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Electronics news

Two-Box Weather Station

Electrical engineer Bob Harbour developed an industrial design for a two-box weather station using a pair of Microchip SAM D21 microcontrollers.

Bob Harbour wanted to create a system that could measure and record outdoor weather data and display it without the use of a computer. To accomplish this, he designed an indoor display and an outdoor sensor unit.

The operation of the station is based on a Microchip SAMD21 controlled microcontroller. The display is connected to the sensor unit via a CAT5 network cable.

"The Remote Sensor Box interface board has an RS422 transceiver chip, a clock/calendar chip with a backup battery, and connectors," Harbour explains. "The RJ45 connector is a 'ruggedized' design with an IP68 rating to keep moisture from getting inside the Sensor Box. The connector has an O-ring on the mounting surface that seals against the inside of the sensor assembly."

A sensor board with barometric pressure and temperature sensors transmits weather data to a remote sensor unit to perform calculations. The data is stored in RAM, and software on a PC can download the readings for long-term storage. Bob Harbour's project is described in detail on Hackaday.io.