ATMOS

Battery-powered e-paper weather station with captive-portal Wi-Fi setup.

Contents

1. Introduction

ATMOS displays weather forecast data and combines it with indoor temperature, humidity, and pressure measured by its built-in BME280 sensor. After setup it works autonomously: wake up, fetch data, redraw the e-paper display, then return to deep sleep.

Supported languages are English, Deutsch, Čeština, Polski, Slovenčina, and Français.

2. First startup

1. After power-on, the ATMOS startup screen appears.
2. If no home Wi-Fi is stored yet, the device creates its own hotspot.
3. The display shows a prompt and QR code for a network named ATMOS-XXXXXXXXXXXX.
4. Once a client connects, the configuration page becomes available at 192.168.4.1.

3. Wi-Fi and location setup

Fill in these fields in the web interface:

You do not need to enter coordinates or altitude manually — firmware resolves them automatically after saving. If the displayed pressure doesn't match your barometer or a local station, you can enter the exact altitude of your site in the Altitude field (pressure calibration). Clear the field to return to automatic altitude.

Once submitted, the configuration is stored in ESP32 internal preferences, the station connects to your Wi-Fi, and starts loading weather data.

4. External thermometers (Bluetooth)

Instead of the forecast temperature, the station can show readings from up to 4 external wireless thermometers using the BTHome standard. We have tested only the Shelly BLU H&T sensor — other BTHome sensors may work, but we cannot guarantee it.

Activating the sensor

After unboxing the sensor, pull out the plastic insulating tab from the battery compartment (it disconnects the battery during shipping). This activates the sensor and it starts transmitting.

Pairing with the station

1. Open the station's configuration portal (press RESET; once the display refreshes, a window with the portal address appears).
2. In the External thermometers section press Scan. The scan runs for about a minute — the sensor transmits roughly once every 60 seconds, so give it a moment.
3. Tap the discovered sensor in the list (you can identify it by its current temperature reading). Up to 4 sensors can be added.
4. Edit the sensor name (e.g. "Outdoor", max. 15 characters) — it is shown next to the value on the display.
5. Save. The station restarts and the sensor temperatures appear on the display.

Remove a sensor with the cross next to its row in the portal. When a sensor cannot be heard (dead battery, out of range), it shows --; the other sensors keep working.

5. Display overview

The display is divided into several horizontal blocks, stacked from top to bottom:

Header bar (black background)

• Day number — large numeral on the left.
• Day name — full weekday name (e.g. Monday) above a dashed line.
• Month and year — below the dashed line.
• Name day — shown on the right side, below the dashed line.
• Location — city name, upper right area. The number in parentheses (e.g. 650 m) is your location's altitude — the station uses it to convert pressure to sea level.
• Status icons — top right corner: last fetch time, next update interval, Wi-Fi signal strength (filled bars), and battery level.

Current weather (hero section)

• Weather icon — large icon on the left, shown in red when it is raining/snowing.
• Temperature — large number with °C on the right, shown in red when below zero. The smaller percentage under the °C unit is the current outdoor humidity — taken from the forecast, or from your external sensor when one is paired.
• Condition text — description of current weather centered below the icon.
• Feels-like temperature — on the right side of the same row.
• Wind — bottom left: direction arrow icon and speed in km/h.
• Sun / Moon — bottom right: during the day sunrise and sunset times with icons; at night moon phase icon, phase name, and illumination percentage.

Advice bar (black background)

• Two-line weather tip or recommendation based on current conditions (e.g. "Take an umbrella" or "Great weather for a walk"). The two lines are separated by a dashed line.
• Weather alert — when an official warning from the national weather service is active for your location (Meteoalarm system, yellow level and above), the black bar is automatically replaced by a red bar with a warning triangle, the alert name and a short description. Once the warning expires, the regular advice returns. Alerts are available in Czechia, Slovakia, Germany, Austria, Poland and France.

