Weathergotchi Logger Skips Smartphone App With On-Device E-Paper Display
Weathergotchi solves a common camping frustration-checking overnight temperature trends without creating a phone account or installing a dedicated app-by putting the data directly on the device screen.
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
Hardware and software engineer Michael Manning built a portable data logger called Weathergotchi that records temperature and humidity and displays the data on a 1.54-inch e-paper screen. No smartphone app is needed; the device shows a graph of past temperature changes. Manning released the circuit diagrams, firmware, and 3D-printable case files as open source on GitHub.
Manning designed Weathergotchi after a cold camping trip left him wondering how low the temperature actually dropped and whether his sleeping bag was adequate. Commercial data loggers he found required a smartphone app, account creation, and extra clutter. The 3 cm × 4 cm board uses an Espressif ESP32-S3 Mini, a Sensirion SHT45 sensor, a DS3231 real-time clock, and a 24LC512 EEPROM. The ESP32-S3 spends most of its time in deep sleep, waking once per minute to take a reading, then returning to sleep. A small lithium-polymer battery is estimated to last over a week. The parametric OpenSCAD case is adjustable through 40 variables. The current version does not export data via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and the e-paper display may not update below freezing, but recording continues normally. Manning says the device has run stably on hikes.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.