Development of an Automated Weather Station with Remote Data Transmission Capability

Abstract

The development of an automated weather station with remote data transmission capability is presented. The complete system consists of three separate modules for data collection, data storage and data communication. The modules communicate serially and are controlled by three separate PIC18F452 microcontrollers. The data collection module is interfaced to a set of sensors to collect weather parameters such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, pressure and rainfall. The data storage module saves the captured data in real-time to a micro secure digital (SD) card. The data transmission module transmits data to a central station through a global system for mobile communication (GSM) or a general packet radio service (GPRS) network. The weather data can be viewed in real-time through a graphical user interface (GUI). The modular 311 nature of the design allows the user to replace the data transmission module by a radio frequency (RF) link to transmit data to locations within 100 meters