Tutorial: Part 6 -Building a Solar Powered Raspberry Pi Weather Station – GroveWeatherPi

GroveWeatherPi

Tutorial: Part 6 -Building a Solar GroveWeatherPiPowered Raspberry Pi Weather Station – GroveWeatherPi

The Raspberry Pi is a fabulous device to on which to build your projects.    The GroveWeatherPi project is designed to show the capabilities of this computer while remaining accessible to a diverse Maker community.

GroveWeatherPi is a Solar Powered Raspberry Pi WiFi connected weather station designed for Makers by SwitchDoc Labs ( www.switchdoc.com). This is a great system to build and tinker with. All of it is modifiable and all source code is included.

This tutorial for building your own Solar Powered Weather Station based on the Raspberry Pi consists of 14 parts.

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The Wiring List

 

GroveWeatherPi
Fully Wired GroveWeatherPi

Here is where we install all of the Grove cables, the 7 jumper wires and the one optional jumper cable to a SOLDERED joint on the USB Power Control Board.  Note:  If you have a new I2C Mux board without the JP6 header, you can ignore the red instructions below:

 

Wiring List for Raspberry Pi GroveWeatherPi System
From To Description
Pi2Grover / D13/D16 MOD-1016G / Grove IRQ 50cm Grove Cable
Pi2Grover / D21/D26 Weather Board / Grove D Rain Bucket Grove Cable
Pi2Grover / D26 Weather Board / Grove D Anemometer Grove Cable
Pi2Grover / Grove I2C 4 Chan I2C Mux / Grove J1 – Computer I2C Grove Cable
4 Chan I2C Mux / Grove J2 / Bus0 4 Slot I2C Expander / Any Slot Grove Cable
4 Chan I2C Mux / Grove J3 / Bus1 MOD-1016 / Grove I2C 50cm Grove Cable

4 Chan I2C Mux / Pin Header JP7-1

4 Chan I2C Mux / Pin Header JP6-1 Set Power of I2C Bus to VDD
4 Chan I2C Mux / Pin Header JP7-2 4 Chan I2C Mux / Pin Header JP6-2 Set Power of I2C Bus to VDD
4 Chan I2C Mux / Pin Header JP7-3 4 Chan I2C Mux / Pin Header JP6-3 Set Power of I2C Bus to VDD
4 Chan I2C Mux / Pin Header JP7-4 4 Chan I2C Mux / Pin Header JP6-4 Set Power of I2C Bus to VDD
4 Slot I2C Expander / Any Slot OLED Display / Grove I2C Grove Cable
4 Slot I2C Expander / Any Slot Grove 4Ch/16Bit ADC / Grove I2C Grove Cable
4 Slot I2C Expander / Any Slot Weather Board / Grove I2C Grove Cable
Grove 4Ch/16Bit ADC / Grove A1 Weather Board / Grove A Wind Vane Grove Cable
Weather Board / Grove I2C Grove AM2315 Temperature / Humidity Sensor Grove Cable
(Optional) HTU21D-F Inside Temperature / Humidity Sensor Weather Board / JP14 Plug in Plug in Board
Weather Board RJ11 – Rain Bucket WeatherRack Rain Bucket Plug RJ11 Cable
Weather Board RJ11 – Anemometer / Wind Vane WeatherRack Anemometer / Wind Vane Plug RJ11 Cable

Note:   You will use the Female Pin Header to Grove Connector cable provided with your SunAirPlus board in this section.

Wiring List for Solar Power Subsystem for the Raspberry Pi GroveWeatherPi System
From To Description
Raspberry Pi Power Micro  USB USB PowerControl USB Out Uses USB cable – A/MicroB
USB PowerControl USB In SunAirPlus 5V USB Power Out
USB PowerControl LIPOBATIN SunAirPlus JP4 Battery Out Female to Female Header Jumper Wire
SunAirPlus – From Computer / SCL Yellow Female Header Pin on Grove Connector SCL
SunAirPlus – From Computer / SCL White Female Header Pin on Grove Connector SDA
SunAirPlus – From Computer / SCL Red Female Header Pin on Grove Connector VDD
SunAirPlus – From Computer / SCL Black Female Header Pin on Grove Connector GND
Grove Connector (Previous 4 Items) 4 Chan I2C Mux / Grove J4 – Bus 2 Female Pin Header to Grove Connector
SunAIrPlus  Battery Female Plug LiPo Battery JST-2 Plug
SunAIrPlus Solar Panel Female Plug Solar Panel JST-2 Plug – Note:  If you have two solar panels, you will need to solder + to + and – to – on the back of the solar panels.   A VoltaicSystems Solar Panel will require an adaptor plug

 

Wiring List for WatchDog Board for the Raspberry Pi GroveWeatherPi System (optional)
From To Description
WatchDog Board JP5/VDD Raspberry Pi GPIO Header Pin 1/3.3V Female to Female Jumper Wire
WatchDog Board  JP5/GND Raspberry Pi GPIO Header Pin 6/GND Female to Female Jumper Wire
WatchDog Board JP7/Dog1 Raspberry Pi GPIO Header Pin 11/GPIO17 Female to Female Jumper Wire
WatchDog Board JP4/ArduinoReset USB PowerControl TP3/COUT – Soldered To Pad   (DO NOT CONNECT THIS WIRE UNITL YOU ARE DONE TESTING AND MODIFYING THE SOFTWARE!) Cut one end of 12 inch Female to Female Header Jumper Wire and solder it to TP3/COUT pad as shown below

Note:  If you are using a Voltaic Systems Solar Panel and you don’t want to solder your own plug, you need the following adaptors:

Female JST PH 2 Pin to Female 2.1mmx5.5mm Jack https://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/29-6380

Male 2.1mmx5.5mm to Male 2.1×5.5mm https://www.ebay.com/itm/5-5mm-x-2-1mm-Male-Plug-to-5-5mmx2-1mm-Male-CCTV-DC-Power-Plug-Adapter-Connector-/300689722442?hash=item4602810c4a:g:5m4AAOSwpDdVNdbs

Female 2.1mmx5.5mm to Female 21.1mmx3.5mm Adaptor  https://www.voltaicsystems.com/f5521-f3511

DS3231 Real Time Clock

Plug the included DS3231 Real Time Clock into the provided socket on the Weather Board.  Align the GND pins!   The battery faces the inside of the board and the LED side faces the outside of the board.

Weather Board

Now before you power anything on, go back and check every connection!

Figure14