aha. so it points at the forecast when no rain has dropped, and shows the amount of rain as soon as a drop has fallen? Clever! (I thought it were two gauges).
what if it rained at 02:00 in the middle of the night?
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In that case it would show the accumulated rain for the whole day. I could do some tricks like only show it for a few hours or start the day at sunrise. But I think it would be okay to show the accumulated rain since midnight. To me it would be more important to know that I had some rain last night than the chance of rain today.
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I believe the black lines you see are not the needles but just scale end marks. The precipitation gauge only uses one needle for the two scales. (if it’s raining there is no need to show 100% chance of percept so you show accumulation) Same as the lines marked Wall Gauges and the end of the scales for the forecast temps. Most likely these are used for calibrating the scale of the needles during setup.
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@hankster you nailed it. They are alignment marks I use to set the home position of the needles. But I have been toying with the idea of putting bump stops in their place and removing them. That is what I did for the lower gauge. It has a bump stop just to the right of the -40 
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All alignment marks have been removed and I’m now using bump stops in their place. It will be a little challenging when I actually make the gauge as the bump stops will have to be at a precise height. They will need to stop the smaller gauge needles and allow the larger needle to pass over the top.
A good gauge is like a well crafted sentence. You can say more with less. I like the way it looks with all the changes we made this morning.
Thanks again!
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Next step. I’m now working on smaller individual gauges that can sit on a desk. Here is the artwork for the Temperature gauge. I plan on making one for wind speed and accumulated precipitation as well.
The gauge face is 3.5" (8.9cm) in diameter, much smaller than the 11" (28cm) gauge above. I’m also going to personalize the gauges. I think I will make some for Christmas.
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Do the stepper motors have infinite rotation ability or do they have a stop at each extreme? It would be neat to have a weather vane version for wind.
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The steppers I use have hard stops built in. However, I have taken one apart and removed them and they seem to work okay. I could build a gauge that showed the degree the wind was coming from. It would have a gauge face from 0 to 360 degrees.
But I agree it would be cool to have a compass rose type gauge.
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A ‘real’ windvane for indoor use would be super-cool!
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Here is my first cut of the Accumulated Precipitation Gauge. It needs work. Struggling with the tic mark numbers, it just doesn’t look right in my mind but I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe it will grow on me.
I’m dutch, so I’m supposed to say what is on my mind. This one looks like it is designed by a technician. Yes you can do that, and program it so it always shows the correct value. A designer would never do this. Just divide the max amount equally over the range. The needle is exact enough to display the 1/4" value anyway.
Because less is more, I would leave out all the non integer values. (leave the tic marks, those could be helpful)
Someone else can probably formulate it in a non-dutch, less direct way 
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Smile. The nonlinear range at the end is kind of cool from a technical standpoint. But I agree it doesn’t look nice. I will rework it and give it another shot.
I like it and your large dial is great (you have access to some nice kit).
In the physical dashboard thread I mention thinking about making an open source project of data gauges - with people able to add designs, makes, builds… so just wondering if your interested…
Andy
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Just do a logarithmic scale and it will look better. I agree with @sunny, don’t label the non-integer values. At most make the 1/2 tic mark slightly longer than the quarters.
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Yes I would love to see people use this platform for their own gauges. In fact, open sourcing the gauges was a driving factor in the design of this system. I have open sourced all my gauge apps on gitHub. Someone could design their own gauge face and write their own gauge app with a custom calibration table for it.
If you have a gauge in mind I would be happy to work with you on any part of the process.
Where do you get the needles for the gauges?
I can’t find any here in England other than clock hands
Depends on the size I need. For the big multi gauge I start with standard clock hands and modify them. I have to remove the mounting hardware and replace it with a 2.5mm screw and nut with a hole drilled down the center of it. The trick is drilling the hole in the center of such a small screw. I then cut the needles to size and in some cases paint them to match the gauge face.
If it is a smaller gauge the steppers I order come with a small red needle that looks pretty good. I have also been working on a 3d printed needle set.
Here is a new version of the Accumulated Precipitation with a standard logarithmic scale.
I just worked up another version using decimal sub ticks for the first two values. I think I like it better.
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I like the second one, too.
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Well I have been pretty busy with the business side of things the last month or so and finally getting my head above water. I have created a few desktop gauges based on input from this forum. The desktop gauges are in a wood case that is 4 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep. There is a notch cut in the bottom so they will sit on your desk at a 15 degree angle and not roll off.
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