I'm currently working on a smart sprinkler system project that uses moisture, temperature, and rain chance to decide when and where to water. I have means of receiving moisture and temperature. I'm looking for a simple way for my Arduino Uno to access current or near future rain chance constantly. I've seen some projects that use sites containing a large amount of weather data so they can display it, but my project doesn't need all that as the focus is elsewhere. I just need a brief overview of how to obtain rain chance and keep it updated. Do I need Wifi shield, ethernet, etc? Thanks
I just need a brief overview of how to obtain rain chance
From where?
The hardware you need to access "there" will be dictated by where "there" is.
You need a way to connect to the internet and code to read the web page and extract the data.
PaulS:
From where?The hardware you need to access "there" will be dictated by where "there" is.
I need the rain chance for wherever the Arduino is located and running. If this is not possible to read on its own, I can provide a zip code/longitude/latitude for where I'm placing it, though I want it to work wherever put
If this is not possible to read on its own
You could add a GPS module.
It is interesting that you are correct 70% of the time, if you predict that "the weather tomorrow will be about the same as the weather today".
jremington:
You need a way to connect to the internet and code to read the web page and extract the data.
I think I've gotten this far, but I don't quite know what the simplest way is to connect to the internet enough to extract this small bit of data and update it periodically; i.e. how to code to interpret a website
You could add a GPS module.
For what? My GPS doesn't forecast weather.
OP: You'll need to get your weather information from the internet somewhere. To do that, you need an ethernet shield.
Personally, I would NOT rely on "chance of rain" to determine whether or not to water. Weather guessing is not a science. I mean "forecasting". Weather forecasters tell you what you want to hear, not what is likely to actually happen.
For what?
To determine the location of the Arduino, as the OP requested.
jremington:
To determine the location of the Arduino, as the OP requested.
OK. I thought OP knew where his/her Arduino was.
GSM shield.
GET() request from Yahoo API: https://developer.yahoo.com/weather/
PaulS:
OK. I thought OP knew where his/her Arduino was.
I know where my Arduino is, but this is a school project trying to emulate a product meant for distribution, so ideally the Arduino will "know" where it is wherever the product is sold rather than the user needing to provide that
mhinkam:
I know where my Arduino is, but this is a school project trying to emulate a product meant for distribution, so ideally the Arduino will "know" where it is wherever the product is sold rather than the user needing to provide that
GPS then.
Incorporating a GPS in the project, rather then requiring the user to enter a zip code (in the US anyway), via a cheap keypad, doesn't seem cost-effective. YMMV.
My initial plan was to incorporate a weather shield, which can read current temperature, light, and barometric pressure, and using the barometric pressure to predict rain, but it probably wouldn't be very accurate to data that can be obtained via internet. The second approach was to still use the weather shield for temperature, and then coming here to learn how to get rain predictions from online somehow. Learning what I've learned, that just seems unnecessarily redundant. Now, I think I will discard the weather shield as a whole and just use some sort of module that can access readings from the internet, since I can probably get both temperature and rain chance from the same spot. I'm still not quite sure how to interpret code posted online and convert that into something the Arduino can react to, but I'll continue to look into it. Thanks for the help all
You can get RSS weather feed from the Met Office in UK.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format for distributing and sharing web content. You can view news feeds from various sources in one location as soon as they're published without having to visit the website you took the feed from. The Met Office offers a range of feeds in XML format ("RSS Content") to RSS enabled browsers or news readers. The feeds contain a brief summary and a link to the full content on the website.
Look up RSS on Wikipedia. You would presumably have to decode and extract the %probability of rain, and then compare to the set level for your watering system.
Your best bet would be to get a rain gauge and use actual local conditions, but my google-foo failed me, and I could not find one that had a computer interface that did not contain all the measurements.
yendis:
You can get RSS weather feed from the Met Office in UK.RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format for distributing and sharing web content. You can view news feeds from various sources in one location as soon as they're published without having to visit the website you took the feed from. The Met Office offers a range of feeds in XML format ("RSS Content") to RSS enabled browsers or news readers. The feeds contain a brief summary and a link to the full content on the website.
Look up RSS on Wikipedia. You would presumably have to decode and extract the %probability of rain, and then compare to the set level for your watering system.
Thanks much. Could this be done with a wi-fi shield? Even if so, is there something better?
mhinkam:
Thanks much. Could this be done with a wi-fi shield? Even if so, is there something better?
I would imagine there are many ways of connecting the Arduino to the internet, perhaps via a PC, Ethernet - Wifi - USB - but I am afraid I am not the best person to ask for that. Perhaps one of our computer experts can help?
I can only assume the device is in remote locations, possibly without WiFi.
GPRS is maybe a good shout for this? As long as there is a tower within range, it will have internet, just like your mobile phone.
Seeming as you also are getting maybe 1kB? every 6 hours (I do not know the refresh rate)? It will be cheap...
Johnny010:
I can only assume the device is in remote locations, possibly without WiFi.GPRS is maybe a good shout for this? As long as there is a tower within range, it will have internet, just like your mobile phone.
https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoGSMShield
Seeming as you also are getting maybe 1kB? every 6 hours (I do not know the refresh rate)? It will be cheap...
So this will be able to access certain sites that you provide URL's to, correct? I have slightly looked into how this works, but generally, the Arduino can pan the site for key words such as 'rain chance' etc. and find these numbers and then use them in decision making? Using GSM shield would be similar to Wifi shield except this can automatically connect to the internet without needing to select a network, but would data rates apply?