Introduction: Professional Weather Station Using ESP8266 and ESP32 DIY (Please Check the V2.0 Improved Version Link!)

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About: Passion for Meteorology, Electronics, Music, Nature and life. I enjoy doing electronics projects to make weather data the most personalized and professional experience!

PLEASE CHECK THE NEW IMPROVED WEATHER STATION LINEAMETEOSTAZIONE v2.0!

LINK VERSION 2.0 LINEAMETEOSTAZIONE HERE

LineaMeteoStazione is a complete weather station that can be interfaced with professional sensors from Sensirion as well as some Davis Instrument components (Rain Gauge, Anemometer)

The project is aimed at a DIY weather station but just requires the assembly part because the boards will already be given programmed by me as well as the complete PCB. The code will be shared on Opensource for the people who want to try to do it from the beginning or modify it!

YOU CAN FIND THE WEATHER STATION IN WeatherCloud, Wunderground, PWS and LineaMeteo (Italian Weather network!)

YOU CAN FIND ALL THE INFO AND CODE UPDATES HERE ON GITHUB

Step 1: List of Components

It works with a combination of ESP8266 and ESP32 development boards and is composed mainly of 3 devices:

1. DEVICE 1: WEMOS D1 MINI PRO(New Version) + designed PCB (Need to be installed OUTSIDE) AND SOLAR PANEL This is the part which will be outside and it consist in one development board and the PCB. It is used to collect the weather data which will be sent to the Firebase of Google. The data is collected in real time from each sensor, but the upload time is selectable in the settings of the weather station which will be explained in the manual after. The maximum and minimum temperature will be collected in real time. Below the photo of the complete unit:

2. DEVICE 2: WEMOS D1 MINI PRO(Old Version) + BMP180 pressure
This is the part that handle all the network communications and it also collect the data from the Firebase of Google. The duties of the board consist in:  Collecting the data  Sharing some data to an IP Address in a format ready to be used to communicate with LineaMeteo weather network.  Send Data to weathercloud  Send Data to wunderground  Send Data to Thingspeak

The case is 3D printed from https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4081064

3. DEVICE 3: LOLIND32 ESP32 + PCB designed + INK Display + BME680
This is the part that just handle the visualization of the data on the display and it has also a sensor that collects data of air quality, pressure, temperature and humidity. The display used is a 4.2 Inch ink display, can be used a WaweShare or GoodDisplay brands.

The case is 3D printed from:
Box for ePaper + ESP32 Information Display by sidoh10 - Thingiverse

Step 2: DEVICE 2: Interface to Wi-Fi and Firebase Google

**SEE THE MANUAL OF THE WEATHER STATION IN THE LINK OF GITHUB ABOVE FOR MORE SPECIFIC DETAILS**

First of all we need to create a Firebase account. To do that you will need an account Google which you can create if you don’t already have one.

To setup the Firebase account you need to follow the following steps:

1. Go to FIREBASE and click on ‘Get Started’

Sign IN to your Google account

2. Click on ‘Add a project’ ‘Aggiungi progetto’

3. Give a name to your project! Click ‘Continue’ ‘Continua’. Follow the steps and Create the project. Use the default account for Firebase.

4. ‘Go on ‘project overview’ ‘Panoramica del progetto’ on top and select ‘project settings’ ‘Impostazioni progetto’

5. Click on ‘Service Account’ ‘Account di Servizio’ and ‘Create Service Account’ ‘Crea account di servizio’

6. Go back to ‘Project Overview’ and Create Realtime Database ‘Crea database’ and follow the steps and select the nearest location for the database.

7. ALL DONE! Now save your project link that you can find in the real time database and also the secret that you can find ‘Service Account’ ‘Account di servizio’ under ‘Database Secret’ ‘Segreti Database’

You will need just the one highlighted in the picture below and the database secret to program the weather station! To send you the board already programmed I will need those credentials and also for the you to program the board.

Step 3: SETUP WI-FI (SEE MANUAL ON GITHUB FOR IMAGES)

To set up the Wi-Fi connection follow the following steps:

· Plug the USB cable from DEVICE 2 into a USB port (you can use a normal charger for your phone or whatever USB port is available, for example on your router(recommended option))

· Once DEVICE 2 is ON you will find it in the Wi-Fi connections available on your smartphone or computer with the name of LineaMeteoStazioneR.

