Solar Weather Station [WiFi, MQTT, Smart Home, ESP8266]

This video shows and explains the hardware of a solar powered WiFi weather station. Using MQTT it publishes sensor values to Node-RED which shows it in the browser.
Project page (All details, codes, files, and flows):
bitluni.net/solar-powered-weat...
Check out the playlist for the other parts of this series:
• Home Automation
Twitter: @bitluni
If you like the video consider supporting my work on Patreon and get some extras:
/ bitluni

[@christianmeinert8806]

Still using a dht ... perhaps take a look on the bme280! Temperature, humidity and pressure - from Bosch. Best environment sensor i know for 3€ on an breakout board.

[@bitluni]

Thanks for the hint.. ordered them and will try next time

[@christianmeinert8806]

And for light measurements I have good experience with an BH1750 connected to the i2c bus. With low power consumption and excellent precision on human eye wavelengths. So you can free the analog pin for battery measurement. It is available for less than 1€ or 3€ with a nice white plastic dome.

[@boonkerz]

do you know for if an rain and wind sensor exists?

[@saschatrumm2852]

The BME280 is great, I use the sensor also.

[@MaxSMoke777]

Yah, why wouldn't they use the superior BME280? Less parts, less power, and MORE accuracy. It's not made for a shield, but you can use a Proto shield, or just string it in on wires. I would actually suggest stringing it in, as you can get it away from the warmth of the ESP.

[@Dav4122]

Being able to see your formula in that spreadsheet was great! Love this project

[@TheDefpom]

Nice project, you also edit your videos very well, I had a laugh when you dumped the brick on the table!

[@zaidhussain5206]

Thank you for sharing this project

[@mmajstruk398]

Well done, very good video. I`ll research your project page as I`m sure I`ll get lots of ideas for myself.

[@StaxxxInMyJeans]

If you want to slightly reduce connection time of esp to wifi and save some energy you can use a static ip instead of dynamic. BTW, a project is awesome! :-)

[@H2Orst]

Hallo Maker, toll gemacht, sehr gut erklärt und umgesetzt. Es hat richtig Spaß gemacht dieses Video anzuschauen. Ich wollte mir schon lange eine Wetterstation bauen, bin aber trotz gleiche Komponenten nicht sehr weit gekommen. Jetzt wo Du eine gute Vorlage geboten hast werde ich Dein Projekt nachbauen. Der einzige das mir fehlt, ist die Wind Messung mit Amplitude und Richtung. Vielen Dank das Du dieses Projekt mit uns teilst. Danke

[@rgmtb]

Thank you for this! I've been trying to make my weather logger and failed. I'll take a look at yours closely for advice! Great help my friend 👍

[@jcresgate]

Nice project man! I like your channel

[@rsolovye]

Really like your channel. Me and my dad were watching your videos and he betted a bottle of "Tokai" that you are from Hungry.

[@antonis476]

an excellent channel! keep up the good work!

[@3dmixer552]

I have just started this project. I already have the brick. LOL

[@viniciusnoyoutube]

Another excellent video! Thanks!

[@paulorobalo7216]

Your video puts many TV shows to shame! Congratulations!

[@zukjeff]

another well described project. With PV panels of less than 5 watts i just shunt across the panels with a zenner.

[@mibrahim4245]

Great job bro !!

[@RadionicaExpress]

I think its best tutorial i found, but actually i am looking with a BH1750 module for LUX readings for the light sensor. all the best!

[@orientowitz1]

I recommend protecting the PCBs from water damage (there will be condensation inside the open tube) with either conformal coating or something like CorrosionX which I used successfully in the past to protect boards exposed to elements. One thing to keep in mind though is the barometric sensor, you will damage it if something gets inside metal housing. Otherwise you will inevitably have burnt boards when condensation inside the tube causes a short circuit.

[@bitluni]

agree, that's why I suggested giving it a hot glue cover. actually, condensation should only happen when it's foggy since there is no temperature difference inside.... I'm really curious how long it will last. I sacrifice it for the team ;)

[@SteampunkSammy]

@@bitluni How did it last?

[@TheLtGo]

@@bitluni Do you have an update on the durability of the setup?

[@aliavestan]

Very useful and nice work 🤗 ... waiting for your new video

[@MrBobWareham]

Silicone conformal coating on the boards would work well and you can work on the board again loved the project

[@WalidIssa]

Brilliant ... Keep it up for this great work ... Could you please tell me what Camera you use ?

