What is it?
USBTenki is an electronic project to interface sensors to an USB port for collecting weather related data such as temperature. The firmware supports many different sensors and interfaces. It is up to you to decide what your USBTenki will support.

Hourly graphics generated from data collected using this project are available at http://meteo.raphnet.net

Project history and motivation:
This project - named USBTenki, from the japanese word 'tenki' 天気, which is pronounced ten-kee and means weather - was created because a friend needed an USB temperature sensor. A short time later, I got a requset for a temperature + humidity sensor, so I added support for such a sensor. Then, just for fun, I added an absolute pressure sensor which is able to report the atmospheric pressure. I plan to add support for more types of sensors, such light, lightning detection, wind speed and wind direction.

You can consult the list of supported sensors in the 'Supported sensors, wiring and firmwares' section below.

Various ready-to-use sensors available

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Temperature + Relative humidity sensor using a Sensirion SHT75 sensor:


Temperature sensor using an MCP9803:


The prototype using an MCP9803 sensor:

Temperature sensor (prototype) based on the MCP9803 installed in the servers room's air conditionner:


Here are good examples of how to install a bypass capacitor near a sensor and protect the sensor using heat-shrink tubing:

Examples graphs (generated with munin plugin)
1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6:

#	Values	Sensor(s)	Period	Indoor/Outdoor	Location
1	Temperature, Relative Humidity and Virtual channels.	Sensirion SHT75	Day	Indoor	Saint-basile-le-grand, Qc, Canada
2	Temperature, Relative Humidity and Virtual channels.	Sensirion SHT75	Week	Indoor	Saint-basile-le-grand, Qc, Canada
3	Atmospheric pressure	MPX4115AP	Day	Indoor	Saint-basile-le-grand, Qc, Canada
4	Atmospheric pressure	MPX4115AP	Week	Indoor	Saint-basile-le-grand, Qc, Canada
5	Temperature	MCP9803	Day	Inside a standalone air conditioner, air output	A server room in Montreal, Qc, Canada
6	Temperature	MCP9803	Day	In front of an air duct (Building's air conditionner)	A server room in Montreal, Qc, Canada

Hourly graphics available at http://meteo.raphnet.net

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Here are the schematics:

If you need a wiring diagram specific to your sensor, consult the corresponding diagram from the 'Supported sensors, wiring and firmwares' section below.
Design notes:
I started working on this project when a friend needed a simple, low-cost, computer-connected temperature sensor for monitoring a presumably unreliable air conditioning unit in a server room.

For simplicity, I decided to re-use the PCB I designed for my game controllers to USB projects. Therefore, the sensor connects to a PC using USB. For sensing the temperature, I decided to use (for the moment) digital sensors. Using digital sensors is easy, most sensors provide an acceptable precision, calibration is not required and I did not need to add additional components such as voltage references, precision resistors and operational amplifiers to my already existing board.

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The atmega8 has to be programmed with a firmware that supports the sensor you are using. Unless otherwise noted, the fuse settings should be set to high_byte=0xC1 low_byte=0x1F.

I used Objective Development's software only USB implementation for Atmel's AVR microcontrollers, it was natural to use it again for this project. This means that again, the firmware is open-source and released under the Objective Development licence.

The source code for the firmware and host side client are distributed together. You can get both in the Host software section.

TSL2568/TSL2569
No diagram.	Type: Light and Infra-red	Interface: I2C
	Firmware: tsl2568.hex	Version: 1.8
	Accuracy: 16 Bit ADC
Comments: An interesting sensor manufactured by Taos providing two channels (Infra-red only, Infra-red + Visible) with selectable gain. It is approximately 4x more sensitive than the TSL2560/1 and therefore saturates more easily when used in very bright lighting conditions. Again, illumination in lux can be calculated using the formula provided by the manufacturer (implemented in usbtenkiget and qtenki). Standard I2C wiring. The firmware expects all address pins to be wired to GND. You will need to supply 3.3 volt to this sensor and add 4.7k pull-up resistors to 3.3 volt.

TSL2560/TSL2561
No diagram.	Type: Light and Infra-red	Interface: I2C
	Firmware: tsl2561.hex	Version: 1.8
	Accuracy: 16 Bit ADC
Comments: An interesting sensor manufactured by Taos providing two channels (Infra-red only, Infra-red + Visible) with selectable gain. Illumination in lux can be calculated using the formula provided by the manufacturer (implemented in usbtenkiget and qtenki). Standard I2C wiring. The firmware expects all address pins to be wired to GND. You will need to supply 3.3 volt to this sensor and add 4.7k pull-up resistors to 3.3 volt.

