The RG11 Rain sensor is an optical sensor with no moving parts. It can measure rain amounts from tiny to very heavy rain.http://hydreon.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/documents/rg-11_instructions.pdf
It has several modes that can be switched dynamically (through switches/ relays).
sensitivity mode are :
- first rain drop
-bucket sizes of 0.0001" , 0.001" 0.01"
the piBeacon plugin can switch modes dynamically = switch sensitivity with rain amount as well as static ie any rain... 0.01" per measurement (bucket)
In order to fully use the capabilities you need to switch the switches on the rain sensor with eg relays.
The attached drawing shows how to attach a RG11 rain sensor to the RPI through a relay board.
The states of the indigo sensor device look like: (units in mm]
you can set the rain units and digits in config.
In device edit you can select various timing settings and modes as well as formatting of the status field
The rain amounts can be reset in pibeacon menus under "Reset or Request new data ... "
at each hour/ midnight/ week/ month/ year the amounts shift to lastHour/lastDay...
at midnight Max and Min rain rates are calculated and shifted to lastDay
RG11 next to a common bucket rain sensor
Karl