[@bitluni]

GH5 stunning specs and features but worst autofocus for video.

[@olegmda5623]

Hey. interesting project. I'm interested in. How did you make phone applications to see these sensors?

[@jotaefearango]

Excelent. Good job. Thanks

[@igorybema]

I am testing the solar + lifepo4 + solar of this setup on low battery levels. I discovered that, when on low battery, the wemos wouldn't start up properly resulting in constant high current draw (no deep sleep) which in turn results in emptying the battery even faster. Adding a 1000uF capacitor resolves this issue extending the setup to run on battery longer. That could just save that one day extra without solar power. I also added a connection to the analog input of the wemos (not using the analog light sensor) from the battery positive terminal (with a 100k ohm resistor as voltage divider) to measure the battery voltage. This could be used to lower the update frequency when the voltage is dropping.

[@RistoNovik]

Hello is the project still running would be great to hear how it has survived over two years :). Any damages to sensors?

[@hubertmargreiter3508]

An interesting contribution, thanks for your effort to publish. Which 3-D-printer do you use?

[@ANANTHASANKAR_UA]

Great sir ....I'm also planning for that which is inspired from u😀 by using node mcu, what is the function of shotokey diode ?

[@Dele0615]

Greetings from Darmstadt ;)

[@josedejesusescalantechavez7188]

Hello , awesome videos I’m wondering if is possible to get a notification if some values exceed a value settled ? Thank you for you help ....

[@o0julek0o]

I always have a brick laying around, I can finally use it!

[@Dgtdggff]

i can also recomment such solar lipo charger boards as a powersource for example the "DFRobot Solar Lipo Charger". I connected it directly to the wemos d1 mini 5v and ground pins and it works just fine

[@toyodathon08]

So cool!

[@buckwheatclark]

Nice video.

[@Nobbi_TheRock]

This is a very good and awesome Video i Like it verry much .. Thanks

[@cipiripper]

What's the part number of that brick? Can I use any 100MHz brick? This is the best tutorial by the way... I watched them all.

[@jantrisko]

Very nice, as always :) Often in your videos I see a nice crimping tool for crimping dupont connectors. Can you write what type it is. They seem to work perfectly. Thanks.

[@putinvladimirovic5588]

Nice project, i am trying to make one mysefl, this will be great guide video. But add battery level in measurements.

[@rabinshaltiel8950]

Great work Is this station connected to the internet by wifi to a router? Thank you

[@Ed19601]

Be careful with skottky diodes. They can have a relatively large reverse current, which kinda defeats their use in Backvoltage protection

[@didiersee]

Congratulations very good, how to do the same thing but only for the wind speed?

[@graysonsmith7031]

You could also put in some code so that when the battery is near fill and has been receiving good sunlight for the last 2 days or is charging faster than it's losing power than it will update faster.

[@irishwristwatch7544]

Hey, ich habe deinen Kanal grad gefunden, sehr schöner Kanal :). Was hältst du davon einen CubeSat/ArduSat zu bauen? Vg

[@johnfrancis9668]

Fun project thx

[@wilfredswinkels]

If you snip off some hot melt glue and put it in the shrinksleeve before shrinking, you make a water tight sleeve. now water is getting in trough capillary action. ... just a hint. Nice work!

[@bitluni]

good tip... can't wait to check how everything looks when it stopped working. It's still doing fine.

[@ashajjar]

How is this project going? is it still deployed outside? and how is the solar panels doing? is it enough to charge ?

[@ronobrien5967]

Great solution for a WiFi access product. What and how wold you suggest using cell phone in the unit to upload the data?

[@istvanzilizi6194]

Hello, this is a good video. I suggest to use a TP-5000 Module, which is capable to charge LiFePO4 cells as well. No needs to be build an additional circuit. Nice job. Oh I just forget to mention you can lowered the power if you use an ATTiny13A. I had a project where the sensor wakes up 4min and 56 secs for 8 secs. the deep sleep period it takes 5.4 [uA]. I use P-Channel and N-Channel MOSFETs to cut of differetn parts....

