Old Home Page - OtagoPolytechnic/Cloudy-with-a-Chance-of-LoRa GitHub Wiki

The goal of this project is to build a weather station that fits the requirements set out by our lecturer. We are ustilising the LoRaWAN and Internet of Things to collect and send our sensor data to somewhere we can process the data.

Weather Station Requirements

Output from the weather station will be accessible from the internet. The Otago Uni Physics Dept weather station page can be used as inspiration.

The use of live data from instrumentation that we host - probably on the roof of D-Block. We'll need to wrangle how devices like this will be powered from a "remote" location.

Use the LORA network accessible from H block as a means to transmit data "back to base".

Hardware and software should be modular and allow for future growth. Should be able to add new sensors and technologies. Other people should be able to contribute to our network. Consider how many sensors to can be used to improve the accuracy of our readings.

The project should include all the standard weather stuff - temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed and direction. Webcam images of the surrounding views would be good.

The ablity to add more than just weather sensors - how about measuring atmospheric electricla potential with a field mill? It could monitor sferics/lightning and determine direction of storms. It could monitor solar radiation, UV, IR and other spectral components, sunshine hours, CO2 an other atmospheric gasses? Can it measure the temperature of the sky? Can the weather station detect when it is cloudy, raining? Are there other non-conventional sensores that can be used?

Simple "forecasting" looking at trends and patterns. There are probably statistical techniques that can be used here as well as the application of machine learning.

An engaging front end for our users. "Less is more". Take advantage of clear design to simplify complex information, but still have the ability to drill down. Check out the work of Edward Tufte around data visualisation. It goes without saying that this shold look good on a range of devices.

Have an API for our data - we want to share and be open with our information.

Our project needs to be well documented for newbies to pick up, and to enable OPS support and future development.