Creating a weather station with a Raspberry Pi may not be something that interests the vast majority of users alike, but if you are a lover of weather reports, isobars, anticyclones and other issues related to the weather, you might like know how easy it is to create your own homemade version.
A homemade weather station
Suppose you are one of those who like to know the weather at this precise moment and even try to anticipate what it will be the next few days. To do this, you would normally take your mobile phone, turn it on, open the weather application that everyone has installed by default (both on iOS and Android) and you would look at the area or place that you are interested in knowing.
Easy and fast, right? Well yes and that is why the idea of building your own home weather station is not something really interesting or attractive for everyone. And much less if the construction involves doing it with a Raspberry Pi. In that sense, creating a retro game emulation system, a multimedia player or other similar projects more focused on leisure are more striking.
However, for those that everything related to climate change is a real vice, things change. So creating your own weather station could be interesting if you are one of those who lose their minds to know what the weather will be like.
Yes, there are ready-made options, but it is more fun to buy the different components yourself, assemble it and understand a little more how they work according to the data you want to obtain. And that is what this Raspberry Pi project allows you and the only thing you will need are the following components:
- Raspberry Pi with WiFi connectivity
- Antenna to improve the signal if necessary
- Waterproof case to place the Raspberry Pi outdoors safely
- Humidity, temperature, pressure and air quality sensors ( full list here )
These components can be found both individually and through various kits that specialized Raspberry Pi stores sell. So it will not cost you much to have them quickly at home to start creating it.
Once you have everything, you just have to follow the steps indicated to connect each sensor to its corresponding pins of the G-PIO connector. Then you have to assemble everything correctly so that, if it is placed outdoors, its components will not be damaged when it encounters adverse weather conditions such as strong winds or rain.
However, following some tutorials that exist in easy to achieve an optimal result. So once everything is ready, the last step is to configure the Raspberry Pi to run the necessary software and send the information wherever you want to be able to view it quickly and comfortably.
Is it worth creating a home weather station?
This question about whether or not it is worth it can be answered with both yes and no. Because for cost, compared to basic stations, you may not be interested. Since it is complicated by acquiring sensors, watertight boxes and other materials that then have to be assembled and configured.
In that case, there are very interesting proposals such as the Netatmo weather station. These are already prepared to give you all that information you are looking for and can be expanded with more independent points as well as different additional sensors.
However, the attraction of making your own is that you learn how everything works, what each sensor is like and it has that DIY point that many like so much. So it is a matter of evaluating if you are looking for something done and without complications or want to experiment with the entire construction process.