Difference between revisions of "Meteobridge PRO2"
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| − | Meteobridge PRO2 is no longer driven by the Carambola2 SOC but by the VoCore2 SOC that had its premiere at the Meteobridge NANO. This SOC upgrade gives the PRO2 about 30% more processing punch, reduces power consumption down to an average of 1.5 Watts (regardless WLAN or LAN operation). While the Meteobridge PRO did heat up noticeably over time, the PRO2 remains hand warm and does not feel hot at all. The VoCore2 provides double the RAM of the Carambola2 which gives the PRO2 more headroom when running code. As an effect the PHP-based dashboards introduced for Meteobridge NANO SD are now also available on the PRO2. | + | Meteobridge PRO2 is no longer driven by the Carambola2 SOC but by the VoCore2 SOC that had its premiere at the Meteobridge NANO. This SOC upgrade gives the PRO2 about 30% more processing punch, reduces power consumption of the complete PRO2 down to an average of 1.5 Watts (regardless WLAN or LAN operation). While the Meteobridge PRO did heat up noticeably over time, the PRO2 remains hand warm and does not feel hot at all. The VoCore2 provides double the RAM of the Carambola2 which gives the PRO2 more headroom when running code. As an effect the PHP-based dashboards introduced for Meteobridge NANO SD are now also available on the PRO2. |
====Better Internal Sensors==== | ====Better Internal Sensors==== | ||
Revision as of 14:37, 10 November 2022
Contents
Why A Next Gen Meteobridge PRO?
Browsing through the new features some might ask, why we did not use a much more powerful base (like an RPI CM4 module). To be honest, we took that into consideration, but the amount of heat these platforms generate and the hefty power demands would eradicate all the benefits the Meteobridge PRO stands for. Meteobridge has always been a showcase to examine how much PC-like functions one can realize with minimal space and power requirements. The ones who don't care much about space and power can still make use of Meteobridge on RPI, which is a pretty capable platform for Meteobridge SW. Having this in mind, I hope you can see the PRO2 as an improvement worth the development work. We also dropped the idea of a Meteobridge PRO2 with and without RF receiver for Davis sensors, the RF function is now always included.
Exterior
Inner Values
Better CPU
Meteobridge PRO2 is no longer driven by the Carambola2 SOC but by the VoCore2 SOC that had its premiere at the Meteobridge NANO. This SOC upgrade gives the PRO2 about 30% more processing punch, reduces power consumption of the complete PRO2 down to an average of 1.5 Watts (regardless WLAN or LAN operation). While the Meteobridge PRO did heat up noticeably over time, the PRO2 remains hand warm and does not feel hot at all. The VoCore2 provides double the RAM of the Carambola2 which gives the PRO2 more headroom when running code. As an effect the PHP-based dashboards introduced for Meteobridge NANO SD are now also available on the PRO2.
Better Internal Sensors
The PRO2 has an improved internal temperature/humidity sensor (SHT31) and a better barometric sensor (BMP390) compared to the Meteobridge PRO. The external accessibility of the I2C bus that drives internal sensors also allows easy and cheap connection of an I2C external sensor to get true indoor temperature, not affected by warm climate inside the PRO2 enclosure.
Better Data Storage
The previous model stored data on a 1 GB industrial SLC USB stick. That was a proper solution for that time, but USB sticks draw more power than SD cards, are in general slower and are rather bulky. Meteobridge PRO2 switches to an 16 GB industrial SLC micro SD card, so we get much more room for data, which allows to store per minute sensor data for a decade or more, with a much smaller footprint as before.
Better Display Exchange
As OLED displays are very crisp and bright they are suffering from wear. After a year of display usage these wear marks will start showing up. To allow for a cheap and easy display exchange it is no longer soldered but put on a socket. That allows the technical experienced user to exchange the display himself. We would prefer to use displays that do not suffer from wear, but currently the OLEDs suitable for a Meteobridge cannot provide this.
Better Operating System
Meteobridge PRO2 comes with OpenWRT 21.02.3 and by that solves a lot of SSL related issues with the previous model. SFTP and SSH issues can now take a rest. Furthermore WPA3 and up to date SMB protocols are supported.
Better Add-On Options
By placing all needed parts on the base board, Meteobridge PRO can host an additional board to integrate new features. The additional board will be provided with power, USB, and a serial connection from the base board. Having this upgrade path make the PRO2 even more future ready. It is obvious that we are currently thinking about 4G/LTE modules or NBIoT modules as add-on boards, but please don't take this as an announcement, it is just sharing obvious thoughts.
Future Options
The I2C connector at the back is not the only change to allow for HW addons for the PRO2. The PCB redesign mad it passible to get rid of the separated RF board of the previous model. While the Meteobridge PRO had the main stuff on the base board there was a second board responsible for providing the data storage in terms of an internal USB stick and the RF reception circuitry. The PRO2 has all components (micro SD card for data storage, RF circuitry) on the base board, which gives the option to design a daughter board that can be connected by
