Efficient IoT based Weather Station

Abstract

In this paper, a new approach to practical and meaningful utilization of technology within a smart weather station system is presented. Weather station gives efficiency with instruments as well as equipment for measuring atmospheric data about the weather forecast conditions. Weather checking of the environment is essential because weather changes uncertainly every day. From weather updates, first understand the outside condition. So, we can take preparation according to weather. Weather also plays a vital role in human physical and psychological health. For these reasons, we always need to know about the current weather information. In this case, a weather station makes our life way easier by updating us about current weather states. We can easily see weather updates and information from weather stations by using apps. This paper has developed and tested a weather station based on NodeMCU Board and Blynk – IoT technology, which measures the meteorological data, including temperature, pressure, humidity, and rainfall.

Full text

2020 IEEE International Women in Engineering (WIE) Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (WIECON-ECE)
978-1-6654-1917-8/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE
Efficient IoT based Weather Station
Abu Saleh Bin Shahadat
Dept. of Computer Science and
Engineering
Khulna University of Engineering &
Technology
Khulna, Bangladesh
Email: abus29738@gmail.com
Safial Islam Ayon
Dept. of Computer Science and
Engineering
Green University of Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Email: ayon@cse.green.edu.bd
Most. Rokeya Khatun
Dept. of Computer Science and
Engineering
Green University of Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Email: rokeya@cse.green.edu.bd
Abstract— In this paper, a new approach to practical and
meaningful utilization of technology within a smart weather
station system is presented. Weather station gives efficiency with
instruments as well as equipment for measuring atmospheric
data about the weather forecast conditions. Weather checking
of the environment is essential because weather changes
uncertainly every day. From weather updates, first understand
the outside condition. So, we can take preparation according to
weather. Weather also plays a vital role in human physical and
psychological health. For these reasons, we always need to know
about the current weather information. In this case, a weather
station makes our life way easier by updating us about current
weather states. We can easily see weather updates and
information from weather stations by using apps. This paper
has developed and tested a weather station based on NodeMCU
Board and Blynk – IoT technology, which measures the
meteorological data, including temperature, pressure, humidity,
and rainfall.
Keywords—Weather Station, Meteorological parameters,
ESP8266, Blynk – IoT and Sensors.
I. INTRODUCTION
People around the globe are interconnected with the
assistance of high speed Internet. Internet of Things (IoT)
connects humans as well as electronic devices which can talk
and communicate among themselves ( Human-Device or
Device- Device) [1].
The particular development of this new route of
communications fundamentally will affect almost every
industry, for example transportation, energy, logistics,
medical care and so on. For instance, IoT is being applied to
create Smart devices which can identify and reaction to nearby
and more extensive level changes in energy utilization [2].
Additionally, there are numerous zones of interests where IoT
can contribute a significant effect, for example, Smart Homes
- which include IoT to elevate the level of mechanization;
wearable technologies – smartwatches and fitness bands;
efficient areas in IoT - connected healthcare.
Weather Station is using science and engineering to get
update of weather conditions at a place [3]. Weather stations
collect meteorological information about the current situation
of a particular region’s weather information and forecast the
weather circumstances in an area. Weather status in
Bangladesh are declared and analyzed by the Bangladesh
Meteorological Department (BMD) depending on weather
factors for a day-and-night period. But, naturally climate
condition changes constantly. So, it is necessary to record
short term weather update to get accurate result.
In the Earlier period, people were stayed at home, busy
with their domestic tasks or busy with their office’s job and
had no clue about the ecological boundaries and changes
outside their home or office. If the temperature of outdoor is
very high or very low, or usual, or if it is raining outdoor or
not, or what is the estimation of the moistness in the external
climate, they had no idea [4]. This device can give an effective
solution in these situations.
Weather states of a place are determined by a variety of
features such as air temperature, air pressure, moisture, and
rainfall [5]. By looking at these factors, we can easily
understand how the outside environment is. In this paper, we
tried to develop a simple weather station by using different
technologies. By using an internet connection, users can know
the situation of weather of any place from anywhere with this
system.
The paper is prepared in the subsequent patterns. At first
an overview about the paper and the relative terms, then in
chapter II the previous study related to this project is
discussed. In the following chapter the methodology of the
project is briefly discussed. The last two chapters of this paper
result from analysis and conclusion respectively.
II. PREVIOUS STUDY
In [6], authors have planned, developed and verified a little
cost weather station using raspberry pi. It monitors the
weather information, as well as wind direction, air speed, air
temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, solar radiation
and rain. Weather information are sent a database server and
is stored in memory card via Wi-Fi network. For visualization
of the weather information of a remote place, a web
application interface is used. This system provides real-time
weather updates like other expensive weather station. It is very
small in size, little in price, reliable and relaxed to use which
can be effectively used in different applications.
Authors [7] have developed an Automatic Weather Station
data logger with the help of microcontroller Netduino. It can
be used in any sector where weather is an important factor.