[@bitluni]

+Istvan Zilizi thanks for the suggestions. How good does the tp-5000 handle currents about 1mA ? I had to switch from these small buck converters during production when realized I tested it with like 100mA but the solar didn't work. Keeping the circuit simple is a decision to make this video accessible to beginners in electronics. Shaving off the last 280uA is worth diving in an another project. I think it shold be even possible using just some passive components

[@istvanzilizi6194]

Undertand your point, the backward current 2-6 [uA], I used my own TP5000 to charge LiPo batteries around 3000 mAh capacity with two 6V cells. I have to start an investigation, unfortunatelly LiPo do not like the low temperature.

[@unbekannternutzer8506]

The battery lifetime will be reduced when keeping the cell voltage at maximum all the time. Recommendations for lithium manganese cells (max 4.2V) is to charge them to only 4.1V to increase lifetime. The capacity however might only be at around 80% then. You can lower the floating voltage of your lifepo4 too.

[@sojueray5929]

You have to implement a current limiter, I would like to know how to do it.

[@unbekannternutzer8506]

@@sojueray5929 if you use a small solar cell like this a current limiter is not required. if the solar cell maximum current is lower than the maximum charge current there is no problem. If however the current can be higher you can use 2 LM 317. One for current limiting and one for voltage limiting. Both in series

[@SimpleElectronics]

Do you have an affiliate link for the brick? It's the last part I need for this project :)

[@ChrisChromeYT]

Why doesnt the part list have a link for the brick XD

[@ParthBhat]

You can use a small sugarcube relay, to switch between ldr and battery voltage.. Just keep a default mode like ldr needs to be monitored always.. And whenever you need battery, just power up the relay and your done.. Take a reading and power off!. That's just a suggestion And as always superb videos.. Thumbs up. Thanks for sharing

[@antonmilosevic]

agree.. it would be very nice to know the battery voltage and that solution sounds quite good :)

[@ParthBhat]

Anton Milošević thank you

[@antonmilosevic]

It also could check the battery voltage once every few hours and if it reaches a critical level alert the user :)

[@ParthBhat]

Anton Milošević I didn't suggest that as every time it would have to trigger the relay which may pull a lot of power.. So we can keep a threshold of like 40% , so when the battery is low at 40% it won't trigger the relay for the next wakeup cycle.. And just report the user , after like 2 or 3 wakeup cycle it will trigger the relay so we can check if it's working or not.

[@bitluni]

the internal voltage measurement of the esp is currently a compile time feature in the arduino library. don't know if there is a way to change this.

[@SzDavidHUN]

Could we use mosfet for diode purposes? It would have less voltage drop, but I'm not sure about the power consumption of the neccesary circuit.

[@ukassio85]

Hi thanks for this video. I'm wondering how to ensure the wifi range, when my weather station will be setup ca. 50m away from the house. As I'm a rookie in the arduino and esp, I would only ask if there is any possibility to develop some kind of wifi repeater with esp/nodemcu/wemos parts?

[@lightdark00]

But there's no rain gauge 😮 How can we know how much it rained? Hope you keep thinking about the power via solar panels! Loved this one. Thank you!

[@dleivam]

Brilliant

[@mohanndalahmadi]

great video. I would like to suggest using TP4056 Module to charge a li-ion battery. You can plug it into the 5v input without any problems, then you can connect the + side to A0 using 100k resistor. I tried this and its still working for the last 4 months.

[@bitluni]

Sure, it would be an option. But I'm not sure if it can handle the winter here. I liked to try the LiFePo battery. Also, it's a nice way to introduce a classical lm317 circuit... 😍

[@Ed19601]

The TP4056 module will easily survive the winter :-) But yes... That battery may have problems

[@LTF-uj1yc]

Could you connect a 5v solar cell to the tp4056 to charge the battery and simultaneously use the battery?

[@LTF-uj1yc]

I am asking because the tp4056 wants 4.8-5v which may not always be given when the sun is not shining

[@chrisw1462]

I know that insert keeps the inside a little isolated, but any sun on that PVC pipe will heat the whole thing up. The open bottom helps, but without any wind there would be a lot of heat build up, and even a decent breeze wouldn't remove all of it. Any extra heat is going to throw all the sensors off. Better to have holes in the top, shielded by an overhang to let air flow through. A 2" or 3" (50 or 75 mm) PVC pipe cap could provide the overhang - just glue it to the cap you have, then drill a bunch of holes in the pipe where the PVC cap will hang past them. You'd probably want to attach a piece of window screen on both ends to keep out dirt and bugs.

[@DaDrummerthe1st]

As a newbie I woud like to know if theres anything to take in consideration when buying the zenerdiodes as you havent presented a link to aliexpress?

