So, I had this idea kicking around in my head, right? Kept thinking about the actual temperature out there, like, under the big open blue sky, not just what the weather app says. Decided I’d try to rig something up myself, call it my “mount blue sky temperature” project. Just a fancy name I cooked up, really.
Getting My Hands Dirty – The Start
First off, I had to rummage around for parts. Didn’t want anything too complicated, mind you. I figured I needed a few basic things:
- Some kind of temperature sensor. Found an old one in a drawer, hoped it still worked.
- A little brain for it, one of those small computer chip boards. Got one cheap a while back.
- Wires. Lots of wires, because you always need more wires than you think.
- And a way to see the numbers, maybe a tiny screen or just get it to send data to my computer.
Didn’t have a proper plan, just sort of winged it. That’s how I usually do these things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s a mess.
Putting it All Together – The Fiddly Bit
This is where the fun began. Or frustration, depending on how you look at it. I started by trying to hook up the sensor to the little board. The pins are so tiny, you know? My fingers felt like sausages trying to get those wires in the right place. Dropped a few screws, swore a bit under my breath. Classic me.
Then, I had to tell the little computer brain what to do. That meant a bit of coding. Now, I’m no genius programmer, so it was mostly copy-pasting bits of code I found online and tweaking them until something happened. For a while, it was just giving me crazy numbers, or nothing at all. Thought the sensor was dead, or maybe I fried the board. Typical.
I fiddled with the connections, checked the code again and again. Took a break, made some coffee, came back. And then, like magic, it started spitting out numbers that actually looked like temperatures! Small victory, that.
Mounting the Contraption
Okay, so it was reading a temperature. But I wanted that “blue sky” temperature. So, I couldn’t just leave it on my desk. I needed to get it outside, up high, away from walls and shade. This was the ‘mount’ part of “mount blue sky temperature.”
I found an old bit of pipe and some zip ties. Real high-tech stuff, I tell ya. I strapped the sensor (in a makeshift little plastic case I found, to keep the rain off mostly) to the end of the pipe. Then I had to figure out where to stick this pipe. Ended up fixing it to a fence post at the back of the garden, pointing upwards as much as I could. Looked a bit daft, if I’m honest.
So, What Happened?
And then I watched. Well, I had it sending data to my old laptop. It was pretty cool, actually. Seeing the temperature change as the day went on. It definitely read a bit different from the thermometer I have by the back door, usually a bit warmer when the sun was full on it, which I guess was the point. That “blue sky” effect, maybe.
It wasn’t super accurate, probably. And I’m sure a proper weather station would laugh at my setup. But thing is, I built it. I made it work, more or less. From a pile of bits and a half-baked idea, I got something that measured the temperature up there. That felt good. It’s not gonna change the world, this little “mount blue sky temperature” gizmo, but it was a decent way to spend a weekend, messing about and making something happen.
