FACET 1- Recognize and Quantify the Need
 
Developing a product can be a challenging, but useful asset to companies and small businesses and the way they find the purpose of their products for their customers proves to be just as important.  Finding the needs of the customer or client can be done using several different methods.  Looking at historical data and ways others have introduced new technologies, along with several other techniques done by engineers, offer the type of design needed to ensure the product meets the criteria of not only the company, but the needs of the customer.  Gathering information ensures you will meet both.
 

Market Demand

The purpose of this project is to design a prototype automated rain gauge that will be used by the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) to improve on an existing rain gauge design. Members of the community in charge of reading and uploading the measurements to the CoCoRaHS central database often find themselves in situations where the readings cannot be measured accurately or the rain gauge has not been emptied properly. At the request of CoCoRaHS, a new design of the rain gauge shall be automated to allow prevent the user from inputting the measurement wrongly, in case they have to be out of town for some time, or if the gauge is in a remote location.
Other specifications and requirements include;

• Should fit on a preinstalled bracket
• Should cost less than $100
• Avoid false measurements from external debrief
• Easy installation
• Input of data into the CoCoRaHS servers using the internet

For this prototype, we have decided to modify the existing prototype from the previous team to take on this project, and we will make an effort to come up with a different design in order to fulfill the need of the automated empty of the container.

Assessing Competing Solutions for the Need

The products that mostly meet the requirements asked for the project some of them including self-emptying and send of information via internet. All of them are powered by batteries.
Rain monitoring system with acurite
This is the toughest of the competitors as it can self-empty in a previously chosen period of time. The product consists of the rain gauge and a monitoring system for the transmission of data to a phone app which can be downloaded for free with the purchase of the system. This rain gauge is also capable of sends information at 433Hz which enables the system to act from a big range as long as 100ft. It works sending information via internet and the cost of the system is $159.99.
DIGITAL RAIN GAUGE WITH SELF EMPTYING RAIN COLLECTOR
 
This rain gauge from the brand acurite is capable to send rain precipitation information to a display that comes with it up to a range of 100ft. It is powered via 3xAAA alkaline batteries for the display and 2xAA alkaline batteries for the rain gauge and the battery lasts up to 6 months in normal conditions. It also has an alarm system when it detects rain. This rain gauge cannot send data via internet, all the information recollected from the rain gauge is displayed on the screen. It costs $39.99.
C83100 Complete Personal Wi-Fi Weather Station with AccuWeather
This is a complete weather station system that can measure temperature, humidity, wind speed and precipitation. The system consists of the rain gauge and the temperature, humidity and wind speed meter. It also comes with a screen to display all the information via Wi-Fi. It is powered via 3 AAA batteries, 4 AA batteries and 1 C type battery. The display has to be powered via a power cord. The cost of the system is $165.75.