Self powered IoTs weather station for off-grid remote locations
This project aims to construct a remote weather station suitable for deployment on an outback block with little or no power or communications infrastructure on site. Key features include
- simplest possible hardware design
- "off the shelf" components
- powered by solar panels
- communicating via celluar network
- logging data to a web-based data repostiory
- web-based data viewer
- feature rich web-based display console
The author is learning about micro electronic and so an incremental, multi-stage approach is being used.
- basic design
- benchtop prototype developed to
- incrementally add feature
- package for deployment
- deploy to trial site
- develop web-based console while
- learning lessions over extended trial period
- finalise design
- document fully (open source) - hardware and software
- build final system (including spares) and deploy
Other considerations:
- Sensor hardware will be sourced from the market
- Arduino-based microcontroller (and shields) for control and data processing
- Move to STM32 hardware if necessary
The first prototype was built on the workbench in Reid, ACT, Australia. It comprised:
- Anemometer from Davis instruments
- Rain gauge from Davis Instruments
- BMP085 pressure sensor
- SHT15 temperature and humidity sensor
- Arduino Uno R3 microcontoller board
- Arduino Prototyping shield
The arduino controller was conneced to a Raspberry Pi system that provided
- power and
- serial communications support via USB
- data logging to ThingsSpeak account via
- Python scripting
The arduino code issued a NMEA sentenced every 10 minutes on the USB serial port. The sentence encoded the following data:
- current barimetric pressure (hPa)
- current temperature (deg C)
- current relative humidity (%)
- current dew point (deg C)
- average wind speed past 10 minutes (knots)
- max wind speed past 10 minutes (knots -- sampled every 15sec)
- avg wind direction past 10 minutes (cardinal points)
- current wind direction (cardinal points)
- rain accumulation past 10 minutes (0.2mm precision)
The second prototype will be deployed on a remote rural block north of Gundaroo, NSW, Australia. In addition to the features developed in the first prototype, this model will include:
- 5W Solar panel
- 12V SLA battery (18Ah capacity)
- MPPT solar battery charger (3A @ 12V)
- Switch mode DC-DC converter (battery voltage to 9V at 1A) to power the electronics
- 3G/4G data communications module SIM7000
- Wind reporting in the NAS
- LTE shield instructable
- LTE shield website
- Artic Climate Evaluator -- an example of a great specification
- Silicon Chip article on remote logging
- ALDI mobile network information
- Arduino C programming reference
- SHT1x Arduino Library
- BOM terms and abbreviations provides definitions for the values we are attempting to record