EDIT: This project is plausible using the APRS radio system. Thank you to those who helped. I need to design, build and test my weather station using the projects published by others - I am sure I will modify their designs to suite my needs. When I get to the data transmission stage I need to start chatting to the local ham radio chaps regarding using and transmitting on the APRS system.
I've been toying with the idea of building a remote weather station with the help of Arduino. My first forray into the sensors killed the idea. A year later the idea surfaced again in my head - maybe just measure temp, barometric pressure, and relative humidity, maybe include reflective light in that.
I also want the weather station to transmit data say per hour, or per two hours, and take measurements every 5 minutes - or 10...or 15 minutes. Suppose 15 minutes is practical.
Then I thought about power consumption and I assumed that using radio signals will be less power intensive that using a GSM network. Two advantages is seen in my mind using radio signals over the GSM network (please bear in mind this is from lack of all the info - hence me posting):
A - No reliance upon the GSM network or remembering to upload access to the mobile network.
B - Sounds like its less power intensive just based on the fact that when you start up the GSM unit, you have to wait for it to acquire signal and I mean to put the station in remote areas - or at least want to be able to.
C - With radio signals (again ignorance plays a large part here) I could "engage" the weather station at any time to take a spot measurement (but this is just cause I wanted a third reason).
Well, firstly I don't know if this method of data logging and transmission is possible - using radio signals instead of a mobile network.
Don't know if its legal (will need to find that out locally) - probably visit my nearest HAM radio enthusiast.
Don't know if its actually less power intensive than a GSM based weather station.
I don't know what the protocol is IF there is one for using radio signals.
My general opinion is that it should be possible cause I mean, Voyager 2 is in space and send pictures via radio signals, unless I'm mistaken.
Please note this is a future project somewhere - still getting back into Arduino after a year absence however I would love responses on this.
Hams (it's not an acronym, it's "ham") have been doing this for years. Google "APRS" or "APRS weather station". Some stations are solar powered and in remote locations.
Not sure about the amateur radio regulations in your country, though.
@florinc
I was thinking in kilometres or tens and maybe even hundreds of kilometres. At first I thought to use it to get the data to a secondary beacon that can then relay via GPRS (weather station to beacon via radio signal, beacon to web server via GPRS) and then I though about text message costs, then GPRS, then power or powering up a GPRS unit vs. merely sending a radio signal, and finally thought that I want to create a weather station setup that uses radio frequency and start dotting them down all over South Africa.
@kg4wsv
Thanks for the correction of "ham" - read up quite a bit about it three or four years ago but not since. I thought I would have to approach the community but first wanted to see if its possible from the microcontroller side - besides I don't know where else to ask these relevant questions. I'll go look up "APRS" etc and connect with the community sometime to find out about legality and bandwidth etc.
EDIT: My other option is, if the radio bandwidth doesn't quite pan out and limits me to short ranges (couple of kilometers), I could group stations around a GPRS beacon which receives data from those stations and via GPRS, uploading numerous sensor locations at once - that sounds like what will happen.
Well I did some reading and researching....APRS is quite interesting full of possibilites of which you guys in Europe and the USA have been taking advantage of for years now - we in South Africa are way behind it seems. It also appears that my initial hopes are well founded - I will be able to send the weather data packets via a radio frequency which will be in the APRS network.
All that is left now is first get my little weather station designed and test it, then get talking with the local guys. Now where are all those project on weather station here on the forum......
hi,
I was just wandering if you had made any progress on your proposed weather station.
i have the same thing in mind and have had limited success with xbee.