Arduino

In this tutorial, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer John R. Kosinski will demonstrate a simple Amazon Alexa hack using quintessential Arduino skills and basic hardware.

Going from a software background, knowing nothing about electronics, to designing and building a powerful, marketable hardware device is an interesting and fascinating experience. In this article, I’ll describe the design of how this electronic masterpiece works.

I live in Córdoba, Argentina, approximately 130 kilometers (~80 miles) away from the lake where I kitesurf. Thats roughly a two-hour drive, which I can deal with. But I can’t deal with the fact that weather forecasts are inaccurate. And where I live, good wind conditions last just a couple of hours. The last thing you want to do is clear up your Monday schedule to go kitesurfing and find yourself cursing the gods on a windless lake after two hours of driving.

I needed to know the wind conditions of my favorite kitesurfing spot—in real time. So I decided to build my own weather station.