Introduction
A weather machine tells you something invisible about the world through mechanical means. A thermometer can be made of a metal that expands or contracts with heat, a hygrometer can use horse hair, a barometer can use water. A weather meter might also detect noise, light, pollution, motion, wind— any measurable metric.
The tricky part of a weather machine is plotting the data. A grapher requires a drawing implement that can make a uniform line on paper without hesitation. Computer graphics require a bit of math knowledge. Your machine should have both an instantaneous analog indicator, and a digital time plot.
Common Weather Machines
Wind Vane, Weather Balloon, Hygrothermograph, Smartphone, NOAA DART
Common Sensors
Sound, Light, Temperature, Pressure, Altitude, CO, VOCs, Direction, Geiger, Humdity, IR, Gas, Tilt, Methane, Current, pH
Design a Circuit
Figure out what kind of data you’re interested in gathering, and find the appropriate sensor(s). Figure out what type of indicator is best-suited to your sensor, and what it requires. For each component, find the part number and datasheet, and use those to determine the proper Arduino wiring.
Build a Housing
Decide on all the sensors and indicators before settling on a housing. The most important question to consider is whether or not the machine will sit outside. Other considerations are portability, precision, clarity, reliability.
Code a Plotter
Use paper and colored pencils to test out different visualization schemes. Download the Processing environment. Try some basic, then more complex examples that are relevant to your project. Familiarize yourself with the relationship between firmware, software, and serial communication. Write Processing code that responds to your Arduino circuit.
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