OurWeather – Complete Weather Kit
(Please see the full OurWeather Page with all downloads and manuals at: https://shop.switchdoc.com/products/ourweather-complete-weather-kit – this page is no longer being maintained)
OurWeather is a connected weather station (based upon an ESP8266) containing 7 different sensors that will teach about electronics, software and the
weather. It contains all the sensors and wires to make a fully functional, WiFi weather station.
The OurWeather station is a complete weather kit that you can build and modify yourself.
Now works with Amazon Alexa!
Please go to the Product Support Forum for OurWeather at the top of the page for comments and questions.
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“Overall, this was a fun build that took a total of about a leisurely weekend to complete. The hardware and software is well thought out and easy to assemble. SwitchDoc Labs delivered exactly the experience we were hoping for…although there are some blinky lights on the circuit board just to make it feel like a STEM project. ;)” Rene D.
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“We have an almost 4 year old daughter and we are starting to introduce technology. We are combining my love of weather and my wife’s IT background to explore weather together as a family. We are very excited about the possibilities OurWeather will bring for us to learn.” G.K.
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” I’m really pleased with SwitchDoc products and had a good time putting it together today! I am so excited to get my weather station up and running, so glad you guys made the weather kit available. It’s a great introductory project for me.” Laura
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What is OurWeather?
You can watch our successful kickstarter video here: https://youtu.be/pw6hSNSQnsM for an introduction to OurWeather.
OurWeather is a connected weather station containing 7 different sensors that will teach about electronics, software and the weather. It contains all the sensors and wires to make a fully functional, WiFi weather station. No software programming is required, it works right out of the box. However, if you want to change the way OurWeather works, add your own software or do something entirely different, we have the Open Source software available. And what is one of the coolest features of OurWeather? Building the kit requires NO SOLDERING. It is all plug and play based building, with a full step-by-step photograph based instruction manual. It is a safe and educational way to learn about weather, electronics and science topics.
News
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-(June 18, 2018) Version 032 Software Released – Problem with Air Quality Sensor fixed.
-(April 30, 2018) Solar Sensor Wireless Extender Kit – WXLink – Released
-(April 2, 2018) Version 031 Software Released – ThunderBoard Lightning Detection Added
-(March 21, 2018) Version 030 Software Released – WiFi Reliability Improvement
-(March 15, 2018) Version 029 Software Released – Compatibility fix for PubNub March 1, 2018 release
-(March 9, 2018) Version 028 Software Released – AM2315 rare corruption bug fixed
-(January 5, 2018) Version 027 Software Released – WeatherUnderground issue fixed.
-(January 3, 2018) Version 026 Software Released – Alexa to OurWeather Interface
-(August 1, 2017) Version 023 Software Released – Wind Direction Bug Fixed – Introduced in Version 022
-(July 20, 2017) Version 022 Software Released – Wind Gust and Wind Speed Accuracy Improved
-(March 3, 2017) OurWeather Solar Extender Kit Released
-(February 27, 2017) Version 021 Software Released – Supports WXLink Hardware
-(October 21, 2016) Version 019 Software Released – Supports Solar Power with SunAirPlus
-(September 12, 2016) Version 018 Software Released – with WeatherUnderground Support
-(June 29, 2016) Guest Blog – Dupree Family Build of OurWeather
-(June 20, 2016) New Posting on OurWeather to Raspberry Pi REST software
– (June 9, 2016) OurWeatherPage updated with Rain Totals and AirQuality Sensor Information
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Features
[list]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Full Computer Controlled Weather Station Kit[/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Works with Amazon Alexa[/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Wind Speed, Direction and Gusts[/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Inside Temperature, Outside Temperature, Outside Humidity[/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Barometric Pressure and Rain Gauge[/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Supports WeatherUnderground[/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Uses standard GROVE connectors. No Soldering![/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Great kit for beginners or experts[/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Contains the WeatherPlus board (with on board computer)[/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Great kit for beginners or experts[/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Has an included Real Time Clock – good to 1 part per million[/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Full Open Source Code for OurWeather Provided. You can change everything![/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Step by Step Assembly and Operations Manual with Pictures[/list_item]
[list_item size=”small” icon=”icon-beaker” hex_color=””]Sensors and Functions can be added with Extender Kits[/list_item]
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What are Grove Connectors?
