1-wire/Arduino/Cumulus ?

[41south]

Ok I know this smacks of desperation - but I'm getting to be a desperate man I'm really not pleased with the Fine Offset station, but I do want to keep using Cumulus and I have a whole bunch of 1-wire weather gear begging to be used.
Are there any of you fine software engineering types out there that could write a program for an Arduino (only because I know there are 1-wire libraries for it) that would interface 1-wire to Cumulus. It would obviously mean emulating something like a Fine Offset unit for Cumulus (or Davis or whatever) but I'm sure it would open up a whole world of possibilities. I've dabbled in Arduino stuff, but have neither the skills or time to make this particular project work. So if anybody wants to look at a little project (that I'd be happy to fund ) send me a pm.

[Gina]

I have a 1-wire weather station in the process of construction and improvement. I have built various weather instruments and 1-wire interfaces - anemometer, direction vane, temperature, humidity, light level. And have been developing 1-wire software in Python under Linux Mint (Offshoot of Ubuntu). I'm afraid this project has been "on the back burner" for a while as I have been building an observatory for astronomy and astro-photography. I'm hoping to resume work on it in the next month or so when I have the astronomy equipment sorted out and that will become a mainly night-time activity. I'm quite keen to get on with the new WS as it's a very interesting project and should overcome many of the FO station shortcomings.

I think interfacing to Cumulus would be quite difficult but an interesting challenge and I wish anyone who takes it on, good luck with it I shall be very interested in what can be achieved. I have working Linux software for the FO WS but it's a long way behind Cumulus and needs plenty more work on it. That too is written in Python. It would be interesting to look into 1-wire to Cumulus interfacing but I would do it directly in software - I have seen Arduinos used for all sorts of things but have no knowledge of them or how to program them. I'll give the idea some thought. Unfortunately, Cumulus is Windows only and I have a distinct preference for Linux. One possibility would be to generate files in Cumulus format that could be transferred to a Windows/Cumulus system via LAN.

[TomV]

I'm quite keen to get on with the new WS as it's a very interesting project and should overcome many of the FO station shortcomings..

- first of all sorry if I hijack this thread, but it's just a little question I had when reading your post (and other people may be interested in the answer too).

I have been thinking of 1-wire too before I bought my FO station (but I can't find any supplier in Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany), but other than having faster updates of your sensors (you can practically read them every second I guess?), what are the main shortcomings you overcome with a 1-wire weatherstation vs the FO station?

[41south]

One word - reliability

And it gives you a whole heap of other sensors such as lightning detectors, soil and leaf wetness etc.

You can buy 1-wire devices direct off Eric Vickery at Hobby Boards, www.hobby-boards.com

[ScottVan]

I too have a 1 wire setup in the basement waiting to be installed at my model airplane field. Thought was a small "disposable" computer (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc) and have the data transmitted back to my station. Transmit method could be text based on mobile phone or HAM radio. The takeaway is cheap and expendable as the shack we have at the field is not ultra-secure. If it was I'd have a more robust solution.

[Gina]

I have now got well into Arduino and think it's the "bee's knees" I am working on a control system to cool a DSLR camera for astrophotography and have it working but it needs some tidying up. I bought a simple book on writing sketches (as the software for Arduino is called) which got me started. Now I have bought a much bigger book (700 odd pages) called "Adruino Cookbook" written be Michael Margolis and available on Amazon for about £22. This new book is really excellent and goes from the simple stuff right up to advanced things like writing libraries and modifying standard ones. It also covers a vast range of hardware you can attach to the Arduino from sensors to motors, lights, speakers, robots etc.

Now to the nitty-gritty... I intend taking my 1-wire weather station and connecting it to an Arduino and adding sensors that I haven't provided for yet - humidity and atmospheric pressure.

For anyone with programmimg experience, the Arduino is a "piece of cake". Code is written in C++ and compiled by the IDE and then uploaded to the Arduino via USB. Being a compiled code, this can be very efficient and although programming code space and speed is limited, you can do quite a lot with an Arduino due to this.

I have yet to decide whether to do a limited amount of data processing in the Arduino and do most of it in the computer, or the other way round. There are Ethernet and even WiFi units that can be connected to the Arduino so it can provide a fully fledged web server. There are also radio transmitters and receivers that work at 433MHz like the FO weather stations. Extra memory in the form of SD cards and suchlike can be connected and used to store data. Then there's real time clocks so all the data can be time-stamped. I think the Ardino provides great scope for use as a data gatherer and processor for a weather station - really, it's ideally suited.

