Electrical engineer Bob Harbour has constructed a two-box resolution to the issue of logging detailed climate data and displaying it with out having to tug out a smartphone or fireplace up a PC — and it is powered by a pair of Microchip SAM D21 microcontrollers.
“With the ability to measure and report out of doors climate information is one thing that I’ve needed to do for fairly some time,” Harbour explains. “Initially, I considered constructing a “headless” system that will simply report the info to my PC. After excited about it extra, I made a decision that displaying the info with out having to energy up the PC could be good. This grew into the thought of a small indoor show and an out of doors sensor field.”
A dot-matrix show board with an RS422 hyperlink to an out of doors sensor field makes for a graceful two-part climate station construct. (📷: Bob Harbour)
Harbour already had expertise with constructing show programs round dot-matrix LED show modules, together with an indoor climate show — however his earlier efforts had been slightly too cumbersome and obtrusive, resulting in the choice to design a brand new model on a smaller scale. Powered by a Microchip SAMD21 microcontroller, the show unit connects to a sensor unit positioned outside utilizing RS422 over a run of CAT5 community cable handily already run to an acceptable spot.
“The Distant Sensor Field interface board has an RS422 transceiver chip, a clock/calendar chip with battery backup, and connectors,” Harbour explains. “The RJ45 connector is a ‘Rugged’ [design] with IP68 rated sealing to maintain moisture out of the sensor field. On the mounting face of the connector, an O ring seals the face to the within of the sensor field to finish the seal.”
Each the out of doors sensor field and the indoor show field are powered by Microchip SAMD21 microcontrollers. (📷: Bob Harbour)
A sensor board, fitted with an NXP barometric strain and temperature sensor and a Honeywell temperature and humidity sensor, feeds climate information into the distant sensor field that handles all of the calculations required — a part of an authentic plan to run the sensor field headless.
Knowledge are saved in RAM, with sufficient to carry 15 days of readings at 15 minute intervals, with software program operating on a PC host in a position to obtain the readings for long-term storage. The show unit, in the meantime, affords an at-a-glance have a look at the latest readings with out having to load up the PC.
Harbour’s venture is documented in full on Hackaday.io.