Weather Station 2: Hardware

I got all the hardware!!! I'm so excited to show this! It came out really well.
Before I get into the nitty gritty of soldering and circuitry... some software stuff changed since I last posted. First, I had to stop using timestamps as the image file names. This is because I am using ffmpeg to make the videos and it expects names like image001, image002 etc. Second, I decided only to upload one image to dropbox and call it current_image.jpg. This ends up working better because then I don't need any fancy javascript on the website end to show the most recent photo. This is what I have so far for the site. So now onto the fun stuff...

Hardware

I followed a portion of the tutorial here, however they fail to mention that you need an additional JST connector, so add that to the shopping list. Here are some pics of the modules and soldering jobs (mostly terrible).

Charger module (best soldering job for this project)

Power Booster (terrible soldering job!)

Solar panel connected to charger module, connected to lithium ion battery

With everything connected:

The finished product!

The charger module does double duty charging the lithium ion battery and dispensing that charge to the booster module. The booster is then plugged into the pi. It all works too!

One part that I totally messed up was the DHT22. I tried to solder the connections together, but did such a terrible job that the connection goes in and out. I have to go back and fix it.

10k ohm resistor between pins 1 and 2

Camera and sensor embedded in tupperware

In order to seal the tupperware from water, I used caulk and hot glue to seal around the DHT22 sensor and around the cable connecting the charging module to the solar panel.

No seal on the cord

Hot glue and caulk to seal the hole

Everything would seem to be working!

Hand held, solar powered computer!!

Hardware complete! I haven't tested how long the charge lasts or how well it charges in cloudy weather.

Now to finish the software portion...