Description

This project is a weather station built for our community garden. Since the garden has no internet access, it uses Meshtastic and LoRa hardware to relay weather data back to a home server with an internet connection. I’ll be sharing the complete system, including the Pico controller firmware, the home server services, and the AWS services that make it all work.

Details

Meshtastic Weather Bridge

Weather is collected using a WeatherFlow Tempest station and transported back to the house over a long-range Meshtastic LoRa link. A Raspberry Pi 5 then ingests, stores, and forwards the data to AWS for visualization and long-term storage.

The goal is to build a reliable, low-power pipeline from sensor → radio → server → cloud.

Project Links:

Live Demo:
https://www.brahmschultz.com/meshtastic-weather-station

AWS API spec:
https://agent215.github.io/weatherStationApiSwagger/

Github Repo:
https://github.com/Agent215/MeshtasticWeatherStationScripts

Why this project exists

Most consumer weather stations rely heavily on cloud connectivity. If your internet goes down, your data is gone.

Here we are not dependent on internet access.

All data is captured locally
Transport is handled over a private LoRa mesh
The home server stores data on sqlite and is only dependent on power
Cloud integration is optional and happens last, (for now we send data to aws dynamo db)

System Architecture

System Architecutre — Tempest Sensor → Tempest Hub (Wi-Fi LAN) →Wireless Mini Portable Travel Router → Raspberry Pi Pico W (UDP listener) → UART → Garden Meshtastic Node → LoRa Mesh → Home Meshtastic Node → USB → Raspberry Pi 5 Server → Local storage (SQLite for store and forward) → AWS API ( self hosted api later)

Key Features

Fully offline-capable garden node
Long-range LoRa backhaul using Meshtastic
Local-first data ingestion and persistence
Resilient to Wi-Fi, power, or cloud outages
Simple, modular interfaces between each device
Designed for solar-powered deployment

Current Status

Meshtastic nodes configured and communicating
One-way radio messaging verified
mock UDP payload generator created
Raspberry Pi ingest + logging service working
UART connection from Raspberry Pi Pico W to rak4631 Meshtastic enabled board(garden node)
Broadcasting from rak4631 Meshtastic enabled board(garden node) to private test channel via Meshtastic
home Node (rak4631 Meshtastic) consuming and sending data to raspberry pi 5 via serial
Aws infra deployed (apigw, lambdas for get and post endpoints, and dynamo db)
enclosure built for home node
raspberry pi and meshtastic board are installed on final perfboard and connected via soldered wires.
home node installed on site
multiple fields tests completed with real weather data flowing through the whole pipeline and displaying in the website dashboard.

Next Steps

Connect Garden node to the on site solar powered batteries.
Do final field test

Files

parser.py

home pi script for parsing incoming data

py - 20.06 kB - 03/23/2026 at 15:47

Download

schema.sql

home pi sqlite schema

sql - 5.39 kB - 03/23/2026 at 15:47

Download

init.py

py - 0 bytes - 03/23/2026 at 15:47

Download

storage.py

sql scripts for home pi

py - 17.32 kB - 03/23/2026 at 15:47

Download

db.py

db definition

py - 413.00 bytes - 03/23/2026 at 15:47

Download

Components

1 × Raspberry Pi Pico W

2 × WisMesh RAK3312 ESP32-S3 Starter Kit Meshtastic Firmware

1 × ELEGOO 32 Pcs Double Sided PCB Board Prototype Kit for DIY Soldering with 5 Sizes Compatible with Arduino Kits

1 × Raspberry Pi 5

1 × GL Inet GL-MT300N-V2 Wireless Mini Portable Travel Router, Mobile Hotspot in RAM

Build Instructions

Collapse

Mock weather set up and initial node set up and configuration

1. save main.py on to raspberry pi pico, update wifi information for your local network

2. solder male header pins to pico and rak4631

3. plug in travel router, or use your own local network for testing.

4. run mock_tempest_udp_sender.py on the network to send weather data over udp. For now we are mocking the data that the weather station will send. Once we have the actual weather station we will replace the mock with that.

5. confirm logs are showing on the pico while plugged in to your computer. The pico should blink its led each time a message is sent.

6. next connect the pico to the rak4631 garden node as shown below:

Pico GP0 (TX) -> RAK RX1
Pico GP1 (RX) -> RAK TX1
Pico GND      -> RAK GND

you can use jumper cables or solder wires, in the image shown i have a used 9*15 mm perfboard and soldered wires.

back of perf board — soldered wires to the pins

7. plug in the rak4631 home node and connect with the meshtastic app. Make sure both nodes are using the same channel and frequency config.

8. you should see messages flowing from the mock weather station to the pico over udp on wifi, then to the rak4631 garden node over uart, and finally to the home node over the meshtastic network. you can verify by checking the meshtastic app and connecting the home node to view the messages.

messages flowing to home node viewed on the meshtastic app

Discussions

Meshtastic Weather Station

Description

Details

Meshtastic Weather Bridge

Project Links:

Why this project exists

System Architecture

Key Features

Current Status

Next Steps