I'm thinking about getting a second Arduino to try and make a weather station. I'd plan on running a long usb cable to it and use a plastic box/shield for the breadboard and Arduino and drilling holes in the sides of the plastic box for it to breath. My big concern is condensation ruining the whole thing, so what advice do you all have for that? Also, does anyone know of any BMP180 sensors that come pre-soldered? Thanks!
Yes, condensation will ruin it. You also have a problem that USB is limited to about 5metres before it requires a booster/repeater in the cable.
Sparkfun has lots of weather sensors pre soldered.
Most people use low power Arduinos, sensors and a small radio module to transmit information from outside weather sensors.
By studying this tutorial, you learn how to have a DIY Arduino run for a couple of years on a pair of AA batteries.
This one shows you how to add solar power, and use a radio to transmit information to a base station 30-40 meters away.
I appreciate the advice. I have an Uno, and I was thinking about some other possibilities. Could an Uno run a code from a Micro SD Card shield and write serial data to it? Also, I was testing out my DHT11 earlier and found this CoolTerm program very useful. Here is the link: http://freeware.the-meiers.org/
That program can add the system date and time to each reading, but without a USB connection I guess that program would be pretty useless in this case. Am I right? Thanks again and any other advice would be appreciated!
I don't know why you would want to run code from an SD card, but recording to it is practical and commonplace. You will need an on-board clock, like the ds3231. You can then use the date as a filename and change it daily, thereby only needing to actually record the time. I download the files as needed to a phone via bluetooth.
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You can not run code from an SD card.
Ok, thanks. So, lets say I load the sketch to start logging from my computer but then I unplug it to set up a battery pack. Once it powers back up from the battery pack, it should start logging the weather data, correct? Also, I'd plan on using rechargeable AA batteries. Would you all recommend the holder for 4 or 6 batteries? Thanks again!
GoBraves21:
Ok, thanks. So, lets say I load the sketch to start logging from my computer but then I unplug it to set up a battery pack. Once it powers back up from the battery pack, it should start logging the weather data, correct? Also, I'd plan on using rechargeable AA batteries. Would you all recommend the holder for 4 or 6 batteries? Thanks again!
An Arduino will boot without a USB connection.
Would you all recommend the holder for 4 or 6 batteries?
I take it you aren't interested in the low power designs, and plan on replacing batteries very frequently.
Thank you aarg. Yeah, I saw on your first post from earlier that there are some very low power alternatives, but I am very new at this, and just figure it'd be easier for me to use rechargeable batteries. I saw a YouTube video with 4 batteries where it seemed like he would get 3 days worth of power out of them with that real time clock that was mentioned earlier and logging to an SD Card. He did mention though if you turn off the LEDs from the sensors that can really help battery life. He didn't mention how to, so is that possible to do? And, should I go with the 4 or 6 battery pack? I appreciate it
Arduino requires 5v.
4x1.2v AAs = 4.8V = not enough
6xAA =7.2v, which makes more sense.
Thanks Nick.