Open Source: The WxOutside sensor designs are freely available.

Open source hardware and software

WxOutside is a combination of hardware and software. The hardware is a carefully selected list of components, while the software has been either written specifically for the task, or has been provided by the hardware component providers.

Why open-source?

WxOutside sensors are built with off-the-shelf componentry, and much of this is well documented on the Internet. Although a great deal of time has been spent testing everything and making sure it works, this is not where our secret sauce, our eleven herbs and spices, resides.

The business software that sits on top of this is where all the magic happens, and we're happy to offer the hardware designs back to the community.

And the CEO of RedHat says the same thing:


GitHub holds repositories of both the hardware and accompanying software.

Note: The repositories do not include the dashboard and reporting interfaces that are found on WxOutside.

There is a high-level roadmap of all the upcoming functionality that WxOutside will be including, here.

Open source hardware

All the details on how to build your own sensors are freely available.

Build your own hardware

The full list of components are listed here. You can use these plans to assemble your own sensor which is guaranteed to work, or change it to suit your situation.

Add more batteries or solar panels

Get better up-time and longetivitiy in dark climates.

Customise sensors

If you don't want wind or temperature data, then don't include those sensors.

Use a different case

Our default case is designed to survive all conditions but you can use something smaller if necessary.

Use something better

If you've got a better wind anemometer or something that draws less power, then just plug it in!

Open source software

This is the entire stack of software needed to power the open source sensors.

Software to power the sensors

You can download, edit and use the software the powers the WxOutside sensors.

It's mostly written in Python and is designed for low resource usage - ideally suited for a Raspberry Pi A+ or Zero.

Confidence in the code

We're happy to share how the sensors work because we're absolutely confident in the quality of the code.

Communitiy involvement

We're happy to take contributions and suggestions on how to make it better.

DIY fun

If you use this for something really cool, please let us know!

Get in Touch


Contact Info

75 Aotea Drive
Porirua, 5024
New Zealand P: (64 21) 262 6603
[email protected]