Weather Software > Station Software Development

Android Phone for webcam and wx station data storage/distribution

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quailvalleywx:
Using an old Android phone I've added a webcam and wx data adjust/storage/distribution for my Ambient Weather WS 1400 IP.
Webcam:
- Uses builtin rear phone camera to generate images.
- Captions current wx conditions onto webcam image.
- Graph overlay of last 6 days of temperature, dew point using google charts.
- Uploads to WU, frequency variable based on cloud (solar) dynamics.
- Latest captioned/overlayed image hosted for WeatherCloud page access.
- Creates daily Time Lapse videos and stores them on google drive https://tinyurl.com/yctgx5mn.

Wx Data:
- WS 1400 data retained for ~7 days via mysql database on phone (Bit Web Server Android app).
- Non-linear correction for humidity and barometric pressure sensors (Observer IP only provides offset corrections).

Wx Data Distribution:
- 5 hosting services - WU, PWS, WeatherCloud, OpenWeatherMap, and CWOP.

There are a bunch of cheap, cracked screen, old Android phones being dumped on ebay.  Re-tasking one of these phones as a webcam and web server seemed like a good budget thing to do - except it takes a lot of hours for a custom rain-proof install and software install/development/tweaks.  For a hobby though consuming time was OK :)  Cost - about ~$35 for the phone, ~$10 for mounting, ~$6 for a couple Google Play Store apps, and again plenty of hours for custom mount building and software installs / modifications.

More details and code are on github https://github.com/mrcodegh.  If you copy/use the code you will need to edit it with your local IP addresses, wx service provider station info, and database login info.  There is no simple install and having some previous programming experience would help.  Once the phone is mounted and connected to WiFi remote control is done via wireless adb and screen control via the TeamViewer app.

Mike

galfert:
Very creative use of hardware. Nice job.

quailvalleywx:

--- Quote from: galfert on September 27, 2018, 01:01:06 PM ---Very creative use of hardware. Nice job.

--- End quote ---
Thanks.  This started as just some way to get some webcam images to WU and then expanded from there.  Lots of learning along the way like don't put a phone that doesn't auto-boot on external power at the top of pole - one that was a pain to take down in freezing weather when it dropped WiFi.

Bushman:
Get an old phone with the baro and temp sensors, add a mic port Anemometer and POOF!  Android weather station.  :) 

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