A complete network system that connects a solar-powered weather station, a calling machine that can get real-time weather voice report, and a database website.
Collaborator: Henrique Stockler
1 The Sun Watcher
The sun watcher is a solar-powered weather station connected to our database system. It is mounted with four sensors: a light sensor, a humidity and temperature sensor, an air pressure sensor, and an air quality sensor. The sensors are powered by a battery, which is charged by a solar panel when there is sun. An Arduino Nano 33IoT is used to control the sensors' sleep and connect them to the Internet.
This was installed in a parking lot at the New Lab at Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York.
The sensor's container is designed to withstand various kinds of weather conditions while allowing readings from all the light and air-related sensors. The design is far from being well-rounded and professional in a long-term perspective, but it did carry us through the entire project, which lasted for about a month.
The case is made from clear acrylic sheets by laser cutting. There are large holes on the sides to allow ventilation and small holes at the bottom to drain any water that gets in. The top piece hangs over the edge to prevent rain from getting inside.
To save energy consumption, the system sleeps when being in idle. Every five minutes, it wakes up and updates the weather data to the server, and then goes back to sleep.
2 The Calling Station
We fabricated the calling machine from wood panels and acrylic sheet and some discarded keycaps we found in the junk shell. The aesthetic is to make the machine look obselete. My partner Henrique did most of the case fabrication, and I did the internal circuits. The machine has one interactive button, one broken screen, one speaker, and one thermal printer.
When the button is pressed, the machine will connect to the weather watcher and request a weather report. Below is a video showing how it works:
3 Networking
Besides connecting the caller to the watcher, the server also serves as the networking center for other projects shared by the entire Energy class. All data sent by the remote solar projects are collected through an MQTT broker (credit to Kai who built the broker) and stored in a SQLite database. I also built a web client that can be used to retrieve data from the database and search through it.
A proxy is used for the server, and the domain is encrypted to enhance security.
Special thanks:
ITP Energy Class of 2024
Jeffrey Feddersen
Yonathan Rozin
Voltaic
Jeffrey Feddersen
Yonathan Rozin
Voltaic
- Site construction, Research & Communication
- Energy teacher
- Networking teacher
- Equipment & Location
- Energy teacher
- Networking teacher
- Equipment & Location