the laser. I usually just use a 1 - 1 1/2" plastic conduit coupling. Something like this: http://www.lowes.com/pd_18188-223-E943HRL___?productId=3131279&pl=1&Ntt=conduit+adapter

Cheers

:smiley:

MikeyM

Hi

Found a spray can cap lid ,hope Will do the job :slight_smile:
please see updated images

mick


lasersnow2.jpg

Bonjour,
Merci pour cette info…

Serge

Richard from Porcupine Electronics has released a new piece of software for the LR4. It’s called LRTimelog and is available at:
http://www.porcupinelabs.com/s/Demo-Apps-Rev4.zip

The program must be run from the “command prompt” with the following syntax “lrtimelog 3600” 3600 being the interval between samplings in seconds, ie 3600 = 60 minutes. This software turns the laser off between samplings thus greatly extending the lifetime of the 414D as the laser has a lifetime of approximately 10,000 hours or about 2 1/2 years of 6 month operations. Also the CPU cycle usage with “LRTimelog” is much lower than with “LRSimple”.

Cheers

:smiley:

MikeyM

WD isn’t reading the values of my sensor this year. I updated to 1037r build 32 with no difference. The LRTimelog 3600 works fine and reads correctly. Dallas 1 wire works and reads correctly as well. Nothing happens in the snow input fields however. One other thing I noticed is that the sensor is always on even though it should only come on when taking a reading using the lrtimelog 3600. Any clues?

Rick

Rick

Make sure the you use LRDemo to put the laser sensor in the “continuous” mode before you run lrtimelog per Richard.

[color=green]"Mikey,
The “aiming” laser and the “measurement” laser are the same thing, so they should be off most of the time.

Try this… You can use the LRDemo app to make sure that the LR4 is set to continous mode and save the settings to the LR4. This will allow LrTimeLog to turn the laser on and off.
Richard"[/color]

Hope this helps Rick.

Cheers

:smiley:

MikeyM

Hey Mikey,

Just wondering how much of a difference you see in the measurements with the fluke/lr4? Mine is varying .3cm at times and this triggers a snowfall amount.

Bill

Hi Bill

I’m normally seeing .2 cm or less which won’t trigger the addition of snowfall. Right now the sensor is inside as I had a moisture problem with a new enclosure I was trying. Hope to get time to rectify that in the next couple of days and get it back outside.

Cheers

:smiley:

MikeyM

Mikey,

Is there a way to adjust the program so that it will not add snow when a .3cm reading is logged? I am also interested in what the “1 wire snow reference depth” check box in the “Daily Weather Report User Input” module is for.

Bill

the next update of WD will fix that reference snow setting not being used/set

Thanks Brian,

When I restarted WD after updating to build 306, my screen size became misbehaved. I am also waiting for it to snow tomorrow and see how the totals add up.

Bill

Brian,

Regarding my screen size. I was able to get everything into perspective except the numbers for “Data Received/Data Quality” and the Alarm button text.

Any thoughts?

Bill

there is no font selection for the number size for data received
(its a small font size by default as the number can get up to the millions)

latest WD update re that snow reference fix
http://www.weather-display.com/downloadfiles/weatherdisplaytest.zip

Richard from Porcupine Labs has updated the LRTimelog.exe program to produce only a single reading during it’s sampling. This eliminates the problem of the Dallas 1-wire reader program seeing multiple readings during the laser “ON” time.

http://www.porcupinelabs.com/lr4-sample-software

Again Richard has be very helpful updating the software to work better with WD. Great customer support! =D>

Cheers

:smiley:

MikeyM