Weather Station?

Projects General Guidance
41

gresleyman:
I take your point about the BME 280 Vs. DHT22, the other thing i have noticed is that i have more than one sensor needing 5v, but Arduino has only one 5v point, how is this normally overcome?

Regards

Ray

The SPI connector has another 5V pin. I routinely buy clones that have positions to solder extra headers for I2C and serial. Those also supply 5V so there are quite a few available there. You can also add a proto shield and break it out from there. If you have a Mega, it has more 5V pins available.

42

gresleyman:
Hi all.

I take on board Pauls comments about ESP 8266, can anyone give me a link to the correct one as there appears to be many types on E By, or am i seeing things wrongly?

Regards

Ray

Ray; I get mine directly from Wemos: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1331105
I would suggest if I may, the D-1 Mini Pro. If you find your enclosure blocks the wifi signal, you can attach an antenna with a small bit of soldering to move a capacitor.

IMHO; the Wemos D-1 Mini's are AMAZING! PaulRB introduced them to me over a year ago. I Have 8 of them in use 24/7 for almost a year now at work. About 6 at home. 1 as my weather sensor connected to a BME280, the rest are attached to relays to turn on/off lights throughout the house.

43

gresleyman:
I take your point about the BME 280 Vs. DHT22, the other thing i have noticed is that i have more than one sensor needing 5v, but Arduino has only one 5v point, how is this normally overcome?

Use a breadboard for now till you have it all worked out. After everything works, you can port it into an enclosure and make all the necessary soldering.
5V & GND from the Arduino to the + & - rail on the breadboard.

44

Hi Again.

To save me pulling out too much hair )not much left i am afraid) is there a learning book on making Arduino sketches for dummies like me, and can anyone help me along the way to writing a sketch for my first instrument a BME 280 sensor with my Arduino Uno and a Nokia 5110 LCD, i can cut & paste if anyone can point me to a sketch on the internet, just to get me started.

Regards

Ray

45

Are you looking to learn or just a finished product?

There are tons of people on here that are willing to help you along the way.

It's easier to absorb when you take it in little steps.

Kind of like:

  1. Connect the BME to your arduino or whatever. Verify that it communicates.
  2. Display some sensor data to the serial monitor
  3. Connect the display to whatever. Again, verify communicates.
  4. Print something to the display
  5. Print sensor data to the display
  6. Arrange the data on the screen like you want

Try not to cut and paste. You won't get anything out of it. It's ok to make mistakes, you LEARN from it.

46

Some here might help:
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=c58ZWs_uOYuLjwSPpY7QDw&q=arduino+for+dummies&oq=arduino+for+dummies&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l10.1072.5006.0.5461.19.19.0.0.0.0.216.1778.12j3j2.17.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..2.17.1778...0i131k1.0.7aeIqoHWkEM

47

I borrowed this:

and

From the library. There's a ton of stuff here and you can search C++: http://www.cplusplus.com/

48

Hi.

Of course i want to learn, but i would like to build the weather station quickly, as the one i have been using is 15 years old now, and is always breaking down. So i would like to build quickly and then study at leisure.

Regards

Ray

49

Hi all.

I have spent all afternoon putting this together (see attachment) do you think it would work, if yes where do i start to make a sketch for it?

Regards

Ray

Sketch #1.jpg
Sketch #1.jpg1280×720 105 KB

50

@BroHogan has written things worth reading about outdoor containers, sensing, and wireless communications...

...including radiation monitoring...

51

gresleyman:
where do i start to make a sketch for it?

Do you have Arduino.IDE installed on your PC?
Let's load this sketch to see if your UNO is connected to the BMP sensor via I2C;

// I2C scanner by Nick Gammon.  Thanks Nick.

#include <Wire.h>

void setup() {
  Serial.begin (115200);  // make sure the serial monitor baud rate matches

  // Leonardo: wait for serial port to connect
  while (!Serial) 
    {
    }

  Serial.println ();
  Serial.println ("I2C scanner. Scanning ...");
  byte count = 0;
  
  Wire.begin();
  for (byte i = 1; i < 120; i++)
  {
    Wire.beginTransmission (i);
    if (Wire.endTransmission () == 0)
      {
      Serial.print ("Found address: ");
      Serial.print (i, DEC);
      Serial.print (" (0x");
      Serial.print (i, HEX);
      Serial.println (")");
      count++;
      delay (1);  // maybe unneeded?
      } // end of good response
  } // end of for loop
  Serial.println ("Done.");
  Serial.print ("Found ");
  Serial.print (count, DEC);
  Serial.println (" device(s).");
}  // end of setup

void loop() {}
52

Sketch #1.jpg
Sketch #1.jpg1280×720 105 KB

Ray, I don't know if your plan was to draw graphs on that nokia display. That won't be easy for a beginner. If you only want text, choose a 16x2 or 20x4 character LCD. Get one with an i2c backpack to make the wiring simpler.

53

Hi.

No Graphs, I have a 16 x 2, so yes i can use that.

Regards

Ray

54

Hi Karma

Cut & pasted your sketch, it downloaded ok, what should i expect?

Ray

55

Ray, "Karma" is not the name of a forum member (as far as I know). You click that link under a member's name to thank them for something (giving them "Karma").

I think you are referring to the code that marine_hm posted. That is a useful sketch that simply tests that any i2c devices (like bme280) are correctly wired and that the Arduino can communicate with them. Check the serial monitor. If the bme280 is working and wired correctly you should see a single device reported, along with its address on the i2c bus. But I suspect you don't have your bme280 yet, so you probably see "no devices found".

56

My apologies to marine_hm, it's an age thing, i have cut and pasted marine_hm's sketch, but i do not have my 16 x 2 LCD set up yet, i have my bme280 on a breadboard wired up to my Uno,but i do not have my LCD set up yet to read anything from the BME 280 i need help now getting it all together so that the LCD reads out what the bme 280 is sensing, help.

Regards

Ray

57

One thing at a time; I'd get the BME280 working before bothering with the LCD. Or the other way round if you prefer. The test sketch you were given will let you check your wiring and should give you results via the serial monitor. No need for the LCD for that.

58

That sketch you have will get data from the BME280 (if it is connected correctly) and display how many characters it has received on your PC screen using serial monitor. You start the monitor from the Arduino IDE by selecting Tools then Serial Monitor. Note that at this point you are not seeing temperatures or anything useful like that you're just establishing if anything at all is getting through.

Once that works the next step is sorting out the data into sensible looking numbers for temp etc. Then it will be time to start thinking about connecting the LCD and getting that to display anything. Then you can go for getting the BME280 information displayed on the LCD.

Little simple steps. Don't try to do everything at once or it will get really frustrating.

Steve

59

Hi Slipstick,

Great info, my BME 280 displays on my PC screen through serial monitor, there is four squares and what looks like a dollar sign displayed. I'll connect my 16 X 2 now.

Regards

Ray

60

Whoah! That does not sound right. You are running the i2c scanner that marine_hm posted? Have you set serial monitor to 115200? You should get something in English!