La Crosse Technology 724-1710 Wireless Rain Gauge Weather Station with Thermometer

I bought this unit with some trepidation, given the mixed reviews, but it works great. I have the rain gauge screwed to a second-floor balcony railing about 50 feet from the censor readout, which is on the living room mantel piece on the first floor. The temp sensor is in the shade in a covered part of the balcony about 5 feet from the rain gauge. Both signal strengths are strong and the readouts are solid even though they have to pass through a couple of walls. The multiple readout times are very handy, but require getting used to. This is because the short-term readouts are running time readouts, i.e the 1 hour and 24 hour readouts are for the period starting now and running back exactly 1 hour or 24 hours from now...it's not what happened during the past period starting at the beginning of the hour or day. Once I understood what it was doing I found it quite useful. I don't use the various alarms and timers...just wanted an accurate wireless rain gauge and outside and inside temp sensors.The fact that all three units work on batteries is a mixed blessing. It gives great flexibility in placement of all the units, but will require careful monitoring of the batteries to prevent loss of data. I'm hoping that they make in about a year so I can replace them just before each rainy season, which for me starts in September and runs thru June.The only thing I miss is an inches/hour readout that tells one how heavy the rain is at the time...I have this on an old Oregon Scientific unit and find it much more useful than the "current" reading available on the La Crosse 724-1710 unit. The La Crosse "current" rainfall reading is sort of how much total rain came down in the latest cloudburst. That was hard for me to use most of the time, and one has the amount in the last hour via the "last hour" readout. I'd rather they programmed the "current" reading for current rain rate in inches/hour.Still...its a great running unit at a good price point...highly recommended!February 2017 Update:We'll my Northern California unit continues to work well and is keeping track of our record-level rains in Northern California this year. SO-o-o...I decided to buy a second unit for our Southern California house, for mounting on the roof! For my yard, the top of a roof vent in the center of my home's roof, provides the best possible placement for the rain gauge, free of rain-shadowing structures, garden trees, etc. However, an important downside of this location is having to scale the roof to periodically replace the rain-gauge batteries. In contrast to my previous Oregon Scientific unit, which was constantly charged by a small solar panel, the La Crosse unit uses two AA batteries that require periodic replacement.Thus I began an engineering project to replace the La Crosse's two AA batteries with a small solar powered battery supply. The La Crosse unit's two AA batteries are supposed to last around a year, so the power demand is quite modest: 3 volts and around 1600 mA-hr total current draw for the year.Because I'm fascinated with the capabilities of the new Li-ion batteries, I decided to replace the La Crosse unit's two AA batteries with a single model 14500 Li-ion battery with a stated capacity of 1650 mAh. This 14500 battery is the same size as a conventional 1.5 volt AA battery, but generates a higher 3.7 volts. To get the 3.0 volts needed by the La Crosse unit requires just one 14500 battery together with the addition of a series diode to drop the voltage 0.7 volts from 3.7 (the Li-ion battery voltage) to the 3.0 volts desired by the rain gauge.My goal was to use a small 5-volt solar panel to continuously charge the 14500 battery and thus avoid having to scale the roof to replace the rain gauge batteries.The engineering challenge was thus to connect a small solar panel to the 14500 battery in a manner that efficiently used the power generated by the small panel, and prevented overcharging of the 14500 Li-ion battery.Li-ion batteries, unlike other rechargeable batteries like Ni-Cd and Ni-Mh, are very sensitive to overcharging and don't tolerate long-term trickle charging. This has resulted in specialized integrated-circuit charge regulators, such as the TP4056, that have been specifically designed for use in charging Li-ion batteries. These charge regulators typically charge at a fixed current until a maximum charge voltage of 4.2 volts is reached, then they rapidly turn off all charging current to prevent overcharging. Miniature circuit boards containing the TP4056 and its accessary components are readily available for plugging into standard 5V USB cell-phone power supplies. The question is: can these be easily used in conjunction with a 5V solar panel to charge a Li-ion battery? The short answer is Yes.In contrast to a 5-volt USB power supply, which supplies an high current at a fixed 5.0 volts, a solar panel puts out a highly-variable, but limited current (proportional to the solar illumination level) with a current-voltage relationship defined by its IV curve. To efficiently use the output of the solar panel the applied load must operate near the panel's Maximum Power Point (MP) on its IV curve, which is a point near the knee of the IV curve. Fortunately, a fairly useful means of achieving operation at a panel's maximum power operating point is to use a constant-voltage load (such as that provided by a charging battery), where the constant voltage is modestly well matched to the array's max power voltage. A constant-voltage load works well because the voltage of the maximum power point does not vary greatly with illumination level.Now back to our TP4056 IC and how well does it mate to a solar panel. The answer: very well. The current-limiting feature of the TP4056 IC is essentially inactive when used with a solar panel, as the solar panel itself limits the input current (unless one uses a very high current array). What the TP4056 does is draw current from the solar panel at a fixed voltage of around 4.3 volts and terminates battery charging when the Li-ion battery voltage reaches 4.2 volts...just what it should do. It also prevents backflow of current from the battery into the solar panel when charging is not occuring...thus eliminating the need for a blocking diode. The only design challenge is to acquire a solar panel with a max power voltage of around 4.3 volts...the input voltage set by the TP4056. It turns out that this is well provided by many small 5 to 6 volt solar panels.MY FINAL DESIGNThe attached figures illustrate my final design using a very small (1" x 2") 5-volt 30 ma solar panel connected directly to my 14500 Li-ion battery via the small TP4056 charge controller board. No additional components were required beyond the series diode (e.g. 1N4001) used to reduce the battery's 3.7 volts down to 3.0 volts to accommodate the 3.0-volt input voltage desired by the rain gauge. All components (battery and TP4056 board) can be easily fit in the battery compartment of the rain gauge, while the tiny solar panel is mounted closeby with a good view of the sun.In terms of charging capability, solar availability data for my Los Angeles location indicate around 2800 peak solar illumination hours per year. Multiplying this times my 30 ma charge current gives me around 84,000 mA-hrs of battery charging per year....way, way more than needed for the rain gauge. A nice small, but very conservative design....and no more climbing up on to the roof.

