This project seems simple but like all projects needs a consistant phasis of tests and validation.

Testing approach

I took my inspiration from the European Space Standards (I am a space ingeneer !) and taylored the ECSS-E-ST-40C  which is the "Verification Standard" for space systems !

Stop kidding, I only kept from this standard the overall philosophy consisting in documenting and testing the specifications under realistic use cases including degraded modes of the hardware and software.

Here are the testing cases that have been currently checked:

• Hardware tests
  • overall test of the board
  • systematic test of each sensor
  • power management optimization (see V2 of this board)
  • degraded conditions
    • empty the battery and check of low level protection
    • energy monitoring during charge
    • cut off of charging process when battery full
  • calibration of sensors (see specific logs)
  • test of water resistance of the shell
  • test of high temperature resistance of the shell (above 50°C done ths summer)

• communication tests
  • lora tests (frequency, spreading factor, RSSI)
  • optimization of the antenna (see biquad antenna)
  • time sysnchronization between GTW0 and GTW1
  • RTC initialization

• integration tests and degraded conditions
  • protocol between GTW0 and GTW1
  • breaking the link and see the system recovering connection (GTW0 side and GTW1 side)
  • wifi credentials setup
  • integration with ThinkSpeak
  • integration with WindyApp
  • daylight saving time test

• long term testing (operationnal scenario)
  • Wind only version tested for more than 3 months 24/24 7/7 . (October 9th, more than 37000 measurements stored into thingspeak)
  • Full version tested only on ground... deployment to be done
• bad weather conditions tests
  • heavy rain : tested under several thundstorms (wind only version yet)
  • strong wind : tested under more than 60km/h wind and (with a car) at 100km/h
  • high temperature : tested above 50°C
  • cloudly days : tested during almost one week
  • ice or snow : not yet tested

• modularity
  • sensors configuration and choice is done (wind only and full station)
  • interface with various "weather servers" done (currently thingSpeak and Windy App)
  • extensibility to Home Assistant done 
  • extensibility to wider automation network done : see Rezodo project

Nothing fancy into this log... All these tests needed a lot of time, but they were the price to be paid to get confidence into the system. 

The "wind only" weather station is now fully automatic, without any need for human intervention (initialization excepted). 

ToDo List and planning

As said previously energy management was a critical part of the system. It has proven to work even now in october with longer nights than days! 

The "wind only" station is considered as operationnal now (october 2023)

However I really want to test the system during winter to see if power balance is still positive. If not, I can easily decrease power consumption by decreasing measurement frequency (currently every 2 minutes). This could be done easily by a software "seasonnal" modification on GTW1 only.

Full weather station is currently only tested "on the ground" and proved to work. I have to deploy it and test it intensively.

Tests will focus on weighing rain gauge as the rest of the system is already qualified.

Special care will be put on snow and ice resistance. I have to "freeze" the bucket in place when temperature is too low to avoid to block the RC servo used to empty the bucket if snow or ice is blocking it. (not a complex modification !)

All this will be done during the 6 months to come. The goal is of course to have a system operationnal and tested during almost one year including hot summer and cold winter !