Weather Station

From Nat and Renee

Jump to: navigation, search
Weather Mast
Weather Mast
Mounted Pagoda (top off)
Mounted Pagoda (top off)
Temp/Humidity Sensor (TAI8540)
Temp/Humidity Sensor (TAI8540)
Rain Gauge
Rain Gauge
Rain Gauge Mountpoint
Rain Gauge Mountpoint
Connecting Raingauge
Connecting Raingauge
Barometer (on right)
Barometer (on right)

Contents

Technical Details

Communication is handled via 1-wire/MicroNet carried over CAT5 wire from the roof of our house down to the basement where the server farm is, a run of about 40-50 feet. The pressure sensor for barometer readings is on the wall in our main room with a cable run of about 15 feet. The indoor/outdoor pressure generally stays the same and might as well not risk getting this thing damp. Everything else is on a ten foot mast that's shared with the WiFI antenna putting the anemometer at a height of about 30-40 feet.

Software is the 1-wire file system (OWFS) with the FUSE kernel module on Linux and a relatively simple Perl script I wrote. Readings are currently recorded to a MySQL table about every ten seconds and an update is posted to Weather Underground every minute.

Parts

  • Anemometer - Wind speed and direction, also has a thermometer inside but is not vented and varies widely as the sun hits.
  • Pressure Sensor - Barometer measurement
  • Temperature/Humidity Sensor - Mounted inside a pagoda enclosure I built after coming across this page. If I did it again I'd just buy one of these instead.
  • Rain Gauge - AAG Electronica takes La Crosse rain meters and replaces the electronic guts with a magnetic reed switch and TAI8586 one-wire counter.


Future

I would like to add instruments to measure solar radiation, lightning detection and soil/leaf moisture. I haven't bought anything from them yet but I'll likely give Hobby Boards a try for the parts to add these features.


Current Conditions

Weather Underground Widgets

Weather Underground PWS KORPORTL78

Personal tools