Introducing SkyWeather – Raspberry Pi Based Weather Station on the Cloud

The Raspberry Pi is a fabulous little computer.   Inexpensive and easy to use and build projects with.    What is one of the things that has been missing from the Raspberry Pi?   The ability to easily build (no soldering!) a weather station using this fine computer.  This project kit is a perfect technology project to learn all about the weather and how to sense the environment around you.  Including Air Quality and Lightning.  Right here.  Right in your neighborhood.

SkyWeather  allows you to build your own weather station with a Sky Cam to take pictures of your Sky and display them the cloud on WeatherSTEM.  You might even make it to the WeatherChannel! 

Learn all the up-to-date information about SkyWeather here!

 

 

What about the Cloud?

SwitchDoc Labs is proud to announce our partnership with WeatherSTEM.com for taking SkyWeather to the cloud.

 

 

 

 

That’s right.  Your weather station and sky pictures will be visible to everyone on the Internet and you will be sharing your local weather with locations all  over the globe!

WeatherSTEM is an innovative cloud-based weather education platform for people of all ages and professions.   Our innovative curriculum is designed to help you and your students understand the myriad ways weather impacts just about everything in our lives.  SkyWeather is a great way to become part of the WeatherSTEM community.

 

 

Note to Educators:  WeatherSTEM has a full set of experiments and curriculum for your class to use SkyWeather and WeatherSTEM in the classroom.

What can you Measure with SkyWeather?

• Barometric Pressure
• LIGHTNING!
• Outside Temperature
• Outside Humidity
• Altitude
• Inside Temperature (in box)
• Inside Humidity (in box)
• Air Quality – AQI (your own local Air Quality Sensor)
• Sunlight
• Wind Speed
• Wind Direction
• Rain
• All your weather information on the Cloud including history

This project, being open source, is expandable – there are hundreds of Grove modules available!

Documents Released (more on the way!)

(See all of these documents on the SkyWeather Product Page here!)

Application notes and Tutorials

• Tutorial – SkyWeather Assembly Tips
• Tutorial – Adding a Fan to SkyWeather
• Tutorial – Adding a WatchDog Timer to SkyWeather
• Tutorial – Tuning Lightning Detection in SkyWeather

Downloads and Manuals

• SkyWeather Assembly and Testing Manual (1.7)
• SkyWeather Box Build and Weather Proofing Guide
• SkyWeather Configuration and Operations Manual
• SkyWeather Open Source Python Software
• SkyWeather WeatherSTEM.com Cloud Configuration Manual 
• SkyWeather Blynk App Configuration Manual
• SkyWeather WeatherUnderground Configuration Manual
• SkyWeather Advanced REST Programming Manual (Coming Soon)

Extender Kits Available:

Assembly and testing documentation for these SkyWeather extender kits are on these pages.

Tutorial on Selecting a Solar Power System Here.

• Compact Solar Power for SkyWeather
• SolarMAX LiPo 12V Solar Panel Power System for SkyWeather
• SolarMAX Lead Acid 18V Solar Panel Power System for SkyWeather
• Solar WXLink System for SkyWeather 
• Display Pack for SkyWeather (coming soon)

SkyWeather Software Download

SkyWeather is written in the easy to understand and modify Python, the language of choice on the Raspberry Pi.

https://github.com/switchdoclabs/SDL_Pi_SkyWeather

Easy to Build

We specifically built our SkyWeather kit so it requires no soldering.  We use Grove connectors to make assembly easy and safe to build. You can’t plug a Grove cable in backwards. If you put the connector in the wrong plug it just doesn’t work. No smoke.

For more information, check out our full Grove Tutorial here.

 

The Kickstarter SkyWeather Kit in a Bud Box

 

The Heart of SkyWeather – the new PiWeather Board

The SkyWeather kit is designed to bring the ability to actually construct a working weather station within the reach of people of all ages and abilities.    The key to this is the new PiWeather board that is designed to require no soldering to connect up (by using Grove Connectors) the unit and comes with Python software to make it work out of the box.   And what else about this software is special?   It is open source.   We give you the source code.  This is not a closed system.

The magic of this board is that it provides all the needed interfaces and plugs to convert your Raspberry Pi into a real Weather Station and share it with the world!  And it is highly expandable by adding more sensors.

