Tipping Bucket Rain Gauge
Tipping bucket rain gauge that uses an optical fiber proximity sensor in place of the usual reed switch.
Technical overview
Rainfall is counted as the number of reflected-light state transitions produced each time the bucket tips, so the gauge contains no electrical components and the monitoring line is built entirely from optical communication parts. Shinkosha notes it can be joined via an optical coupler to a fiber already carrying other sensors. No bucket volume, resolution or accuracy figures are published.
Features
- Sensor uses no electricity and needs no data transmitter
- Scattered sensors are read collectively in near real time, once every 5 seconds
- Usable in adverse environments such as mountains, coasts and sewers
- Already deployed in electricity, harbour and river management applications
- Interrogated with off-the-shelf OTDR units rather than a proprietary detector
- Optical fiber proximity sensor replaces the reed switch
- No electrical components in the gauge
- Combines with other sensors on one fiber via an optical coupler
Specifications
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Fiber type (Faraday sensor series) | Single core, single mode |
| System measurement interval (OTDR system) | Once every 5 seconds |
Applications
- Rainfall monitoring within a combined disaster monitoring system
- Combined rainfall and warning-water-level monitoring
- Combined rainfall and debris-flow monitoring
Blocked on: Jake / manufacturer. This block is intentionally styled to be unmistakable — it is not draft copy, it is absent copy.
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