snweatherstation 1.0.0

Another Raspberry Pi Weatherstation

snweatherstation

Another weather station for Raspberry Pi, logging temperature, humidity and pressure in a database table or to a file.

Getting started

Step	Action
1.	Install snweatherstation ([sudo] pip install snweatherstation)
2.	Connect the chosen sensor to the Raspberry Pi GPIO pins (see Supported Sensor Types)
3.	Create a new MariaDB database or select an available one (see MariaDB below)
4.	Create table for weather data (see Database Schema Setup)
5.	Stage and configure the configuration file (see Configuration)
6.	Do a test run (see Usage)
7.	Set up Weatherstation service (see Configure Weatherstation Service)

Usage

usage: weatherstation.py [-h] [-t] [-s] [-l] [-L] [-F] [-f FILE] [-v]
                         [-c CONFIG]

    This program periodically reads environment sensor data
    and stores these either in the database and/or in a file and/or just prints measured values.

    If not otherwise specified on the command line, a configuration file
       weatherstation.json
    will be searched under $HOME/.config or under /etc.

    This configuration file specifies the database connection and other runtime parameters.


optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -t, --test            Test run - single cycle - no wait
  -s, --service         Run as service - special logging
  -l, --log             Shallow (module) logging
  -L, --Log             Deep logging
  -F, --Full            Full logging
  -f FILE, --file FILE  Logging configuration from specified JSON dictionary file
  -v, --verbose         Verbose - log INFO level
  -c CONFIG, --config CONFIG
                        Path to config file to be used

Configuration

Configuration for weatherstation needs to be provided in a specific configuration file. By default, a configuration file "weatherstation.json" is searched under $HOME/.config or under /etc.

Alternatively, the path to the configuration file can be specified on the command line.

Structure

The following is an example of a configuration file:

{
    "sensorType": "DHT22",
    "raspiPin": "PIN13",
    "measurementInterval": 10,
    "dbOut": true,
    "fileOut": false,
    "dbConnection":
    {
        "host": "localhost", 
        "port": 3307, 
        "database": "weather", 
        "table": "weatherdata",
        "user": "testuser", 
        "password": "$[TestUser-1]@?"
    },
    "fileName": "~/weatherData.txt"
}

Parameters

Parameter	Description
sensorType	Type of the environment sensor (see supported sensor types, below)
raspiPin	Raspberry Pi GPIO pin in BOARD notation used for data signal, if required
measurementInterval	Measurement interval in seconds.
dbOut	Specifies whether measured values shall be stored in the database (true, false)
fileOut	Specifies whether measured values shall be written to the specified file (true, false)
dbConnection	Database connection parameters (optional)
host	Host name or IP address of database server
port	Port for MariaDB service
database	Name of the database where data shall be stored
table	Name of database table where data shall be stored
user	Database user
password	Password for database user
fileName	Path to file to which data shall be written (optional)

Supported Sensor Types

See also https://github.com/signag/snraspi-lib/blob/main/docs/EnvironmentSensors.md

SensorType	Description	Measured Data	Raspi bus	raspiPin
DHT11	DHT11	temperature, humidity	1-Wire	1-Wire pin
DHT22	DHT22	temperature, humidity	1-Wire	1-Wire pin
BME280_I2C	BME280	temperature, humidity, pressure	I2C	--
BMP280_SPI	BME280	temperature, humidity, pressure	SPI	Chip Select

MariaDB

weatherstation stores weather data in a MariaDB database (see https://mariadb.org/).

MariaDB is available on Linux and Windows platforms. A MariaDB server is also provided as plugin on most of the popular NAS systems. For weatherstation, you may use any of your available MariaDB servers, as long as it is visible to your Raspberry Pi.

Alternatively, you may also install a MariaDB server on your Raspberry Pi.

NOTE MariaDB Client and connectors are installed together with weatherstation.

Setup MariaDB Server on Raspberry Pi

INFO Skip this step if you will be using an existing MariaDB server

Installation

sudo apt install mariadb-server php-mysql
sudo apt install phpmyadmin

Service configuration

For automatic start:

sudo systemctl enable mariadb

For manual start:

sudo systemctl disable mariadb

sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl stop mariadb

Database Schema Setup

weatherstation requires a database table with a specific structure.

An SQL script template is available under ./data: createDBtable.sql in the installation folder.

The table name can be adjusted in the script and configured in the weatherstation config file so that different tables can be used to distinguish different physical weather stations in the same database.

Run this SQL script against the database to create the required database table.

Configure Weatherstation Service

To continuously log weather data, weatherstation should be run as service.

See https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/linux/usage/systemd.md

A service configuration file template can be found under ./data in the installation folder.