DIY Solar WiFi Weather Station within ESPHome

[@JeremySeitz]

Love the project, thanks for sharing it and documenting everything so well! I will definitely look forward to making this one!

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you Jeremy!!!

[@esenterre]

Awesome! Put that project in the Queue! :-D

[@BeardedTinker]

Glad you liked it Eric!!!

[@adifoto6362]

Nice project. Thanks for sharing. Hope one day to build one myself.

[@BeardedTinker]

That you Adi! You can use code even if you start small 😉 for example only ESP32 and BME289 sensor.

[@adifoto6362]

@@BeardedTinker I do have a Dallas outside to have the real temperature. One day hope to expand and have the rest.

[@ronm6585]

Nice project. Thanks for sharing.

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you Ron and thanks for watching!!!

[@edwardlytton1548]

Very good video, I will try to recreate it.👍 But one question about the wind sensor, it looks fragile. I live in the German region Eifel with at times very strong wind

[@BeardedTinker]

Can't tell you really! I know these are standard ones that SparkFun was selling previously and they are also sold as replacement for some Weather Stations. I think that mounting bracket would fail first.

[@arnoldbencz6886]

Super video! ThakYou! 👍

[@eclecticlife]

Great video! Thank you.

[@BeardedTinker]

Glad you liked it John, thank you!

[@Alen.88]

One of the best projects yet. I didnt catch where do you hook up wind direction sensor once when you get it? Also, what do you think about adding additional battery and one more solar panel to avoid deep sleep?

[@BeardedTinker]

Wind speed sensor goes into wind direction sensor, and then you hook cable from wind direction sensor to the board. Cascade :) Bigger panel is an option, I have one spare and if I start having issues, I'll replace it with larger one.. Adding additional battery would required different charge controller. It is doable (I think), but still not sure if you could run it full time.

[@arnoldbencz6886]

Super video.I cannot buy the original TVS Diode - DT1042-04SO , it is on other side in PCB. But I have these diods:DRTR5V0U4S-7 D1213A-04V-7 D1213A-04TS-7 DT2042-04SO-7 D3V3F4U6S-7 DRTR5V0U4TS-7

[@BeardedTinker]

DTS1042-04SO is out of stock everywhere from what I've searched... datasheet.lcsc.com/lcsc/1912111437_Diodes-Incorporated-DT1042-04SO-7_C460064.pdf D1213A-04V-7 should be similar to it according to specs... Looking at Digikey and Mouser - they are really out of stock on a LOT of parts :)

[@mitjaklutzny9532]

Thanks for sharing this project! I actually ordered all parts for the weather station two weeks ago, but I sourced everything myself so I'm still waiting for some components. I'm a bit worried about the measurements, because of the issue that you already brought up: deep sleep. Not just the wind gusts, rain measurements won't be accurate as well? If we are not putting the esp32 into deep sleep, it will use about 1800mAh per day. Battery capacity is 3400mAh. So if I am right, we "just" need to upgrade the solar cell? Thanks for you effort!

[@BeardedTinker]

if you do any upgrades, maybe go for double battery (a bit different charger than) and bigger panel. I'm still playing with rain sensor to make it wake up from sleep. That part is now working, but just need to sort out counting/measurement now. So that all the data is combines (when awake and ones recorded in sleep) when it's sent to HA. For wind, I can't do the same thing, but I'll just probably ignore wind gust, and opt out to only have average wind speed available. I know it's not best solution, but will end up being simplest.

[@mitjaklutzny9532]

@@BeardedTinker Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Why would you go for the bigger battery? I just ordered a 5W, 5V Solar panel, so I can use the full capacity of the USB charger (1A). My large PV yields 10kWh at 5kWp on a rainy day, so this small module should be able to give enough charge to cover for 2.000mAh of power drain... Global solar atlas even projects 2.800mAh. Your solution with waking up on the rain sensor might be sufficient, though. Looking forward to try this out! I guess the question is, if you actually need to stay awake 100% of the time for accurate wind measurements. Let's say we go for 5 Mins awake and 5 asleep. That wouldn't analyze every single gust, but at least it will register a few top speeds.

[@BeardedTinker]

In theory (but I like to test it too), that would potentially cover rainy/no sun days. Playing with rain sensor is a bit tricky as I need rain for testing and lately there was not that much of it. Using watering can helps but it's just too much water in short amount of time...

[@mitjaklutzny9532]

@@BeardedTinker I will report back when I got mine! Keep it up, man :)

[@khamelboufeniche9854]

Thanks for your share this Is very simple for beginners but PCB Is out of order 🙁 maybe to wait V4…. I hope….

