Arduino Weather Shield Hookup Guide V12

Contributors: Nate, santaimpersonator, SparkFro

Software Overview

Firmware for Examples

All the example code for this tutorial, can be downloaded the GitHub Repository of the Weather shield:

Arduino Libraries

To utilize the example firmware, users will need to install and configure the Arduino libraries for the following components.

On Board Sensors

The firmware examples below rely on the SparkFun Si7021 and MPL3115A2 Arduino libraries. These libraries can be installed through the Arduino Library Manager. Search for SparkFun MPL3115 and SparkFun Si7021 to install the latest version. The libraries can also be manually downloaded from their GitHub repository:

• SparkFun Si7021 Arduino Library
• SparkFun External MPL3115A2 Arduino Library

or utilize the buttons below:

For more details on these sensors and their Arduino libraries, please refer to the hookup guides of their breakout boards:

Weather Meter Kit

We've written an Arduino library for users to easily setup and read data from the SparkFun Weather Meter Kit. The library can be installed through the Arduino Library Manager; search for SparkFun Weather Meter Kit to install the latest version. Users can also manually download the library from the GitHub repository or by clicking the button below:

Configuration

The SparkFun Weather Meter Kit Arduino library was originally written to be used with the ESP32 MicroMod Processor and MicroMod Weather Carrier board. Therefore, it assumes certain electrical and microcontroller constraints when reading the wind vane direction. To utilize this library with this tutorial, users will need to make the following modifications:

• In the SparkFun_Weather_Meter_Kit_Arduino_Library.cpp file of the library (located in the src folder), users will need to modify the file by commenting out lines 26-41 and enabling lines 45-60. This modifies the expected ADC values for the wind vane direction.

• The library assumes that a 12-bit ADC is connected to the weather vane. This can be modified through the library for boards like the Arduino Uno or RedBoard, which have a 10-bit ADC.

  • In the setup() loop, specify the ADC resolution; where <ADC resolution> should be an integer value of the microcontroller's ADC resolution in bits:

    setADCResolutionBits(<ADC resolution>);
    

• Users will also need to declare the electrical connections from the Weather shield to the sensors of Weather Meter Kit

  const byte WSPEED = 3;
  const byte RAIN = 2;
  const byte WDIR = A0;
  

GPS Module

In order to interpret the NMEA sentences from the GPS module, the firmware below relies on the TinyGPSPlus Arduino library, written by Mikal Hart. The library can be installed through the Arduino Library Manager; search for TinyGPSPlus to install the latest version. Users can also manually download the library from the GitHub repository or by clicking the button below:

For more details about the TinyGPSPlus Arduino library, please refer this blog post on Arduiniana.

Configuration

When the switch on the Weather shield toggled to SW-UART, the TinyGPSPlus Arduino library will need to utilize the SoftwareSerial Arduino library. In order to parse the data, users will need to declare the electrical connections from the Weather shield to the GPS module.

• When the switch is toggled to SW-UART, the RX and TX pins of the GP-735 GPS module are:

  language:c
  static const int RXPin = 5, TXPin = 4;
  

  Note: When the switch is toggled to HW-UART, the RX and TX pins of the GP-735 GPS module are:

  Copy Codestatic const int RXPin = 0, TXPin = 1;
  

Users will also need to declare the baud rate of the GP-735 GPS module.

language:c
static const uint32_t GPSBaud = 9600;

In the firmware, users will need to include and create an instance for the the SoftwareSerial Arduino library. Then, the baud rate will need be configured in the setup() loop for the GPS module:

• language:c
  #include <SoftwareSerial.h>       //Needed for GPS
  SoftwareSerial ss(RXPin, TXPin);
  

• language:c
  ss.begin(GPSBaud);