In response to the 2017 Hurricane Harvey incident that devastated many peoples lives, the university was inspired to develop a low cost portable weather station that could be deployed within remote areas to allow meteorologists to obtain more accurate data.
Obtain temperature, humidity, and rainfall measurements.
Send hourly data to mobile phone by SMS messages.
Withstand sixty mile per hour winds.
Weigh under 5 kg.
Majority of my responsibility was in this project was to design and 3D model, using the program SolidWorks, the electronics housing along with the weather stations's chassis. The electronics housing held the temperature humidity sensor, the Arduino, the GSM shield, as well as six 18650 IMR batteries and was designed to fit within a 3 inch SCH. 40 PVC pipe. A removable tripod with telescoping legs was used for supporting the main chassis of the weather station.
Prior to this project, I have had some exposure with working on Arduino's. One of the sensors on the weather station that I programmed the code for was the eTape water level sensor. When first installed, the collected data was extremely inconsistent so I ran controlled tests to determine the cause of inconsistency. After numerous tests were performed, we found that bending in the tape and electromagnetic interference from other electrical components were the main causes for this inconsistency. As a result, I was design a rigid frame to prevent the sensor from bending. The image below shows data that we collected during field testing.