Design And Construction Of A Weather Monitoring System Based On Arduino

1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
In our modern world of information and technology, monitoring and predicting weather conditions is essential in planning out human activities; In Agriculture to determine where and when to plant and wait for harvest, in our social lives to determine where and when to hold events, in transportation to determine how safe it is to travel by road, by air, or by water because, all of these have weather as a major factor, whether it’s a hindrance or a benefit [Luis Diego Bricen, 2012].
Climate is very important factor in our life. Weather monitoring have great importance and uses in several areas like agricultural field weather condition to industrial weather condition monitoring. Weather monitoring allows us to keep track of different climates behavior including temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, light intensity rainfall, wind speed and wind direction. All the parameters of the weather are necessary to maintain the balance in the agricultural field as well as industrial processes. Weather affects a wide range of the man’s activities. Modern weather monitoring systems and networks are designed to make the measurements necessary to track these movements in cost effective manner. Temperature and humidity are indicates for both indoor and outdoor location. Programmable alarms are also available in the monitoring system which indicates out of range condition.[ Nisha Gahlot, 2015]. The space based weather monitoring in [Luis Diego Bricen, 2012] consist of two major components. The satellite with its data collection sensors and the data processing system. The data processing system is responsible for requesting (from the satellite) data that must be collected and scheduling the task need to be executed.
Weather monitoring is very much helpful to the farmer to monitor weather parameters at their farms. This is also helpful for the industrial processes, ultimately the weather monitoring hold the great importance and having positive impact on the society. The system senses the climatic conditions with weather sensors by studying its patterns and giving a more accurate prediction unlike weather forecasting [Nisha Gahlot, 2015]. It senses data wirelessly over a given distance where the outcome is shown on an LCD screen, which is embedded with arduino module [Nisha Gahlot, 2015]. It is able to detect various weather conditions like temperature, humidity and pressure.
The different sensors are able to work together by interfacing them on the arduino microcontroller, thereby, allowing a single weather monitoring station to be able to sense various weather conditions and reducing the cost of constructing a weather monitoring station that is able to analyze only a particular type of weather condition [Iswanto, 2012].

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Uncertainty about weather conditions can be catastrophic in planning out human activities. Monitoring the weather requires critical analysis of different climatic conditions, studying the patterns and processing data obtained to produce results [Varsha Gundkal, 2015].
Weather Forecasting is based on analysis of data and the use of meteorology to predict future weather conditions [5]. They require very active human interaction to determine weather conditions and are not necessarily reliable since they are sometimes inaccurate [Varsha Gundkal, 2015]. Weather monitoring station is a solution to this problem, however, the cost of construction is to be considered. They prove to be inefficient if it requires active human interaction to be able to operate and produce results whilst still being able to monitor only a specific weather variable.

1.3 AIM OF THE PROJECT
The aim of this project is to construct an arduino based weather monitoring system that is able to sense multiple weather conditions; temperature, humidity and pressure, simultaneously, at specific time intervals for a given coverage and eliminate human interaction with the system.

1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

The objective of this project is to design a weather monitoring system that is able to:

i. Acquire data about multiple weather conditions using sensors interfaced on a arduino microcontroller
ii. Display data on an LCD screen after processing at the microcontroller

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Weather monitoring system allows for weather conditions to be accurately predicted to allow for proper planning of events or activities which rely on weather as a major factor. It is essentially better than a weather forecasting system which involves extensive analysis, calculations and choosing the right weather forecast models that best predict the weather.
Weather forecasting systems are usually unreliable due to the time difference between when the weather is actually predicted and when it comes into phase [6]. The use of an arduino based weather monitoring system eradicates the problems of humans having to interact directly with the systems, or having to do all the major work in predicting the weather. Intensive data analysis, processing and calculations are done by the system instead, thereby, removing the problems of human errors and providing a user friendly system that allows users with little skills of operating a technical device, the opportunity to operate the monitoring system.
The weather monitoring system is able to sense different weather conditions and allows the user to receive information about weather conditions through LCD, allowing the user to have information about their weather.
In cases where a weather forecasting system will predict rainfall in the whole of a metropolis or city, whereas, it rains in only a certain percentage of the location, contributes to the unreliability of the system [6]. The weather monitoring system will, however, predict the weather, covering a smaller distance which will provide better accurate results than that of a weather forecast [1]. The weather monitoring system is designed to be inexpensive, small in size, giving it portability with a memory capacity enabling it to compare previous weather conditions with current weather conditions, and accurately predict future ones [7]. They can work as an outdoor unit to sense environmental weather conditions or as an indoor unit to give information about the real feel of the weather or temperature feel of equipment.

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study covers a limited range depending on the location of the weather monitoring system. The weather monitoring station can only sense weather within a given coverage based on the concentration of the weather on the sensors. The system designed is only able to sense three weather conditions; temperature, humidity and pressure. The system requires an uninterrupted power supply to effectively perform its functions.

1.7 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
Hi: There is a significant relationship between the weather monitor and arduino
Ho: There is no significant relationship between the weather monitor and arduino

1.8 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
i. What is the use of weather monitoring system?
ii. Which sensors are used in weather monitoring system?
iii. How is weather monitored?

1.9 METHODOLOGY
To achieve the aim and objectives of this work, the following are the steps involved:
i. Study of the previous work on the project so as to improve it efficiency.
ii. Draw a block diagram.
iii. Test for continuity of components and devices,
iv. Design of the device was carried out.
v. Studying of various component used in circuit.
vi. Construction of the circuit was carried out. The construction of this project includes the placing of components on Vero boards, soldering and connection of components,
vii. Finally, the whole device was cased and final test was carried out.

1.10 PROJECT ORGANISATION
The work is organized as follows: chapter one discuses the introductory part of the work, chapter two presents the literature review of the study, chapter three describes the methods applied, chapter four discusses the results of the work, chapter five summarizes the research outcomes and the recommendations.