Building a low-cost

weather station

Tayná Ferreira Santos and Vitor Hugo Ferreira

T
he study a nd such as electrical, robotics,
construction of a computing, automation,
low-cost weather and mechanics. Assem-
station emerged bling this weather station
from a scientific would be an excellent un-
initiation project, “Mod- dertaking for those inter-
eling and Analysis of a ested in learning about
Wind-Photovoltaic Hybrid and starting a renewable

BRAZIL©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/STOCKDEVIL, SUN AND WIND—©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/SUESSE

System With the Appli- energy project with the ap-
cation of a Permanent plication of electronics and
Magnet Synchronous ­programming.
G ener at or i n Ur ba n The project is also use-
Areas,” developed at the ful for teachers who seek
Universidade Federa l to demonstrate elaborate
Fluminense (UFF). Dur- concepts in a more di-
ing the initial stages of dactic way or carry out
this project, there was a experiments on a small
need to understand the budget while addressing
climate data, which influ- real problems of daily life.
ence the development It allows students to seek
and proper functioning solut ions, ex per ience
of wind and photovoltaic the scientific method, ob-
systems. However, buy- serve phenomena, record
ing or having access to data, formulate and test
such measuring equip- hy potheses, and draw
ment requires a high in­­vestment. well as voltage and current through their own conclusions. This article
As a result, we sought to collect a photovoltaic panel to obtain the lo- will show, step by step, how to build
data related to wind generation and cal irradiance. These measurements a low-cost weather station, including
solar photovoltaic energy, such as are monitored through the Arduino data collection and storage.
wind speed, irradiance, tempera- and stored on a memory card every
ture, and air humidity, by construct- 15  min in the TXT file format. The Photovoltaic panel
ing a low-cost weather station with clock module used in the Arduino The first stage of assembly is the
an Arduino Uno board, electronic enables the identification of mea- construction of the photovoltaic panel
sensors, a nd data storage in a surements by day and time. used to collect the voltage and cur-
memory card. The difficulty level for constructing rent data to obtain the local irradi-
The weather station collects data the weather station is low, and it is ap- ance. In terms of cost and benefit,
about temperature, air humidity, and propriate for undergraduate students polycrystalline silicon is the best
wind speed through its sensors as who are attending their first courses material for the photovoltaic cells.
at a university. This article could be Figure 1 shows the polycrystalline cell,
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2018.2869918
distributed at the beginning of some and the specifications used are pro-
Date of current version: 3 September 2020 engineering undergraduate courses, vided in Table 1. Of the specifications

0278-6648/20©2020IEEE IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 0 ■ 35
Authorized licensed use limited to: Auckland University of Technology. Downloaded on October 29,2020 at 15:21:02 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 listed in Table 1, the open circuit
voltage (VOC), short-circuit current
(I SC), and maximum power (PMPP) are
the most important for choosing a
cell/panel to be used in any photo-
voltaic project, and they are com-
monly provided in advertisements
for these materials.
I SC is the maximum current that
the module can produce under cer-
tain insolation and temperature con-
ditions when its terminals are short
circuited. Because there is no voltage,
(a) (b)
the electrical power is zero. VOC is the
FIG1 A photovoltaic cell of polycrystalline silicon: the (a) front (negative side) and maximum voltage that the module
(b) back (positive side). can produce under certain conditions
of insolation and temperature and oc-
TABLE 1. The technical specifications of curs when the terminals are open.
the polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic cell. Since there is no electric current,
the electrical power supplied by the
SPECIFICATION VALUE
module is zero. PMPP is the maximum
Size 52 × 76 mm electrical power that the module
can provide under certain ­insolation
Average thickness (silicon) 200 ± 20 µm
and temperature conditions. It cor-
Front contacts (–) One silver bar responds to the product of the maxi-
Back contacts (+) One silver bar mum power current (I MPP) and the
maximum power voltage (VMPP) .
Crystal An amount of polycrystalline silicon
To verify the data indicated in the
PMPP 0.62 W technical specification of the photovol-
VMPP 0.502 V taic cell, a multimeter should be used
IMPP 1.24 A to measure VOC and I SC . An example is
presented in Fig. 2 (VOC = 0.54 V, and
VOC 0.53 V
I SC = 1.29 A) .
ISC 1.26 A We determined that the process of
Test conditions Irradiation: 1,000 W/m² converting solar energy into e ­ lectric
Temperature: 25 °C energy occurs with approximately
AM = 1.5 15.69% efficiency, based on data
from Table 1 and the formula for
IMPP: maximum power current; ISC: short-circuit current; PMPP: maximum power; VMPP: maximum power voltage;
VOC: open circuit voltage; AM: standard spectral distribution for air mass. calculating the efficiency of the cell:

