Rammed Earth Rain Sensors

Rammed Earth Rain Sensor

The comissioned sculpture will collect rainfall data i.e. intensity, frequency, total dissolved solids, Ph levels and rainfall sound at different with the possibility to help in the civil engineering of water mitigation. To transfer such data via cloud as open-sourced information.

Materilas and hardware

Rammed Earth :  
HILetgo LM393 rain sensor,this measures rain fall location,time and intensity 
CQRobot Oceans: TDS Meter: which measures total dissolved solids in the water such as salts, minerals and metals: 
BME280, which measure barometric pressure in pascals,Temperature and humidity: 
An extremely bright as the sun LED: 
An OLED screen, displaying readings in real-time on the sculpture:
Particle Photon 2 micro controller:

Things that wil be added to the sculpture in March, 2024...
conductive paint and epoxy,a capacitive touch controller, 
the mini not so mini PH Sensor and my designed PCB board. 

At the very top of these rammed earth sculptures will be custom designed PCB 
circuits. Each line just out of reach of each other forming a negative space 
and what is called an open circuit like the HILetgo LM393 rain sensor. 

As the rain falls onto the circuits, it closes the circuit and measures the intensity of the rainfall. This will also cause lights to show in real time the intensity of the rainfall via brightness. These structures will also measure barometric pressure and alerts its observers of incoming rainstorm via lights. I cannot wait to see what this looks like during a real storm.

I have also developed a way to store and track the data collected in real time using a flow-based programming site called Node Red. My devices can give Node Red data, then do something with that data and then pass on that data. 

Future experimentation

Within the next 3 months I will be designing sensors along with code that will allow me to collect volume and flow. 

Using conductive paint makes it possible to re-create these sensor designs anywhere they need to be placed for example existing drains, problematic flooding areas, canals ect.

Industrial application of this paint is something I am going to experiment 
with for the sculpture. I would also like to experiment with adding graphite 
to rammed earth and concrete.

Concrete is already set as a structural material and has proven to be the most cost effective when it comes to industrial and urban development. However, we have not been able to prove this against rammed earth.



Closing Statement Making rainfall data available to the public and city 
planners is a leap towards unwinding this complicated relationship we have 
with our water as desert dwellers. This process is important, and art backed 
by real science can make it possible.