This paper develops a telemetry system based on Netduino
logger which can be placed on remote area, besides the
number of I/O analog pin on Netduino is expanded by a
switching channel method. This research show that analog
processing signal on Netduino has a change between its
original value but which is not so significant. Error of the
output is reduced by some treatment with using moving
average on each data reads (FAH) and good power resource.
Iswanto and H. Muhammad [8], proposed a method which
are directly related with nature such as agriculture, fishing on
sea requires weather information. Weather parameters such as
temperature, airspeed and solar radiation intensity are taken to
understand the environment. For measuring sun intensity
sensor LDR, for temperature sensor, LM35 and optokopler are
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2020 IEEE International Women in Engineering (WIE) Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (WIECON-ECE) | 978-1-6654-1917-8/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/WIECON-ECE52138.2020.9398041
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used. ATmega8535 microcontroller collects all sensors data.
Sensor signals are then processed and sent to the processor
board to measure the wind speed of the data parameter,
intensity of the sun and temperature. Between the processor
and the client, KYL 1020 U is used as an intermediate
transmitting device.
Climate has a serious influence on humans’ life.
Collecting numerous weather elements is extremely beneficial
to humans. The research develop an installed framework for
climate observing which makes easy to check climate
parameters. This framework [9] incorporates various sensors
such as humidity, temperature, wind speed. Climate
parameters are maintained into cloud. So, any validated one
can watch the climate information from everywhere using
internet. If there occur any disaster like substantial downpour,
flame, temperature, irresistible wind or soaker can be
dangerous, in such cases the moment data is passed the
verified people which is very helpful to regain previous state.
Authors in this paper [10] claimed that they send weather
parameter data by using wireless sensors. In this paper, an
inexpensive and easy weather station system is established.
Sensor data is processed using a microcontroller and
converted to air pressure, temperature, wind speed, and
humidity in the standard format. This information is then sent
wirelessly using 433 MHz radiofrequency and 150m optimal
delivery distance.
III. PROPOSED DESIGN OF THE WEATHER STATION
The proposed design of the model is described in this section.
The following section shows the details of the model and the
components
A. Weather System
Figure 1 shows the basic design of the weather station.
This system consists of an Esp8266 Wi-Fi microchip as both
data processor and TCP/IP stack, DHT11 temperature and
humidity sensor, BMP180 pressure sensor and SEN-00194
rain sensor and connecting cable.
Fig. 1. Weather Station Block Diagram
B. Rain Sensor
To detect the raindrop, this sensor is used. By measuring
the humidity of the water drops on the sensor board, The
sensor works. The parallel resistance on the sensor board is
changed by the water drops. This module has two output
system – digital & analog output. For digital output, if rain is
detected, output is low (0) otherwise output is high (1). For
analog output, value changes according to rainfall intensity.
If water drops on the board increase, the resistance value
increases as a result, output voltage will be decreases. As
small water drops fall on board, output voltage is so high.
When the sensor board is dry, it produces 255 on analog
output. As rain intensity increases, output go towards 0.
C. Air Pressure Sensor
Bosch company brought the pressure sensor BMP180.
This sensor measures the absolute pressure around its
atmosphere. Sensor BMP180 can be used to measure
atmospheric pressure and altitude too as it varies according to
height from the sea level. BMP180 can sample to a rate up to
128 samples per second. The BMP180 four pins - GND, 3.3V,
SCL, SDA.
D. DHT 11 Temperature and Humidity Sensor
Sensor DHT11 [11] measures the temperature and
moisture of the enclosure environment. Thermistors and
capacitive moisture sensors are used to calculate the weather
temperature and then it is sent to data pin. DHT11 uses
substrate moisture between two electrodes to measure
humidity. Changes in conductivity of the substrate indicate the
changes in humidity. The thermistor is used to measure
temperature. A thermistor is type of resistor whose resistance
is dependent on temperature. Semiconductive materials like
ceramics or polymers are used to make this sensor. A small
temperature change can produce a large change in resistance
value. This sensor has three pins-VCC, DATA, GND.
E. Wireless Modul ESP8266
For the needs of new connections with the world, highly
integrated chip ESP8266 chip is designed. It offers a complete
and integrated Wi-Fi networking solution, allows us to be
either host the application or use of all network functions of
other wireless implementations. The ESP8266 is a budget-
friendly Wi-Fi microchip with full TCP/IP stack and
microcontroller capability, produced by manufacturer
Espressif Systems in Shanghai, China. This module allows us
to connect to the internet via Wi-Fi networks. To program the
module on serial communication, Arduino software can be
used.
F. Connecting Cable
To join electrical components and create an electricity
flow, a connecting cable can be used. Almost every electrical
connector has a gender – i.e. the male component, female
component. Female to female jumper wires are used for our
purposes, which use both ends to plug things.
G. Arduino
The Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
[12] is a cross-stage application and written in functions from
C and C++. It is used to write and transfer codes to Arduino
compatible boards for example Arduino Uno, Arduino
atmega, nodemcu and so on. The Arduino IDE employs the
program avrdude to change over the executable code into a
text file in hexadecimal encoding, at that point it is loaded into
the Arduino board by a loader program in the board's
firmware. Naturally, to flash the user code onto official
Arduino boards, avrdude is used as the transferring
instrument.
