Weather Station

Description

The project described here is a simple weather station that measures air temperature, humidity, and surface temperature of the ground below the weather station. We want it to:

• Run on battery power
• Refresh the battery via a solar panel
• Sample conditions once per minute
• Write data to a text file
• Save the data to a USB key
• Back up the data to an additional USB key when one is inserted
• Use a webcam to take and save pictures of the current conditions

This weather station was designed and built for late winter and early spring conditions, so it is not entirely waterproof (though it could be made so).

Overview

As with any of our described projects, Phidgets takes care of the electrical component design. Still, a project of this magnitude require a time investment in addition to a monetary investment. Designing projects like these is hard!

But the deep - and very real - reward that follows is like nothing else. A full, functional system that you can build to whatever specifications you like... ask any hobbyist and you may see their eyes light up remembering their latest project. Building such things is a special kind of freedom.

We design these application guides to:

• Provide template ideas that you can then modify to be your own
• Inspire you to try new projects
• Give you an idea of the time (both in software and assembly) that this type of project entails

Time: About 6 full days Cost: About

Phidgets

Task	Phidget
Schedule the samples, provide power to devices, run the code	Phidget Single Board Computer
Read surface temperature of ground	1045 - PhidgetTemperatureSensor IR

Future directions

The ports can sample at any time interval up to the maximum data rate of the Interface Kit attached to the SBC.

The Single Board Computer is just that - a computer! So you could