Build a Network‑Enabled Laboratory Weather Station with Raspberry Pi

This guide explains how to construct a network‑capable weather station that logs ambient air temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure in a laboratory setting. By integrating low‑cost, high‑accuracy sensors with a Raspberry Pi and Python scripts, researchers can obtain reliable environmental data to support clean, reproducible experiments.

Usage Example

When conducting experiments on the rotating turntable in the GFD laboratory, maintaining a low Rossby number regime often requires minimal mechanical forcing. Ambient air temperature fluctuations of more than a few degrees Celsius can induce buoyancy‑driven flows that confound data interpretation. By logging temperature, barometric pressure, and humidity in real time, researchers can isolate buoyancy effects from mechanical forcing and ensure data integrity.

Overview

The core of this system is a Raspberry Pi mini PC, a widely adopted platform known for its affordability and extensive community support. Digital sensors attached to the Pi’s I²C pins—specifically a Bosch BMP085 barometer and a Honeywell HIH6130 humidity/temperature module—provide high‑resolution measurements. The sensors arrive on breakout boards pre‑wired for quick deployment. Data is transmitted over Wi‑Fi via a USB dongle and logged to a remote server using Python scripts.

Materials

Computer

• 1 × Raspberry Pi mini PC

Sensors

• 1 × SparkFun Barometer Breakout Board (Bosch BMP085)
• 1 × SparkFun Humidity & Temperature Breakout Board (Honeywell HIH6130)

Mechanical

The prototype weather station was assembled on a breadboard for rapid prototyping and easy reconfiguration.

Hardware

Enable I²C on the Raspberry Pi by using Adafruit’s Occidentalis distro, which comes pre‑configured for I²C support. Detailed setup instructions are available on the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s website and a wealth of community tutorials.

Software

The data acquisition logic is encapsulated in the in‑house library WeatherStation.py, which builds on Adafruit’s Adafruit_BMP085.py and Adafruit_I2C.py libraries. Updated versions of these modules can be obtained from the gfdiPiTools repository.

Clone the repository and example scripts with:

git clone https://github.com/gfdi/gfdiPiTools.git

For additional details, refer to the original Laboratory “Weather Station” documentation.