H. Blynk - IoT for Arduino
Blynk [13-14] is a hardware-agnostic IoT stage with
white-mark mobile apps, private clouds, device organization,
information analytics, and artificial intelligence. It is the most
popular IoT stage to connect our gadgets with the cloud, plan
application to control them, investigate telemetry information,
and manage our deployed products at a scale.
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I. Processing Weather Components
We use the Arduino software to program the ESP8266
module. Header files - ESP8266WiFi.h, DHT.h,
Adafruit_BMP085.h are used for the functionality of the
nodemcu, temperature & humidity and pressure modules. To
interface on Blynk - IoT app; virtual terminals v5, v6, v7, v8,
v9 are used for humidity, temperature, rainfall, pressure and
altitude. BlynkSimpleEsp8266.h library is used for Blynk –
IoT. Fig. 2 shows the Virtual terminal settings of Blynk-IoT
app.
Fig. 2. Virtual terminal settings on Blynk-IoT app
J. Hardware Prototype
To implement the hardware one Esp8266 WIFI Module,
one pressure sensor, one temperature and humidity sensor,
raindrops module have been used. A portable battery is used
to power up the device. This weather station is portable, it can
be easily carried to any places. For BMP180 sensor – GND,
3.3, SCL, SDA pins are connected to the G, 3V, D1, D2 pins
of the ESP8266 module. For DHT11 sensor – GND, VCC, S
pins are connected to the G, 3V, D5 pins of the ESP8266
module. For SEN-00194 raindrop sensor – A0, GND, VCC
pins are connected to the A0, G, 3V pins of the ESP8266
module. Figure 3 shows the proposed hardware design in
details.
K. Stepwise Procedure
The proposed system follows the following step to
complete the tasks.
Step 1: First, sensors get the input and produce signal on
the output pin.
Step 2: ESP8266 module takes the sensor output, process
it and send to cloud using Wi-Fi connection.
Step 3: Blynk-IoT app gets the inputs using virtual
terminals and show it on preferred settings.
L. Features of the project
The system has some features that make the system
unique.
1. The cost of the full system is very low and the
components are very reasonable in price.
2. The size of the model is very small and it is easy to
carry one place to another.
3. The user interface of the model is very user friendly.
Any user can easily understand the model mechanism
in a very short time.
4. The response time of the model is very little.
5. As it is connected to the internet the coverage area is
very large.
M. Applications
The applications of the project are:
1. In the field of agriculture, the weather forecasting
system plays an important role.
2. In the volcano and rain forests, it is also very
efficient.
3. At such places, where staying is difficult for a longer
time, it is also helpful.
Fig 3. Proposed model hardware implementation
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IV. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
We can easily see the result from the Blynk-IoT app. The
weather forecast is shown in Figure 4.
Fig. 4. The weather forecast on the Blynk-IoT app
Output result is compared with the national weather
information. The percentage (%) of error is calculated and
displayed in both Table I and Table II.
TABLE I. DATA COMPARISON OF NATIONAL INFORMATION AND
EXPERIMENTAL INFORMATION ON KHULNA CITY
Weather
component
National
Information
(Khulna city)
Measured
Information
(Khulna city)
Percentage
Error
Temperature
30 degree
Celsius
29.7 degree
Celsius 1%
Humidity
78%
75%
3.85%
Barometric
Pressure 101 kpa 102.3 kpa 1.23%
Altitude
30 ft
28.49 ft
5.03
%
Rainfall
0
0
0%
TABLE II. DATA COMPARISON OF NATIONAL DATA & EXPERIMENTAL
DATA ON RAJSHAHI CITY
Weather
component
National
Information
(Rajshahi city)
Measured
Information
(Rajshahi city)
Percentage
Error
Temperature
28 degree
Celsius
2
7.6
degree
Celsius
1.4
%
Humidity
78%
76%
2.56
%
Barometric
Pressure
100.3 kpa
101.3 kpa
0.99
%
Altitude
59 ft
62 ft
5.0
8
%
From the comparison, we can see that this weather station
produces good result in terms of accuracy and reliability.
There are also some advantages in this projects.
1. IOT weather mentoring system is fully automated.
2. It does not require any human attention.
3. We can get prior alert of weather situation.
4. Budget friendly and efforts are less in this system.
5. Accuracy is high.
6. Smart way for checking environment.
7. Efficient.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have developed an NodeMCU based budget
friendly Wireless Weather Station with IOT based graphical
application software for easy checking of the weather
information. It can calculate temperature, pressure, humidity,
rainfall and altitude. The results shown good accuracy and
stability compared to other budget friendly weather stations.
It has a user-friendly interface with a very low maintenance
charge. In future, more improvements like wind direction,
solar radiation, precipitation can be added. More research can
be done to make the system as cheap as possible.
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