Solar Powered Stand Alone Cellular Weather Station

Recently I had the change to talk to some of the Picton paragliders and received vary positive feedback for the weather station near the paragliding launchpad. I know they have multiple gliding sites around Marlborough which takes a fair bit of time to get to. And often when they arrive at one of those locations the flying conditions aren't as good as they had hoped for. So I decided to have a look what it would take to make a solar powered stand alone cellular weather station. Theoretically if everything comes together well they could be easily reproduced and quickly deployed on locations that have 2G coverage.

So why 2G? First off, I can't really on an ethernet or WiFi connections at the remote locations where these weather stations will be most likely deployed, Secondly Vodafone will support 2G at least till 2020. Also programming wise 2G is less complicated then 3G. So it might not be guaranteed future proof after 2020 but I have the feeling that components might have to be replaced after four years out in the NZ sun anyway (NZ has really high UV levels).

Solar power will be used to charge the batteries that will provide power for the weather station. Again this will be required because most locations won't have a power source readily available.

Here is a list of components I was looking into:

• Teensy 3.1 microprocessor
• Adafruit Fona Cellular Breakout
• Lithium Ion Battery Pack 3.7V 6600mAh
• Solar Panel 6V 3.4W