So I got one of these KestrelMet 6000 weather stations, and it’s the cellular version.
Firstly, for anyone wanting to purchase one their support is non existent. Sent email after email and have heard absolutely nothing, sent from the web form their website. Absolutely useless.
Next, it just keeps disconnecting from the cell network. Now this is probably just some APN settings but I would much prefer it to be wifi which led me to think.
There must be one design / print from these pcbs and they must just be modular boards you can add for wifi / cellular etc
So I ripped her open and sure enough, there a modular cell board inside.
My question is, how would I convert this bad boy to wifi?
Any ideas?
No one, sure there’s some savvy electronics engineer here who could shed some light on this.
If I had that one, I would connect a USB-to-serial device to the USART pins on the cellular board and read the output/conversation between the main board and the cellular/Xbee card. Might provide more insight.
Yea ok, i hear you. I’m still fighting with this and have reached out to Kestrel Met about 10 times now for support via their website contact form and have heard absolutely nothing.
***NOTE to users, their support is non existant.
But, im about 99% sure I could just whack a wifi module in here with the same footprint. My only next question would be, enabling wifi functionality in the firmware.
That could be the next brick wall.
Chances are, they are using standard AT modem commands. There is also a very slim chance you could obtain a WiFi card from the same modem card manufacturer, after better identifying it. That would have the same footprint and connections.
Otherwise, after documenting the communications between the cell modem card and the main board, you could code something with a Wemos D1 Mini ESP8266 board that accepts from the main board and outputs similar responses ( ATOK ? ) to the main board, while pushing the raw data to the WiFi.
Here is my guess: OEM Wi-Fi Module with Fully Integrated Support for Digi Remote Manager | Digi International
Yes, this is exactly what I was looking at too! My only concern with this is, how to enable wifi on the software side.
My guess is, the code detects whether it’s using a cellular board or a WiFi board and behaves accordingly. On the other hand, they may key off the hardware model number embedded in the hardware.
Full write up on this for anyone wanting to do the same thing.
