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helium-weather-station

iot

LoRa IoT weather monitoring

C++ LoRaWAN Helium CubeCell IoT Solar
View on GitHub

Overview

A self-powered LoRaWAN weather station that measures temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure and reports them over The Helium Network — no Wi-Fi, no mains power, and no gateway of its own required.

Why I built it

I wanted remote environmental data from a spot with no power or network, which is exactly what low-power wide-area networking is for. LoRa’s range and tiny energy budget make a battery-plus-solar node practical, and Helium provides the coverage to get packets back without standing up my own infrastructure.

What it does

  • Board: a Heltec CubeCell HTCC-AB01 (also tested on HTCC-AB02s) — an ultra-low-power MCU with an integrated LoRa radio, region-selected for the local band.
  • Sensor: a Bosch BME280 breakout for temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure.
  • Power: a 3.7 V LiPo cell, with optional charging from a 6 V (110 × 60 mm) solar panel for unattended operation.
  • Network: joins via OTAA (Dev EUI / App EUI / App Key) and uplinks over LoRaWAN through a nearby Helium gateway to a Tago.io dashboard (or any endpoint you point it at).
  • Housing: a 3D-printed PETG enclosure with an optional solar-panel mount.
The finished weather station: a 3D-printed white stacked radiation-shield enclosure with a small solar panel and a wind vane.
The finished build — 3D-printed radiation-shield housing, solar panel, and wind vane.

Tech

C++ firmware built in the Arduino IDE on the CubeCell framework, talking to the BME280 and the on-board LoRa radio.

Get it

Firmware and build details are on GitHub.