The final hanging weather station
The Hanging Gear Weather Station project was created by the user “Thediylife” on Instructables.
This project utilizes stepper motors and a DHT11 Sensor along with an Aurdino to display the proper data. The DHT11 sensor allows you to measure a from 20-95% humidity along with temperatures ranging from 0 to 50 degrees Celsius; this sensor is connected to an Arduino which then takes this data and then activates the stepper motors to move the gear displays to convey the temperature and relative humidity. The displays and project frame themselves were created by laser cutting MDF and then using hardware to instal the motors, hot glue to mount the electronics, and wood glue to hold the frame in place.
A closer look at the display gears
I think that this project is a lovely way to physically display information which we have grown quite accustomed to gathering through digital means. As we have leaned away from physical ambient temperature thermometers, this provides a fun and modern way to bring back that physical weather-telling practice (along with the addition of reading the humidity which is something that I have only seen accessible through screen-based means).
While the concept of this project delights me, I feel like they could have pushed the visuals of the overall frame a but more; since this project will be on display to have it be of use, it would be nice to see it made of a less-toothy forest product like Eucaboard or perhaps even thin, real wood (acrylic is nice as well, however it doesn’t always lend itself to having a large amount of legibility in terms of small laser-etched numbers or letters).
Overall, I enjoy the elegant simplicity of this project and how it presents the weather data to you in a clean, physical, and unique way.