I have a 20 foot high telescoping flag pole. I was going to place it on top. Will the flag movement make it read wrong?
It is possible that the flag will provoke some false rain readings when it is gusting (vibrations going up via the pole), if there is enough play, maybe use some tape between the pole and mount as this does dampen a bit vibrations
You can try, if it happens too much, you can take it down again and find a better pace for the sky.
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Hi @mitretsof12
I have a flapping wind sock on my pole and vibrating stay wires. I have false rain readings if I place the Sky directly onto the top of my pole. So as an experiment I built a vibration dampener which has stopped the false rain. I suspect the flapping flag will not be high frequency vibrations compared to the rope hitting against the pole might cause a ping that would be a problem. My suggestion is to use some type of rubber mount to try to dampen any sounds travelling through the pole to the Sky.
You can read lots about vibration causing rain here:
https://community.tempest.earth/t/rain-sensor-and-vibrations/1345/96
cheers Ian 
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Thank you. I am going to use 22mm silicone hose. I will make aluminum plugs to invert in each end so I can clamp the wind sensor and the other end I will bolt to the top. I will leave 1 inch between the aluminum plugs.
Tim Foster
I mounted my sky on top of my telescoping flag pole using 22mm id silicone hose. I left a 1 inch gap between the metal spacers that are inside the silicone hose. I am getting a false rain what seems to be between 1 and 2.25 inches. My problem is the house next to me on the south side is about 15 foot higher than my house so the flag pole would have been perfect. Any ideas?
Thanks.
Can you post pictures? I’m trying to visualize what you mean.
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Most likely you are getting vibration caused by the flag.
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Hi @mitretsof12,
If you can not stop the vibrations getting to your haptic sensor there is another solution although it is not perfect yet.
Use the Sky on the flag pole to record wind. Buy another sky and place it on a solid mount near the ground where it has clear access to the rain.
Personally I have the Sky with vibration reduced mount And a Sky on a solid mount in the garden and two funnel rain gauges.
To date the rain readings from both Skys are very similar which shows that my vibration reducing mount fixed my vibration problem. However the Skys can vary from my funnel gauges enough that if I want accurate rain readings I do not believe my Skys yet. And I dont know the Sky calibration which weatherflow can change without telling us so one day they read perfect then next rain in different wind it can read way off and I dont know if a calibration changed.
But even my funnel gauges are on different sides of the house and can have quite different readings depending on wind.
I only mention the issue with inaccurate rain readings from the Sky to help your decision process to choose what option is best for you.
Personally I use either Sky to know if it is raining, when it started and how heavy. But to discuss how much rain fell I use my funnel gauges as I can not trust the Sky yet.
To help your design process for removing the vibrations I found if I made a mount and holding it inside my house tapped the mount with a plastic pen repeatedly for a couple of minutes. If it recorded rain then the vibrations were traveling through the mount. For comparison if I shook the mount without any tapping it would not record rain. Think of the bad vibrations as sound travelling up the mount are what cause false rain.
We appreciate photographs of your efforts…
Best of luck cheers Ian 
Hi @mitretsof12,
Great work.
The source of the vibration is possibly the metal fittings clunking or rattling as the flag moves. My first simple cheap suggestion is to use tape or rope or rubber to tie all the metal fittings tight so that they can not rattle.
good luck cheers Ian
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Something to keep in mind for the future is that the LED (?) light on top of the flag pole may have interference issues with the lighting sensors in the upcoming Tempest station. Not a problem with the current Air/Sky setup, since the lightning sensor is in the Air…
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I drilled 4 - 3/8 holes in the silicone hose and it has helped a lot. I am hoping that with a little time the silicone will soften up and work out good? Time will tell.
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