Tutorial: Part 12 -Building a Solar Powered
Raspberry Pi Weather Station – GroveWeatherPi
The Raspberry Pi is a fabulous device to on which to build your projects. The GroveWeatherPi project is designed to show the capabilities of this computer while remaining accessible to a diverse Maker community.
GroveWeatherPi is a Solar Powered Raspberry Pi WiFi connected weather station designed for Makers by SwitchDoc Labs ( www.switchdoc.com). This is a great system to build and tinker with. All of it is modifiable and all source code is included.
This tutorial for building your own Solar Powered Weather Station based on the Raspberry Pi consists of 14 parts.
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Starting the Whole System!
You can now start the GroveWeatherPi software by running the following commands.
From your login directory:
cd SDL_Pi_GroveWeatherPi sudo python GroveWeatherPi.py
You will get a display that looks something like this:
GroveWeatherPi Solar Powered Weather Station Version 2.0 - SwitchDoc Labs Program Started at:2016-08-12 22:41:31 ---------------------- I2C Mux - TCA9545: Present DS3231: Present BMP280: Present FRAM: Not Present HTU21DF: Present AM2315: Present ADS1015: Not Present ADS1115: Present AS3935: Present OLED: Present SunAirPlus: Present ---------------------- as3935 Interrupt processing Interrupt from as3935 Last Interrupt = 0x4: Disturber detected - masking ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ----------------- WeatherRack Weather Sensors Sampling ----------------- Rain Total= 0.00 in Wind Speed= 0.00 MPH MPH wind_gust= 0.00 MPH Wind Direction= 270.00 Degrees Wind Direction Voltage= 4.476 V ----------------- ----------------- DS3231 Real Time Clock ----------------- Raspberry Pi= 2016-08-12 22:41:41 DS3231= 2016-08-12 22:41:41 DS3231 Temperature= 25.25 C ----------------- ----------------- ----------------- BMP280 Barometer ----------------- Temperature = 25.60 C Pressure = 94.66 KPa Altitude = 570.64 m Sealevel Pressure = 94.66 KPa ----------------- ----------------- HTU21DF Temp/Hum ----------------- Temperature = 24.70 C Humidity = 43.40 % ----------------- ----------------- AS3935 Lightning Detector ----------------- Last result from AS3935: Disturber: Disturber detected - masking Lightning Count = 0 ----------------- ----------------- AM2315 Temperature/Humidity Sensor ----------------- outsideTemperature: 24.4 C outsideHumidity: 36.9 % crc: 1 ----------------- ----------------- SunAirPlus Currents / Voltage ----------------- LIPO_Battery Bus Voltage: 3.78 V LIPO_Battery Shunt Voltage: -14.56 mV LIPO_Battery Load Voltage: 3.76 V LIPO_Battery Current 1: -145.60 mA Battery Power 1: -0.55 W Solar Cell Bus Voltage 2: 4.75 V Solar Cell Shunt Voltage 2: -40.64 mV Solar Cell Load Voltage 2: 4.71 V Solar Cell Current 2: 406.40 mA Solar Cell Power 2: 1.91 W Output Bus Voltage 3: 4.94 V Output Shunt Voltage 3: 18.88 mV Output Load Voltage 3: 4.94 V Output Current 3: 188.80 mA Output Power 3: 0.93 W
Add a Bootup Start for GroveWeatherPi
The final system step you need to do is to add a line to startup GroveWeatherPi when your Raspberry Pi reboots. If you don’t do this, then you have to start it manually which doesn’t work with the WatchDog or if the station runs out of energy.
On your Pi, edit the file /etc/rc.local using the editor of your choice. You must edit with root, for example:
sudo nano /etc/rc.local
Add commands below the comment, but leave the line exit 0 at the end, then save the file and exit.
Add the following command (all on one line) to the file before the exit 0 line.
cd /home/pi/SDL_Pi_GroveWeatherPi; sudo python /home/pi/SDL_Pi_GroveWeatherPi/GroveWeatherPi.py >> /home/pi/GroveWeatherPi.log &
Now reboot your machine by typing:
sudo reboot
Login in again and you can look at the output of GroveWeatherPi by running the following command in /home/pi
tail -f GroveWeatherPi.log
Running on AC Power
Want to run inside on AC power? Plug a 5V Mini USB power supply into SunAirPlus.
