Weather Station

g6ejd

Senior Member
I've just seen that Rev-Ed used to sell the Mexican (I think) manufactured what was the Texas Instruments weather station. It enables wind speed, direction and temperature (18B20) so really easy to link to a PICAXE for a comprehensive station. It's shame they are out of production :(

They were sold as part of their development kit, especially for the 18B20 and other devices, then they went off the market, became a collectors item on eBay, they were great for the likes of schools and most people on this forum.

https://www.techsupplies.co.uk/epages/Store.sf/sec7c84895cb7/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store.TechSupplies/Products/WEA001
 

westaust55

Moderator
If you look at the "tail" part on the bottom left you will see "1-Wire".
The DS18B20 is a 1-Wire device and the X1 and X2 PICAXE parts have the capability to operate with a network of many devices conencted to just 1 I/O pin.
There are a number of 1-Wire weather related modules/systems/parts available if you search/Google the Internet.
 

jbrown8

New Member
interfacing the device

do you have any examples of software for intfacing this to the picaxe

I've just seen that Rev-Ed used to sell the Mexican (I think) manufactured what was the Texas Instruments weather station. It enables wind speed, direction and temperature (18B20) so really easy to link to a PICAXE for a comprehensive station. It's shame they are out of production :(

They were sold as part of their development kit, especially for the 18B20 and other devices, then they went off the market, became a collectors item on eBay, they were great for the likes of schools and most people on this forum.

https://www.techsupplies.co.uk/epages/Store.sf/sec7c84895cb7/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store.TechSupplies/Products/WEA001
 

g6ejd

Senior Member
Well, the devices in the Dallas Semiconductor Weather Station (if you can find one - now obsolete) alluse the 1-wire protocol which the PICAXE supports. The Wx station contains a DS18B20 and to read one you use one of the following commands:

readtemp 7,data_byte '(Read temperature from 1-wire device on pin-7, deg. C only e.g. 22C)

readtemp12 7,data_word '(Read higher resolution (12-bit) temperature from 1-wire device on pin-7, e.g. 22.4C)

The Windspeed was another sensor (proximity switch I recall)

Humidity was a DS humidity chip, 1-wire.

All devices can therefore be read across a three wire cable feed, +%V, Gnd and Data. You can still still buy the basic modules, but not cheap, would be (perhaps) better to use a cheaper Wx station for the sensors like those on sale in Maplin for £29.99 today and fit the DS18B20 in there and scrap the (likely) poor quality of reading thermistor, or whatever they use. Wind speed is almost certainly a simple count of pulses and wind direction likely to be a gray coded output, or maybe just a simple BCD.
 

AllyCat

Senior Member
wind direction likely to be a gray coded output, or maybe just a simple BCD.
Hi,

Wind direction is done by 8 reed switches selecting one of 8 different resistors, with (potentially) two reeds operating at the same time to give 16 directions (from an A/D converter). I'm not sure what Maplin are offering at the moment, but for the next few days Clas Ohlson are offering their (similar) wireless, logging, USB station in the UK for £39.99, delivered. Good value but not "1-wire" technology, nor very relevant to PICaxe applications (but I am working on an "advanced" project to interface with one).

Cheers, Alan.
 
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