Technical Information
This tab of the site has some detailed information about pieces of the project. This includes a part list, some sensor information, and some troubleshooting information.
How it Works
I like to think of this project in terms of two parts, even though the final edition is going to be on on printed circuit board.
​
The Power Circuit:
This part of the circuit exists to simply power the circuit. The solar panel collects energy from the sun. That energy is passed through the battery charger which ensures that a constant voltage is applied to the battery. The battery supplies a voltage to the boost convertor, which puts out a constant voltage to power the micro controller. There is a diode in place between the battery charger and the solar panel to prevent a back flow of energy into the solar panel.
​
The Sensor Array:
This part of the circuit measures the weather conditions and tells the user that information. The center of this circuit is the Arduino Pro Mini. This device is powered from the battery voltage, which runs through the boost converter first. It listens for data from the wind sensor, temperature and humidity sensor, and the barometer. Once it receives data, it converts it to a readable format and sends it to the screen, where the user can see it. There is now a push button in the circuit that controls the LCD screen and the LCD back light.
Ethical Concerns
A big thing to consider in this project was ethics. I focused on making my circuit as energy efficient as possible. I decided to solely power the circuit off of a solar panel to be as environmentally friendly as possible. This created some interesting problems with the rest of the circuit, because everything had to be designed in a low power manner. This was a deciding factor when considering which micro controller I was going to use, because I wanted one that would consume as little power as possible. I ended up going with the Arduino Pro Mini, because it did not even have a built in USB port, saving the device from having to constantly power that. I added a button that turns features of the LCD on and off as well to ensure that the user could shut it off to save power when not in use.
​
This project should last the user as long as the battery remains chargeable, which should be for a large amount of time. At that point the user would have to replace the battery if they chose too.
