Hacker-in-Residence: Wireless Weather Station
We have a new friend! His name is Matthew Burmeister, and he loves the weather. We also have some updates on our past hackers!
Do you guys know what time it is? I will just tell you: It's hacker time. We're excited to have Matthew Burmeister here, now, at this very moment, in the cave of magic that is our Engineering department, working on an internet-enabled wireless weather station. Who isn't interested in the weather? No one, that's who. Matthew is a rad human being who harbors a fear of rollercoasters (legitimate), and a desire for the power of technopathy (useful). Let's learn more about Matthew Burmeister, weather enthusiast:
As you may have guessed, this is Matthew Burmeister.
Can you share your background, interests, and some favorite past projects?
I have been working with electronics for about 8+ years now. I have no formal education in the field; everything I know is self-education from various resources. My interests are quite vast (it might be easier to name what I don’t like), but some would be electronics, photography and medicine.
One of my favorite projects would have to be, oddly enough, just a 555 Timer IC operating in Astable mode. It was my first project and is what got me interested in embedded electronics to begin with.
How and why did you get involved in SparkFun's Hacker-in-Residence program?
I was just browsing SparkFun and noticed an extra link on the footer. I applied via the web form and a month later, I’m here. I applied for the HiR program because I have been wanting to write a tutorial on SparkFun, and it seemed like the perfect solution.
HiR and similar programs allow people who don’t have the resources to build a project that they have been wanting to do. It fosters a environment for innovation on both sides, and allows your geek to shine.
What is the project you'll be working on at SparkFun, and how long will you be here? Why did you choose this project?
I will be working on an internet-enabled wireless weather station. It would transmit live weather data to Wunderground’s Personal Weather Station Network and (maybe) host a status page. I’ll be here at SFE for about three weeks.
I chose this project for a few reasons:
- It would make for a great tutorial for SFE (I've always wanted to write one)
- I needed a weather station
- I've wanted to see those weather meters put to good use for a long time now
Thanks Matthew, we're happy to have you!
Updates! Updates! A lot of people have asked for news on our past hackers and their projects, and we have some for you! Sophi Kravitz, who joined us in October to work with Neurosky's brainwave headset, has finished her tutorial on hacking the MindWave Mobile; and Julián da Silva Gillig, who joined us last month from Argentina, has successfully integrated our RedBot and RedBoard platforms to the miniBloq programming environment - GitHub repository here - and developed examples and sample code for virtually all the RedBot functions! Stupendous work, friends, and we'll continue to update you on past hackers' projects as they're completed!
Cool, I have already designed, built and mostly programed a wireless internet connected weather station. Most of my project works except for some barometer readings, LCD display and the internet upload. I am still working on it slowly. Can't wait to see what you build, maybe I will finally have the inspiration to finish mine. I have not posted my code yet, but some documents from my design (like schematics and datasheets) are here on github. https://github.com/skyfly200/Wireless-Arduino-Weather-Station
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I've been anxiously awaiting this for several weeks now. Anybody have status?
We are still waiting for the final project information. Hopefully we can get an update posted soon!
Great Project! I designed and built a WiFi based station complete with high resolution sensors that reports to various data ingestion services and has a web interface for local or remote read out and control. See here http://wws.us.to and http://kcaconco18.us.to . I found it to be difficult to compete with the prices of ready made, all in one stations however.
Unfortunately Sparkfun wasn't interested in the project when I proposed it to them last summer......
I have a wireless station built a few years ago based on 1-wire sensors and Xbee modules for communication. The anemometer and wind direction (AAG sensors ??) are going bad so I hope to integrate the Sparkfun weather devices into the system.
Good luck! I'm right along with you.....ordered the weather sensor station and a couple of XBee's a few days ago.
Interesting to see that I'm not the only one thinking about designing my own weatherstation :-) I've started to collect some information mainly for personal use, but feel free to take a look to see if you find something interesting: http://weatherhelge.wordpress.com/
/Helge
In case you are interested, you can take a look at my weather station project using Arduino: http://kawasemicorp.com/dalton/index.html
It's been working (more or less ;) ) for almost 4 years, and it uses the now not available anymore WiShield. I'm planning to move it to a Yun in the future.
Awesome project; building a weather station has been on my to do list of personal projects for a while now -- maybe this will motivate me to get to it. I look forward to reading your results!
Congrats, Matthew. Anyone who gets nostalgic over a 555 is okay in my book. Good luck with the project1