WiFi TFT Touch LCD Weather Station with ESP8266

Posted on September 10, 2017 by Erich Styger

After the “WiFi OLED Mini Weather Station with ESP8266“, here is another one: this time with Touch LCD :-):

LCD Weatherstation with ESP8266

In the previous article (“WiFi OLED Mini Weather Station with ESP8266“) I have used the OLED kit from https://blog.squix.org. And as promised, this time it is about the “ESP8266 WiFi Color Display Kit”:

Squix ESP8266 Weather Station Kits

I had ordered both because I thought that the Color Display kit is needs the other kit as a base. Well, it turned out that both kits work independently. My bad. Actually this is good, as I have now two independent ESP8266 weather stations :-). An addition to that, they can exchange data (e.g. temperature/humidity) with a server, so that makes them a perfect dual weather station.

As the OLED kit, everything comes in a nice box, professionally packed in ESD bags:

ESP8266 WiFi Color Display Kit Content

ESP8266 Wemos D1 Mini pro 160 MHz with 16 MByte FLASH
2.4″ Color TFT Display (ILI9341) with touch
Connector PCB
Micro USB cable
Stacking headers

This time assembling the kit needs basic soldering skills. With the excellent tutorial by Daniel Eichhorn (https://blog.squix.org/wifi-color-display-kit) this should be a piece of cake. The only consideration is what kind of headers to use. I opted for the ‘larger but flexible’ approach. That way I can separate the boards if needed.

Stacked Boards

Again I designed quickly a custom enclosure in Inkscape using 4 mm plywood:

ESP8266 Weather Station Enclusure in Inkscape

Custom Enclosure for the ESP8266 WiFi station

It has enough space so I can add sensors, LiPo battery plus a wireless charing option:

Boards inside Enclosure

Enclosure Design

Enclosure Side View

Example code is available on GitHub (https://github.com/squix78/esp8266-weather-station-color). The code is very well documented I had no issues to make all the needed configuration (WiFi SSID and connection settings). After a few hours I had the ESP8266 weather station up and running in the first prototype of the enclosure:

Updating forecasts…

ESP8266 Weather Station

The example code pretty much works the same way as for the smaller OLED station, but it uses the touch display to show the data.

Touching the LCD cycles through more screens:

ESP8266 Weather Station Current Conditions

Forecasts

status display

I have been experimenting painting the laser cut plywood with acrylic colors. So here is one variant using a brown color:

Brown Enclosure

Painted Enclosure

After a few hours, I have now my second ESP8266 WiFi weather station with touch LCD. It is not looking good and I very much enjoy it. The design is available on Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2527282).

Thanks go to Daniel Eichhorn for making that kit available and documenting it so well!

Happy Squixing 🙂

37 thoughts on “WiFi TFT Touch LCD Weather Station with ESP8266”

Robert Poor on September 10, 2017 at 20:14 said:

I’m loving the side panels for your enclosure, using the vents slots so they can curve — nice touch!

How do you make those curves conform to the curves of the front and rear panels? Hot melt glue and luck?

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- Erich Styger on September 10, 2017 at 20:21 said:
  
  The enclosure does not need any glue or screws: it is kept in place with the special side constructure. The curves is a technique called ‘kerf bending’ (see http://www.gedankensuppe.de/kerf-bending-patterns).
  
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Chad Williams (@AptronAustralia) on September 11, 2017 at 03:38 said:

Would there be another type of material that could be used to make the enclosure other than plywood? Perhaps something with UL 94-V0 flammability rating ?

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- Erich Styger on September 11, 2017 at 08:14 said:
  
  PMMA is another material I use (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly(methyl_methacrylate)), but I think that would not stand a UL94-V0 test?
  I’m sure there might be other materials, but with a laser cutter one has to be careful about not using materials which could create a health issue (e.g. PVC would be such a problematic thing).
  That’s why usually only plywood, PMMA or (real) leather or paper/cardboxes are used in a low power laser cutters. Of course with high power laser cutter you could cut metal sheets.
  
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Roman on September 11, 2017 at 08:18 said:

A very cool box telling you the things you want to know before leaving the house. Because you are commuting with puplic transport: Why not add a screen whoose telling you the next train/bus departures. ÖV-live offers you an already implented live view.

