Transcript Union College Weather Station

Union College
Weather Station
Greg Mahlum
Advisor:
Dean Traver
Goals
• Design and Implement a
•
weather station for Union
College
The goals include:
– Website
• Current conditions
• Easy access to weather
data database
– Reliable collection of
weather data
– Record usable amount of
data for study
Overview
• Sensors on roof of North Wing
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S&E where weather data can be
collected
Microcontroller reads data from
sensors
Data sent to a server via Serial
Device Server
Server archives data in a
database using MySQL and hosts
a website using Apache
– Scripts used to constantly obtain and
archive data
– Current and archived data available
on website
Subsystems
• Microcontroller
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& Sensors
Enclosure
Communication Link
Server
– Database
– Website
Background
• Jeffery D’Alessandro and Brian Kruppenbacker
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started project for their senior project in 2005
Microcontroller & Sensors
– Replaced humidity sensor
– New humidity sensor shorted out
• Enclosure
– Added braces to stabilize arm supporting UV sensor in
order to reduce vibrations due to machinery on the
floor below
Communication
• Serial to Ethernet communication using a Moxa
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serial device server
Wide temperature model needed due to cold
temperatures in the winter
Uses protocol developed by previous group
– RS-232
– 9600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity
– Uses cyclic redundancy check for error detection
Server
• Current server used for development
• Programs and scripts will be moved to a server that gets
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routine maintenance once development is completed
Until development is finished the old Robot Club
computer used as server
– Dell Dimension 8200
– 6 years old
– 40 GB Hard Drive
• Partitioned Hard Drive into three parts
– 10 GB for system files
– 1 GB for swap space
– Everything else (~27 GB) for weather data
OS
• Fedora 7 original OS
– Compatibility issues with serial device server
drivers
– Issues must be resolved before project can be
moved to a maintained server
• Fedora Core 5
– Current OS of development server
Database
• Used MySQL for database managment
• Two tables used to keep track of data
– Past hour
• Keeps track of the weather in the past hour
• Every hour data currently in table is averaged, the
result is added to the archived weather table
– Archived weather
• Biggest table, contains one entry for every hour
Website
• http://weather.union.edu
• Apache used for web server program
• Display current weather conditions
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Temperature
Humidity
Pressure
Precipitation
UV index
Wind direction and speed
Dew point
Wind chill
Heat index
• Allow users to view archived weather
– Users able to select specific periods of time
• Data is pulled from database using built in functions in php
Data Collection
• Sample as frequently as possible
– Readings received every 9-10sec
– Each reading archived in past hour table
• Averages taken every hour
– Result placed in archived weather table
• Frequency of averaging can be adjusted
using crontab
Testing & Monitoring for Accuracy
• Used Geology Department station and weather.com to
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visually compare data
Initial inspections
– Temperature readings on average 14% higher than geology
department readings
– Pressure consistently 4% lower
– UV readings never exceed 1.0
• Need to inspect data at each point in the system to find
where errors may be
– Voltage output from sensor
– Digital conversion from microcontroller
– Calculation on server
Thanks
• Dean Traver
• Professor Spallholtz
• Frank Tricozzi
• Aaron Lagasse
Questions?