Bluetooth Weather Station

Student: Nia Pemberton

Supervisor: Neil Bergmann

Category: Engineering Thesis Project - Computer Systems

This thesis details the joint development of a Wireless Weatherstation using Bluetooth wireless technology. From a Bluetooth enabled device (LAN Access profile ie PC, PDA or Laptop) with a Java enabled web browser, a user is able to view weather conditions at a distance of up to 25 metres from the Weatherstation. Although there are several Wireless Weatherstations already available on the market, none take advantage of new Bluetooth wireless communications for data acquisition. Bluetooth offers a more flexible approach to these products due to its low power consumption, high data rates (742kbps) and its ability to connect to up to 7 other Bluetooth devices simultaneously.

The Weatherstation incoporates a HCV Wireless BlueMod, which is a single board computer based on the Motorola Coldfire microprocessor chipset running the uClinux Operating System with an embedded Bluetooth stack. An accessory board with an 8-channel A/D converter routes sensor feedback to the Bluemod device via the QSPI bus for data processing and communications. A LM335Z temperature sensor, HU10 humidity sensor, integrated wind speed and direction sensor and tipping bucket rainfall sensor have been implemented for weather analysis.

A Java applet shows weather trends for the past 45 days, updates current values every second and allows the user to dynamically configure sensors. The Java applet interfaces to the Weatherstation via sockets. This ensures the maximum simultaneous Bluetooth connections of 7 are maintained and any platform supporting Java can view the weather.

Currently as of the 26th of September, all hardware and software components have been developed. Final integration and debugging is expected to be completed by early October 2002.