· Try to connect and it will ask for a password. PASSWORD: LaMeteo2005

· Click on Configure Wi-Fi and select your Wi-Fi network and enter your password and click Save. Now DEVICE 2 will try to connect and if fails you will be required to start again the procedures followed before.

· After DEVICE 2 is connected, go back to your Realtime database and you will see that much information have appeared.

Step 4: Setup DEVICE 1(Outside)

This is the installation that requires securing the weather station outside. A solar radiation shield Is required for the ambient temperature and humidity sensor. It also required a weatherproof box for the correct storage of the battery and PCB.

1. Install the board in weatherproof box as the example below and install the battery (BE CAREFUL + AND – AND BATTERY SHOULD BE 100% CHARGED BEFORE FIRST START):

2. Connect all the available sensors on the board using the RJ12 connectors or the screw terminal, depending on the type of sensor used. (Refer to the list of ‘Compatible sensors and specification) (SENSORS ARE CONNECTED WITH AN ADAPTOR BOARD DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR THE SHT3X AND UV SENSORS AND ALSO ONE FOR THE SHT35 ON TINDIE ) SEE PHOTOS

3. Plug IN the battery connector into the Wemos D1 Mini Pro and set up the Wi-Fi connection the same as DEVICE 2. The name of the network will be ‘LineaMeteoStazioneS’

After that plug in also the USB from the solar panel converter. (The photo is just representative of a prototype and the USB converter will be already connected for you, you will just need to connect the solar panel)

Step 5: Configure Weather Station Settings With Firebase

EVERY SETTING MADE REQUIRES TO DISCONNECT FROM THE POWER

DEVICE 2 AND RECONNECT TO POWER

After following the procedures above you will find that your real-time database will look like this(if the UV index sensor is connected it won’t show 655):

The database is categorized as follows:

· ChangeTime

This option is used to set your TIMEZONE which will be your time (needs to be modified when daylight saving applies) and to set the SendDataTime. It is recommended to don’t upload the data faster than 90 seconds to save the battery life of DEVICE 1

CurrentDay and RESETDATA don’t need to be touched. To reset all data in the database enter 0 in RESETDATA.

· Connection

Connection is used to know your current IP address of DEVICE 2 and to monitor the Wi-Fi signal strength of DEVICE 1. Try to keep DEVICE 1 with at least -75 or more of signal strength.

IPAddress can be used to port forward the IP in order to set up your devices in the LineaMeteo weather network. (PortForwarding can be done in the router, but every router is different, so you need to know yours. The external port should be 4600 and the internal port should be 80, example below)

· Pressure

Here is stored the value of the Pressure and also is possible to Calibrate it based on sea level. Refer to some near weather stations or looking the current atmospheric pressure on the forecast. Every number means 1Pa

· Rain

Here is stored the value of the rain in 24H and also other values related to the rain. You can use every tipping bucket rain gauge so this means that you will need to calibrate how much every tipping counts for. Modify ‘mmGoccia’ to change the tipping count in mm. The default is 0.2mm

· SHT1x

This contains the data of the Sensirion SHT1x or SHT7x series.

· SHT3x

This contains the data of the Sensirion SHT3x series.

· Services

This contains all the services available to use with this weather station.

OPEN WEATHER

You can set up your own account on OpenWeather for current condition weather description on DEVICE 3 (find My API Keys and copy in the API in Services, OpenWeather.)

Hemisphere type north if you live in the northern hemisphere or south in the southern hemisphere to display the correct astronomy section on display.

Language ‘en’ or ‘it’ to change from English to Italian on DEVICE 3.

Latitude and longitude to display correct weather condition description on DEVICE 3

If from the southern hemisphere, it will be a negative number on Latitude.

THINGSPEAK

Create an account on ThingSpeak and find the WriteAPIkey and copy in myWriteAPIKey, to see the difference in graphics between the SHT1x and SHT3x series if connected to the 2 sensors or to just monitor the SHT1x

WeatherCloud

You can link the weather station to the Weather Cloud network using this option. Go to Settings on your devices and select ‘Link’, it will give you the ID and Key that you can copy in the database.

WunderGround

You can link the weather station to WunderGround using this option.

Find the ID and Key on My Devices and copy it to the database.

· Sleep

By default is set to 1 but can be changed to 0 to enable the sleep mode. In sleep mode the rain gauge and anemometer will not work so they have to be disconnected from PCB

Sleep mode if used on a battery will last an average of 6 months without recharging the battery with the solar panel.

· UVIndex

This contains the value of the current UV index.