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- Erich Styger on September 11, 2017 at 08:50 said:
  
  Excellent idea! 🙂
  
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Vlad Antipoff on September 15, 2017 at 18:51 said:

Sumptuously!!!

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Pingback: SQUIX ESP8266 based E-Paper WiFi Weather Station | MCU on Eclipse
Markus Reiß on October 25, 2017 at 22:09 said:

Hello Erich ,
Very nice Case. Thats is what i Search.
Can i order this everywhere?
Regards Markus

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- Erich Styger on October 26, 2017 at 05:57 said:
  
  Hi Markus,
  you can order any 3D printed parts through 3DHubs, see the link at link at the end of https://mcuoneclipse.com/2016/01/16/3d-printed-classic-mac-apple-watch-charging-station/
  I hope this helps,
  Erich
  
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  - Markus Reiß on October 26, 2017 at 11:46 said:
    
    Hi Again,
    but I think it’s make with a Laser.
    And not an 3d print
    regards Markus
    
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    - Erich Styger on October 26, 2017 at 12:39 said:
      
      Yes, this one is made with a laser cutter. The one in https://mcuoneclipse.com/2017/10/22/squix-esp8266-based-e-paper-weather-station/ is created with a 3D printer.
      
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- Markus Reiß on October 26, 2017 at 14:44 said:
  
  Hello Erich,
  Yes, I think that was the first question of mine.
  I love this case and want to have it.
  Where can I get it?
  or can I make it with the files I downloaded at a company the do this?
  Are the files for a laser cutter available?
  
  regards Markus
  
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  - Erich Styger on October 26, 2017 at 20:07 said:
    
    Hi Markus,
    3DHubs are specialied for 3D printing, not laser cutting. Not sure if a similar service exists, but maybe you find a maker space nearby? The laser cutter files are listed on thingverse (see link at the end of this article.
    
    Erich
    
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Daniel Fernandes on November 17, 2017 at 15:53 said:

Excellent! Is it possible to use LCD screen without touch?

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- Erich Styger on November 17, 2017 at 16:18 said:
  
  Yes. Well, then you don’t have the touch functionality. Touch is used to cycle between different views, so you could cycle through the displays without the touch functionality, e.g. at a fixed rate or using a push button.
  
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todd Krein on April 30, 2018 at 00:12 said:

Erich, Thanks for making this available!
I have assembled my SQUIX kit as well, but it is much thinner than yours, about 0.3″ from the back of the faceplate to the back of the top PCB. I’m able to reuse your front and back, but I’ll have to change the kerf-wrap.

A few questions, if you don’t mind: How did you design the outline? In inkscape, I can move the kerf cuts, but the outline is fixed, which means I cannot make it narrower. Is there some easy way to turn it back into lines?

Also, how did you calculate the length for all of the segments?

thanks,
todd

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- Erich Styger on April 30, 2018 at 07:30 said:
  
  Hi todd,
  I have used headers for my PCB assembly, so this might add to the thickness change you see.
  You can move the outline in Inkscape: make sure you have it ungrouped first (select, Object > Ungroup).
  I did not calculate the length of the segments, it was simply trial-and-error (took me 3 iterations, so not that bad).
  
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Cem on May 23, 2019 at 23:02 said:

2.4 Inch TFT LCD Shield ILI9341

ESP32
Is there a tft screen connection diagram with esp32? esp32 and 2.4 Inch TFT LCD Shield Would you help with the weather?

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- Erich Styger on May 24, 2019 at 07:20 said:
  
  You can run it with the normal SPI signals.
  
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Ulli on June 8, 2019 at 08:52 said:

Hallo,
Ich wollte dieses Tutorial nachbauen und stoße leider auf Probleme. Ich verwende als Hardware:
– WeMos D1 mini pro
– TFT ILI9341

Das Kompilieren und Hochladen der Software von Daniel Eichhorn funktioniert fehlerfrei und der Wemos verbindet sich auch mit meinem WLan, dessen Daten ich in der setting.h zusammen mit meinen lokalen Daten und der OpenWeatherMaps-ID eingetragen habe. In der IDE habe ich das WeMos Di mini pro als Board ausgewählt.
Dann kommt das Problem nach dem Start des Sketches: Fehlermeldung “ISR not in IRAM!”
Da ich Anfänger bin, sagt mir dieses nichts. Was kann ich machen?

