Some time ago I created a weather station using a Raspberry PI and an off the shelf weather station, connecting the two via USB.
However, for some time not I’ve been meaning to create a weather station from scratch – i.e. one or more Raspberry PI’s which connect to the network (via Ethernet or WiFi) and directly monitor the sensors directly.
Now the problem here is that some sensors are analog – for example the leaf, soil and UV sensors I have generate an analog signal so we need an ADC (Analogue to Digital Converter) which the Raspberry PI doesn’t have.
So we have two possible solutions:
- Add a Raspberry PI compatible ADC
- Use an Arduino
With the parts I have available, the Arduino won, not just on available ADC channels but also with the additional digital ports available.
Now how to connect it to the PI? Well the easiest way is to use USB, however the PI only has two USB ports (one for the Model A) and as I’m intending to use Model A’s for the final station I need that for WiFi (there won’t be room or power for hubs) so USB is out.
There’s RS232 which both support, however the PI runs on 3v3 whilst the Arduino (UNO) is 5v so I need to add a level converter between the two. It also limits me to just one arduino and I might need to use more than one so another solution is needed.