ADT7410
No diagram.	Type: Temperature	Interface: I2C
	Firmware: adt7410.hex	Version: 1.8
	Accuracy: ±0.5°C from -40°C to +105°C
Comments: Highly accurate temperature sensor manufactured by Analog devices. Wire it as you would any I2C sensor (SCL and SDA, appropriate decoupling and supply). The firmware will auto-detect the I2C address so wire the address pin according to your preference.

SE95
No diagram.	Type: Temperature	Interface: I2C
	Firmware: se95.hex	Version: 1.8
	Accuracy: ±1°C from -20°C to +100°C
Comments: A fairly accurate I2C Temperature sensor manufactured by NXP Semiconductors. Wire it as you would any I2C sensor (SCL and SDA, appropriate decoupling and supply). The firmware will auto-detect the I2C address so wire the address pin according to your preference.

SHT75
Wiring diagram:	Type: Temperature and Relative Humidity	Interface: Serial (similar to I2C, but not compatible)
	Firmware: sensirion.hex	Version: 1.1
	Accuracy: ±0.3°C @ 25°C and ±1.8% RH
Comments: This is a very precise two-in-one sensor manufactured by sensirion which outputs 14 bits of temperature data and 12 bits of relative humidity data. It is so sensitive that using the sensor more than 10% of the time will raise it's temperature by 0.1°C. Note that sensirion's temperature/humidity sensors all use the same protocol so this firmware can be used with other sensors such as the SHT11.

SHT75
Wiring diagram:	Type: Temperature and Relative Humidity	Interface: Serial (similar to I2C, but not compatible)
	Firmware: sensirion_pc23.hex	Version: 1.8
	Accuracy: ±0.3°C @ 25°C and ±1.8% RH
Comments: Same as above, but this firmware uses PORTC pins 2 and 3 instead 4 and 5. Useful if you need to use real I2C sensors at the same time or need PC4/PC5 for something else.

MCP9801/9803
Wiring diagram:	Type: Temperature	Interface: I2C
	Firmware: mcp9800.hex	Version: 1.1
	Accuracy: ±0.5°C (typ.) at +25°C, ±1°C (max.) from -10°C to +85°C, ±2°C (max.) from -10°C to +125°C, ±3°C (max.) from -55°C to +125°C
Comments: A good temperature sensor with 12 bit output. It's accuracy is much better than the LM75. In order to be detected by the firmware (without modifications), all 3 address pins must be connected to VCC. This allows for easier wiring. Installing a small capacitor near the sensor is a good idea.

LM75 (and compatibles)
Wiring diagram:	Type: Temperature	Interface: I2C
	Firmware: lm75.hex	Version: 1.1
	Accuracy: ±2°C (max) from -25°C to +100°C, ±3°C (max) from -55°C to +125°C
Comments: This is a standard and easy to find sensor. In fact, many sensors are compatible with the LM75 but support additional functionalities and/or resolution (for instance, the MCP980x sensors). The standard LM75 reports temperature using 9 bits. In order to be detected by the firmware (without modifications), all 3 address pins must be connected to VCC. This allows for easier wiring. Installing a small capacitor near the sensor is a good idea.

MPX4115AP
Wiring diagram:	Type: Absolute Pressure, 15 to 115 kPa	Interface: Analogic
	Firmware: Any, configure ADC channel	Version: 1.2
	Accuracy: ±1.5% error from 0° to 85°, Temperature compensated from -40°C to +125°C
Comments: This sensor is for measuring the air pressure. Connect it to one of the ADC channels on the Atmel and configure the corresponding ADC channel with chip id 0x90. Because of the wide sensitivity range of the sensor and the Atmega8's analog to digital converter which cannot take samples using more than 10 bits, the accuracy is not so good and noise is visible on graphs. Nevertheless, it's sufficient to get a good idea of the current tendency. (Pressure rising or falling).

ADC inputs
No diagram.	Type: 0 volts to VCC (approx 5 volts)	Interface: Analogic
	Firmware: adc.hex	Version: 1.6
	Accuracy: 10 bits
Comments: Used to measure the voltage present on the Atmega8's ADC inputs (ADC0 to ADC5). For the moment, the reference is always VCC. It is thus important to take into account the fact that the voltage may not be exactly 5 volts. Also, care must be taken not to exceed VCC.

