Grove Sunlight Sensor SI1145 (Vis/IR/UV) now Supported by GroveWeatherPi
Our GroveWeatherPi Raspberry Pi Weather Station Kit now supports the Grove Sunlight Sensor SI1145 and has just launched a new pure python version of the software. It is located up at github.com/switchdoclabs. This fixes all known issues and now supports the just released Grove Sunlight Sensor SI1145.
The Grove SI1145 reads visible light, infra red and UV all in one I2C package.
What is the GroveWeatherPi?
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.
Features of the Grove Weather Pi
The most important functions are:
- – Detects Lightning!
- – Senses 20 different environmental values
- – Optionally Solar Powered
- – Has a full database containing history of the environment (MySQL)
- – Monitors and reports lots of data on the solar powered system – great for education!
- – Self contained and monitored for brownouts and power issues
- – Can be modified remotely
- – Download your data to crunch it on your PC or Mac
- – Can be modified to do CWOP, SMS (Text) messaging, Twitters, webpages and more
- – Has an iPad Based Control Panel
- – Easy to connect to Twitter, WeatherUnderground, etc
What is the Grove SI1145 Sunlight Sensor?
The Grove Sunlight, IR and UV I2C sensor can monitor sunlight intensity, IR intensity and UV
intensity. All in one sensor. The sensor is a multi-channel digital light sensor, which has the ability to detect UV-light, visible light and infrared light.
This device is based on SI1145, a new sensor from SiLabs. The Si1145 is a low-power, reflectance-based, infrared proximity, UV index and ambient light sensor with I2C digital interface and programmable-event interrupt output. This device offers excellent performance under a wide dynamic range and a variety of light sources including direct sunlight.
It measures total visible light (in Lumens), infrared light (in Lumens) and UV (UV index).
You can download the SI1145 Specification here.
Adding the Grove SI1145 Sunlight Sensor to the GroveWeatherPi
Adding the Grove SI1145 to the GroveWeatherPi is simple.
- Download the latest version of the GroveWeatherPi Software – https://github.com/switchdoclabs/SDL_Pi_GroveWeatherPi
- Update your MySQL Database by running (in the WeatherPiSQL subdirectory):
mysql -u root -p GroveWeatherPi< GroveWeatherPi.sql
user: root password: password Obviously with these credentials, don’t connect port 3306 to the Internet. Change them if you aren’t sure.
- Plug one end of a Grove cable into the Grove connector on the Sunlight Sensor. Plug the other end of the Grove cable into BUS3 on the I2C 4 Channel Mux
Grove Connector for BUS3 on the I2C 4 Channel Mux Board Board in GroveWeatherPi (BUS3 is the Grove plug just below JP4 on the I2C 4 Channel Mux Board)
- Run the GroveWeatherPi.py software and look to see that the SI1145 is detected. You can also run the test procedure as in Part 7 of the tutorial and you should see the SI1145 on Bus3 at address 0x60.
Installing the Sunlight Sensor in your Outdoor Box
You will need to cut a hole in your box and place a transparent UV transparent window over the hole.
If you are putting a Grove Sunlight / IR / UV sensor in a weather proof container, you should use a far-UV transparent Silica Quartz plate for the window over the sensor.
However, remember most plastics and glass are basically impervious to UV radiation (that’s why your Photogray sun glasses don’t work well in a car) so you need to use a special plastic or what I prefer, Silica Quartz. These Quartz JGS1 windows will let the UV through.
The Results from GroveWeatherPi
From the startup section:
Sunlight Sensor: Present
From the running section:
----------------- Sunlight Vi/IR/UV Sensor ----------------- Sunlight Visible: 261 Sunlight IR: 254 Sunlight UV Index: 0.02
The data is then stored in our MySQL database for graphing and analysis.
