Building a Python Weather Station with Raspberry Pi: Buying the Parts
After deciding to build a Personal Weather Station, and reading through this excellent resource to guide me (thank you raspberrypi.org!), it was time to buy the parts. Thankfully, they’ve included a list of what you need to buy here.
Their list serves as a recommended starting point, but you’re free to buy your own sensors or parts as you wish. Their recommendations are a function of cost, availability, Python library support, reliability, and accuracy. They aren’t all the “best” sensors, but I believe after some research they’re good enough for my beginner purposes.
As I have no prior experience building a weather station, I decided I would stick with the parts they’ve recommended for my first build. All in all, it cost me $289.45 after taxes and shipping to buy almost all of the parts.I left out some stuff related to the permanent weather proof enclosure and soldering materials, as I’ll buy those once I’ve built the prototype model and better understand the hardware and sensors I’m working with. You don’t need to buy everything right off the bat. You could start with the Raspberry Pi and a single sensor of your choice, and start in a modular fashion.
Here’s what I bought today, and how much it cost me. Your cost may vary, and I wasn’t looking hard for the cheapest deal per part. I ordered from only three stores to bundle shipping. I was also impatient, and wanted to get started today… so I bought some of the parts on Amazon to take advantage of their next day shipping options so I can start tomorrow.
Adafruit
$6.95–1x Assembled Pi Cobbler Plus — Breakout Cable (for Pi B+/A+/Pi 2/Pi 3/Pi 4)
$1.95–1 x Premium Male/Male Jumper Wires — 20 x 6" (150mm)
$9.95–1 x USB to TTL Serial Cable — Debug / Console Cable for Raspberry Pi
$21.95–1 x High Temp Waterproof DS18B20 Digital Temperature Sensor (3m long)
$0.75–1 x Through-Hole Resistors — 4.7K ohm 5% 1/4W — Pack of 25
$3.75–1 x MCP3008–8-Channel 10-Bit ADC With SPI Interface
Sub-Total: $45.30
United States Postal Service (0.72lbs) (Priority Mail): $8.90
Sales Tax: $3.39
Total: $57.59
Argent Data Systems
$68.00 1x Wind / Rain Sensor Assembly
Sub-Total: $68.00
United States Postal Service 2 lbs, 6.72 oz (Priority Mail™): $16.90
Total: $84.90
Amazon
$20.21–1x Adafruit BME280 I2C or SPI Temperature Humidity Pressure Sensor
$59.99–1x CanaKit Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (B Plus)
$6.99–1x DEYUE Jumper Wires Set — 240 PCs 3in1 breadboard Wires
$9.99–1x DEYUE breadboard Set Prototype Board — 6 PCS 400 Pin Solderless Board
$11.45–1x SanDisk 32GB Ultra microSDHC UHS-I Memory Card with Adapter — 98MB/s, C10, U1, Full HD, A1, Micro SD Card — SDSQUAR-032G-GN6MA
Sub-Total: $133.62
Sales Tax: $8.35
Shipping: $4.99 (The PM2.5 sensor was not covered under Prime shipping)
Total: $146.96
Final Total: $289.45
All in, I’m at $289.45 for my personal weather station. I believe you could get this down to a cheaper price if you shop around a bit more, but this should give you a ballpark idea of how much you’ll spend if you start from zero.
Note: I am missing a few things like the weatherproof enclosure, RJ11 breakout boards, PCB mount screw terminal blocks, soldering equipment, and other parts needed to create the permanent Weather HAT. I wanted to get started with the prototyping before I jumped to buy the parts needed for the permanent enclosure.
Once I get the parts in tomorrow, I’ll start my build off with the Humidity, Temperature, and Pressure sensor.
☀️️ Stay Tuned!