Configuring ADC channels: The firmware can expose ADC channels as specific chip IDs. By default all ADC channels are configured to CHIP_NONE (0xff). If you connect an analogic sensor to an ADC channel, configure the firmware (only needed once since the information is stored in eeprom). Here's a configuration example: (Sets ADC0 to 0x90 [MPX4115]).

# ./usbtenkisetup -s 'XXXXXX' setadcchip 0 0x90

For details about how to program an AVR, please visit my AVR programming page.

pre-programmed Atmega8 DIP chips available

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The host side software has two flavors: A command line tool and a GUI (since 1.8).

File(s)	Date	Description
usbtenki-2.0.4.tar.gz (849 KB)	May 15, 2013	Linux: Added a sample udev rules files to script/ (To use the USB Tenki device without being root) [Core] Support for the MPXV7002 differential pressure sensor Additional documentation for building on MacOS X and related fixes
usbtenki-2.0.3.tar.gz (644.7 KB) qtenki-2.0.3.zip (7.8 MB)	March 18, 2013	[QTenki] Log file can now be viewed while logging. New records will appear in real time. [QTenki] Added voltage, current and power unit preferences. [QTenki] Number of digits following the decimal now configurable. [QTenki] Added a basic realtime graphing tab using QCustomPlot. Support for Dracal USB Vendor ID
usbtenki-1.9.6.tar.gz (503.2 KB) qtenki-1.9.6.zip (7.6 MB)	November 1, 2012	[Command-line] Fixed the month number in timestamps generated by the command line tool. [QTenki] Fixed a bug where occasional logged values would appear in the default sensor units rather than the ones configured by the user. (Eg: An occasional Celcius record in a Farenheit log file). [QTenki] Configuration panel now disabled while logging to prevent inadvertant changes to the logging format (eg: Changing units) [QTenki] Logging interval added to the log file header.
usbtenki-1.9.5.tar.gz (502.3 KB) qtenki-1.9.5.zip (7.6 MB)	July 22, 2012	Qtenki: Default to the user's home directory in the log file selection dialog. Qtenki: Fixed a timestamp bug where the current minute was logged instead of the current month.
usbtenki-1.9.4.tar.gz (502.1 KB) qtenki-1.9.4.zip (7.6 MB)	July 1, 2012	Qtenki: Added configurable display units (Celcius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin, etc). Qtenki: New tab for displaying values using a large font ('Big view') Support for a PT100 RTD sensor.
usbtenki-1.9.3.tar.gz (499.3 KB) qtenki-1.9.3.zip (7.6 MB)	May 30, 2012	Corrected a virtual channel bug introduced in version 1.9.2.
usbtenki-1.9.2.tar.gz (490.9 KB) qtenki-1.9.2.zip (7.5 MB)	February 2012	General changes: Added options to disable input range validation for humidex and heat index. Added firmware and host support for a tachometer. Updated SHT75 Relative humidity non-linearity compensation coefficients according to datasheet Rev.5 (2011). Added an option to use the old coefficients (Datasheet rev.3, 2007) Added a temperature corrected RH reading (sensirion only) Qtenki: Better error handling (auto-reopen) and related logging options. Added application icons and version information to a windows rc file. (Embedded in the final windows executable)
usbtenki-1.9.1.tar.gz (447 KB)	February 2012	General changes: For Humidex and Heat index, when the input temperature/humidity is out of range, just copy the temperature to the output. Better than displaying innaccurate and sometimes insane values. Updated Makefile.mingw in client/ and added conditionals for win32 in qtenki/ The public library API does not require including usb.h anymore. Command-line tool: Use the library to compute virtual channels. (less code duplication) Qtenki: Merged measurement type and unit together (gives Temperature - C, Humidity - % etc). The last heading line before the actual data is now alias. This should reduce manipulations when importing in spreadsheet software. Added a configuration tab. System gui colors can be overridden. (For a special user who dislikes the win7 default theme (too much white). Instead of changing his system theme (the sensible thing to do), he insists the application should change the colors itself, even if explained why it is bad practice. The customer is always right, but at least I made this feature configurable, and off by default. Changes to the theme.
usbtenki-1.8.tar.gz (440.7 KB)	December 2011	New features and changes: New QTbased GUI for easy logging Added support for: SE95 I2C Temperature sensor ADT7410 I2C Temperature sensor D6F_V03A1 airflow sensor TSL256x Visible light and infra-red sensors The firmware can be configured to use an external reference voltage.
usbtenki-1.7.tar.gz (310.5 KB)	August 2010	New features and fixes: Support for the MP3H6115A sensor (identical to MPX3115) Fix a bug with sub-zero temperatures.
usbtenki-1.6.tar.gz (303.4 KB)	September 2007	New features: Firmware named 'ADC' for using only analogic inputs. New channel types voltage and inverse voltage. New unit: 'Voltage'. Option for retrying in case of a communication error or access conflict.
usbtenki-1.4.tar.gz (320.8 KB)	May 2007	Version 1.4 is the first public version. Tested on Linux and Mac OS X
usbtenki_munin.tar.gz (1.4 KB)		munin plugin script.

