It all started when Dallas Semiconductor Inc. (now Maxim) offered their WS-1 Weather Station to the public. The WS-1 is a inexpensive weather instrument that measures temperature, wind speed, and wind direction. It was designed to show off the capabilities of their new 1-wire bus. It quickly became the gotta-have-it toy for weather hobbyists world-wide. Since its introduction, hobbyists have designed additional sensors including Humidity, Barometric Pressure, Lightning Detection, Rainfall and much more. Many offer their sensors as schematics, kits, or completed products.

Dallas no longer sells the WS-1, however an updated design (version 3) is available from several vendors for about $80. See the Resources section below.

Here you'll find various software applications, programming information, example code, and construction articles for measuring weather conditions using Palm OS, Mac OS X, TINI, and Basic Stamp.

What’s This Page All About???

Want to publish your weather data on the internet? Or maybe you just don't want to tie up your home computer to run a weather station. Then here's the best solution I've found: use a WS-1 weather station, a TINI computer and TINIWeatherServer software and you'll have a complete internet weather station.

TINI is Dallas/Maxim's cool Tiny InterNet Interface, the size of a computer memory module. It contains serial ports, 1-wire ports, CANBUS ports, a parallel output and most importantly, Ethernet. It is programmed using Java. More details on TINI can be found at the TINI Web Site, and there are several companies that offers version of TINI, such as Systronix TSTIK2.

TiniWeatherServer is Java program that collects weather data with a WS-1 and other 1-wire sensors and serves up a web page. The Oro Valley Weather Server is presently running on TINI.

TiniWeatherServer 5.0 adds support for a second temperature sensor, a 1-Wire Hub, and more.

Download TWS 5.0

TiniWeatherServer

If you have ever wanted to build your own professional-grade weather station, then this book is for you! It combines several of the projects on this page along with a software framework to provide a complete weather station package. Click Here to learn more.


Weather Toys now sponsors a Discussion Forum to share your weather station questions and ideas with others. Check it out!

The basic weather station software is a simple package that runs on Windows, plus there are many developers that offer professional-grade applications for collecting and displaying weather data using a PC.

This web site offers software and example code for the WS-1 that runs on several different platforms, including Palm OS, Mac OS X, Basic Stamp, and TINI. There are also designs for building additional sensors such as Lightning Detectors, a Barometric Pressure Sensor and more.

Please note that the software and projects are designed as examples for experimenters and generally require some programming and/or hardware experience. Every attempt has been made to insure the accuracy of the information presented here, but it is in no way guaranteed to work in your application. Batteries not included!

The Weather Toys book provides complete details to run the 1-Wire weather station on your Mac using OS X. Since a Mac is my primary computer, the applications and code were developed on a Mac.

To run a 1-Wire Weather Station on your mac, you have several choices. You can develop your own code in c using Cocoa, or using Java. I choose to use Java in the Weather Toys book primarily because Dallas/Maxim provides a robust Java library for 1-Wire. If Java is your choice, then you can pick one of three different options:

  1. 1)Follow along with the book and build your own Java program called SimpleWeather. This will provide the most versatility and Fun!

  2. 2)Use the already-built ExtremeTechWeather Server, a double-clickable Java program. ETWS is a little rough in spots, but provides a complete weather station package that severs up web pages and posts to the Weather Underground.

  3. 3)Use TiniWeatherServer 5.0 on your Mac. Although it was written for TINI,  TWS runs on your Mac. It’s not quite a double-clickable program, and doesn’t have a user interface, but it does have the most 1-Wire features and reliability

All of the code is downloadable form the Weather Toys Web Site.

1-Wire Weather Station on Mac OS X

Build an experimental One-Wire Lightning Monitor to add lightning activity to your 1-wire weather system. This system can detect lightning over 50 miles away.. Hobby-Boards.com now offers a kit or a complete module. See Resources section below.

Download Construction Plans

Download Source Code

1-Wire Lightning Detector

Build a lighting detector and use your Basic Stamp to monitor the lightning activity. Lightning activity is displayed on a row of 8 LEDs to indicate lightning strikes per minute. Complete construction plans and software are available. Requires at least a Basic Stamp BS2. Construction plans use a Basic Stamp 2 Carrier Board from Parallax.

Download Construction Plans

Download Source File

Basic Stamp Lightning Activity Monitor

DOWeather (pronounced DOW Weather) is a weather station application for displaying current weather data from a WS-1 Weather Station on a Palm OS device that has a serial port. This creates a truly portable weather instrumentation system. Version 2.0 adds color and supports the new version 3 weather station, and can search for the primary 1-wire devices. It also supports the AAG and Hobby-Boards Humidity Sensor and adds several new features. Requires PalmOS Version 3.1 or greater. This application is no longer supported. The source code download is a CodeWarrior for Palm OS Release 6.

NOTE: Your Palm device must have a serial port (not USB) and a special serial-to-1-Wire Adapter cable may have to be fabricated.

Download DOWWeather 2.0 User Manual Here

Download DOWeather 2.0 Application and Source (Includes both Color and B&W Version) Here

DOWeather

Looking for the ultimate display for your Basic Stamp or weather project? Try the BetaBrite LED sign. Its 14 character 5x7 alpha-numeric 8-color display can store and scroll thousands of characters. The BetaBrite is available from BetaBrite or your local Sam's Club for under $200. It has a serial interface that can be connected directly to your Basic Stamp or computer serial port.

Download example Basic Stamp Code.

Download example Java Code

BetaBrite LED Sign Basic Stamp & Java Driver

Resources

Send Comments or Questions to: weatherprojects@mac.com

Last Update: 09/01/07

© 2003-2007 by Tim Bitson. All source code is © by T. Bitson and is provided "as-is" without warranty. Non-commercial use is granted free of charge. Distribution other than by this website by permission only.

1-Wire and TINI is © Maxim Semiconductor Inc. Mac OS X is © Apple Computer Inc. PalmOS is © 3COM. Basic Stamp is © Parallax Inc. BetaBrite is © Adaptive Micro Systems Inc.Weather Toys and the Weather Toys Logo is © Tim BItson

Connect your Basic Stamp to the 1-Wire Weather Station and display Temperature, Wind Speed, and Wind Direction on your PC or using an LCD Display. Jon Williams, a Parallax Applications Engineer, has re-written my Basic Stamp weather program, adding several significant enhancements. It is featured in the February 2002 edition of Nuts & Volts Magazine. See the article Here. Download source code for the 1-Wire Weather Station Download source code for a 1-Wire Humidity Programhttp://www.nutsvolts.com/http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/cols/nv/vol3/col/nv82.pdfWeather_Projects_files/OW_WEATHER.BSPWeather_Projects_files/OW_Humidity.bsphttp://www.timbitson.comshapeimage_10_link_0shapeimage_10_link_1shapeimage_10_link_2shapeimage_10_link_3

Basic Stamp Weather Station