Over the last few years I have had several expensive wind/temp/humidity/rain weather stations. They were nice while they lasted, but all eventually failed due to insect infestation or, in the most recent case, a nearby lightning strike. Rather than buy another expensive one, I decided to try a less capable (rain and temperature only) unit at much lower cost since rainfall and temperature were the two things we paid most attention to. If it fails after a year, I can easily afford to replace it.The La Crosse unit arrived as scheduled and the instructions were clear and complete. I had it up and running in the house in a couple of minutes. I did a raingauge calibration in the kitchen and it was within five percent. The temperature sensor was within one degree of the two good quality digital thermometers I used for comparison. I deployed the raingauge on the top of an eight foot mast about forty feet from the nearest obstruction (the house). I put the thermometer in the shade about six feet off the floor by the screen of our screened in back porch because the porch temperature in the shade is more representative of our living environment than the free air in the sun. Both have performed flawlessly since installation several months ago.A bonus is that the display unit can be carried around in your pocket. Unlike the previous high-end units that had to be plugged into the wall and were too big to be readily portable, this one can go with me anywhere in the house where I may be during a storm whose progress I am watching as the rain accumulates. Nice!The only reason it is not five stars is that the thermometer unit had no shield or aspiration, so it would not be accurate in bright sunlight. Nonetheless, it is a great unit for the price and perfect for what I needed.

Purchased this to replace an aging wireless gauge from a competitor. This item is the most recent version with some improvements over the older model, which another family member has and had recommended. The most important update was a software change which allows the gauge to retain on the display the last time period selected; i.e. 24 hours, total,etc. The previous model would return to the display of “current” after a few seconds, if another time period was selected, which was annoying if you wanted to easily see how much rainfall had been received for the day. The new model also includes the digital readout on the outdoor temp sensor, which is a nice feature. The manufacturer also claims to have made improvements with the internal collection buckets and the wireless range between base and sensors. The unit is easy to setup and presented no issues with linking to the remote sensors.I reduced my rating by one star primarily because of the lack of a way to display rainfall for the “day”, beginning and ending at midnight. This unit does have a 24-hour time period, but it is moving 24 hour total. My old gauge had the daily and cumulative (since reset) totals both shown on the display at all times as the default, and I prefer that method.Measurements seem accurate; I have the collector next to a more expensive comprehensive weather station. The rainfall amounts agree within .01”, which to me is perfectly acceptable for a consumer grade non-professional device especially at this price point.Curiously, the collector does not have a debris screen. I fabricated one for $2 using a piece of gutter screen cut to size with some tin snips. This may or may not be needed depending on your installation site. The size of the hole at the bottom of the collector is about 1/4”, supposedly large enough to allow small seeds or debris to pass through and be rinsed out of the buckets. Other reviewers have commented that spiders or other insects can enter and clog up the collector over time, so it’s advisable to plan to remove the cover and clean the inside of the collector periodically.A few reviewers complained that they could not get the gauge to measure any rain, there are a couple of things that could cause problems if overlooked. First, the hole at the bottom of the collector is not centered. The housing has two arrows that must be aligned to have the hole over the top of the collector buckets within; if not aligned no rain will register. Also, there is a cardboard packing shim under the collector buckets, if not removed at installation, the buckets will not move and register rainfall.

I bought this because I wanted a rain gauge and I liked that this one is self-emptying. It was easy to set-up, it records even small amounts of rain, and the display is clear and easy to read. The outdoor temperature sensor shows the temperature, but it only displays Fahrenheit. I wish I could change that to Celsius but that doesn’t seem to be an option—unless I’ve missed it. Being able to check rainfall amounts for the past hour, day, month and year is a nice feature.

Purchased the gauge to replace an Oregon RGR126N which failed after little more than 12 months. Have had the unit for a month and no problems to date. The many options for viewing rain totals are a little confusing at first but much better than the Oregon which only gives daily and progressive total. The La Crosse temperature monitor only displays temperature in Fahrenheit but main unit can show Celsius. Batteries are more accessible than the Oregon unit and construction more robust. Time will tell if it lasts the distance.

seems to work ok

Here's the best review of anything: when I ordered it for my wife, The Gardener, she asked "why did you order a rain gauge? Who needs a rain gauge? We've got a bucket".Within 2 days of getting and setting it up we have rain and by the weekend I saw her peering intently at it. Now she checks it every morning. No more complaints.If that isn't a good review I don't know what isEasy to install, works well, lots of good features (outside temp, rain history for 1 day, 7 days, 28 days).

It takes a while to understand how to make it work.