Listing devices:
For printing a list of accessible USBTenki devices, use the '-l' switch:

# ./usbtenkiget -l
Found: 'USBTenki', Serial: 'B10004', Version 1.2, Channels: 11
    Channel 0: Sensirion SHT1x/7x Temperature [Temperature]
    Channel 1: Sensirion SHT1x/7x Relative Humidity [Relative Humidity]
    Channel 2: MPX4115 Absolute air pressure sensor [Pressure]
    Virtual Channel 256: Dew point [Dew point]
    Virtual Channel 257: Humidex [Humidex]
    Virtual Channel 258: Heat index [Heat index]

As you can see in the output above, there is a concept of channel and virtual channel. A channel reports real data from the physical sensor (or data computed by the firmware). Virtual channels are channels whose value is computed locally using the real channels. (More info about virtual channels)

Reading values:
Reading values from an USBTenki device is done by specifying a comma-separated list of the channels you want to the -i switch. If the value 'a' is passed, all channels are listed.

# ./usbtenkiget -i 0,1,256
22.46, 39.55, 8.02

The ouput above is easy to parse. But if you want a prettier output, use the -p switch:

# ./usbtenkiget -i a -p
Temperature: 22.26 °C
Relative Humidity: 40.03 %
Pressure: 102.89 kPa
Dew point: 8.02 °C
Humidex: 22.67 °C
Heat index: 24.98 °C

If the degree ° sign shows as garbage on your terminal, change your encoding to iso8859-1 or try the -7 switch to disable such fancy characters.

Converting values:
Celcius and Kilopascals are the default units. If you prefer other units, the -T and -P switches can be used to select different temperature and pressure units. Try -h for a list of supported units. Example:

# ./usbtenkiget -i 0,2 -p -T f -P hPa
Temperature: 70.61 °F
Pressure: 1022.45 hPa

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Here is a list of the possible virtual channels, their dependencies and links to related documentation.

Channel #	Name	Dependencies	Comments
256	Dew point	Temperature and Relative Humidity	"The "dew point" or "dewpoint" of a given parcel of air is the temperature to which the parcel must be cooled, at constant barometric pressure, for water vapor to condense into water, called dew." - source: Wikipedia. This value is calculated using a formula from a sensirion application note named Dewpoint Calculation Humidity Sensor
257	Humidex	Dew point (virtual) and Temperature	"The humidex is an index (a computed value as opposed to something measured) devised to describe how hot or humid weather feels to the average person." - Source: Meteorological Service of Canada FAQ. Visit their FAQ for information about how Humidex is calculated.
258	Heat index	Temperature and Relative Humidity	"The Heat index (HI) is an index that combines air temperature and relative humidity to determine an apparent temperature - how hot it actually feels." - Source: Wikipedia.

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The PCB I use is the same as in the GC/N64 controller to usb project. This PCB has a footprint for a voltage regulator (not used this time) and reprogramming contacts on the bottom side. Here are composite images of the top and bottom layers:



No regulator is requied so the only components that must be installed on the back side are the two voltage selection resistors. Install them as they are on the picture on the right. If you dont have 0 ohm resistors, you may use small pieces of wire or do solder bridges.

Here is a wiring diagram for the board. With the schematic and sensor wiring diagrams, it should be easy to figure out how to connect your sensor.


And finally, here are the gerber files which you can use produce this PCB:
multiuse.zip

Due to the fact that this board is two-sided and has numerous vias, building it at home may be a little harder than the ususal. If you want, you can get professional PCBs from my online store.

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The following wikipedia articles were useful:
Celcius
Fahrenheit
Heat index

The application notes on sensirion website. For calculating dewpoint from Temp + RH and for sensor documentation:
SHT75 datasheet and application notes

Information about humidex on the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) website:
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/mainmenu/faq_e.html#weather4b

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I cannot be held responsible for any damages that could occur to you or your equipment while following the procedures present on this page. Also, I GIVE ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY on the correctness and usability of the informations on this page. Please note, however, that the procedures above have worked in my case without any damages or problems.

Now you cannot say that I did not warn you :)

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