[@BeardedTinker]

I also hope it will be back in stock. Maybe it's due to part shortage.

[@mice3d]

For uv LTR390 sensor is supported.

[@YannickSuter]

How does esphome/deep-sleep work together with the pulse-Counter/Meter sensor? Devices like BME680/280, etc have a state at any time -> so ESPHOME wakes up, reads and sends data without any issue (deepsleep freq = granularity of signal). However, when it comes to interrupt-based esphome events, the board must be powered up to process them. This is particularly critical for the rain gauge, which is more sensitive than the wind speed sensor. Missing a single interrupt event from the rain gauge could result neglecting of a certain amount of rainfall (x mm). I read somewhere that the device is effectively rebooting on wake - which means that there is no minimal process running to collect data from the pulse-meter during sleep. is this correct?

[@BeardedTinker]

I've since the video moved rain gauge to ZigBee (converted it with Aqara door sensor) as there were issues with it. There is a way to count even in deep sleep but it does have impact on both battery and performance.

[@andrejsersen59]

Another great video!! It's perfect timing for your video. Thanks for sharing! I've been looking at this project from OpenGreenEnergy and it took quite some time to get all the components by mail. I was also considering lux sensor, but I'm affraid the lux sensor inside the enclosure wouldn't do the job perfectly... so my question is: how accurate is the lux sensor in your enclosure? Anyways, thanks for the video, very articulated and I couldn't agree more with 5 things you like about this project!* (*)for me only 4 since don't have 3d printer :)

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you! Had so much fun with it. When I added rash sensor and each component it was a little celebration 😂 For lux, yes, I still have to drill a hole. Didn't mention in the video but I'll also spray over PCB (protecting sensors before) protection film that should stop any moisture on the board

[@andrejsersen59]

@@BeardedTinker :) Can imagine yes! You did a great job with the code and also with disabling deep sleep! I can't wait to test it myself, thanks! I'll try to tweak it a little to get more wind data (maybe do a automation to switch deep sleep off). Take care and keep up the good work!

[@marcohamacher2231]

@@BeardedTinker Which kind of protection film did you use?

[@marcohamacher2231]

Thanks for this great video! I already sourced the PCB, only need my 3D-printer back to operation. I wonder if there would be the possibility to add a rain sensor too.

[@BeardedTinker]

I will probably remove rain sensor from this. It does work, but not as I would like it to. Will replace internal parts with Door/Window reed sensor. That should give me correct values.

[@marcohamacher2231]

@@BeardedTinker Thanks! I am looking for a reliable rain sensor for closing my roof windows in case of rain. In my opinion the rain volume measurement is too slow.

[@BeardedTinker]

There are options that use resistance, but they also require enough rain to close circuit.

[@dannymartin4225]

Hello BeardedTinker, thanks again for this great video I am using this project and enjoy it very much. I am not using the solar panel but have a continuous power supply and would like to totally disable the deep sleep. I have had trouble trying to update firmware because of the deep sleep and I think my application no longer needs it. Please let me know what code needs to be removed safely to remove the deep sleep. Thanks, also I have seen your remarks regarding the rain sensor, I have made one of the Zigbee rain sensors but not much success with that, mostly because of the poor signal where my weather station is located. Hopefully if I remove the deep sleep it will give the existing rain sensor a better chance to work.

[@BeardedTinker]

Sorry for the late replay. Keeping project powered 24/7 should resolve that rain sensor issue. As for deep sleep. You need to remove following parts of the code: - on_boot and next 2 lines - deep_sleep and lines under that section - script: and lines under that part too I think this is all that needs to be removed to completely eliminate it. There is also one binary_sensor, but even if you leave that part, device would still not sleep. Of course sleep_duration and awake_duration substitutes are also not needed. And you can play with update frequency. Maybe shift that from seconds to 1 minute.

[@dannymartin4225]

@@BeardedTinker Thanks for all your work and I am hoping this solves the rain gauge problem.