· Wind

This contains the values of the Wind, like degrees of the Wind Direction and also the Wind Speed and the Gust. It can be adjusted the Offset here, in order to point the right direction of the Wind Direction. 0 degrees or 360 degrees should be point North.

Step 6: Setup DEVICE 3 DISPLAY (MORE PHOTOS AVAILABLE IN GITHUB)

The DEVICE 3 is powered up with one single battery 18650, which can be recharged through USB as shown in the photo (The photo doesn’t represent the final project but just the prototype, it will have a proper PCB design.) The little circle shows the BME680 sensor.

The display refreshes every 20 minutes automatically and every 1 hour after midnight and until 7 AM. But It can be refreshed manually by clicking on the button on the right side of the box.

ONCE REFRESHED IT WILL ALSO CHANGE THE LANGUAGE SELECTED IN SETTINGS IN FIREBASE

After the battery has been installed follow the same procedures of DEVICE 2 to connect to Wi-Fi.

The name of the network will be ‘LineaMeteoStazioneVisual’

The battery should be sufficiently charged before starting.

Step 7: COMPATIBLE SENSORS(MORE INFORMATION ON GITHUB)

Temperature/humidity MAIN: SHT3x series Sensirion. Accuracy refers to the datasheet of each

sensor.

 Temperature/humidity SECOND (can be used for soil temperature and moisture): SHT1x and SHT7x series Sensirion. Accuracy refers to the datasheet of each sensor.

 Temperature, Humidity, Air Quality Indoor: BME680

 Pressure: BMP180

 Rain Gauge: Every tipping bucket rain gauge, has an adjustable resolution. WHEN ADJUSTED RESOLUTION IT MAY TAKE UP TO 3 HOURS TO CHANGE THE SETTINGS ON DEVICE 1. This is because the device goes to sleep every 3 hours to save energy if no rain is detected. When it wakes up, it will check the settings again. You can also manually reset by clicking the reset button as shown in the photo before.

 Anemometer: Davis Anemometer

 UVIndex: SI1145

Step 8: SPECIFICATIONS AND SOLAR PANEL (MORE INFORMATION ON GITHUB IN THE MANUAL)

Consumption:

Device 1 = 19mA on average if the upload time is 90 seconds.

Device 3 = 2mA on average if always updated automatically.

Battery DEVICE 1: 3.7V 21700 Battery lithium (Recommended 5000mAh)(Autonomy without sun 8days*)

WARNING: Be careful with lithium batteries with high temperatures (more than 45C), the weatherproof box should be put in the shade. Furthermore if a negative temperature of -10C occur often or condition below 0 persist for a long or extreme negative temperature occurs (for example -20C) a specific battery for cold temperature will be required. In this case, PCB will need to be modified for a 18650 battery resistant to cold weather -40C with less capacity(2900mAh). Autonomy without the sun will be 5 days. *Without sun means complete darkness, a light cloudy day doesn’t means no sun energy at all but it also can’t be counted as a sunny day.

 Battery DEVICE 3: 3.7V 18650 Battery lithium (Recommended 3000mAh)(Autonomy without recharging 6 weeks)

 Solar Panel 6-20V (6V strongly recommended)

Watt depends on your location from Global Solar Atlas. With less than 1500 kWh/m2 the weather station can’t work autonomously. If sleep mode is used a smaller solar panel less than the minimum would be enough. (SEE PHOTO) ASK IF YOU REQUIRE THE FORMULA FOR THE CALCULATION OF THE SIZE OF THE SOLAR PANEL.

 The length of cable for the SHT3x series should not exceed 3m

 The length of cable for the SHT1x and SHT7x series should not exceed 10m

Step 9: TROUBLESHOOTING AND CONTACTS

If one of DEVICES is not working as expected a RESET would be required. Take off the battery connector or remove the battery and restart the device if RESET doesn’t work.

For DEVICE 1, ALWAYS put the battery first and then the solar panel connector.

 If DEVICE 3 shows 100% while recharging, that’s normal for the moment, because the board doesn’t have a specific IC for the state of charge, so it is influenced by the internal resistance of the cell.

 Other questions regarding problems please contact me.

CONTACTS To discuss ordering the weather station or source of the material please email me at Eugenio at eugenioiaquinta@outlook.it

LineaMeteo topic forum: Strumenti meteo :: Stazione Meteo Completa WiFi Con ESP8266 E ESP32 E Arduino! (lineameteo.it)