Remove OLED Display
Turn off the power now and remove the OLED display from the box, as we won’t be
looking at it once we shut the box. Alternatively, you can leave the display in (it takes about 15mA) and put a small plexiglass window on the side of the box to read it.
getting the following error
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<
Error accessing 0x48: Check your I2C address
Error accessing 0x48: Check your I2C address
Type Error
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "GroveWeatherPi.py", line 557, in
import crcpython2
ImportError: No module named crcpython2
Download the software again from https://github.com/switchdoclabs/SDL_Pi_GroveWeatherPi
The file is now included in the repository.
Best regards,
SDL
as3935 Interrupt
Error 1049: Unknown database ‘monkeyboy’
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “GroveWeatherPi.py”, line 1447, in
pclogging.log(pclogging.INFO, __name__, “GroveWeatherPi Startup Version 2.0”)
File “/home/pi/SDL_Pi_GroveWeatherPi/pclogging.py”, line 70, in log
cur.close()
UnboundLocalError: local variable ‘cur’ referenced before assignment
Sounds like you haven’t set up your database correctly. “Unknown Database monkeyboy”
SDL
my weather station will suddenly stop reporting after about 3 hours. Sometimes it fixes itself, but most times I have to reboot the pi. Was able to verify the network, or the pie losing connection to the Internet.
You have an issue with your wireless WiFi dongle. Try replacing it. It may be a WiFi strength issue too.
SDL
Hi guys,
cant get passed this point :
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “GroveWeatherPi.py”, line 246, in
Sunlight_Sensor = SDL_Pi_SI1145.SDL_Pi_SI1145()
File “./SDL_Pi_SI1145/SDL_Pi_SI1145.py”, line 160, in __init__
self._device = I2C.Device(address, busnum)
File “./SDL_Pi_SI1145/I2C.py”, line 96, in __init__
import Adafruit_PureIO.smbus
ImportError: No module named Adafruit_PureIO.smbus
config is:
TCA9545_I2CMux_Present = True
SunAirPlus_Present = False
AS3935_Present = False
DS3231_Present = True
BMP280_Present = True
FRAM_Present = False
HTU21DF_Present = False
AM2315_Present = True
ADS1015_Present = False
ADS1115_Present = False
OLED_Present = True
WXLink_Present = False
Sunlight_Preset = False
This is an odd error that we just ran across too. Something is askew with the file structure, but here is the way to fix this:
If you get the error:
“ImportError: No module named Adafruit_PureIO.smbus”
Try the following:
git clone https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_PureIO.git
cd Adafruit_Python_PureIO
sudo python setup.py install
This will correct the error and we will get to the root of the problem. We aren’t including something correctly.
Best, SDL
Hi again SDL,
After adding Python PureIO its throwing this now:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “GroveWeatherPi.py”, line 244, in
tca9545.write_control_register(TCA9545_CONFIG_BUS3)
File “./SDL_Pi_TCA9545/SDL_Pi_TCA9545.py”, line 74, in write_control_register
self._write(TCA9545_REG_CONFIG, config)
File “./SDL_Pi_TCA9545/SDL_Pi_TCA9545.py”, line 52, in _write
self._bus.write_byte_data(self._addr, register, data)
IOError: [Errno 5] Input/output error
I have to shutdown each attempt, else it tells me the MUX is missing. Ive checked the wiring 5 mines.. just to make sure and try and debug. Is there an ISO or similar I can download and write a new SDCard with a working operating system?
Topher,
Would you do three things for us.
1) Post the start of the GroveWeatherPi with all of the device detection shown.
2) Post a picture of the Mux and the wiring to the Mux.
3) Would you run the Test in the TCA directory and post the results?
We don’t build an ISO for the system. We go to the RaspberryPi.org and get the ISO from there and overlay our software on that image (as in the realm).
Thanks!
SDL