Gruß Ulli

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- Erich Styger on June 8, 2019 at 10:30 said:
  
  Hi Ulli,
  are the settings in the Arduino IDE matching the Wemos speed and memory size? Other than that: if you had ordered the kit from Daniel Eichhorn, you might post that question on his page (https://blog.squix.org/2016/10/esp8266-weather-station-color-code-published.html) too.
  Or, maybe this is the solution:
  https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/issues/6127
  ?
  I hope this helps,
  Erich
  
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Ulli on June 8, 2019 at 18:27 said:

Ich habe gerade gesehen, dass ich im Boardmanager die core 2.5.2 für esp8266 installiert habe.
Nun habe ich die Version 2.4.2 installiert und im seriell monitor erscheint:

Connecting to WiFi UE/73918465865812313454
…………………Connected…Initializing touch screen…
Mounting file system…
SPIFFS opened: OK

Current time: 1560039543

DST Rules Updated:
DST Start: Sun Mar 31 02:00:00 2019
DST End: Sun Oct 27 02:00:00 2019

Time difference for DST: 7200
Getting url: http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?id=2950159&appid=ba292706b743a353f4c62eef4fea76b8&units=metric&lang=DE
[HTTP] GET…
[HTTP] GET… code: 200
start document
Getting url: http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/forecast?id=2950159&appid=ba292706b743a353f4c62eef4fea76b8&units=metric&lang=DE
[HTTP] GET…
[HTTP] GET… code: 200
start document
Free mem: 19808

Leider sehe ich auf dem ILI9341 TFT nicht die Wetterdaten. Woran könnte dieses liegen?

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- Erich Styger on June 9, 2019 at 07:04 said:
  
  The connection to the openweathermap works. You have to debug and go through the code to find out why it is not working.
  
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Franco on May 7, 2020 at 14:45 said:

Hi, strange think happened to me, yesterday the touch was working, today I installed again and I have no touch. What Had happened, did I installed the wrong code?

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- Erich Styger on May 8, 2020 at 12:52 said:
  
  Is everything else working? It could be that the touch hardware (it is a piece on top of the display) itself is not connected to the board anymore.
  
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  - Franco on May 8, 2020 at 14:56 said:
    
    Thanks for the answer, all the rest is working, but as you said, I’ll double check the connections
    
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  - Franco on May 8, 2020 at 19:05 said:
    
    Hi Erich, I double checked and the connections are ok, I did as well on the breadboard with no result. It is possible for you to send me the link and the right library of your code?
    Hoping I’m not bothering you
    
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    - Erich Styger on May 9, 2020 at 07:42 said:
      
      I’m using the code from https://github.com/ThingPulse/esp8266-weather-station-color
      
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  - Franco on May 9, 2020 at 07:45 said:
    
    Hi, I have to say tat the touch is working because everytime I touch the display there is a light on the wemos, but there is no other images on the display that suppose to change. Sorry my english
    
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    - Erich Styger on May 9, 2020 at 07:49 said:
      
      Not sure what it is: do you have a workign internet connection with the ESP32?
      Other than that: I assume you have ordered the kit from https://blog.squix.org, so you could ask there too?
      
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  - Franco on May 9, 2020 at 08:08 said:
    
    Now, is working, but I had to install esp8266 ver, 2.41 and the flash size of the Wemos to:
    4M (1M SPIFFS)
    
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    - Erich Styger on May 9, 2020 at 08:16 said:
      
      Excellent!
      
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Vic on April 28, 2021 at 15:38 said:

How did you change the code to get a daily forecast instead of the hourly default of every 12 hours? I see line 308 in the .ino has the following line that can be modified to change which hours are included in the hourly forecasts, but would prefer daily with high/low temperatures like it looks like you achieved.
uint8_t allowedHours[] = {12, 0};

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- Erich Styger on April 28, 2021 at 15:44 said:
  
  I did not change anything except setting the location as in the tutorial written by Daniel.
  
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andre on November 18, 2023 at 22:05 said:

Hallo, kann ich das auch mit ein st7735s tft display betreiben. ohne touch sondern mit taster?
mfg

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- Erich Styger on November 19, 2023 at 07:27 said:
  
  Hi Andre,
  yes, if it has the touch overlay. And if you do not need any input, of course you simply can use the display only.
  Erich
  
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