[@dannymartin4225]

Great project, it took me several days to get everything set up. It seems that your examples were from an earlier version or Home Assistant and ESPHome. I was able to set everything up and do OTA update, but I have several questions about the output. I am in the US I cannot find the part of the code to change the temperature to Fahrenheit, can you direct me to where I can change this? Thanks

[@BeardedTinker]

Temperature conversion can be done from within Home Assistant. It has option (when you click on the sensor settings) to select how you will see it - C, F or K. Other option is to convert it within ESPHome code with something like this: temperature: name: "Temperature" filters: - lambda: return x * (9.0/5.0) + 32.0; unit_of_measurement: "°F"

[@dannymartin4225]

@@BeardedTinker thanks so much for all your work pon this project I used your advice for just changing the temp with in the yaml code. So went back and corrected all of the signs back to all my F° to C ° , then made all the corrections within Home Assistantr off the High Holidays in

[@dannymartin4225]

I HAVE FIGURED IY OUT USIng home automation thanks for all of good answers you gave me

[@KwekuMensah-h5k]

How can I get all the items used to buy and build SOLAR WIFI WEATHER STATION WITHIN ESPHOME AS YOU HAVE DONE?

[@BeardedTinker]

There is a link in the video description. You can buy their assembled PCB or again there is a link to the original author and his documentation with all of the components. There is even a newer version of it too.

[@TheTomhassler]

This is some great work, thank you!. I pieced together a mostly functional set of ESPHome code for the solar weather station hardware before finding this, which is frustrating to say the least! I actually have some code for UV Sensor and calculated sensors that would make sense to include, so I'll put in a pull request most likely. I'm writing to ask about a struggle with one thing - I cannot get the device to find the input boolean helper. It's got the correct name, entity_id and I can see the toggle going on and off in history, but the code never honors it / or finds that value at startup. That means I have to compile and hit that 30s awake window to put through any updates. Any ideas? Also of note, the ADC for battery is using hardcoded values in the code I pulled from your git. So updating at the top section wasn't working for that (had to hardcode my own values.

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you!!! What UV sensor did you use? I was looking into few of them but at the end got nothing. What are you using as "awake" code in ESPHome? Do you use same thing I did or did you opt for MQTT version of it? I did have issues at one time when I was trying to fix rain gauge, but when I removed it and rolled back to my initial code, it's now working OK. If you connect to station and look at the logs, do you see there that state of input boolean is registered there and correct state? As for ADC - yeah, had to hard-code because for some (to me unknown but probably very simple) reason it didn't calculate it.

[@TheTomhassler]

@@BeardedTinker The SI1145 (Also known as GY1145) is the sensor I've used for UV. I'm using your wake code (not MQTT) and the registration is what's problematic. But it seems upstream because the sensor associated with disabling (via the toggle) does not change on or off when I click the toggle. I'm not sure it's the code, but rather something idiosychratic with HA and the helper toggle. I've validated the naming, I've re-created the toggle helper, I've rebooted after creation, etc. I can't seem to get the boolean to change, but what's interesting is that the History/log shows that I have flipped the switch - only the actual value remains unchanged from 0 to 1. Any thoughts are welcome. I'll package up the UV code - it's a bit finicky depending on how much light is reaching the sensor and I don't have independent IR/Visible light sensors to truly calibrate it, but so far it has been pretty close to forecasted UV index for my location.

[@dannymartin4225]

I have power to my weather station and I would like to modify the code to remove the deep sleep, what changes are needed? Thanks

[@BeardedTinker]

Haven't tried it - but you may try disabling this section: deep_sleep: id: deep_sleep_control sleep_duration: ${sleep_duration} And below it script: part.

[@EsotericArctos]

How well does the light/lux sensor work in this device? It looks like it may be in the shade due to the housing. This was perfect timing for me as I am looking for a weather station for Home Assistant currently :)

[@BeardedTinker]

Thank you Brendan!!! It will need a bit of opening in the case. I only installed it in case while recording the video so don't still have that much data, and of course, we didn't have any sun since than. But from what I've seen, people just drilled a small hole for direct light. With case, I think around 9-10.000 lux was maximum value I got, out of 100.000 when you directly point it at bright sun on sunny day.

[@EsotericArctos]

@@BeardedTinker Small hole sounds like a good idea. Maybe a small plastic light pipe could be used to help direct light into the sensor :)

[@arnoldbencz6886]

Your stabilizer 3,3V is a not original MCP1700-3.3V too :-) I have a LD1117AS33-3,3V 1A SOT223

[@flipside1o1]

Am I missing something or is the board alittle open to the elements?

[@BeardedTinker]

It should be well protected in the casing, but I also bought PCB spray to add rhin film over everything. Of course, sensors have to be free of this film. Using similar Stevenson shield for some other sensors and didn't have much issues with rain so far.

[@zyghom]

I have not seen yet any ESP that works with anything below 2.8V. Also, if you discharge LiIon battery so low, you can consider it broken after few times. My weather station works for around 2 seconds and then goes to sleep, and I use MQTT instead of ESPHome - much more options. I am wondering also how are you getting from battery volts to battery % - it is nowhere linear at all.

