Desktop Weather Module | Devlog #8

Desktop weather (and room temperature) module that plugs into your computer!
I am immensely, majorly, colossally, incomprehensibly content! 😁
The UI looks good and… THE ENCLOSURE IS PRINTED!!!

What i worked on:

• UI (again)
• 3D printed enclosure
  – print
  – drilling holes
  – lots of filing

The 3D print was fun but also sort of a pain to deal with. Since i had to get it printed at the library there were no iterations possible, this lead to holes not fitting because of tolerances and also the button plate (the piece connecting the buttons to the frame) was 1.5mm too thick and not able to be screwed down. i spent hours filing and drilling for it all to finally fit together.

I also forgot the rail for the inside of the enclosure. One piece has it but the other doesnt.😭

The UI wasnt too hard, just copying the photpea layout and doing some math for alignment. I did have to fix the endianness and change RGB to BGR as thats how it was being converted to a c array.

Welp, its been a nice time on stardance working on this project, but tomorrow’s the plane and im goin on vacation🥳
Hopefully I have the time to continue once i come back (mid september) but i’ll also have to catch up on a lot of school.

Future Plans:

• Implement Forecast and create its UI (still havent done that)
• improve UI of inside temperature screen
• add keybinds to restart esp32 and start the access point to reconfigure the info
• Optimize code
• Fix PCB design (routing/layout)
• order PCB
• redesign and 3d print enclosure (with rails this time)
  – better tolerances and clearances
  – hole for usb-c port
  – better clicking mechanism to connect frames

Desktop Weather Module | Devlog #8

Desktop weather (and room temperature) module that plugs into your computer!
PAIN 💀
i had 2 days to get this code decent, I’ve been grinding day and night and atp idek if its worth it (24 hours till i leave for vacation)

Anyways, What i worked on:

• UI
• More UI
• and a lil more UI

The UI has honestly been the most annoying tedious part of this project. In hindsight, i definitely shouldve used LVGL and I dont know why i tried to have the UI look aesthetic. Maybe i should just go back to the basic one.

Im going to the library tmrw (or today ig) so hopefully the 3d print goes well. Anyways i should probably go sleep now, gn gang.

Future Plans:

• 3d print enclosure
• finish ui and forecast code
• vacation
• full 8 hours sleep (i havent in long time)

Desktop Weather Module | Devlog #7

Desktop weather (and room temperature) module that plugs into your computer!

Exhilarating delightful resplendent news!🥳

I GOT THE TFT DISPLAY! It said it was going to come in August (like the 5th), BUT it came on wednesday!

What I worked on (finally have the display):

• Replaced old 1602 LCD on breadboard with the TFT Display
• Used photopea to layout the text so the Dynamic (updating) and Static text would look nice together
• Updated the code to make the display work and have the data displayed
• Made the PCB for the weather module (it needs a lot of work and I got lots of great feedback to implement)

Its basically August 1st rn. I won’t be able to truly finish the project until September (after vacation), however; I do think I can get the enclosure 3d printed and have it working with the breadboard (we’ll just imagine it isn’t there).

Future Plans:

• Continue to update code:
  – add weather forecast for the week
  – better display code to switch between pages and update dynamic screens (only updating if there’s a new value instead of a constant interval)
  – if i have time, adding different cities to switch between
• fix Fusion 360 enclosure (I kinda messed up a bit on the parametric modeling so I have to fix that)
• 3D print enclosure (hopefully next couple days)
• Assemble! (without the PCB)
• Update PCB design with feedback
• Order and test PCB (september)

Desktop Weather Module | Devlog #6

Desktop weather (and room temperature) module that plugs into your computer!

Unfortunate news 😭

The TFT display that is needed for this project was supposed to arrive last Thursday. Checked Amazon, now it’s saying it’s coming in August.

Usually this would be fine, but I’m going on vacation for the entirety of August, so I don’t think I would be able to work on/finish the project until I come back.

Anyways, here’s what I’ve worked on:

• Updating the code to work with TFT display (on Wokwi)
• Started working on PCB (just an esp32 with pinouts that can connect to the DHT11, TFT Display, and Buttons)

I’m using the TFT_eSPI Library to work with the display. If anyone knows of anything better which will make better graphics (maybe graphs based on weather data) lmk.

I’m also displaying more weather data, so I converted the speeds and angles into more familiar units (eg 300 degrees N = West North West).

Finally, I have it switch between scenes with only 1 button. I’m thinking of having the other Button for a forecast, but I cannot think of what to do with the 3rd button (maybe an on button?). Once again, suggestions would be appreciated.

Future Plans:

• Finish writing (and fixing) code for the TFT display
• Finish PCB Design
• Order PCB
• 3D Print enclosure (with PCB supports)
• Hope that the screen comes before I have to leave💀

Desktop Weather Module | Devlog #2

Desktop weather (and room temperature) module that plugs into your computer!

