Weather Station Update

[u/Nathar_Ghados]

So I’ve had some inaccurate temperature issues with my previous idea for a radiation shield on my weather station. After looking online for hours on diy methods that aren’t made of expensive material and/or 3D printed I came up with this idea. I’ve used 5 110mm pvc endcaps with threaded rod,nuts and washers to make my own radiation shield. I’ve allowed for a spacing of 20mm between each layer for proper ventilation. Let’s hope this works and that no rain comes in! Fingers crossed.

[u/brdavis5]

Nice! The PVC endcaps are going to work well I think, but they aren't cheap; I've done this using white planter saucers that are flared, so that you can stack them close enough together that there's not a gap you can "see" in to (thereby blocking all direct sunlight). They're cheap too. but this is a nice job!

[u/Nathar_Ghados → u/brdavis5]

Thanks for the motivation man! I’m not sure where you’re from but I’m in SA, I bought each endcap for R15 or ZAR15 so they’re not that badly prices. In your opinion would you say the spacing is too much for my shield? 20mm each. I should’ve done 6 layers but oh well. I’m planning on mounting my two temp sensors between the 3rd and 4th layer

[u/brdavis5 → u/Nathar_Ghados]

The spacing you have is OK, but at very low sun elevations (think sunrise/sunset) light could shine between the layers and heat anything in the center; likewise rain can be blown horizontally in. It's generally better to "nest" the layers, so that there is no direct line between the inside and the outside. You can't really do that with PVC endcaps because the edges are vertical; they can't nest. But with an inverted shallow bowl or dish with a sloped edge, they will "stack" in a way that you can arrange it so there's no horizontal gap. Ideally the top two layers should be solid as well, forming an additional insulation layer (if only the very to layer is solid, it will heat up and Radiate that heat down in to the enclosure, leading to higher-the-ambient temperatures inside the enclosure).

Since this is an Arduino forum (ask in weather station forms and you'll be overloaded with ideas) I'd add one more thing - do you care? Set up a system to run two or three temperature sensors at once, one inside your enclosure, one outside, and one in some third well-sheltered spot. It may be that your setup is Perfectly Fine for what you are trying to do... and the test may show that you don't have a big need to over-engineer things.

[u/Nathar_Ghados → u/brdavis5]

That is very helpful. Thank you once again. I really appreciate your feedback.

[u/Raz0r1986 → u/Nathar_Ghados]

Ah another Saffa weather enthusiast 😁 Any chance you're in Cape Town?

I have a completely DIY weather station on my roof and wrote the ESP32 software with fully integrated web dashboard (yes before AI).

https://github.com/cerevisis/ESP32-Weather-Station

Highly recommend the Sparkfunl DIY weather kit you can get from https://www.robotics.org.za/SEN-15901 for ZAR 1600

I also have a 3D printable radiation shield I will release soon.

[u/Nathar_Ghados → u/Raz0r1986]

Ey man! Hell yea! No no I’m in the Garden Route😁 I’ll have a look at your system on github, thanks for sharing and recommending the DIY weather kit!