I, Weather

thingiverse

I, Weather, keep your eye on the weather. There are few areas in everyday life that suffer from data overload quite like the weather. All you want to know is what's it like outside right now? Instead of a nice simple answer, you're deluged with more data points than you can sling a psychrometer at: dew points, inches of mercury, humidity, wind speed, and temperature. My kids don't want to know any of that techie stuff; they just want to know if it's nice, hot, or cold outside...right now. Today, with the SparkFun Electronics RedStick and a couple of discrete parts, you can answer that simple weather question with "I, Weather." Securely installed inside a beautifully designed 3D-printed custom case (files available on Thingiverse), "I, Weather" provides you with a clear, easy-to-understand weather synopsis. Optimized Arduino code (files available on GitHub) featuring a WatchDog timer enables "I, Weather" to sip just enough juice from its dual AAA battery pack to keep your weather fix going and going. Here's how it works: the RedStick is safely mounted inside the battery pack within a custom 3D-printed lid. The temperature sensor and RGB LED are neatly arranged inside a 3D-printed button disc. Two "eye" openings in the button enable the sensor to reliably read the ambient air temperature and the LED to wink the current temperature. A back is glued (use Testors Cement for Plastic Models No. 3512) on the button for protecting the internal wiring from dust and debris. When the power switch is turned ON, "I, Weather" performs a startup test of the RGB LED, pulsing red, green, and blue. Upon completion of this test, the WatchDog timer kicks in and puts the RedStick to sleep for approximately 5 minutes. After the 5-minute interval, "I, Weather" wakes up, grabs a quick temperature reading, and pulses the RGB LED twice with the appropriate color: green = nice; 68 - 78 degs F, red = hot; above 78 degs F, and blue = cold; below 68 degs F. We live on the Gulf Coast, and below 68 degs F is kinda cool. You can find the Arduino code and a video of operation at GitHub: http://how2-oh.github.io/I-Weather Print Settings Printer Brand: LulzBot Printer: Mini Rafts: No Supports: No