Abstract
Rainfall simulators provide control of natural environmental factors such as rainfall intensity and duration todetermine basic information on hydrologic and chemical processes within watersheds. Three electronic controllers weredesigned to provide a range of solutions to automate rainfall simulators. These solutions included a relatively inexpensiverepeater relay and counter that controlled a clutch and single-speed gearmotor assembly; a moderately priced digitalinterface board or parallel port in a microcomputer that controlled a clutch and single-speed gearmotor assembly; and arelatively expensive microstepping motor with built-in indexing capabilities that permitted control of every aspect ofmotion of a variable-speed gearmotor. These solutions move from the most limited to the greatest flexibility in motioncontrol for rainfall simulators. Single and variable rainfall intensities were achieved with all three solutions. The digitalinterface board and the microstepping motor solutions provided programmable capability through software previouslyunavailable in field research. This software provided user-friendly interaction and the ability for controlled variations ofrainfall intensity and storm duration in simulated rainfall studies.
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