RemotePi

This projects aims to create a remotely operated weather station, which when possible, should follow the design principals of a space satellite.

The core of the station is a Raspberry Pi.

• The Raspberry Pi aggregates information from all sensors and communicates the information back to a base station via IP on an AX.25 network.
• The Pi is connected to the Baofeng BF-888S radio via a TNCPi TNC.
• Power Management and IO for the Pi is done through a Sleep Pi hat.
  • The Arduino on the Sleepy Pi collects and stored data from the sensors
    • I2C Attached Temp/Humidity Probe
    • Wind Speed/Direction
    • Luminosity
  • The whole rig is powered by a led acid battery. This battery is charged by a solar panel through a solar charge regulator.
  • The Pi shuts down when it's not transmitting on the radio.
  • The RTC on the Sleepy Pi interrupts the Arduino when it's time to wake the Pi.
  • Upon boot, the Arduino transfers sensor logs for the period to the Pi, which are transmitted via the radio.
  • Solar panel status, battery voltage, and board temperature are also included in the transmitted data.
  • A picture is captured with the Pi camera, which is also transmitted.
  • When it's operations are complete, the Pi shuts down to conserve battery.
  • The Arduino arms the RTC, so it can wake the Pi for it's next scheduled transmission.

The electronics will be housed in a weatherproof housing, with sealed openings to allow for the camera, sensors, antenna, solar panel cord to pass through the enclosure. The whole station will be mounted on the roof of a building in a rural area several miles north of town.

It should be possible to telnet into the Pi during it awake cycle. Considerations will need to be made so that the Pi does not get powered down by the Sleepy Pi while a terminal session is in progress. This could be metered through a communications channel that allows the Pi to tell the Sleepy to delay power management for a period, or a DTMF decoder attached between the radio and the Arduino that allows to the Arduino to suspend power savings after hearing a specific tone sequence.