[@BeardedTinker]

Yes, but for that purpose, I intentionally left it without sun to see what is the lowest recorded voltage when it reports state. Not sure how it managed to still work at such low V, but somehow it did. Also, note that this is not V from battery, but after it was stepped down - I know that this is a bit misleading in terms of sensor name - it should be ESP voltage, but makes it easier to read. In first video I recorded (and scrapped as it was almost 2 hours) I did talk a bit more on MQTT. It's no problem to do MQTT, but wanted to keep it simpler in terms of what people need to get it working. MQTT also simplifies things as it skips possible HA API problems with communication. And yes, it also allows for shorter awake times. 2 seconds, I can't do, some of the sensors would than be useless (the way they are implemented now - wind and rain). All other data can be gathered faster. Battery % is calculated on the ESP side (again really not % but power at ESP) - 100% is maximum reported V and 0% is when board stops sending data. So, as you said, not accurate in terms of battery, but gives easier to read state if ESP will work and survive night/rainy day or not. SORRY for long answer :)

[@zyghom]

@@BeardedTinker I am a fan of your channel - sorry if you got my comment as a critique - it was not supposed to ;-) With regards to 2.4V - did you calibrate the ADC? if not then it would simply answer why it "works" with 2.4V - I doubt there is really so low voltage and it still works. For bare metal ESP32 I can get into 2.6V while for ESP32-S2 2.8V is the lowest one. I use voltage divider BEFORE LDO and I measure what battery really shows - irrespective what comes to ESP - I am not detecting how many volts come to ESP but how many volts with battery. And once you measure critical battery level, you better make the device go to sleep rather than drain battery any further unless you have too many batteries to replace them one by one (vel: check what is the minimum battery voltage for LiPo before it gets broken). With regards to wind/rain - any sleeping sensor will make these sensors useless as the measurement is only when it is awake, right? So kind of probing: "what was the wind/rain when I was awake?" rather than showing the real values ;-) If you have time and want to make a video for "How to make a sensor/device with MQTT auto discovery on HA" I can help you with - I have done my research and it was not easy to find one comprehensive project. Also, when you use MQTT rather than ESPHome/HA API, then you simply send MQTT command i.e. "don't sleep brother, OTA is waiting" to the device, when it wakes up it will receive the message and voila - not sleeping anymore. I like ESPHome and I use it for some of my devices, but due to the fact, that ESP32-S2 is not supported on Raspberry Pi I can only use in case I use regular ESP32 (then it compiles). Also, with MQTT you can easily implement variable configuration and expose it to HA, i.e. sleep time different during the night (I don't need to have every 3min temp/hum outside when it is a night but I need inside as my heating system is based on my devices). So in HA you can have an automation that turns sleep time to i.e. 30min for some devices and brings back to 3min during the day, when it matters. One more thing: voltage divider in this project eats the entire battery during sleep - either make 2 resistors that are in total 0.5MOhm (easy way) or disconnect voltage divider when sleeping (more complicated). My devices consume around 20-30uA during the sleep but I am disconnecting almost everything during sleep - also sensors. Anyway, great video for the beginners but once you want to make it useful I would go few steps further.

[@kreksoft]

@@zyghom Hello do you have an example of HA autodiscovery on MQTT? On school I was creating a project on ESP for my master thesis (something like ESPHome) and since then i was wondering how to upgraded and connect it with HA. So if you don't mind to share some Tips and tricks, I would appreciate. Thanks

[@BeardedTinker]

:) Sorry if I sounded defensive - just wanted to cover everything and keep short (which I can't) :) and no, I didn't get this as critique in any negative context. Since it's not my HW, I've not touched that part. I know that original author did make changes from v3 to v3.2 to tackle some issues, but still there are issues. Was hoping for v4 to be release but it's late. In terms of ADC - not really. I did check with multimeter and V was close enough. For rain, I've started to work on updated code for it - not as easy as I hopped or wished. Currently working to wake up form sleep if there is trigger on RAIN pin, but have to do something about numbers too. Also, it's not as easy, but there is a way to distinguish wakeup due to sleep timer and pin wakeup, so this can be used to shorne as much as possible awake time for rain measurement. But this opens yet another set of issues (how to not update anything else except rain counter,..) As for batteries - all currently used are old/salvaged/revived 18650 batteries, so no issues for now as I have a bunch od old ones. But when I get this finally installed at fix position, new one will go in, definitely. These old ones have very high fluctuations and can dip a lot in power when on load. Yeah, I know of MQTT autodiscovery, and one of the reasons I went with API was to eliminate that. Wanted to make this as painless for beginners. When pesor was working on HiGrow board plant sensors - MQTT part was always complicating things. :) Again, thanks for the comment!!!!!!

