IoT Kits

IoT Kits© are easy to build and are a great introduction to the Internet of Things, sensors, and microcontrollers. They require an intermediate level of soldering skill, the ability to install software on a personal computer, basic text editing (cut & paste), and file manipulation (unzipping files, moving folders). All parts are supplied. You only need some basic tools, a Micro USB cable, and access to WiFi and the Internet.

Available IoT Kits:

Solar-powered, wireless weather station (single-board version)

The D1M-WX1 is a completely wireless, solar-powered weather station using your WiFi for connection to the Internet. It reports barometric pressure, temperature, humidity, and light intensity to ThingSpeak, a free Internet of Things service. Licensed radio amateurs can also post data to APRS-IS.

Single Board Weather Station

Solar-powered, wireless weather station (stacked version)

The D1S-WX1 has exactly the same features as the D1M-WX1 in a three-shield stacked version: LiPo cell charger, D1 Mini, and sensor board. The shields are compatible with the D1 Mini microcontroller.

D1S-WX1 Stacked Version

Remote display

The remote display is a companion kit for the solar-powered weather stations. Currently, it displays data from IoT Kits using the amateur radio APRS-IS network. Firmware is under development to allow the use of other weather sources so that non-radio operators can enjoy the same features. In addition to weather information, it displays accurate local and Universal Time obtained from a Net Time Protocol Server. It automatically adjusts for Daylight Saving time. The display is a full color, 1-inch (25 mm) square TFT device mounted on a D1 Mini-style shield. The IoT Kits firmware displays in five-second intervals, an analog clock showing local time, a digital clock with local and UTC times, weather, and telemetry data from your D1M-WX1 kit. It will display an APRS message until acknowledged when the user presses a reset button.

General Assembly Instructions

These assembly and programming instructions are for IoT Kits© purchased after May 2018. Legacy instructions are at http://w4krl.com/solar-powered-weather-station/

Follow the basic steps in this order:

Order an IoT Kit©.
Prepare the Arduino IDE software. This includes adding the ESP8266 core.
Open a ThingSpeak account.
Download the IoT Kit© firmware for your kit and assemble the hardware:
Enjoy using your kit! Here are some MATLAB scripts to enhance your ThingSpeak channel.
Explore the Internet of Things and how the kits work in more detail.

Links for detailed assembly instructions:

Permanent link to this article: https://w4krl.com/iot-kits/

1. IoT Kit Orders

To order a kit, send e-mail to info@w4krl.com. Identify the kit numbers and quantities. Include your name, shipping address, e-mail address, and callsign if licensed. I will reply with an invoice payable by credit card or PayPal. Shipping will be combined to reduce your cost.

2. Prepare the Arduino IDE

The Arduino IDE is an easy-to-use C++ compiler specially adapted to programming Arduino-compatible microcontrollers. You do not actually need to know how to program because all the IoT Kits software is ready to run. The IDE will upload the IoT Kits software to the microcontroller used in the kits. There are many tutorials online. Try this YouTube tutorial from …

3. Open a ThingSpeak account

ThingSpeak is a free Internet of Things service that stores and displays data received from your weather station. ThingSpeak integrates support for MATLAB software from MathWorks, allowing you to analyze and visualize your station’s data using MATLAB without requiring the purchase of a MATLAB license. Open thingspeak.com in your browser. Click “Sign Up”. You must first create …

4A. Single Board Solar-Powered Weather Station

IoT Kits© Firmware Download There are two versions of the firmware depending on the features you want and whether you are a licensed radio amateur (ham) or not. The IoT only sketch is D1M-WX1-IoT and the amateur radio sketch is D1M-WX1-IoT-APRS. We will refer to both as D1M-WX1 for simplicity. Use Windows File Explorer to …

4B. Stacked Version Solar Powered Weather Station

Firmware Download There are two versions of the firmware depending on the features you want and whether you are a licensed amateur radio operator. For Non-Licensed Users This is also for license holders who do not want to use the APRS features. This firmware sends your weather information to a ThingSpeak account. See instructions for opening …

4C. Remote Display

The remote display is a companion kit to the APRS weather station. It will receive weather and telemetry information from your weather station over the APRS-IS system. A version using an IoT service is in development for people not holding an Amateur Radio license. Assemble the Kit: Press the female headers with the short pins …

5. MATLAB Scripts

Here is a selection of MATLAB Visualizations for ThingSpeak addins that may be used with the IoT Kits to display the weather data in different formats. Display current values in a text box. The values do not align well because the font is proportional.