 

The PiWeather board – the Heart of SkyWeather

 You can download the PiWeather Board Specification here.

Go Solar!

You can also add solar power so you can run it remotely without a power supply.

 

 

Solar Power on SkyWeather

 

 

SkyWeather looking at the Clouds in the Rain

 

Have your SkyWeather Station on your Phone with Blynk

Blynk is a great app that runs on your iPhone, Android and soon a version on a browser.  It gives you current status of your station including solar power status, thermal status and current conditions.

Here are some of the SkyWeather Blynk App screenshots.

 

Main Scree

 

 

Solar Screen

 

 

Internal Thermal Management

 

The SkyWeather Kits and Extender Kits.

 

SkyWeather Lite

• The basic SkyWeather system without the Wind/Rain and Lightning Sensors

This kit is for those whom are most interested in the Sky Camera, temperature, humidity and air quality measurements.

The basic SkyWeather system without the Wind/Rain and Lightning Sensors.

SkyWeather

You can find it here.

• All the software, electronics and cables to build your SkyWeather Kit (not including the Raspberry Pi)

The full SkyWeather kit including the Lightning and Wind Direction, Speed and Rain sensors. Includes: Rain, Wind Speed / Direction, Lighting Detection, Outside Temperature and Humidity, Barometric Pressure, Internal Temperature/Humidity, Sunlight Strength, and Outside Air Quality.

SkyWeather Solar Extender Kit

You can find it here.

• The SkyWeather Kit plus the solar panels and solar controller SunControl (not including the Raspberry Pi)

SkyWeather Solar is designed for off-the-grid usage where bringing power is tough. The kit including the Lightning and Wind Direction, Speed and Rain sensors.

Solar Power Your SkyWeather Kit. The Solar SkyWeather kit includes a complete SunControl based solar power system with solar panels.

Supplies excellent and complete information about the solar power performance and charging status. Really understand solar power.

SkyWeather Solar WXLink Extender Kit

You can find it here (coming soon).

• The hardware to move your WeatherRack (Wind Direction, Speed, Rain and Outside Temperature/Humidity) away from your base SkyWeather unit. (not including the Raspberry Pi)

SkyWeather with Solar WXLink is designed for those who would like their base weather station in one place and the temperature/humidity/wind/Rain in another place connected wirelessly and the sensors are solar powered.

The SkyWeather Plus Solar WXLink Remote kit includes remote wireless solar power sensor kit for the WeatherRack and Outside Temperature/Humidity Sensor.  Supplies excellent and complete information about the solar WXLink Remote Sensing power performance and charging status.

Really understand solar power.

3D Printed Files Available for SkyWeather

We have all these files for you available in STL form and also the source files in OpenSCAD, TinkerCad, etc.  These 3D prints do not come with SkyWeather kits, but the design files do.

Check out these files here:

https://github.com/switchdoclabs/SkyWeatherPylonSunShade3DParts

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/7Mtkmwx558E

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/cO1s0mSQRFV

 

 

 

 

 

These parts are for the solar powered version of SkyWeather 

 

The SkyWeather Cam Staring at the Clouds

 

A Little Theory about SkyWeather for the Raspberry Pi

We are fortunate (well most of the time) to have a PhD in Electrical Engineering / Computer Science as our Chief Technology Officer.   He insists that we put a block diagram of the whole SkyWeather Kit for the Raspberry Pi in the right up and that he writes a couple paragraphs talking about the technology.   OK, we give in.  Take it away, Dr. John!

 

SkyWeather Block Diagram

 

SkyWeather designed to be the hub to which you connect everything to turn your Raspberry Pi into a complete Weather Station that talks to the Cloud.   Just ready to be customized to your project and usage.   It is designed to be a great way of learning to hook up hardware to the Raspberry Pi.  And you have all the source code to modify to work the way you want it to do.

Our partnership with WeatherSTEM brings this kickstarter into the realm of cloud based data mining, great graphics displays and even time lapse photography.    SkyWeather and WeatherSTEM together rock.

This is a great kit in which to learn about weather sensing, data sharing in the cloud and the Raspberry Pi.

 

Dr. John with Palm Springs SkyWeather Kit