Are you looking for a weather station project? This example highlights an ESP32-based weather station, which measures key weather parameters such as temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity, air pressure, and precipitation, making the data available online.  

Weather Station Circuit

"The weather station is built around the ESP32 Pico Kit V4 (see the schematic), which handles all the necessary tasks," explain the Elektor engineers who worked on the project. "To make sensor connection and fitting in a waterproof enclosure (a Fibox PC 100/60 HT) a bit easier, we designed a carrier board. The wind and rain sensors are connected to the carrier board through RJ45 connectors, while the BME280 and SDS011 sensors are connected through JST XH connectors."
 
. An ESP32 sits at the heart of the weather station.
"The BME280 sensor uses the I2C bus, and the SDS011 sensor uses a UART port. We also implemented two additional ports on the board to allow supplementary sensors (or other sensors) or peripheral devices to be read. The first additional port consists of a Grove I2C connector for Grove modules from Seeed studio. The second is an FTDI port that feeds out a UART connection."
 
The prototype fits perfectly into the chosen housing.
Consider the station’s features and functions:
 
  • Measures temperature, wind direction and wind speed, humidity, air pressure and precipitation
  • Optional sensor for fine particles: Nova Fitness SDS-011
  • Additional ports for Grove sensors or other devices
  • Supports Thingspeak and senseBox
  • Can be configured on the internal web page of the ESP32
  • Operates from a solar panel, 12 V battery, and/or 8-28 V DC adapter
 
The PCB

Weather Station Configuration

You can configure the station through a web page hosted directly by the ESP32. Upon startup, the ESP32 attempts to connect to the configured network, and if it fails, it automatically starts a web server to host the configuration page. The server can also be launched manually by pressing the button on the board when powering it on or by pressing the ESP32’s EN button. If no action is taken on the configuration page for 10 minutes, the ESP32 will restart and reconnect to the network, though this can be prevented by holding the button or bypassing it. The configuration page allows you to view current measurements, including battery voltage, and to adjust network and upload settings. Network settings include the SSID, which can be chosen from a list, and the password. Upload settings involve entering the necessary API keys for Thingspeak and senseBox, as well as setting the upload interval.

Weather station installation
Note that Thingspeak is a free online database to which data can be uploaded. For this, a channel and associated field must be created for each measured parameter. After the channel is created, you receive a write API key. This key must be entered on the configuration page of the weather station. A senseBox kit makes it easy to set up your own sensor station. The measured parameters can be uploaded to opensensemap.org, where the measurements from all senseBoxes or devices compatible with senseBox can be viewed. To register a weather station, you first create an account at opensensemap.org and then you can add a senseBox.

The Original Project

The article, “ESP32 Weather Station: Reading Sensor Data Online,” was published in Elektor Jan/Feb 2019. The article will be free to download for at least the two weeks after the publication of this news item. Enjoy!

Editor's Note: This article was first published in a 2019 edition of ElektorMag. Please note that some of the components, products (e.g., PCBs) and links may no longer be available. However, we believe the educational content remains valuable and hope it inspires you to start new projects.