For this semester’s project, our task is to develop a mobile weather station capable of responding to environmental changes. To achieve this, our system must employ at least two serial sensors to monitor selected environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, or other modalities approved by the professor. Additionally, we must incorporate at least one motor, controlled by a motor driver communicating via the I2C or SPI protocol. Beyond sensing and actuation, our system should transmit gathered environmental data to the internet over WiFi, utilizing the MQTT protocol for efficient communication.
The Flora Forecast team has created a weather station that is both aesthetically pleasing and functionally sound. Featuring the TC74A4 temperature sensor and the BME280 a humidity/pressure combination sensor, our station works in unison with our PIC18F27Q10 microcontroller over the I2C protocol. In addition, we have incorporated a motor and IFX9201SGAUMA1 motor driver, enabling SPI connection. As an additional improvement, our PIC talks to the ESP-32 and hosts its server so that sensor readings can be shown. With these features, our solution offers a visually appealing weather station experience in addition to meeting all project requirements.