Wireless rain sensor

[Nigel_O]

Becuase my garage has a polycarbonate roof, its great for light, but terrible for heat.

I've fitted a couple of opening roof vents, powered by electric motors, which are hooked into my Lightwave ecosystem via a smart relay, and therefore also accessible via Alexa. I have a Lightwave temperature sensor coming very soon, so I'll be able to set up routines to open and close the roof vent based on temperature.

However - I'd also like to close the roof vents automatically if it rains. If the wind is blowing in the worng direction, I can get quite a puddle in the garage. Lightwave don't do a rain sensor, so I need a third-party device that I can add to Alexa and then trigger a routine.

Ideally, I want to avoid having to buy a hub too (I already have Lightwave, Eufy and Hive hubs in the house...) and my Alexa devices are all quite old / early versions, so don't have ZigBee built in.

Any suggestions for an Alexa-enabled wireless rain sensor?

[geeks]

Only three groups of people I know who would do something like this.

Astrophotographers
Gardeners
Home Automation nerds

I fall into all three and cant think of a way of doing it that doesn't require something else (someone else might be along to describe how though). I would see if there is something in the Tuya you can then have a routine in the Smart Life app (called scenes) that would trigger something else.

Might be worth looking at a weather station given the requirement for rain and wind. I know my Ecowitt one can be integrated into stuff to trigger routines as well.

[The Three D Mucketeer]

Would a Samsung/Aerotec Leak Sensor do the job ? .. I use ALEXA via SMARTTHINGS HUB .. but ALEXA might support it directly

https://www.samsung.com/uk/smartthings/sensor/aeot...


I suppose you could try a Multi sensor for vibration for strong winds if positioned corrrectly

[OutInTheShed]

Wired ones are readily available.
Velux sell them.
There are DIY options from a few quid on ebay.

Then you could add them as an input to some wireless controller thing?

[Nigel_O]

geeks said:

Only three groups of people I know who would do something like this.

Astrophotographers
Gardeners
Home Automation nerds

Yup - I'm firmly in #3...

The problem with the wired sensors (like the Velux item) is that I have to wire it up and get a cable through the garage polycarbonate roof, which will undoubteldy spring a leak (actually, another leak, but that's a different story...)

I had a quick look at the Samsung leak sesor - it needs a SmartThings hub, so its not ideal.

Seems ZigBee hubs are only £20-£25, so that might be a solution, but I'm not sure if I have any free power sockets on top of the cupboard that has the other three hubs and the wi-fi router...

[biggiles]

Nigel_O said:

The problem with the wired sensors (like the Velux item) is that I have to wire it up and get a cable through the garage polycarbonate roof, which will undoubteldy spring a leak (actually, another leak, but that's a different story...)

Could the wire go through the wall, somewhere else? The sensor doesn't need to be anywhere near the window or roof, it could be 100m away and still be effective.

Could you also do it based on the weather forecast in Alexa/Tuya/HA: e.g. if chance of rain is > 0% then ensure velux is shut.

[Nigel_O]

biggiles said:

Could the wire go through the wall, somewhere else? The sensor doesn't need to be anywhere near the window or roof, it could be 100m away and still be effective.

Could you also do it based on the weather forecast in Alexa/Tuya/HA: e.g. if chance of rain is > 0% then ensure velux is shut.

Yes, the wire could go through a wall, or even out in the garden somewhere. The issue is connecting it up to Alexa so that if rain is detected, a routine is fired to turn off the extraction fan and close the roof vent.

Sadly, the forecast is simply too vague to rely on.

All of this started when I left the roof vent open overnight after several forecasts stated no rain, only for a biblical rainstorm to hit at 2:00am, resulting in me legging down to the garage in my shreddies to manually close the roof vent and mop up the puddle that had already formed…

[jimmyjimjim]

I've had a couple of these.

https://a.co/d/0i3D6MFN

The sensor lasts about 5 years. Iirc, the receiver needs 24v in, then outputs a close across the 2 signal wires.

You can adjust them quite a bit so they detect moisture quickly and stay closed for varying amounts of time.

[OutInTheShed]

Would it not make sense to hard wire the sensor to the windows, then the witless system opens the windows only if it's not raining?

[Jap90s]

Camper van skylights use a very simple sensor to close them if it rains.

Essentially using the rain to bridge the connections to turn on the motor

Simple and effective

[Nigel_O]

OutInTheShed said:

Would it not make sense to hard wire the sensor to the windows, then the witless system opens the windows only if it's not raining?

That’s only half the requirement - I don’t want the roof vent to open if it’s raining, but if it’s already open, I also want it to close when it starts raining

[OutInTheShed]

Nigel_O said:

OutInTheShed said:

Would it not make sense to hard wire the sensor to the windows, then the witless system opens the windows only if it's not raining?

That s only half the requirement - I don t want the roof vent to open if it s raining, but if it s already open, I also want it to close when it starts raining

As you consider yourself a nerd, I'd have expected you to make the minor leap of (boolean) logic

Window open = (demand from wireless system) AND (not raining)

If the window opener is a servo, its set position is over-ridden to 'shut' by the rain sensor.

You could have the mech report back to the wireless system that it's raining.

If the wireless is setting an analogue/multi-value opening, then the rain sensor can still force it to zero.


Or you could look for some roof vents which don't let the bloody rain in. Some Dorade type of thing might look 'eclectic' on a garage roof?

[The Three D Mucketeer]

A wireless/zigbee Aerotc open/close sensor on the vent could do it all ... tell the smart system if open or closed and vibrations could tell you when it's raining
It would appear the Velux sensor work on vibrations for rain detection.