[@kvmgz]

Thanks for this awesome video/project BeardedThinker! I've been collecting parts for this for a year now but missed the knowledge to actually put it together/code it. So your project will be a great baseline. Could you help me/us out with a wiring diagram/schematic for those who are unable to get those PCBs? Would be a very much appreciated.

[@BeardedTinker]

You can check original post on Instructables - there are schematics there for each of the components: www.instructables.com/Solar-Powered-WiFi-Weather-Station-V30/

[@kvmgz]

Will check it out, thanks for the reply!

[@opirob64]

Is there any news for the rain meter?

[@BeardedTinker]

I was really not happy how it worked, so converted it to Zigbee rain sensor. The problem was that it did wakeup on rain when it triggered spoon to trip, but I couldn't manage to count that and send when device awakes. With Zigbee sensor, it works great.

[@dannymartin4225]

@@BeardedTinker I am having trouble with my rain sensor also. It worked before I converted to your version using ESPhome and home assistant, but now when it rains I never get any reading, it always shows as 0.0 rain fall. How have you implemented a Zigbee rain sensor?

[@zwart592]

I am using a Lithium AA battery for my wheather station for over 2 years now and it's still 79%. These types work from -20-70 degrees C and are also available in 3 or 3,6V. Maybe it's an idea?

[@BeardedTinker]

These are Lithium Ion batteries and should have much larger capacity then AA batteries. One I used in project is old/salvaged battery, so it has very low capacity and high self discharge. While it could be done, it would reacquire a bit more hardware changes. Batteries here are 3.7V (up to 4.2V when fully charge) and then V is dropped to 3V.

[@danielefo84]

I can't find the wiring diagram

[@BeardedTinker]

Wiring for what exactly?

[@danielefo84]

@@BeardedTinker Wiring Anemometer to esp and connection diagram

[@dannymartin4225]

Hello BeardedTinker, good to speak to you again. I am having a problem trying to update the code for my weather station in Home Assistant. When I use the update in Devices and Services I get an error that says "Failed to call update/install.Error compiling weatherstation.yaml. See ESPHOME for further info". When I go to ESPHOHE and try to update via wirelessly I get the following message:INFO ESPHome 2024.4.1 INFO Reading configuration /config/esphome/weatherstation.yaml... Failed config sensor.bme280: [source /config/esphome/weatherstation.yaml:94] Platform not found: 'sensor.bme280'. platform: bme280 address: 118 temperature: name: weatherstation WS Temperature oversampling: 4x unit_of_measurement: °C icon: mdi:thermometer device_class: temperature state_class: measurement accuracy_decimals: 1 pressure: name: weatherstation Pressure oversampling: 4x unit_of_measurement: hPa device_class: pressure state_class: measurement humidity: name: weatherstation Humidity oversampling: 4x unit_of_measurement: % icon: mdi:thermometer device_class: humidity state_class: measurement Here is a copy of the lines of code from 90 to 116: sensor: # BME280 is used to get temperature, pressure and humidity # BMP280 only provides temperature and pressure so please comment out hummidity section # - platform: bmp280 - platform: bme280 address: 0x76 temperature: name: '${display_name} WS Temperature' oversampling: 4x unit_of_measurement: "°C" icon: "mdi:thermometer" device_class: "temperature" state_class: "measurement" accuracy_decimals: 1 pressure: name: '${display_name} Pressure' oversampling: 4x unit_of_measurement: "hPa" device_class: "pressure" state_class: "measurement" humidity: name: '${display_name} Humidity' oversampling: 4x unit_of_measurement: "%" icon: "mdi:thermometer" device_class: "humidity" state_class: "measurement" Any idea what might be happening? Thanks in advance for your help. I really have enjoyed using my weather station. PS: I am getting accurate readings from the BME280

[@BeardedTinker]

Try replacing plaform: bme280 with platform: bme280_i2c I think that's how I fixed it. Although mine is running a very old version of ESPHome - something from 2023.

[@dannymartin4225]

@@BeardedTinker Thanks this fixed the problem, but I got another error regarding platform: adc, but since I am not using the battery I just commented them out and update completed. Thanks for your quick and accurate response.

[@BeardedTinker]

Awesome! Glad you got it working!