Information about the past and current weather conditions is incredibly useful for ranching. If I have a record of wind gusts, I can know the likelihood that a tree has fallen on the bison fence. If I know the depth to which the ground has frozen in winter, I can get an idea of the likelihood that my buried water distribution system has frozen. If I have a record of past rainfall, I can more easily calculate when I'll need to start supplementing hay. If I know the temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiance, I can calculate an indicator for cattle heat stress. You get the idea.
This post is the first of a series of posts describing my installation and development of a weather station on our bison ranch. The weather station will be an extension of the Raspberry Pi-based solar-powered surveillance system I've already built on the ranch. The best post to review for a description of that system can be found
here. This system continuously monitors the bison herd and sends me frequent updates and alerts that I can access from any place in the world with an Internet connection.
The weather station, also using Raspberry Pi, is based on the system developed by Oracle and describe in
this website. The following pictures highlight how things have been progressed so far.
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| For the system I'm using a Raspberry Pi 3b with a Pi Hat. Power is provided through a EC6C04 DC to DC converter. The mounting, while admittedly crude in appearance, is strong and secure. |
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| The completed outdoor housing (foreground) with the solar radiation shield ( background). The radiation shield contains the BME280 sensor while the housing protects the Raspberry Pi. The outdoor housing was made from the tank of an pump sprayer (very stable plastic) and has a welded aluminum base. The radiation shield was made from inverted plastic bowls and a very odd looking welded aluminum hat. |
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| The original weather protection for the ground temperature probe (upper left) wasn't quite what I wanted so I created a housing from polyethylene water pipe and UV rated heat shrink tubing. The end of the polyethylene pipe was melted into a solid mass with a plastic welder, a hole was then drilled through the mass, and the sensor inserted and epoxied in place. |
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| Adding the weather station to the surveillance system. |
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| The ground temperature sensor (black pipe) buried in the ground. |
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| The station just prior to raising the wind meter pole. |
Currently the station is up and running and I can access the data directly through ssh and VNC. I'll post more as the system develops.
