With the help of this guide you can build a simple barometric weather station that transmits the data via WLAN to your (Android and iOS) smartphone. You can use it to monitor temperature, humidity and barometric pressure. This project uses a NodeMCU Amica v2 (based on the ESP8266 microcontroller) and a BME280 sensor. This sensor has a much higher accuracy than e.g. the popular DHT11 sensor. The current measurement data is also shown on the OLED display.
So that you don’t have to program it yourself, you can simply copy the Sensate firmware to the microcontroller, at the end of the manual you’ll learn more about it. With the help of the Sensate Monitor App you can access your data easily and at any time (and from everywhere) and see for example the daily course of temperature, humidity and air pressure.
Typical applications for this project:
– Warning of dry air or high temperatures
– Control of heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC)
– Interior navigation (floor recognition, elevator recognition)
– weather forecast
– Vertical Speed Display (Rise/Set Rate)
– Temperature and humidity monitoring in the cellar
– Temperature and humidity monitoring in the bathroom
– Temperature and humidity monitoring for small animal enclosures (e.g. henhouses or harehouses)
– Temperature and humidity monitoring in the holiday home
In no circumstance shall the publisher of this or any other tutorial be liable for any direct or consequential injury or damage suffered by any person attempting to follow the instructions contained herein. If you do not have the skills you need, do not proceed and contact an expert!
Take the broadboard and bridge as shown and put the bridge on the red marked skirting boards. Please make sure that the USB port of the bridge is pointing downwards. The bridge must then be plugged into the pins labeled as follows:
– Left pin header: a: 16 to 30
– Right pin header: h: 16 to 30
In this step, the sensor for temperature, air pressure and humidity is connected to the broadboard. The 4 pins are connected to j: 4 to 7. Make sure that the board is on the right and the pins on the left.
Now the display follows. The display will use the same cables as the sensor, therefore it shares all 4 rows with the sensor. The display must be aligned so that the pins are on the right. These are then plugged into the socket strips g: 4 to 7.
Here the sensor and display is connected to the bridge. This supplies the sensor and display with power and connects it to the data pins D1 and D2 (I2C bus) of the bridge. For this a cable is plugged in as follows:
– h: 6 to j: 17 (corresponds to label D1 on bridge)
– h: 7 on j: 18 (corresponds to label D2 on bridge)
– h: 4 on j: 21 (corresponds to label 3.3V on bridge)
– h: 5 to j: 22 (corresponds to label GND on bridge)
If your microcontroller (bridge) has not yet been loaded with the Sensate firmware, follow these instructions. Once this is done, the unit is fully functional and can now be used with the Sensate Monitor App. Have fun!
Within the Sensate Monitor App you can then view the current measurement data as well as the time history. If the sensor is placed e.g. in the bathroom, you will clearly see the temperature and humidity curves when someone showered or when the room was ventilated. If you want to be informed automatically about the exceeding or falling below of limit values (e.g. in case of danger of mould) you can do this with the help of the IFTTT integration.
To protect the components from dust and dirt, we recommend the installation in a plastic housing. This is possible even with little skill and equipment.