PMPP
h = AG #100%
0.62
= 0.052 # 0.076 #1, 000 #100% 
, 15.69%. (1)
To construct a photovoltaic pan-
el of approximately 11 W of power,
16 photovoltaic cells are required.
The 16 cells must be connected in
series, and, according Table 1, will
provide a VOC of 8.5 V (16 × 0.53 V),
an I SC of 1.26 A, and a PMPP of 10.7 W
(P = V × I).
Figure 3 shows the series connec-
tion of photovoltaic cells, which must
be completed with the help of a sol-
dering iron, tab wire, and flow pen.
(a) (b)
The tab wire is a tin ribbon, and the
FIG2 The measurements of the (a) VOC and (b) I SC of the photovoltaic cell. use of the flow pen will allow the tin

36 ■ S e p t e m ber /O ctober 2020 IEEE POTENTIALS

Authorized licensed use limited to: Auckland University of Technology. Downloaded on October 29,2020 at 15:21:02 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 to have better adhesion to the metal
of the path of the cell itself, directing
the weld to the correct location. Four
columns with four cells each should
be formed. Later, the four columns
of cells already connected in series
must also be connected in series to
the other columns through the bus
wire, which has a similar function
to the tab wire but is slightly wider.
The positive and negative terminals
of the photovoltaic panel are also de-
fined (Fig. 4).
With the 16 cells connected in (a) (b)
series, the glass must be placed in
the front, encapsulating the cells. FIG3 The serial connection of photovoltaic cells (a) before and (b) after assembly.
Electrical tests, such as VOC and I SC
measurements, can be performed to
Bus Wire
verify that the connections and oper-
ation are correct. According to Fig. 5,
the VOC measurement was 9.48 V,
and the I SC was 1.02 A, giving a PMPP
of approximately 9.7 W. The results
obtained were closely related to the
theoretical value of 10.7 W obtained
by considering the data presented
in Table 1 (16  photovoltaic cells ×
0.53 V × 1.26 A). Tab Wire
To complete the installation of the (a) (b)
photovoltaic panel, the aluminum
frame must be constructed. The pho- FIG4 The photovoltaic panel with series connection (a) before and (b) after it is placed
under glass.
tovoltaic panel has dimensions of 37
× 27 cm. The final assembled panel
is shown in Fig. 6. The panel can be
insulated with silicone glue to pre-
vent water and dust from entering.

Building the metering center

The second stage consists of con-
structing the system for collecting
and recording meteorological data.
The Secure Digital (SD) card module
and the clock module real-time
clock DS1302 must be connected to (a) (b)
the Arduino along with the temper-
FIG5 The tests with the photovoltaic panel: (a) VOC and (b) I SC .
ature and humidity sensors (model
DHT22). A voltage divider should
also be constructed to collect voltage
and current from the ­photovoltaic
panel by the Arduino, as shown in
Fig. 7. The diagram with the con-
nections is presented in Fig. 8.
Tests can be developed using a
protoboard. All sensors and mod-
ules have specific libraries that were
created in a unique program in the
(a) (b)
C/C++ language so that all adjust-
ments and changes could be made FIG6 The finished photovoltaic panel (a) before and (b) after installation.

IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 0 ■ 37
Authorized licensed use limited to: Auckland University of Technology. Downloaded on October 29,2020 at 15:21:02 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

FIG7 The sensors and modules con-
nected to the Arduino Uno.
and later completed with loading on
the Arduino. Since the output volt-
age of the photovoltaic panel exceeds
the voltage limit supported by the
Arduino’s analog ports, it is neces-
sary to use a voltage divider.
The current measurement is ob-
tained indirectly through the voltage
value from the voltage divider and
the resistance value from an ohmme-
ter. The current value is found by ap-
plying Ohm’s law (V = RI). Tests can
also be carried out with a current
sensor (model ACS712). However, for
measurements with small dc values,
the result varies when compared to
that registered by an ammeter, so we
chose to use the calculated current
value for the project.
To record the wind velocity, a Sa-
vonius turbine model was construct-
ed with a polyethylene terephthalate
(PET) plastic bottle, cardboard, and a
wooden stand, similar to an anemom-
eter (Fig. 9). The turbine of the ane-
mometer model is 10 cm high. Tests
were performed with a turbine model
created with 3D printing, but the re-
quired wind speed for that model was
higher, so the first model was chosen.
A ferrite magnet was attached to the
edge of the PET plastic bottle for the
Hall effect sensor to be sensitized and
take the readings. When the magnet
passes through the Hall effect sen-
sor (model 3144), it emits a signal of
logic level one, which initializes a time
counter. Immediately after passing

Solar Panel

Hall Sensor
Clock
SD Card Module
DHT22

R11 R12
1 kΩ 1 kΩ
R13
10 kΩ
R1
R9 10 kΩ
R10 100 Ω R8
10 Ω 220 Ω
R7 R6 R5 R4 R2
10 Ω 100 Ω220 Ω 10 ΩR3 220 Ω
100 Ω

(a)

Solar Hall
Panel Sensor SD Card Clock Module DHT22

R13 R10 R9 R8
R1
R12
1 kΩ
R11
1 kΩ 10 kΩ 10 Ω 100 Ω 220 Ω
10 kΩ Arduino
Uno
R6 R5
R7
10 Ω 100 Ω 220 Ω (Rev3)

R4 R3 R2
10 Ω 100 Ω 220 Ω

(b)

FIG8 A schematic of the connection of the sensors to the Arduino of the low-cost weather station showing the (a) physical and (b) electrical
connections. GND: ground; MISO: Master Input Slave Output; MOSI: Master Output Slave Input; SCL: serial clock; VCC: dc voltage;
CS: chip select; SCK: serial clock; SDA: serial data.

38 ■ S e p t e m ber /O ctober 2020 IEEE POTENTIALS

Authorized licensed use limited to: Auckland University of Technology. Downloaded on October 29,2020 at 15:21:02 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 through the sensor, it changes the
signal to the logic zero level. When
the ­magnet passes back through the
sensor, the time is recorded. As a re-
sult, the time that the wind takes to
execute a rotation in the constructed
model is obtained. Subsequently,
the counter is reset, and a new cycle
starts. Figure 10 illustrates this step.
The collected angular velocity
(rad/s) is converted to linear veloc-
ity (m/s) by the expression V = ~r,
where ~ is the angular velocity, and
r is the radius of the disk formed by
the anemometer model; in this case,
the radius is 0.0575 m.
A digital anemometer was used
to validate the wind-speed values re-
corded by the sensor (Fig. 11), and
the Arduino results were consistent
with those measured by the digital
(a)
FIG9 The wind-speed meters: (a) an anemometer-type model and (b) a turbine model
created with 3D printing.
Start
Ferrite
Magnet
Logical
Level 1—
Starts
Counting
Time
Hall
Sensor
FIG10 The process of recording the time by the Hall effect sensor to calculate the wind speed.
IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 0 ■ 39
Authorized licensed use limited to: Auckland University of Technology. Downloaded on October 29,2020 at 15:21:02 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
anemometer. The available digital
anemometer does not sample the
collected data at the exit by means of
software. Therefore, it would not be
possible to perform an effective com-
parison of Arduino and digital an-
emometer results due to the lack of
time stamp and difficulty in storage.
The temperature collected by the
sensor was validated based on that
indicated by the digital anemometer.
The SD card module also has a built-
in temperature sensor, which aided
with comparing the results.
After completing the calibrations,
the weather station was mounted.
The power supply of the Arduino was
connected through a solar charger
(USB connection; 1,600 mAh, voltage
of 5 V, and autonomy of 4 h). It has
also been tested with a 9-V battery
(b)
on
tati
Ro
Wind
W Time
with an autonomy of approximate-
ly 6 h. The advantage of using the
solar charger is that it is recharge-
able and can be applied several
times in the power supply of the
Arduino, whereas the battery needs
to be properly disposed after use.
The result is shown in Fig. 12. The
measurements made by the low-
cost weather station are shown in
Fig. 13(a) and (b).
Conclusion
This article presented the step-by-step
construction of a low-cost weather
station, including data collection and
storage. The learning experiences
gained from completing the project
are ideal for better understanding and
applying programming with electron-
ics as well as developing skills with
FIG11 A digital anemometer.
Finish
Logical
Level 1 Again—
Logical End Counting
Level 0
 Arduino and wind and photovoltaic
systems. A brief working video of the
project is available at https://www
.youtube.com/watch?v=6I2Iu9kLQEM
a nd https://w w w.youtube.com/
watch?v=PIyU5YrRo6g.
Acknowledgments
We thank the Institutional Program
of Scientific Initiation Scholarships,
National Council for Scientific and
Technological Development (CNPq)
and Universidade Federal Flumi-
nense (UFF) for funding the project
and also thank the Tutorial Educa-
tion Program (PET)-Elétrica UFF PET
for the availability of the laboratory.