Enclosure! 📦

What I’ve done this update:

• Designed the enclosure in Fusion 360
• Looked for ways to work on the code without having the TFT on hand

I hit flow state working on this thing for the last couple of days. It was fun looking at different locking mechanisms that could be used to keep the components secure and also easily accessible. Ultimately, I decided on using screws to hold the buttons and TFT display down and then a rail with a protrusion on the end, which should hold the case together. Maybe in the future I could get rid of the buttons and make it entirely touchscreen (as the screen has a resistive touchscreen). All that’s left for the enclosure is making the PCB and adding mounting holes for it.

Something that made the process a little difficult was figuring out clearances and the tolerance of 3d printers. I’ve yet to print out the enclosure, so I’m not entirely sure it’ll work, but the snap-clicking mechanism is based on this. The display should come around Thursday this week, so until then I’ll just be working on the code and trying to use Wokwi to simulate it.

Feedback or ideas would be appreciated!

Future Plans:

• Altering the code to support the TFT display
• Design and order PCB
• Add PCB support to enclosure model
• 3D print enclosure at the Library

Components:

• ESP32 Devkit (DOIT v1 from ELEGOO)
• 2.8” SPI TFT LCD Display ILI9341
• DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Sensor
• 2kΩ Resistor
• 2x 330Ω Resistors
• 2x Buttons9V Battery

Desktop Weather Module | Devlog #4

Desktop weather (and room temperature) module that plugs into your computer!

PCB!👨‍💻

What I’ve done this update:

• FINALLY bought a display, a 2.8” TFT Module (coming soon)
• Sketched up some designs for the enclosure
• Made a very rough outline on what the module would look like (still very tentative)
• Spent many hours learning basic PCB design
• Made ESP32 PCB which will serve as the base for the weather module (This was my first go at it so don’t mind the actual PCB lol, the weather module’s will be better)

Learning PCB design has been extremely interesting. There’s a lot of nuance in laying the components and traces. Honestly, I thought the hardest part would be the schematic, but that was by far the easiest (to make and to learn). However, the components and traces were really the most difficult part of design, as traces must have enough space to avoid crosstalk, and for that to happen, you should have an efficient layout of components.

In addition, with the display, I’ve spent some time learning the different types of serial communication like UART, I2C, and SPI (which is what the TFT display uses). Overall, probably spent over 20 hours the last couple of days just learning.

Future Plans:

• TFT module arrives and update code for the new display (I’m starting to work on it now)
• Update the wifi interface
• Better scrolling or alternative with buttons (maybe a rotary encoder if i can get one)
• Make prototype on breadboard then PCB
• Make enclosure and 3D print

Still a lot to be done, but I feel like we’re getting closer!

Components:

• ESP32 Devkit (DOIT v1 from ELEGOO)
• 2.8” SPI TFT LCD Display ILI9341
• DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Sensor
• 2kΩ Resistor
• 2x 330Ω Resistors
• 2x Buttons
• 9V Battery

Desktop Weather Module | Devlog #3

Desktop weather station that plugs into your

What I’ve done this update:

• Created an Access Point on startup so WiFi Data, API key, and City can be entered
• Added proper capitalization on displayed text

Future Plans:

• get 0.96” oled screen
• Update display to accommodate new screen
• Create PCB
• Create & 3D print housing (probably from a local library)

Components:

ESP321602 LCD Display
DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Sensor
2kΩ Resistor
2x 330Ω Resistors
2x Buttons
9V Battery

Desktop Weather Module | Devlog #2

Desktop weather station that plugs into your computer.

bugs squashed 🐛🦶

What I’ve done so far:

• Added API weather display on the 1602 LCD screen
• Added a toggle button to switch between indoor temperature and humidity and the weather forecast outside
• Added custom icons to match weather conditions (i tried lol)
• Fixed major bugs with api calling and connecting to wifi consistently

The bugs took the longest as there was a “Guru Meditation error” which i got around with some conditional checks and making sure that the pointers were initialized.

Also, I want to use a 0.96” oled screen as it would probably be more visually appealing and can also display more weather. Lmk if you guys know of anything better.

Future Plans:

• Finish display of weather data
• Create an Access Point on startup so Wifi Data, API key, and City can be entered
• Create PCB and get an oled screen
• Create & 3D print housing (probably from a local library)

Components:

• ESP32
• 1602 LCD Display
• DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Sensor
• 2kΩ Resistor
• 2x 330Ω Resistors
• 2x Buttons
• 9V Battery

Desktop Weather Module | First Devlog (:

I’m working on making a weather display I could put on my desk. This is my first project after learning a bit about ESP32s and Arduino IDE. I want the module to be able to display the indoor climate and the current weather data.

What I’ve got so far:

• Code to display temperature/humidity indoors
• Code to print API data to the serial monitor
• Working circuit for LCD display and DHT11 sensor

Ideally, I’d use an OLED display as it has colours and higher definition for more information, but I only have the LCD, so that’s what we’re working with.

Also, I need to figure out how to power this, as I don’t want to have to use a battery pack.

Plans:

• Use LCD to display weather data
• Decide on display & power method
• Create PCB
• Create housing (Fusion 360)

Lmk if you guys have some advice or recommendations