(old v1) ESP32 + BME280 weather station with stevenson screen by mariusbach

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Version 2 is available now! https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4459925
Outdoor Weather Station based on ESP32 and BME 280
Little outdoor weather station with ESP32 (NodeMCU and similars) box which can be mounted to a rail or similar (clamp diameter 22mm).
It has an arm to hold the stevenson screen which inside fits a BME280. Cables can be routed entirely covered and hidden inside the arm!
Glue all pieces together. I used the following sequence for the sensor: bottom - vented - vented with BME holder - vented - top.
This design has proven to be not fully watertight. Rain can get into the ESP32 box and I will need to redesign this one a bit. Please use a better cover.
Also I have the impression that the stevenson screen still lets the sensor heat up in direct sunshine. I might redesign this in the future.
UPDATE March 2019:
The station has now endured a whole cold/rainy season without any defect. It seems the rain protection is working well. On a very few occasions it has hung up and required a reboot, but I don't account this to the housing itself, it's rather some hiccup that also occurs on other same-type indoor boards.
One thing I noticed, as soon as it is in direct sunlight, it reads far too high temperatures. I finally measured the housing temperature with a infrared thermometer, and it does heat up! It seems when there is little wind, the inside warms up quite a bit. I see two options to cope with this: Either place another sensor on the opposite side of the house and only take the lower temperature of the two into account. Or create a version with active airflow (CPU-fan or similar). Unfortunately, I don't have a place outside with all-day shade (living upstairs).
So bottom line, I'll provide an actively "cooled" version within the next weeks! Stay tuned.
UPDATE June 2019:
Ok, the actively cooled version was something I did not make, but instead you'll see a new part in the list: The sun protection. This is scaled in height to match the latitude of Munich, Germany, so that all year around, the sun will be blocked from the stevenson screen. If you live closer to the equator, you might need to add some height (let me know what you need!). The cover is hollow on the circular part, so that you can print it in white PLA (works for me all year round without issues) to avoid black PLA to heat up too much, but then for added light protection, use some Aluminum foil and push it in. Single layer is fine, just cut to the width and rock it in carefully. That way, there's no light shining through the PLA.
You can use the clamp_screw_on.stl for the protection screen as well.
Let me know what you think in the comments. The whole station is then a bit bigger, but protected while still allowing vertical airflow.