Weather Toys: Building and Hacking Your Own 1-Wire Weather Station (ExtremeTech) (Paperback)

by Tim Bitson (Author)
Key Phrases: humidity module, post your data, weather web page, Weather Underground, Radio Shack, Found Adapter (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Do more than TALK about the weather

Maybe you can't change it, but you can measure it. And onceyou build your weather station, the sky's the limit. You can shareupdates on your own weather Web site. Create a smart sprinklerfor a lot less than thatfancy system on TV. Freeup your PC with a stand-alone weather station.Protect against lightning strikes with a surgesuppressor. Take yourweather station with you. Finding out which waythe wind is blowing canbe a lot of fun.

The Toys
* 1-Wire weather station
* Sensors for humidity, wind, rainfall, barometric pressure, lightning, and temperature
* Weather Web server
* Lightning surge suppressor
* LED weather display
* Smart sprinkler timer
* Appliance controller
* Smart home thermostat
* Stand-alone weather station

Complete instructions and code for these andother hardware and software projects--build them all or pick and choose!

Companion Web site

At www.weathertoys.net you'll find a complete weather station software package, source code, and specialized software tools to support these projects, plus lots of additional resources.

From the Back Cover
Do more than TALK about the weather

Maybe you can't change it, but you can measure it. And onceyou build your weather station, the sky's the limit. You can shareupdates on your own weather Web site. Create a smart sprinklerfor a lot less than thatfancy system on TV. Freeup your PC with a stand-alone weather station.Protect against lightning strikes with a surgesuppressor. Take yourweather station with you. Finding out which waythe wind is blowing canbe a lot of fun.

The Toys

• 1-Wire weather station
• Sensors for humidity, wind, rainfall, barometric pressure, lightning, and temperature
• Weather Web server
• Lightning surge suppressor
• LED weather display
• Smart sprinkler timer
• Appliance controller
• Smart home thermostat
• Stand-alone weather station

Complete instructions and code for these andother hardware and software projects—build them all or pick and choose!

Companion Web site

At www.weathertoys.net you'll find a complete weather station software package, source code, and specialized software tools to support these projects, plus lots of additional resources.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 504 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (October 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470040467
• ISBN-13: 978-0470040461
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #116,309 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #73 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Hacking
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  #85 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Environment > Weather

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expand 1 Wire and Weather Device Knowledge, May 15, 2008

By	Durward S. Bishop "HoneySeeker" (Lawrenceville, Ga) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is an excellent primer to help you understand 1 wire devices and weather devices. I found that it helped motivate me in other directions such as bee hive monitoring in conjunction with the weather. The programs are good but it would be nice if they were available in alternate programming langauges such as C, C++, Visual Basic and a few others. I am not well versed in Java at this time so the alternate programming language would help greatly especially since I am in the process of doing remote wireless using the Rabbit microprocessor with ZigBee for the weather devices and the alternate languages would help the process. If you have a need to know about 1 wire and weather devices this book is highly recommended...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dynamite and full of good projects, April 5, 2007

By	Lee S. Mairs (Romney, WV United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The introduction to the Java programming environment is well worth the price of admission. This is for folks who want to build a real proefessional grade weather station and not just a toy demon.

3.0 out of 5 stars Good intro to one wire and how it works, December 20, 2008

By	Hoydytoydy (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews

I bought this book for a bargain price from one of the sellers on amazon. It has good information about how one wire sensors work. Also if someone is interested in Java this will break you into getting a sense of how that works. But there are some corrections that were made after the book was published, especially concerning how to list the onewire usb adapter. I had some problems getting it to work until I looked up the authors website and read some of the comments.
All in all, I probably would not buy a one wire weather station again because there are other weather stations that give you a lot more features for the price. But I would get the very inexpensive one wire temp sensors to play with as an introduction to such devices.
I did learn quite a bit from the book and am glad I understand what it takes to do java programming even though I barely scratched the surface.