SparkFun Weather:bit

The SparkFun weather:bit is a fully loaded “carrier” board for the micro:bit that, when combined with the micro:bit, provides you with a fully functional weather station. With the weather:bit you will have access to barometric pressure, relative humidity and temperature readings. There are also connections on this carrier board to optional sensors such as wind speed, direction, rain gauge and soil readings! The micro:bit has a lot of features and a lot of potential for weather data collection.

The weather:bit connects to the micro:bit via an edge connector at the top of the board, making setup easy. This creates a handy way to swap out micro:bits for programming, while still providing reliable connections to all of the different pins on the micro:bit. Also included are serial and I2C ports on the weather:bit for optimized connectivity if you so choose.

The micro:bit is a pocket-sized computer that lets you get creative with digital technology. Between the micro:bit and the shield-like bit boards, you can do almost anything while coding, customizing and controlling your micro:bit from almost anywhere! You can use your micro:bit for all sorts of unique creations, from robots to musical instruments and more. At half the size of a credit card, this versatile board has vast potential!

Product Showcase

About the weather:bit

The weather:bit is a carrier board for the micro:bit. Similar to an Arduino shield, it is designed to add functionality to the micro:bit without the hassle of a number of other boards, components and all of those jumper wires.In this case, the weather:bit takes your normal run-of-the-mill micro:bit and turns it into a full-blown weather station with a few extra parts, which you can use to measure the following:

• Air Temperature
• Relative Humidity
• Barometric Pressure
• Wind Speed
• Wind Direction
• Rain Fall
• Soil Moisture
• Soil Temperature

Edge Connector

The weather:bit connects to the micro:bit via an edge pin connector. This makes it handy to swap out micro:bits for programming, but also gives reliable connections to all of the different pins on the micro:bit.

BME280 Barometric Pressure Sensor

The weather:bit has a BME280 barometric pressure sensor onboard, which can measure air temperature, humidity, barometric pressure and altitude. It communicates with the micro:bit via I2C, and the data from this sensor is easily accessible using the SparkFun weather:bit package for MakeCode.

Weather Meter Sockets

There are two RJ11 jacks at the bottom of the weather:bit. These are used to connect the weather meters to the weather:bit.

Soil Moisture and Temperature

Between the two RJ11 jacks are two sets of screw terminals sets.
The one on the left is used to hook up a soil moisture sensor. You can use either longer jumper wires or wires cut to whatever length works for your project.

The set on the right is the soil temperature sensor. It is set up to use the waterproof temperature sensor. This sensors wire is rather long and is great for monitoring the temperature of the soil in your garden.

Serial Port

SparkFun have populated the serial port pins with a standard FTDI format to make it easy for you to plug in a serial widget of your choice, such as an OpenLog or Serial LCD display, or to just monitor data through an FTDI breakout and USB cable.

I2C Port

For those who are more adventurous and demand a way to hook up other sensors of your choice, SparkFun have added an I2C port that can be soldered to directly — or you can add headers for plug-and-play use of your I2C sensors and actuators.

Quick Spec

• Onboard temperature, humidity, pressure and light sensor
• Connectors for soil moisture and soil temperature
• Connectors for wind speed, direction and rainfall gauges
• Edge connector for easy micro:bit integration
• Weight: 32g

Resources

• Product Page
• Schematic
• Experiment Guide
• micro:bit Getting Started Guide
• About micro:bit Page
• micro:bit Apps
• GitHub

Shipping List

• 1 x SparkFun Weather:bit