[@f1rhk]

BME280 for sure ... and sigfox to remove wifi consuming and be able to put it nearly where you want

[@miteshdhanani]

As u have done this it’s nice but my friend the solar panel which u have used can it be higher

[@shancarphone9877]

Excellent videos, thanks for sharing, I keep getting "load 0x4010f000, len 1384, room 16 error" is my board fried?,, cheers

[@enkyCSGOMore]

will the code work with the d1 mini pro ?

[@ThatsAllStuff]

But the Batterie and the esp zögertet with the Temperatur Sensor is a good idea? Doesn‘t it make to much Temperatur so the accurancy suffers from it.

[@agustinarturoreynososantos1514]

Thanks for sharing! What software do you use for your 3D designs? Regards!

[@hallolo2]

A bit unconventional, but it is Blender

[@Ziplock9000]

Does the sensor data get published to a cloud service or are you running a web server on the board and just connecting to that with your phone?

[@ohh9979]

from where can i get the *brick* ?

[@iceberg789]

order online from middle east.

[@lucasimark7992]

Supreme brick...

[@bollie9752]

Best order some clay, build an oven and bake your own brick.

[@iceberg789]

@@bollie9752 will microwave oven do ?

[@MrBobWareham]

@@iceberg789 Would that be a red one or a white one I threw the last one I had at the PM

[@StefanoZamprogno]

so how is going this project? The battery still alive? thanks !

[@Trailtraveller]

bmp180 can also measure temperature

[@jambrosio]

good!

[@claytonsulivan]

How to make Socket Server communication between two ESP32?

[@vivekchauhan7468]

How this project works now?

[@ArjenSunflower]

Do you also sell a ready version?

[@stevem3163]

What's the difference between the Wemos 8525 and esp8266?

[@sojueray5929]

How to control the battery charger so as not to ruin the battery?

How about making a code directly for esphome ? esphome api is a bit more stable then mqtt ( in my Home Assistant installation 😅 ) Great tutorial ! Thanks

[@poweredbysergey]

Cool

[@pietgdgc]

Nice.. like the topic :D. still on my wishlist to make. one question though,. you say you are using a BMP180 for air pressure and precize tempreature. what do you mean by that as all the explenations i found for the BMP180 are about barometric pressure and no reference to temprature.

[@bitluni]

it provides temperature with 0.1°C precision. check it out

[@pietgdgc]

bitluni's lab thanks. I will take that in mind. I am currently working on the mqtt ;)

[@SteveGameDE]

How about using a 4 Channel Analog I2C IC like the ads1115? You could get a higher precision on reading the light level and you could add a batterievoltage reading. Also a Rain/Water-Sensor and a moisturesensor for your Garden would be interesting...

[@bitluni]

nice IC.. just ordered it and will try it in an upcoming project

[@user-iy9lb5jk6b]

а мужик молодец, завидую я ему, что у него есть свободное время, на эти увлечения

[@joshwyse1761]

I'm interested to know why you chose Arduino IDE instead of Mongoose OS for this project? I've been trying out Mongoose OS since finding your videos, and love/hate it so far.

[@bitluni]

That's actually an unfortunate story. I tried to do it using Mongoose BUT there was no image that supported I²C and DHT at once. Only the IoT image hast DHT support but no I2C library... I asked for help but it takes some time and I didn't want to delay the video even longer. I always try to use JS and the default images since it's easier to set up. You could compile your own image using their cloud service. V2 of the weather station will not use DHT sensors anymore... I hate them from project to project more and people suggested good alternatives in the comments here.

[@FennecTECH]

as long as you arent continualy trickling it full. i recomend letting it use a small percentage between charging. That will lengthen the charge the most.

[@ubersham]

That would happen when it’s dark out, I would think.

[@hanssprungfeld4110]

Du kannst nochmal mehr strom sparen wenn du ein ESP 12 oder 7 Modul benutzt ohne CH340 und die kontroll leds noch weg lässt. Was nochmal strom spart ist einer größere Antenne wenn man keinen so guten empfang hat wird das durch die antenne kompensiert ohne das der Chip die treiberstufe zu sehr hoch fährt.

[@Igor-pw7nd]

would it be possible to buy a cloud ray sensor in this system ??

