Yesterday I made one of this sensors, thanks for the nice idea!
But the problem is, after one hour rain 14 hours ago the rain drop PCB stays moist and gives false information. I know this was discussed before but has anyone have used one of those heated rain drop sensors? It beats the purpose of being portable but I think it will solve the problem with valse output.
I made a 3D printed holder at 45 degree angel maybe I should make one at more steep angle, but I don’t see drops on it, I feel it is moist and that is enough to trigger it. Also put some glue to prevent water getting on the back side of the PCB, that made it little bit ugly:
Okay, yesterday after one hour rain in the night the sensor detected moist for 12 hours long while the rain drop PCB was dry, I think some moisture get to the backside of the PCB.
So I couldn’t stand that, took off the 3D printed part and remove the PCB traces on the back side going to the wires and drilled 2 small holes in the PCB for the wires and solder the wires on the front traces. This way the back side of the PCB does not work anymore no matter how much moist gets back there.
Glued back the PCB directly to the enclosure, now if it rains it gets detected and when rain stops after couple hours it stops detecting the rain.
It is stil not accurate but it is accurate enough for me, main reason for using this sensor is for the electrical awning we have, I wan’t the awning pulled in when it rains in the summer (yeah very common here in the Netherlands in the summer ) I was using one of the cloud based integrations but sometimes it took half hour before the rain was pushed to the alerts, this sensor goes of with one drop of rain and it is perfect for the job, besides it wil dry faster in the summer.
Here how it looks now, it is raining at the moment:
I can also say, that mine works also (almost) without any issues. Cutting the wires on the back of the rain module PCB did the trick. It’s tilted for 45° but It dries quite fast.
Well, the only issue that I have is related to the door sensor. Sometimes it becomes unavailable and it stays that for a couple of hours. On the last occasion, it happened during the night, when it was -6°C outside, so maybe due to a voltage drop. It reports 53% of the battery (still the first installed). The distance between the Xiaomi Gateway 3 (AlexxIT integration with the supported firmware version) and the aqara sensor is ~8 m (obstructed by a big sliding door).
If it will happen more frequently, I’ll get a new housing with a bigger space for the 2×AA battery case & solder two wires to the battery contacts of the sensor. Putting two lithium batteries should improve the battery life (by a factor ~15x, solely by comparing the CR1632 and 2*AA capacities). The working voltage might then be high enough and not drop below the operating limit when cold. What do you think?
Thanks for the tip, I’ll definitely try that to extend the battery life of the rain sensor. If the range will be improved, even better.
But it could be that the problems were already solved. I’m using now a longer USB cable (I’ve found somewhere this suggestion), so the gateway was moved farther from other electronics (Asus PN41 mini PC, Velux KLF 200, Android TV box). Another detail that was changed is the power source - before, the gateway was plugged into the Android TV box (USB 2.0 port, rated as 5V/0.5 A), and now it’s charging from the mini PC (USB 3.2 gen1, probably 5V/0.9 A). The specified input of the gateway is 5V/1A.
I’ll report it here if I notice another fall-off of the device. But the current temperatures are now above 0°C…
Perfect! Thanks for sharing your experiences, Ben. I’m also delighted with how well it works. Extremely reliable. No problems after I switched to a longer USB cable. My Home Assistant journey started with the rain sensor and the need for automatic closing of the pergola in case of rain. Now I have become addicted to home automation. The rain sensor was my only Zigbee device, now I’m willing to add dozens of different ZB devices. I was using Xiaomi Gateway 3 which worked well, but it’s time to switch to Zigbee2MQTT. Can I ask you if anyone uses the Aquara door sensor (rain sensor) with the Sonoff Zigbee Dongle Plus (via Z2M)? Does it work fine, how does it affect the battery life of the sensors (good battery life is crucial for us using sensors outside, at low temperatures)?
So i see you had it mounted at an angle first, and now flat. I struggle with this myself. Put at an angle, rains falls off quickly but then it reports rain has stopped. And it usually doesn’t immediately say it rains again on the next raindrop.
I was thinking of mounting it straight up to always have rainfall, it would make detection better, but obviously rain might pool.
Do you mount this at an angle or just flat ? I put it at an angle but then obviously the rain falls off and it says rain stopped again fairly quickly (and new rain drops don’t seem to register for some reason).
If you do put it flat doesn’t the rain pool up and it will never register that rain has stopped?
I can’t find the info on battery life for this product. Bigger batteries are there surely to supply power to the siren (hopefully you can disconnect it). I’m not sure what current is drawn when contacts closed. Can this impact the lifetime of rain modul (eg. corrosion)? So I’m more into appropriate door/window sensors.
I’m currently very satisfied with the Aqara door sensor and I’m pretty sure it is designed for being in closed contact most of the time, for the water leak sensor this closed circuit occurs once or never during its lifetime, right?
What I would do (and perhaps I will) is to solder 2AA housing to the coin battery contacts of the door sensor. We need some kind of 3D printed housing for it anyway and it can be slightly bigger to include the AA battery holder. Then it should last 14 years at least, based on the capacity enhancement. Be aware to use lithium AA batteries!
) I was using one of the cloud based integrations but sometimes it took half hour before the rain was pushed to the alerts, this sensor goes of with one drop of rain and it is perfect for the job, besides it wil dry faster in the summer.
