Access data from a weather station with the Raspberry Pi
Weather Watch
If you have a weather station that allows you to access data via a USB port, you can use your Raspberry Pi to analyze the data and publish the results via a web application.
My new weather station [1] has several sensors for wind, rain, and temperature, as well as a USB cable and evaluation software (Figure 1), albeit a desktop-only Windows application. However, I wanted to record the measured data and, if possible, access it on my cell phone while I was on the move.
Figure 1: The electronic TFA Nexus weather station records wind, rain, and outdoor temperature and outputs the data via USB. (Image: TFA Dostmann)
Positioning a Windows PC running 24/7 next to my weather station was not an option; instead, I set my sights on the Raspberry Pi. Thus far, I had used it as a tiny media center with an equally tiny speaker, but by using its USB connection, my Pi could read the data output from the weather station. The power requirement is negligible compared with that of a full-size PC, and the Pi is silent. The question then arose: How can I acquire the data via USB if the station only comes with a Windows program?
[...]
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