SparkFun's Arduino IoT Weather Station Talks to the Cloud Come Rain or Shine

SparkFun has launched a new weather station kit, built around its MicroMod ecosystem with an Espressif ESP32 Processor Board and the promise of full integration with the Arduino IoT Cloud platform.

"This week, we are happy to announce our newest collaboration with Arduino, the Sparkfun Arduino IoT Weather Station. This kit utilizes our MicroMod ecosystem as well as Arduino's new IoT Cloud," says SparkFun's Chris McCarty of the launch. "Whether you're an agriculturalist, professional meteorologist, or weather hobbyist, building a weather station can be rewarding."

The kit is based on the MicroMod ESP32 Processor Board, part of SparkFun's range of interchangeable MicroMod devices, connected to a MicroMod Weather Carrier Board — which, as the name implies, is designed specifically for weather station duties. The carrier itself includes a Bosch Sensortec BME280 temperature, pressure, and humidity sensor and a ScioSense AS3935 Franklin lightning sensor.

The board also features a solder-free connectivity to external sensors, also included in the kit: a soil moisture sensor, a wind-monitoring anemometer, and a self-emptying bucket-style rain gauge triggered on each 0.011" of rain collected.

"The wind vane reports wind direction as a voltage produced by the combination of resistors inside the sensor," McCarty adds. "The vane's magnet could potentially close two switches at once, indicating up to 16 different positions, but we have found that 8 positions are more realistic."

The kit comes with an Arduino library for accessing all the features of each sensor, while the company promises both local logging to an optional microSD card or through the Arduino IoT Cloud — using the Wi-Fi radio in the MicroMod ESP32 Processor Board to connect the kit to the network.

The kit is now available to buy on the SparkFun store, priced at $124.95 before volume discounts.