% Displays Current Values in a Text Box
% Needs better formatting
% Would be nice to add time of data measurement

% TO DO: Replace the [] with your channel ID
readChannelID = [];

% enter your field IDs if different from the D1M-WX1 definitions
fieldTempC = 1; % temp C
fieldHumid = 2; % humidity
fieldSLP = 4;   % Sea Level Pressure 
fieldLux = 5;   % lux
fieldVcell = 6; % Vcell
fieldRSSI = 7;  % RSSI

%% Read Data %%
%[tempC, time] = thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldID1, 'NumPoints', 30);
curTempC = thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldTempC);
curHum = thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldHumid);
curSLP = 0.02953 * thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldSLP);
curLux = thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldLux);
curVcell = thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldVcell);
curRSSI = thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldRSSI);

%% convert Celsius to Fahrenheit
curTempF = 1.8 * curTempC + 32;

%% Visualize Data %%
%%https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/num2str.html?requestedDomain=www.mathworks.com
str = {strcat('Temperature...', num2str(curTempF, '%.1f'), ' °F'),...
       strcat('Humidity..........', num2str(curHum, '%.1f'), ' %RH'),...
       strcat('Pressure.........', num2str(curSLP, '%.2f'), ' inHg'),...
       strcat('Light...............', num2str(curLux), ' lux'),...       
       strcat('V cell..............', num2str(curVcell, '%.2f'), ' Volts'),...
       strcat('WiFi...............', num2str(curRSSI), ' dBm')};
annotation('textbox',[0.1 0.2 0.7 0.6],...
'HorizontalAlignment','left',...
'VerticalAlignment','middle',...
'LineStyle','none',...
'String',str,...
'FontSize',24);
%%'String',[num2str(currentTempF, '%.1f') '°F'],...

% Displays Current Values in a Text Box

% Needs better formatting

% Would be nice to add time of data measurement

% TO DO: Replace the [] with your channel ID

readChannelID = [];

% enter your field IDs if different from the D1M-WX1 definitions

fieldTempC = 1; % temp C

fieldHumid = 2; % humidity

fieldSLP = 4; % Sea Level Pressure

fieldLux = 5; % lux

fieldVcell = 6; % Vcell

fieldRSSI = 7; % RSSI

%% Read Data %%

%[tempC, time] = thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldID1, 'NumPoints', 30);

curTempC = thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldTempC);

curHum = thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldHumid);

curSLP = 0.02953 * thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldSLP);

curLux = thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldLux);

curVcell = thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldVcell);

curRSSI = thingSpeakRead(readChannelID, 'Field', fieldRSSI);

%% convert Celsius to Fahrenheit

curTempF = 1.8 * curTempC + 32;

%% Visualize Data %%

%%https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/num2str.html?requestedDomain=www.mathworks.com

str = {strcat('Temperature...', num2str(curTempF, '%.1f'), ' °F'),...

strcat('Humidity..........', num2str(curHum, '%.1f'), ' %RH'),...

strcat('Pressure.........', num2str(curSLP, '%.2f'), ' inHg'),...

strcat('Light...............', num2str(curLux), ' lux'),...

strcat('V cell..............', num2str(curVcell, '%.2f'), ' Volts'),...

strcat('WiFi...............', num2str(curRSSI), ' dBm')};

annotation('textbox',[0.1 0.2 0.7 0.6],...

'HorizontalAlignment','left',...

'VerticalAlignment','middle',...

'LineStyle','none',...

'String',str,...

'FontSize',24);

%%'String',[num2str(currentTempF, '%.1f') '°F'],...

Temperature & Dew Point on left axis and Humidity on right …

6. How IoT Kits Work

More to come! Introduction to ThingSpeak – ThingSpeak™ is a free web service that lets you collect and store sensor data in the cloud and develop Internet of Things applications. The ThingSpeak web service provides apps that let you analyze and visualize your data in MATLAB®, and then act on the data. https://www.mathworks.com/videos/introduction-to-thingspeak-107749.html