Ive been interested for a bit in building a teeny weather station, basics (temp, humidity, pressure, and maybe later uv, electrical charge, rain fall). This is just a fun project that will keep me from resorting to youtube / netflix in case of boredom.
If any one is interested in helping out or wants to learn micro-controllers, sensors, soldering, website design, let me know!
It would be nice to have a few of them to scatter across Brisbane to see the micro climates of the city.
So what are we trying to do ?(aka scope):
Basic : Make a mini weather station at home and learn something doing it.
Delux: Make a mini weather station network that you can see all the changes in micro-climates around the area. We can send all the info to a mini sever that we can all see!
Whats involved?
Bit of soldering, bit of programming, bit of this, a bit of that.
Im keen on having a network of these things setup so we can spy on each others local weather! But have no clue about internet - networking or sever programming.
If you are willing to learn come chip in!
Sensor selection
what are we going to measure, let’s keep it basic at the start, so I vote:
With the provision to add more fancy-dancy sensors later, like ohhh UV, wind, etc etc.
Controller Selection
My first go-to would be a Raspberry Pi, I have never played aound with them, but have always wanted to. They are powerfull machines with WiFi options and SPI, so we can add things like this (Thanks @Hally).
Other pro’s: They can store a heap of local data, and host their own severs, so if we wanted to get fancy we could have a syncronised network with no master sever, but maybe something a little less complex first ha.
They are also nice to have around the house for other gizmos and thingys that you want to add on-to later.
How we gona do this?
To avoid the dreaded 60% finshed project, divie this thing up into little bite sized chucks that we can all nibble on when we have a bit of down time, an hour a here, a couple there.
So what should I do?
That depends on a few things, what can you do? What things do you want to learn? Ill have a nibble list ™ up soon.
But most likely you will want to start getting to know what is a micro-controller, Ardunio is a good place to start. And having a look at some basic raspberry pi projects (maybe setting up a Raspbery Pi sever…) couldnt go astray either!
I can help people do the basics of controllers, and soldering. If some one knows their way around setting up serves and internet protocalls, let me know!
Jace
Not scared off? Awsome!
If you would like to help out, post here!
Here’s an example 
Hey I’m Jace
Thats souds like something I want to help out in!
I know my way around:
Soldering Irons
Micro-controlers
CAD and 3D printing
Im looking to learn:
Raspbey Pi
Sever stuff
Tell me what I can do to help out and make my own!
I know
Soldering
Temp sensors
Humidity sensors
Wind apeed direction sensors (ultrasonic)
Weatherstation positioning and calibration
Have seen some that log straigjt to a webpage
Happy to help
Another cool sensor you can add is a Geiger counter. There are some interesting logs over locations\time available online, and at least 2 huge community projects to use data to build maps.
$10 gets you a lightning sensor these days
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/ams/AS3935-BQFT/AS3935-BQFTCT-ND/3182215
Not sure on how much time I can dedicate to this, though I have experience in all of the above.
Here is some projects that I have contributed to.
http://www.hovo.id.au/2011/08/my-house/
https://springbrookrescue.org.au/WirelessSensorNetwork.html
From this project I have a few of these floating around
I know my way around:
PCB Design
Soldering SMD
Micro-controlers
Server Stuff (Including coding websites, hosting, programming and all types of internet stuff)
RF-Communication
Im looking to learn:
Using the Raspberry Pi to interact with low level sensors
Awsome, regarding time, this for me wasnt going to be a full timer project just something to tinker on.
Hey I’m Kit
That definitely sounds like something I want to help out with
I know my way around:
Soldering Irons
(I have a raspberry Pi already)
Im absolutely looking to learn:
Raspberry Pi &
Sever stuff
Tell me what I can do to help out and make my own!
I actually did this as a uni project. I used a arduino nano to gather the data from all the sensors (a 1 wire interface temp/humidity, a i2c cheap pressure sensor and spi to a lightning detector that refused to work) and fed the data into a esp8266 to be sent to some IoT data website to be graphed. The idea was to also build in some sleep mode stuff to make it last longer and eventually do up a PCB and make it solar powered with a lithium battery managment circuit.
I ended up disassembiling it after doing the demonstration for uni on a breadboard, but I still have the code for both and all the parts to make the project. I’m not too proud of the code though, as it was a rush job.
I believe the temp/humidity was a DHT11, the barometer was a bmp180 and the lightning detector was an as3935 module.
Awsome for the responces, watch this space!
I am interested.
Here is a kit that might be a useful starting point, being sold by Michael Holmstrom, an Electrical Engineer out at Samford. I don’t think there are any build instructions yet.
Also The Fabrication Lab at The Edge, SLQ has a sensor setup that was made some time ago. Mick Byrne, the resident guru at The Edge, showed it to me. I am not sure if it is in working order. It might be a useful prototype.
Hey all, so right now Ive got a few jobs that need some attention, Im keen to give a helping hand and help choose hardware and such.
I can get togethe a BOM/parts list?
I’m in… Have Raspberry Pi and sensor if that helps
Sorry man I ran outa time for this one
Wind velocity and direction would be nice too.
