Hi everyone, I wanted to share my experience with setting up a smart rain sensor using a Shelly 1 module. It’s been a fantastic addition to my outdoor setup, and I thought I’d walk through how I got it working and how it’s been benefiting my daily life.
I have a rain sensor outside that’s connected to a Shelly 1 (12V) module. The setup is pretty straightforward: the sensor automatically switches to ‘ON’ when it detects rain, which isn’t always 100% reliable, but it’s been working well enough for my needs. I’ve integrated this into Node-RED, where I’ve created a routine that checks the rain status every 5 minutes and calculates the rainfall percentage for the past 24 hours. It’s a neat way to keep track of how much rain we’ve had, which is especially useful during the rainy season.
One thing I wanted to improve was the visualization of the rainfall data. Initially, when I tried to view the history, it wasn’t showing the expected curve but instead displayed a color bar based on discrete values. After some research and experimentation, I managed to adjust the settings in Node-RED to display the data in a more user-friendly format. It was a bit of a learning curve, but the result is much more intuitive and helpful.
This setup has been particularly useful for planning outdoor activities. Knowing the exact rainfall percentage over the past day helps me decide whether to postpone events or prepare accordingly. Plus, integrating this data with other smart home features, like automated irrigation systems, could be a great next step.
If anyone has tips on further enhancing this setup or suggestions for better data visualization, I’d love to hear them! It’s been a rewarding project, and I’m excited to see how I can expand on it in the future.