Grove Connectors are a standard way of connecting a variety of devices quickly and safely. See our full tutorial here.
Main Kit
OurWeather Contains all the parts shown in the picture below.
OurWeather contains the customizable WeatherPlus board.
Extender Kits
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[accordion_item title=”Air Quality Extender Kit”]Add an Air Quality Sensor and an Analog to Digital Converter to OurWeather
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[accordion_item title=”Solar WXLink (Wireless Sensors) Extender Kit”]Extend Your Sensors with Solar! [/accordion_item]
[accordion_item title=”ThunderBoard Lightning Detection Extender Kit”]Detect Lightning with OurWeather. [/accordion_item]
[accordion_item title=”Light and Color Sensing Extender Kit”]Sense the sunlight and the color of light with OurWeather. Coming Soon.[/accordion_item]
[accordion_item title=”Solar Power OurWeather Extender Kit”]Allows you to make OurWeather Solar Powered with an educational system that gathers data about the sun and the weather. [/accordion_item]
[accordion_item title=”Weatherproofing Extender Kit “]Adds a weatherproof box and connectors to OurWeather. Coming Soon[/accordion_item]
[accordion_item title=”3D Printed Base for OurWeather”]Don’t have a 3D Printer? You can buy a OurWeather Stand on the SwitchDoc Store[/accordion_item]
[accordion_item title=”Plant Water Sensing Extender Kit”]Monitor your garden or in school flower pot for soil moisture levels with OurWeather. Coming soon. [/accordion_item]
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Downloads
- – Assembly and Operations Manual
- – Advanced Usage Manual – Version 4.0
- – Connecting Alexa to OurWeather
- – WeatherPlus Product Page and Documentation
- – OurWeather Software Source Code
- – Connecting OurWeather to the WeatherUnderground
- – Over-The-Air Update – see the Assembly and Operations Manual to update
- – OurWeather REST Interface and the Raspberry Pi
3D Printed OurWeather Base
If you have a 3D Printer, here is the code to make your own OurWeather base. If you don’t, you can buy one on the SwitchDoc Labs Store.
3D Printed Radiation Shield
Here is a design we use for wall mounting an AM2315 temperature / humidity sensor. Depending on your installation, you may use a freestanding radiation shield like this
one on Thingiverse ( https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:804356 ).
More Technical Background
Advanced Usage
OurWeather is designed to be accessable to a wide range of different ages and skill levels. Out of the box, you can easily see and get weather information from OurWeather by the supplied web page and included OLED display. Plug it in, and it works.
For those who wish to dig in a little deeper and build software on Raspberry Pis to read information from OurWeather and use it in their own programs, we provide a REST interface. Simple to use. Let’s say your OurWeather is located at the address of 192.168.1.134 (OurWeather will tell you what address it is at during startup after you have set it up). For example: https://192.168.1.134/OutdoorTemperature will return:
{“OutdoorTemperature”: 22.10, “id”: “1”, “name”: “OurWeather”, “connected”: true}
Very cool. Actually, 22.10 is in Celsius so it is a nice temperature. 72F.
All the weather information is available by similar calls.
We provide the source code up on github.com for OurWeather so you can modify it yourself for those who want to dig in even deeper.
Software Updates
OurWeather supports software updates OTA (Over the Air) so you can always go and grab our latest software off of www.SwitchDoc.com by using your OurWeatherAdmin.html web page. You are never out of date with the latest and greatest!
Technology
OurWeather is based on a special board designed by SwitchDoc Labs called WeatherPlus.
WeatherPlus contains an ESP8266 processor (includes WiFi) and does not require an external computer to run. If you want to program the WeatherPlus board, we supply all of the source code to allow you to do that. The software for the board is written using the Arduino IDE with the ESP8266 libraries added.
OurWeather is a very open project that can be used many different ways. It is not a sealed unit that can not be modified. We embrace the open source model of software!