I shall be working on an Arduino based weather station quite soon now - I'm dying to give it a go, it's bound to be very interesting. I'll report progress on this project as I go along, you can rely on that

[jim-easterbrook]

I have now got well into Arduino and think it's the "bee's knees"

I'd really like to have a go with one myself, but there just aren't enough hours in the day.

There are Ethernet and even WiFi units that can be connected to the Arduino so it can provide a fully fledged web server. There are also radio transmitters and receivers that work at 433MHz like the FO weather stations.

You can get Arduino-compatible boards that already have Ethernet and radio, such as the Nanode: http://shop.nanode.eu/shop/nanode-rf-kit/. (Declaration of interest: Nanode was founded by one of my former colleagues.)

[41south]

Nice to see you taking up this challenge Gina, I shall follow it with interest. I did a lot of very basic Arduino programming a couple of years back to get some amateur radio antenna control systems working. I wanted to do the 1-wire stuff with it too but I couldn't get me head around the use of the libraries Please keep us updated with your project.

p.s. My 1-wire system with the Windlblown interface board is working great into Cumulus

[Gina]

I have now got well into Arduino and think it's the "bee's knees"

I'd really like to have a go with one myself, but there just aren't enough hours in the day.

There are Ethernet and even WiFi units that can be connected to the Arduino so it can provide a fully fledged web server. There are also radio transmitters and receivers that work at 433MHz like the FO weather stations.

You can get Arduino-compatible boards that already have Ethernet and radio, such as the Nanode: http://shop.nanode.eu/shop/nanode-rf-kit/. (Declaration of interest: Nanode was founded by one of my former colleagues.)

Thank you Jim

[pete_c]

Gina,

Personally started here with an AAG 1-wire weather instrument in the late 1990's. That said I kind of went overboard with my one wire networks doing multiple hub and spoke networks from multiple 9097's and Temp0X's. Today those networks are connected either to Linux / Wintel devices. I guess you could create a hardware interface for a serially connected 9097 or Temp0x on Cumulus; but with the abundance of the various devices et al it would be kind of difficult. It would almost be a one off for 1-wire only Cumulus application. That said testing the RG-11 digital rain guage / solar sensor on Cumulus has been a one off test for one instrument. The multiplicity of one "port" many devices, many variables is a totally different thing. But that is my opinion only.

Today taking most of the 1-wire data and rebroadcasting it to xAP. As old as the xAP standard is; it's changed some. I did get involved in creating a new base documentation for the "weather.report" xAP methodology standard. But still its hard to keep that in check. I guess you could also do the reverse of what Cumulus is doing today broadcasting xap. I mean cumulus receiving xAP 1-wire devices (could be running on anything anywhere on your network) and assigning the variables to this or that would make it a bit easier.

[Charlie]

Hi Pete,
I completely agree that a custom interface that collects and formats 1-wire data specifically for Cumulus (or other software) is the way to go. That's why I put together the "WindBlown Weather Station" that 41South mentioned. It collects data from a specific set of sensors, then emulates a "Fine Offset with UV/Light sensor" through the USB port. I suppose it would work with any software that supports the F.O. 3080 class stations, although I've only tested it with Cumulus.
Despite the chatter and aparent affection for 1-wire devices, sales of the unit have not exactly been brisk. I'm thinking that except for a few diehard users, 1-wire is effectively dead in the weather station space. The solution tends to be too technical for those that simply want to watch the weather, and not flexible enough for electronics hobbiests that want to experiment with different sensors.

[pete_c]

Yes Charlie the 1-Wire stuff has changed a bit; similiar to the "crystal" radio from the early 1960's. To some it was like magic and just worked; to others it didn't work.

I started doing everything here with a star topology and resistors for "reflections" then later I read that that was not the methodology of choice. So today its a combo hub and spoke thing.

Yes; today I see it more utilized for say temperature sensors in a multienvironmental lab setting as a cost savings methodology rather than the the 1-wire weather stations.

I have been tempted to purchase the newly updated looking like a spaceship with LEDs AAG weather station; just for the LED lights to freak out the neighbors.

[Gina]

I'm expecting to do some experimenting shortly so have started a new thread for the details of my latest weather station design.