[@robertas220]

Hi guys, and sensei bitluni. I have one issue with this project. Scetch works like a charm, I get readings from DHT22 sensor to serial monitor, but readings are not sent to my server... Inside server runs NodeRed, and I have other ESP8266 with different sketch in it and it forks just fine. Any suggestions for this trouble? Thanks in advance. :)

[@silverbullPSE]

what are tehe specs of the schottky diode you use?

[@h0len]

What are the stats on that brick there?

[@lukasw.7614]

where can i buy the brick ;)

[@Buzz-Tea]

Hi, I just played around with MQTT in the last days and had problems to connect the weather station code to the MQTT broker. What worked for me was a change in the feed definition like is is done in the Adafruit Demo, to include the Username in the feed definition like e.g. Adafruit_MQTT_Publish test = Adafruit_MQTT_Publish(&mqtt, AIO_USERNAME "/feeds/test"); Maybe this helps someone else

Use BMP280, humidity, temperature and pressure all in 1.

[@fazuelle]

Hello, have you used another language to program esp8266 such as lua or native espressif rtos SDK? I'm wondering which one is the best for doing this stuff, what do you think? Arduino seems so newbie rs and sometimes buggy

[@bitluni]

I am currently starting with esp32 idf. have the only experience with arduino and mongoose os. I only take arduino if mongoose does not have the functionality easily accessible that I need for the projects. I hate Arduino. Intendation using spaces.. srsly?! ...but it comes with the comfort of the libraries. A am still looking for the best IDE... I hope Mongoose will get more libraries and simpler way to compile c++ projects. I'll also try to contribute

[@MrJanulis]

Try lua! But be informed - it's assinhronous and event based - that means different aproach programming. But it's a lot of fun learning it! :)

[@Talaxianer]

I just wonder if the weather station still works 4 years later?

[@quangminhle5113]

how can you build a mobile app? i mean which platform

[@nickpelov]

Technically topping off the battery all the time would be bad. I'm not sure how lifepo4 will handle it. However you are solar charging which means that most of the 24 hours you will be drawing current instead of charging. Then you will be charging and you might get 4-5 hours of topping off, but it won't be every day - especially in the cold seasons. The worst that could happen is that you'll reduce the life of the battery by a bit. But it's not that big deal if you replace it every 3 instead of every 5 years. My biggest concern is if it survived the winters without the voltage dropping too low. Is there a follow up video? I'm curious to see what happened

[@underdog6184]

9:45 Epic moment

[@user21XXL]

could you skip the photoresistor and read the voltage from solar cells to get a light measurement?

[@bitluni]

+user21XXL would be a bit more complicated. Since we would need to measure voltage and current. When the battery is low there is a higher load on the solar so the voltage drops.

[@user21XXL]

you could try to measure cell voltage when charging circuit is disconected. Relay or mosfet could disconect sollar panel from rest of the device, and you could check open cell voltage

[@Buy-n-large]

will this work with homeassistant?

[@akash12aug]

The charging module you made, was it able to charge 18650 li ion battery....?

[@lucasimark7992]

Is it still working?

[@_jjk_]

Hi bitluni, i'm currently using rrd and a real linux server for my weather station to fetch and store the data, but i want to switch to MQTT and perhaps Node-RED. Can you say something about datastorage and safety? I mean, as far as i see in your videos, all data is stored on the SD-Card of the Raspberry Pi, right? I had many projects with several Pi's and often the sd-card fails after some time even with proper shutdown of the system. I could currently request data from one year of my weather data and it would be nice to have this also in Node-RED, the safe way. I don't want to use any external services and if possible replace the bulky linux machine sitting in my appartment. BTW, nice videos and i wish you all the best for your full time youtube journey. Greetings from Bochum

[@bitluni]

I don't use any kind of permanent storage for the collected data. Node-RED buffers the data points needed to display in the chart. After I finished setting up my system a create an image of the SD so even if it fails I can easily replace it. To store the data permanently, I'd mount a drive on my disk station from the raspberry and set up a cron or node red task to backup the database which you use from node-red. writing directly to the disk station would wake up the drives all the time. Another option could be an extra usb drive for the raspberry just for the data

[@_jjk_]

I just set up an old raspberry pi 2 as mqtt broker and converted my 1wire based weather station to mqtt. With the help of your videos it was a 2h task including installing, updating and soldering. Will now see how it looks in one week :). Thanks again!

[@klofisch]

This looks all a little complicated. I have used a WEMOS, a TP4056 Carging Controller, BME280, a 18650 Battery, a Solarpanel