Phase One of the Volthaus Labs 433MHz remote weather station project is completed. The data currently being sent to the RX (receiver) is Temperature and Humidity. The 1602 LCD display is showing the temperature data in both Fahrenheit and Celsius. While you’re reading this I have moved on to Phase Two which includes adding the BMP180 to the TX (transmitter) and displaying the data inside the lab on the receiver’s 1602 LCD display.
The receiver’s display rotates three screens in a loop.
The first screen displays the project name. The second screen show the temperature in Celsius with the humidity and the third screen show the temperature in Fahrenheit and the humidity again. I have it working but there are bugs somewhere preventing the correct data being displayed. All that will be covered in the Phase two tutorial. Building this system has been a learning experience. The goal is to have a solar powered remote sensor array that transmits data including temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, altitude, and rain indicator. Instead of using an Arduino I am using an ATMEL ATMEGA328P-PU on both my transmitter and my receiver. Using the Rocket Scream Low Power Library is part of the plan. The loop gathers data from the sensors, transmits them using the radio, then goes back to sleep. But the unused pins on the Atmega 328 need to be sent to ground using a resistor. I did not do that on the current TX so the Solar panel is not keeping the 18650 charged for more than a few days. In other words it’s working well but I am having power issues. So I will share my progress to this point with you.
In developing this project I have found these online articles to be very helpful.
Mini weather station
SOLAR POWERED ARDUINO WEATHER STATION
The best one of all is by a young man named Vlad who lives in Canada. It would be much simpler to just use his system but I really want to develop my own and learn as much as possible in the process. Here is a link to Vlad’s well documented system.
http://denialmedia.ca/weather-station/
The start of the Atmega 328 based receiver. The 10K potentiometer has not been added yet. Once it is it will allow for contrast control of the LCD 1602 display.
If you are interested in building a version of this project for yourself you will need:
- Two Arduino Unos (buy) or Two ATMEL ATMEGA328P-PU (buy) barebones setups.
- 433MHz RF Transmitter-Receiver pair (buy)
- One DHT11 (buy) or DHT22 (buy) temp/humidity sensor
- One 0.9V-5V to 5V dc Boost Step-up Power Supply Module (buy)
- Li-Ion battery charging module (buy)
- 1602 LCD display (buy)
- Solar Panel – 1.6w 5.5v 266ma (Amazon)
The Arduino code for the project’s transmitter and receiver can be downloaded HERE
Transmitter Side:
Connecting DHT11
When using the DHT11 module there is no need to add a resistor between the Data and Voltage pins on the DHT11 as called for when using the bare sensor.
Connect:
– The VCC pin on Arduino’s 5V output or if you are using the barebones Atmega328 just connect to your 5VDC source.
– The Negative/Ground pin to Arduino’s GND or your projects ground point.
– The DATA pin to Arduino/Atmega328 digital pin 4
Connecting RF433 transmitter
Connect:
– VCC pin on Arduino’s 5V output or if you are using the barebones Atmega328 just connect to your 5VDC source.
– The GND pin to Arduino’s GND or your projects ground point.
– The DATA pin to Arduino/Atmega328 digital pin 12
Receiver Side:
Connecting RF433 receiver
Connect:
– VCC pin on Arduino’s 5V output or if you are using the barebones Atmega328 just connect to your 5VDC source.
– The GND pin to Arduino’s GND or your projects ground point.
– The DATA pin to Arduino’s digital pin 11 – If you have two data pins you only need to connect one of them.
Connecting the LCD display
To properly connect the LCD display, you will need to connect the following:
– LCD VCC pin to 5V pin
– LCD GND pin to GND pin
– LCD RS pin to digital pin 7
– LCD Enable pin to digital pin 6
– LCD D4 pin to digital pin 5
– LCD D5 pin to digital pin 4
– LCD D6 pin to digital pin 3
– LCD D7 pin to digital pin 2
– LCD backlight: Pin A to 5VDC and pin K to GND/Ground
Connecting the potentiometer
Connect:
– one of the outer pins to Arduino’s 5V output
– the opposite outer pin to Arduino’s GND and
– the middle pin to LCD’s VO
The potentiometer is used to control the LCD’s contrast
This completes phase one of the Volthaus Electronics Laboratory 433MHz Weather Station. Questions, comments, etc. are welcome.