How to Build a Mini Weather Station With a Real-Time UV Meter

Hello people in this Instructables i will show you how to make your own mini weather station with a real time uv meter.

This is a tiny little device packed with many features and it shows all the essential weather values and it will sit as an desktop toy that shows many facial expressions.

It sleeps, smiles and also shows time and other values too.

If you are taking this outside it shows real time uv values from the sun and this is very essential if your skin is sensitive to sunlight.

Powered by USB and connected with wifi this can still do even more and here in this project i have added most of the things that really matters.

Made with 3d printed parts and the electronics avaialble easily and these factors will make sure that even a negoneer get a chance to explore this device build and using.

I have given all the materials and stl files that is needed to make this.

If you are a beginner to electronics i suggest to try making this since i have given all the circuit explanations in detail so you can make it with ease.

Like always there is a detailed tutorial video given at the last steps of this project that will also show the working and what uv values i got from my place where i live.

These are the materials that you will need to build this project

ESP32 C3 super mini from amzon

UV sensor module

OLED module

Jumper Cables

Hot Glue

Super Glue

3D Printer

Slicing Software

Arduino IDE

Type C cable

PLA filaments

These are amazon affilate links and upon qualifying sales i will get a small percent of sales at no extra cost to you

I will design the frame for this project using tinkercad

To begin with i measured all the sizes of the components first and tried to design a frame that will be the best fit.

As you know that the size of the components im using here is very small the design was made accordinly so that the final project looked tiny and appealing!

There are only 2 parts in this project and the base holds almost all the electronics and has slot for charging also.

Oled will be placed here and the UV sensor will be placed below this oled module.

The lid is nothing but an enclosure that gives the finishing for this project.

It will take less than an hour to print both the parts and for the slicing i will be using cura slicer, You can use any slicer of your choice.

I chose red and blue color pla filaments to print the models and no post processing is necessary since we are not using any rafts or supports at the time of printing.

The circuit is not much here to see since the number of components involved is less for this project.

We have OLED module and the UV sensor only, These are connected directly instead of breadboard connections since we have space constraint here.

OLED module has 4 pins and the connections are as follows

Scl- pin 9

Sda- pin 8

Vcc and Gnd are connected to 3v and the ground pins respectively

UV sensor module has 3 pins and here the Vcc and Gnd are conencted to the 3v and the gnd pins of the esp32 board

Here the challenge is we have only one ground and one 3v pin on the esp32 board

So i modified the jumper cables in such a way that one end that goes to esp32 board is split and those splits will connect the 2 modules here.

After you have made these connections open arduino ide and use the below program.

Make sure to change my credentials with yours and you are good to go.

Once you upload the code the wifi screen shows up and once suceesfuly connected the display will start to shows some values.

To check if the UV sensor module is working fine flash the light from your phone and some minor changes in value should occur that confirms the working of this sensor

I will start by insulating the edges of open wires since this may interfere with any connection pin on the esp32 board and cause issues with the working of this device.

There is only one part that needs the insulation and you already know which is that.

Wires that share the 3v and the gnd is insulated, It will take a few minutes to do this and it is necessary here on this project.

Now start adding some hot glue to the base of the 3d printed part, attach the esp32 board and make sure the pin aligns with the slot provided.

Once this is complete add the UV sensor module, and repeat the same steps untill the module is glued completely.

Alternatively you can use double sided adhesive too and since i didnt have any i will be using hot glue.

The size of the slot that was given for the OLED on the frame was perfect but i trimmed off the corners from the OLED since it gave me some extra space.

Use the hot glue and couple this OLED module to the 3d printed frame, Make sure all the wires remain connected.

Double check the circuit by connecting the esp32 board to power supply and if the display is on you can make sure almost everything untill here is working fine.

Now organise any overhanging wires inside the frame and test if the circuit is working fine by following the above method.

Finish the project by adding a cherry on the top! here we dont have any cherries!

Instead i will be adding the lid, just add few drops of super glue to the base top part and place the lid and you are good to go

This completes the build of this project, Now lets test this project and see how its done in the next step.

Using this is very simple, Just connect the type c cable since the esp32 supports only type c cable and allow a few seconds to connect and you will see all the statuses on real time on the OLED display.

I intentionally didnt use any battery because it will need an additional components making the overall project bigger.

Most importantly the battery needs to be charged again and again so wanted to get rid of all this and chose simply to power this on usb.

The device starts to show the real weather value and you can cross verify from you phone also.

Fits inside your pocket and when you take this outdoors it will show the UV readings from the sun!

The screen changes every few seconds and it shows weather values, UV meter readings and also few emoji that makes this device interactive.

There are many other features that can be added onto this project like some motivational quotes and graphics.

Dont miss to check this video that shows the complete build of this project and the testing of this device in various conditions.

I have cross checked the UV sensor readings indoors and outdoors and it was pretty much accurate.

This was all about this project, hoping to see the makes from you guys, Thanks for reading and have a great day.