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Modular station idea

For discussion of DIY weather equipment - sensors, accessories, improvements to existing kit etc
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StuW
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue 02 Feb 2016 12:55 pm
Weather Station: Watson W-8681 (Maplin)
Operating System: Ubuntu Server / Windows 7
Location: Leyland, Lancashire

Modular station idea

Post by StuW »

Hi all

My Maplin cheapy station has finally given up after 5 years with the dreaded constant red led so i was thinking of using the parts to make my own system.

My idea is to use ESP8266 wifi boards which has a programmable MCU for each area of the station. Each board would be responsible for a separate area of information e.g. Wind (anemometer and direction vane), air (temp and humidity) etc... and each would have a built in VERY basic webserver for retrieval of values. With rechargeable batteries and a small solar panel per unit it should be completely self contained for years at a time.

Server side I plan on using a Raspberrry Pi to enable long term logging and more flexibility.

Is my idea feasible?
water01
Posts: 3215
Joined: Sat 13 Aug 2011 9:33 am
Weather Station: Ecowitt HP2551
Operating System: Windows 10 64bit
Location: Burnham-on-Sea
Contact:

Re: Modular station idea

Post by water01 »

Not sure I would bother when this is available https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=12083 as this does it all and allows use of the Fine Offset modules.
David
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AllyCat
Posts: 1124
Joined: Sat 26 Feb 2011 1:58 pm
Weather Station: Fine Offset 1080/1 & 3080
Operating System: Windows XP SP3
Location: SE London

Re: Modular station idea

Post by AllyCat »

Hi,

Indeed, why reinvent the wheel?

However, my main "concern" with the Weatherduino transmitters is their rather high (solar) Power Budget, for the higher latitudes such as the UK. Around a 50 watt (rated) panel (that's several square feet) and a SLA battery have been suggested in this thread. I suspect there might be similar (or worse) issues using the ESP8266.

Personally, I'm looking more at a dedicated low power microcontroller (PIC) and one of the modern 3.3 volt highly-integrated UHF (434/868 MHz) transceiver modules such as the HC-12. Currently (in December) my "test bed" battery (a single AA cell) is still "topping out" almost every day, from a 250 mW PV panel (~15 sq cms). ;)

But I still have decide whether to port the (Arduino) "virtualwire" protocol onto the new processor, or adapt the receiever protocol as for the "AuriolDiuino" version.

Cheers, Alan.
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