CDC Weather Station Is Coming To Life

I’ve been waiting on a simple bit of ribbon cable. I could have just ordered some, but my partner in crime the fabulous Jon San, had some spare. I was unashamedly excited to receive this simple bit of kit and immediately put it to use. Although I have to admit I didn’t notice or consider the relevance of the pink, zig-zag patten on one side of the ribbon. Although it didn’t slow me down, I’m pleased to now know that’s pin 1!

26 Ribbon Cable

26 Pin Ribbon Cable used to connected the sensor to the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi.

Progress was made today. First job was to connect the sensor to the ribbon cable.

Connecting The Sensor To The Pi

Raspberry Pi. Ribbon Cable. BMP180 Sensor. Pin layout. Wire Strippers.

The initial work began before any coding, I had to turn my hand to soldering. Something very pleasurable about soldering, well it is to me. Having this little tool to hold everything in place helps although I do need to get a better soldering iron.

 

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With clear instructions available from the Sheffield Pi Weather Station project, even if they used breadboards, I was able to work out which pins should connect to the sensor ports.

My Pi running some code

My Pi With Sensor Connected Running Some Code

Myself and the fabulous Jon San did spend a couple of hours trying to solve a problem we made more complicated than need be. Turns out it wasn’t an absent module or outdated firmware. We’d used an underscore where there should have been a dash. Or was it the other way round? Anyway, the hardware is functioning, I just need to get it talking to the Met office.