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website: sparkfun.com
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6175 Longbow Drive, Suite 200 zip code: 80301 443.0048 F
Boulder, Colorado USA

2008.09.18
USB Weather Board v2 Data Sheet

1 Overview 3.1 Sensors

The USB Weather Board is fitted with a SCP1000 barometric The SHT15 Humidity Sensor, SCP1000 Pressure Sensor,
pressure sensor, a SHT15 humidity sensor, and a TEMT6000 and TEMT6000 Ambient Light Sensor have the following
ambient light sensor. This allows the on-board ATmega8 to deliver specifications:
pressure, humidity, temperature, and light level via USB. There is
• Absolute barometric pressure accurate within +/-150
also the option of adding a BlueSMiRF to the unit which allows a
Pascal
Bluetooth compatible computer to remotely receive all readings.
• Relative humidity accurate within +/-2%
Serial output is a single visible ASCII string at 9600bps, 8N1, at 1
• Temperature accurate within +/-0.3 degrees C
reading per second.
• Ambient light level as an analog reading
2 Specifications • Battery level as an analog reading
• Measurement rate of 1Hz
The electrical specifications are as follows:
Ambient light level is an analog level relative to exposed visible
• Powered by USB (5V)
light. It is a number from 1 to 1023 (10-bit ADC) where 1 is very
• External 4-12V DC supply like a solar cell (Warning: bright and 1023 is very dark. In high daylight the number is 10-200.
Exceeding 12V may cause board damage) Indoors the level is 800-900. The sensor returns a reading greater
• Approximately 35mA when active than 1000 in low-light conditions.

Battery level is an analog reading from the power source attached

3 Operation to the external power connector. This could be a battery, solar cell,
or DC supply. The battery level reading will normally be 0 when
The USB Weather Board is relatively straight forward in operation.
power is obtained via USB.
The unit is powered by USB or a separate 4-12V supply with an
on/off switch for easy power control.
3.2 Output format
Data transfer is available over two mediums - USB or Bluetooth.
Bluetooth, however, is an add on (more on that below). Once active, your terminal program should receive a serial output
as a single visible ASCII string at 9600bps.
The FTDI USB to UART IC is used for communication through the
USB port. The latest drivers for this IC can be found from the FTDI The following is an example output of the "Simple" text option
driver page. from the Weather Board:

Once the board is connected via USB, data can be acquired using #21.81,081.28,026.5,079.7,083534,918,0,000001$
any terminal program (i.e. HyperTerminal). Terminal configuration #21.81,081.33,026.5,079.7,083527,919,0,000002$
should be 9600bps 8-N-1.
Every second a new set of readings is displayed. There are 8 cells
The Weather Board shows an empty footprint, which can be of data separated by commas.
utilized for Bluetooth communication. The footprint was designed
specifically for the SparkFun BlueSMiRF device which allows • Cell 1 (21.81) = 21.81% Humidity
for wireless communication to any Bluetooth enabled computer • Cell 2 (081.28) = 81.28F from the SHT15 sensor
(for more information please see the BlueSMiRF link below). The
• Cell 3 (026.5) = 26.5C from the SCP1000 sensor
footprint is labeled with GND and PWR pins so be sure to line the
BlueSMiRF GND and PWR pins to match the footprint. A female • Cell 4 (79.70) = 79.7F from the SCP1000 sensor
header can be attached to allow the BlueSMiRF to be easily • Cell 5 (083534) = 83854 Pascal from the SCP1000 sensor
attached/detached from the board.
• Cell 6 (918) = a relative reading from the TEMT6000 light
There is a separate switch that determines which communication sensor (pretty dark)
is being used, USB or RF (Bluetooth). Please verify that the switch • Cell 7 (0) = battery level is 0 (no battery attached)
is in the appropriate position for your application. You may also
• Cell 8 (000001) is record number and will increment
want to review the schematic for a better understanding of the
each second
switch setup.

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 2008.09.18
USB Weather Board v2 Data Sheet

3.3 Device Configuration two sensors (SHT15 and SCP1000) will be slightly higher than
the actual local temperature. We recommend taking a few local
Press "ctrl+s" (control and the letter s at the same time) while the
temperature readings and calibrating your Weather Board using
board is active to open the firmware configuration menu.
the temperature offset setting.
The firmware on the Weather Board v2 allows for user
configuration of: 4 Additional Resources
• Various readings, which can be turned on and off SHT15 Humidity Sensor Datasheet:
• Output style, which can be switched from "Simple" to
http://www.sensirion.com/en/pdf/product_information/Data_Sheet_
"Verbose"
humidity_sensor_SHT1x_SHT7x_E.pdf
• Temperature offset
SCP1000 Pressure Sensor Datasheet:
All settings are retained in non-volatile memory and will be
automatically restored when board is turned on. h t t p : / / w w w. v t i . f i / m i d c o m - s e r v e a t t a c h m e n t g u i d -
30de88ec8eb89a476cb8c8e70b969dc3/scp1000_product_family_
If there is a reading that you do not need (battery level for instance) specification_rev_0.08.pdf
you can turn it off. This may be helpful when writing a parser or
logging data. BlueSMiRF:

The "Verbose" style of output is easier to read. The "Simple" style h t t p : / / w w w. s p a r k f u n . c o m / c o m m e r c e / p r o d u c t _ i n f o .

of output is easier for parsers and the creation of comma separated php?products_id=582
value (CSV) files for data analysis.
FTDI USB Driver Page:
We have found that the digital sensors are temperature
http://www.ftdichip.com/FTDrivers.htm
compensated and highly accurate, but because of local warming
(from the PCB and local ICs), the displayed temperature from the

SparkFun Electronics, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements and availability are subject to change without notice. USB Weather Board is a trademark of SparkFun Electronics, Inc. All other
trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

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