Design and construction of microclimate monitoring system.

A portable and user-friendly weather monitoring system based on the PIC16F876 microcontroller is described. This instrument measures three parameters: temperature in the range from -10 to +70 degrees C within +/-1 degrees C using an LM335 temperature sensor, wind speed from 0 to 10 m/s within +/-0.1 m/s using a heated bead thermistor, and solar radiation from 0 to 1000 W/m(2) within +/-10 W/m(2) using a solar cell. These variables are displayed digitally, one at a time, with a 5 s separation. The values are stored on EEPROM at 2 min intervals. The instrument is intended for use in agriculture and for educational purposes.