Read more about it

• M. McRoberts, Beginning Ardui-
no, 2nd ed. New York: Apress, 2013.
• D. Wi lcher, L earn Electron-
ics With Arduino, 1st ed. New York:
Apress, 2012.
• H. Häberli n, Photovoltaics:
(a) (b) System Design and Practice. Hobo-
ken, NJ: Wiley, 2012.
FIG12 The low-cost weather station from (a) side and (b) top views. • J. F. Manwell, J. G. McGowan,
a nd A. L. Rogers, Wind Energy
­E xplained: Theory, Design and Ap-
plication , 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ:
Solar and Wind Data—Arduino Wiley, 2009.
80 1.2
• S. N. Mahmood and F. F. Hasan,
70
1 “Desig n of weat her mon itor i ng
60
0.8
system using Arduino based data-
50 base implementation,” J. Multidis-
W/m2

(m/s)

40 0.6 cip. Eng. Sci. Technol., vol. 4, no. 4,

30 pp. 7109–7117, 2017.
0.4
20 • M. T. Caccamo, E. Calabrò, S.
0.2 Magazù, and A. Cannuli, “Wavelet
10
0 study of meteorological data collected
0
14 15 16 17 18 20 by Arduino-weather station: Impact
Time (h) on solar energy collection technolo-
gy,” in Proc. Asia Conf. Power and Elec-
Irradiance (W/m2) Wind Speed (m/s)
trical Engineering, 2016, pp. 1–6, doi:
(a) 10.1051/matecconf/20165502004.
Temperature and Humidity
35 80 About the authors
30 70 Tayná Ferreira Santos (taynafs@id
25 60 .uff.br) is an undergraduate student
50 of electrical engineering at the Uni-
20
versidade Federal Fluminense (UFF),
(°C)

(%)

40
15 Niteroi, Brazil. She is also a scholar
30
10 in the National Council for Scientific
20
5 and Technological Development–UFF
10
scientific initiation program.
0 0
Vitor Hugo Ferreira (vhferreira@
19 20 21 1 2 4
Time (h) id.uff.br) is the chair of the IEEE Com-
putational Intelligence Society Chapter
Temperature_SD Temperature_Humid Humidity of the IEEE Rio de Janeiro Section
(b) and chair of the Electrical Engineer-
ing Department of the Universidade
FIG13 (a) The data collected on 12 February 2017 by the weather station, from 2:38 Federal Fluminense, Niteroi, Brazil. He
p.m. to 7:53 p.m. (b) The data collected on 17 and 18 February 2017 by the weather is a Senior Member of the IEEE.
station. 

40 ■ S e p t e m ber /O ctober 2020 IEEE POTENTIALS

Authorized licensed use limited to: Auckland University of Technology. Downloaded on October 29,2020 at 15:21:02 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.