Design And Construction Of A GSM Based Weather Monitoring System

Weather Forecast stations are used for the prediction of future weather conditions. These systems require intensive human efforts and are sometimes inaccurate in its prediction. Wireless weather monitoring stations are created to monitor weather virtually or remotely without the requirement of direct human efforts. The system is designed to implement sensors which accurately acquire analog or digital data passed to a microcontroller for the storage and processing of these data. This project is focused on the construction of wireless weather monitoring system able to sense temperature, humidity and light intensity for normal use by regular users, application in agriculture, science laboratories, industries and creation of weather reports.

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: ARDUINO NANO MICROCONTROLLER…………………………………….. 26

Figure 2: DS18B20 TEMPERATURE SENSOR…………………………………………………….. 28

Figure 3: DHT11 HUMIDITY SENSOR……………………………………………………………….. 29

Figure 4: LIGHT DEPENDENT RESISTOR………………………………………………………….. 30

Figure 5: 20*4 LCD DISPLAY SCREEN………………………………………………………………. 31

Figure 6: SIM 800 MODULE……………………………………………………………………………….. 31

Figure 7: SYSTEM BLOCK DIAGRAM……………………………………………………………….. 34

Figure 8: DS18B20 PIN CONFIGURATION…………………………………………………………. 36

Figure 9: DHT11 PIN CONFIGURATION…………………………………………………………… 36

Figure 10: LDR PIN CONFIGURATION……………………………………………………………… 37

Figure 11: LCD PIN CONFIGURATION……………………………………………………………… 38

Figure 12: SIM 800 PIN CONFIGURATION………………………………………………………… 39

Figure 13: SYSTEM FLOWCHART……………………………………………………………………… 41

Figure 14: CIRCUIT DIAGRAM OF THE SYSTEM……………………………………….. 42

Figure 15: DEVELOPED PROTOTYPE OF WEATHER MONITORING SYSTEM

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 43

Figure 16: RESULTS OF WEATHER PARAMETERS DISPLAYED ON LCD SCREEN          45

Figure 17: RESULTS OF WEATHER PARAMETERS DISPLAYED ON USER’S MOBILE VIA SMS           46

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: OVERALL WEATHER MEASUREMENT ON A 24-HOUR BASIS…… 47

Table 2: COMPARING TEMPERATURE SENSOR RESULTS WITH THERMOMETER RESULTS   48

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWELDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION
• BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
• PROBLEM STATEMENT
• AIM OF THE STUDY
• OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
• SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
• OVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• REVIEW OF STUDY

CHAPTER THREE

3.0       METHODOLOGY

• INTRODUCTION
• HARDWARECOMPONENTS
• DESCRIPTION OF HARDWARECOMPONENTS
• SOFTWAREIMPLEMENTED
• PROTEUS PCB DESIGN AND SIMULATIONSOFTWARE
• SYSTEMDESIGN
• BLOCK DIAGRAM OF THESYSTEM
• HARDWARECONNECTIONS
• ARDUINOSOFTWARE
• SYSTEMFLOWCHART
• CIRCUITDIAGRAM

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0     TEST AND RESULT ANALYSIS

• RESULTS
• OVERALLMEASUREMENTS
• RESULT ANALYSIS
• LIMITATIONS

CHAPTER FIVE

• CONCLUSION
• RECOMMENDATION
• REFERENCES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

GSM – Global System for Mobile Communications LCD – Liquid Crystal Display

ADC – Analog-to-digital Converter SMS – Short Message Service

PC – Personal Computer USB – Universal Serial Bus

EEPROM – Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-only Memory IDE – Integrated Development Environment

I/O – Input/output

SIM – Subscriber Identity Module DC – Direct Current

MO – Mobile Originated MT – Mobile Terminated PDU – Protocol Data Unit HEX – Hexadecimal

GND – System Ground

VCC – Common Collector Voltage LDR – Light Dependent Resistor

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                               INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

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 [1, 2].

Telecommunication allows for weather conditions to be monitored and analyzed wirelessly without much effort or human interaction from the user with the aid of sensors and the GSM module [3]. Weather monitoring systems allow for certain weather conditions to be detected or predicted before they come in phase.

Wireless weather monitoring systems however, allow users to gain access to these systems virtually or remotely without the necessity of physically being present [2]. The system senses the climatic conditions with weather sensors by studying its patterns and giving a more accurate prediction unlike weather forecasting [1]. It senses data wirelessly over a given distance where the outcome is shown on an LCD screen, and transmits the results to a GSM module [1]. It is able to detect various weather

conditions like temperature, rain, humidity, wind, sunlight intensity and other weather parameters.

The different sensors are able to work together by interfacing them on the 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 [4].

2.2                                                 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 [1].

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 [1]. 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 e.g. Rain.

     1.3                                                              AIM

The aim of this project is to construct a Wireless weather monitoring system that is able to sense multiple weather conditions; temperature, humidity and light, simultaneously, at specific time intervals for a given coverage and eliminate human interaction with the system.

1.4         OBJECTIVES

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

• Acquire data about multiple weather conditions using sensors interfaced on a microcontroller
• Convert analog data to digital data with an ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) before being fed to the microcontroller
• Display data on an LCD screen after processing at the microcontroller

• Transmit the results in a simplex form of communication by sending an SMS to a mobile phone with the aid of a GSM

      1.5                                   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Wireless 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 a wireless 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 an SMS, allowing the user to have partial control of the system without being in the same location as the system [1].

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.

• 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 wireless 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 light. Although, the major benefit of the wireless monitoring station is being able to receive information about the weather of a particular environment without being there in a cost effective manner by making use of the GSM technology, the system requires an uninterrupted power supply to effectively perform its functions.

1.7                                              OVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS

The insight of the chapters are highlighted below:

Chapter 2- Literature Review: This chapter gives an entailed literature review of the wireless weather monitoring system.

Chapter 3- System Design & Methodology: the third chapter discusses the hardware components and software implemented in the construction of the system, the block diagram design of the system and the process of the design.

Chapter 4- Results: Results obtained from the system is discussed in this chapter.

Chapter 5- Summary and Conclusion: Summarizes the report and suggests future recommendations that could improve the project.