Wireless Remote Weather Station with micro:bit

Contributors: bboyho

Troubleshooting

Not working as expected? Below are a few troubleshooting tips to get your micro:bits working as expected. For your convenience, relevant troubleshooting tips from the micro:climate experiment guide were included below.

• Not Receiving a Signal?
  

  • Make sure that the micro:bits are on the same channel.
  • Make sure that the name/value pair sent is what you expect.
  • Make sure that your are sending and receiving a name/value pair.   
    
    

• The Second Micro:bit is Reacting Without Sending Data from the First Micro:bit.

  • If you have more than one micro:bit transmitting on the same channel, the receiving micro:bit may be reacting to other micro:bits sending on the same channel. Make sure that each micro:bit pair is on their own unique channel. You can also try to adjust the number being transmitted on each micro:bit to react to certain number.   
    
    

• I Upgraded My micro:bit's Firmware and I am Unable to Pair using the WebUSB Feature.

  • Check your USB cable to ensure that it is not just a power cable. If you previously uploaded code to the micro:bit by dragging and dropping a *.hex file to the board, the issue is probably software related. Just in case, try restarting your computer or uploading code with the cable on a different computer to troubleshoot the issue.
  • Make sure that your browser is able to support the WebUSB feature.    
    
    

• The USB Cable is Functional and My Browser is Supported. However, I am Still Having Issues Connecting My micro:bit with the WebUSB Feature.

  • Another reason may be due to a conflicting driver. If you are on a Windows computer, open the Device Manager by clicking the search button. Then type "device manager" to open it up. Scroll down to Ports (COM & LPT) and Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Then open the trees. If the board shows up as "Ports (COM & LPT) > mbed Serial Port (COM#)" and "Universal Serial Bus Controllers > mbed Composite Device" respectively, you will need to uninstall the mbed drivers. These may have been installed if you were using MicroPython with micro:bit.
    
    Try heading over to micro:bit support page for instructions on how to uninstall the driver. They included a neat GIF demonstrating how to uninstall the conflicting drivers.    
    
    

• I Uninstalled the MBED Drivers but I am Still Having Issues Connecting My micro:bit with the WebUSB Feature.

  • If you follow the directions above to uninstall the mbed drivers for a Windows computer and are still having issues, the mbed drivers may still be installed somewhere (shout out to user "Wim van der Vegt" for the tip). Caution! Caution is advised when following instructions to delete the drivers! You are handling system files which can cause issues with your computer if you accidentally delete the wrong files!
    
    Open the File Explorer and paste the following path in the address bar: C:\Windows\System32\drivers. Then try looking in the folder for mbedComposite.sys or mbedSerial.sys (there may be a suffix "_x64" in the file name).
    
    If you see those files, try uninstalling the driver from the Device Manager as explained the earlier. Then delete the mbedComposite.sys or mbedSerial.sys files from the folder. To ensure that the changes take effect, restart your computer. Windows will automatically install the appropriate drivers for your micro:bit.    
    
    

• weather:bit or gator:RTC Blocks are Not Visible.

  • Make sure you have a network connection and you have added the extension to your MakeCode environment.
  • Try installing it again from the add extension option in MakeCode.   
    
    

• micro:bit Not Showing Up.

  • Try unplugging the USB cable and plugging it back in. Also, be sure that you have the cable inserted all the way into your micro:bit.   
    
    

• Data Seems Odd and Does Not Make Sense.

  • Make sure that the BME280 is free from contact with sources of heat and/or moisture (for example, having your finger over the top of it). Also, make sure that your wiring is correct. If you wire the soil moisture or waterproof temperature sensor incorrectly it will give unexpected results. You will also need to make sure that the weather meter's are connected to the correct RJ11 sockets and fully inserted in the socket. You will hear a "click" when you fully insert the connectors.    
    
    

• I am Constantly Seeing a ??? from the Wind Vane.

  • If you are getting a ??? for the wind vane, this may be due to a loose connection. Make sure that the RJ11 is fully in the socket as explained above. The micro:bit also reads the voltage from the wind vane using an analog pin. The makeCode extension was written to read 8 cardinal directions for simplicity. When the magnet closes one of the reed switches inside the wind vane, the micro:bit will read a certain value. The ??? indicates that micro:bit read the wind vane at a certain moment when the magnet was within a small region somewhere between the 8 cardinal directions. This also may be due to a conflicting pin causing an invalid reading. Try writing a condition statement to ignore this invalid data point and taking another measurement.    
    
    

• What is North?

  • The directions produced by the weather:bit are based off of readings from the vane, you have to personally line up the orientation of your vane to north.   
    
    

• I am Getting a Lot of Rain?

  • Every time the bucket tips, it is measured as rainfall. If you bump into the sensor or if it is vibrated it may trigger the sensor and you get a false reading.   
    
    

• Doesn't Seem to be Logging.

  • Make sure your openLog is oriented correctly and connected to the correct pins. Also, make sure that you set the micro:bit to log data by pressing the A button or setting Write_Data to 1 when the variable is initialized. you may also want to check your microSD card to see if it is compatible.    
    
    

• The Log has Weird Characters.

  • Make sure you have the serial baud rate set to 9600!