Hacked a Smartthings water leak sensor for rain

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1

Wanted a sensor to let me know to close the windows when it starts raining.

Took apart a Smartthings Water Leak sensor, extended the leads and connected it to a strip board rigged up for rain contact.

Works well. Am not sure how a prolonged “wet” status affects battery life. Am monitoring.

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7 Likes
2

Battery looks to just be a 3v... you could always connect a wall wart that supplies 3v in instead of the battery if you are worried about the battery life. Of course it looks like the leads are not long enough to be running outdoors for checking...

But interesting idea. Looking forward to seeing how it works. Outside of weather stations there seems to be few ZigBee/Z-Wave rain sensors, especially simple ones like what are used to detect rain for skylights or such.

3

Great idea! I'm not clear on how your perf board will be connected. It looks like you intend to cut off just an inch, or so.

4

Would love to see this completed and installed. Cool idea.
:sunglasses:

5

The board has alternate strips connected. The idea is that drops of rain will bridge the gaps. The leads go back to the water sensor placed indoors.

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6

The newer ST leak sensors have an additional pair of contacts on the top, with a bit of a dip designed to catch water. I suppose they could be used as wireless rain detectors, without any modification.

2 Likes
7

Yeah. Didn't want the entire device hanging out in the sun, and possibly having a bird or gust of wind knocking it off for a 10+ storey drop down.

8

I need to get notified when it starts raining and this looks like a great solution.
How is it working out?

9

I really like your idea. Would be interested in mounting one in a vertically oriented piece of PVC pipe to keep the water ingress limited to vertical. My question would be how the battery and device logic would fair with those probes sittin in water for a day until it dried up or was manually tipped out of that depression. I understand some of these have an audible alarm that may need to be snipped.

Seems like a cheap solution to telling the irrigation controllers not to water.