Why IoTwx?

Inspired by the 3D-PAWS project this project sets out to build upon the wonderful work already done in innovative low-cost weather sensing, to expand it into an open source IoT project.

There is a tremendous amount of energy and innovation around automated weather stations, and now that 3D-printers and low-cost computers (e.g. Raspberry Pi, etc.) have come into popularity, there has been an explosion of experimental systems and software to control and take advantage of these technological tools to do amazing things with weather sensing.

There are more innovations coming with the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), and thus the impetus of this project and the three core goals of this project:

  1. Develop open source IoT and “smart” weather station ideas and platforms: by taking advantage of low cost computers such as the Raspbery Pi Zero, while broadening support for newer more powerful “edge AI” computing platforms such as Jetson, we hope to stimulate and encourage new and exciting open source ideas around what a “smart” weather station might be.
  2. Design open IoT weather stations that are focused on innovation, stability, usability and expandability: with a focus on ease of use, architecture, expandability and hackability, we envision community re-designs to support the proliferation of low-cost sensors (both existing and those that have yet to be created). Many existing systems do not easily support new innovations, while this project aims to keep new ideas moving quickly.
  3. Develop a broad community of engineers, designers, citizen scientists, educators, researchers and software developers around open innovations in IoT weather stations: weather sensing is fun and relevant to nearly everyone, especially in our ever-changing world of rapid climate disruption. While not everyone considers themselves a “weather nerd”, nearly everyone can appreciate the value of stations and weather data. From engineers looking to redesign more robust and cost-effective instrument housings, to educators trying to make weather observation and meteorology accessible to their students, to researchers looking to make and deploy low-cost sensors for research, this project aims to build a community around IoT stations that can help accelerate open innovation of all kinds.