Solar powered E Ink weather station that can operate even on dark days

Here is a cool DIY weather station that can operate almost endlessly without requiring an external power source to top up its batteries. Thanks to the E Ink display – a 2.13-inch Tri-color e-paper display – on board as well as a solar charger at the rear, the charging station can have an almost unlimited power supply to see you through when there might not be enough sunshine. As Hackaday stated, the built-in LiPo battery gets charged via the solar panels, providing the little amount of juice that E Ink displays anyways need for their operation.

Developer ‘rsappiawf’ also did his bit to ensure the power consumption is kept to the optimum to ensure every ounce of juice is accounted for. Making up the core of the device is the ever-reliable ESP32 S3 unit which does a good job while drawing the least of battery power. It also has an excellent deep sleep state so far as energy consumption is concerned though ‘rsappiawf’ wanted to ensure not even the tiniest bit of power gets wasted.

That is one reason that the TPL5110 has been included in the project given that it offers a complete cut-off of power if the situation so demands. This is crucial since E Ink displays don’t need power as long as the display is static. This is where some milliamps of energy, no matter how miniscule that might be that get saved. This is exactly what the TPL5110 unit does given that it ensures power is drawn only when the display changes, as per the potentiometer reading. The integrated RGB LED too has been done away with, something that too helped in saving a few milliamps of power. Details available here.

Also, a nice feature of the weather station is the manner it gets attached to its base via a sliding mechanism. This way, it can be easily placed beside the window or anywhere you feel it will have good exposure to sunlight. What the video below for more on it.

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