Hourly chart / Weather radar

• Hourly chart — 24-hour temperature curve (black) with precipitation bars (red). Left axis shows temperature in °C, right axis shows rain in mm (shown only when precipitation is forecast). Min and max points are highlighted with tooltips showing the value and time. Time labels appear on the bottom axis.
• Weather radar — when precipitation is forecast within the next ~3 hours, the chart is automatically replaced by a live radar map. In other words: whenever you see the radar, it will rain at your location within 3 hours. The map shows your location at the center with a red dot, country and regional borders, city labels, and rain intensity rendered in red (lighter = light rain, denser = heavy rain). The radar can be turned off completely in Settings (the “Rain radar” option) — the hourly chart is then always shown.
• Precipitation motion arrow — a small white chip with a black arrow and a speed in km/h may appear in the top-right corner of the radar map. The arrow shows which way the rain area is moving, and the number how fast. The station works this out on its own by comparing two consecutive radar frames (the current one and the one from the previous wake-up) — it reflects the actual movement on the radar, not the forecast. It appears only when both frames are available and no older than about 45 minutes, there is enough precipitation on the radar, and the area is drifting clearly and steadily in one direction. If the rain is essentially stationary, merely forming or fading in place, or only a single frame is available (for example after a longer dry spell), the arrow is not shown.
• Rain footer — a white chip in the bottom-left corner of the radar map shows a red drop and the next precipitation window, for example “13:00–13:45 2 mm, light”. It tells you from when to when continuous rain is expected, how much will fall in total (in mm), and how heavy it will be (light / moderate / heavy). The times come from the forecast at 15-minute resolution, so you still see the exact timing of the rain on the radar, where there is no temperature chart.

Five-day forecast

• Five columns, one per day. Each column shows: abbreviated day name (Sunday in red), weather icon, high temperature (large), low temperature (smaller), and °C units. Columns are separated by dashed vertical lines.
• Today's column is highlighted with an inverted color scheme (white on black) and a red bottom stripe.
• When rain is expected, a red badge with the probability percentage appears next to the weather icon.

Indoor sensors (shown when BME280 is connected)

• Three columns: Indoor temperature (°C with trend arrow and change), Humidity (% with comfort label and dew point), and Pressure (hPa with state and trend).
• Trend values are shown in red when changing, black when stable.

6. Daily operation

• During daytime, ATMOS refreshes every full hour.
• When precipitation is forecast, the refresh interval shortens to 15 minutes so the radar map stays current.
• At night it uses longer intervals to save battery.
• After each refresh it redraws the e-paper panel and returns to deep sleep.
• If Wi-Fi is temporarily unavailable, it can keep showing cached data and retry after 5 minutes.
• After five failed Wi-Fi attempts it returns to setup mode.
• With night mode enabled, the station does not connect to Wi-Fi during the configured night hours — it shows the cached forecast and saves power. A RESET press always performs a full connect.

7. Changing settings later

1. Press the RESET button.
2. The station boots again, refreshes, and temporarily exposes its service web interface.
3. The display shows both its own hotspot and the local IP address on your home network.
4. You can either join the ATMOS hotspot or open the shown local IP in a browser.

The temporary service interface remains available for roughly 5 minutes.

8. Factory reset

Firmware uses a confirmed reset sequence so configuration is not erased by mistake.

1. Press RESET once.
2. During the startup screen, roughly within the next 5 seconds, press RESET again.
3. On the following boot, stored settings and local cache are erased.

9. Battery and power

• Battery level is measured internally through ADC and shown as percentage.
• When battery is low, the station asks for charger connection.
• Below roughly 10%, the device sleeps to protect battery and avoid unstable behavior.
• Use external power for initial setup, longer service sessions, or development work.

10. Firmware and service

Firmware updates happen automatically. Just press the RESET button — on boot the station connects to Wi-Fi, checks whether a newer firmware is available, and installs it if so.

Updates only run when the battery is sufficiently charged (above 50 %). For safety, connect the charger before updating.

11. Troubleshooting

12. Technical specifications

• MCU: ESP32, 16 MB flash
• Display: 7.5" BWR 800x480 physical panel, rotated to 480x800 portrait; optional 10.2" 960x640
• Sensors: BME280 for indoor temperature, humidity, and pressure
• Weather radar: RainViewer (public API), shown automatically when precipitation is forecast; includes vector basemap with country and regional borders
• Location: automatic lookup of coordinates and altitude from the entered place name or address
• Local cache: LittleFS
• Languages: EN, DE, CS, PL, SK, FR

13. Netatmo integration

ATMOS can read data from your Netatmo weather station/modules and show it on the display alongside your Bluetooth sensors — up to 4 external sensors in total.

Linking your account

1. Finish the Wi-Fi setup (chapter 3) first — linking requires the station to have an active internet connection.
2. Open http://atmos.local in a browser on a device connected to the same home Wi-Fi. This works on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Windows — Android cannot open atmos.local, so use a different device.
3. In the Netatmo section click Connect with Netatmo and sign in with your Netatmo account.
4. Once signed in, the list of your modules loads — choose which ones to show on the display.
5. Save. The selected sensors are then refreshed every time the station wakes, together with the forecast.

Netatmo sensors share the same 4 slots as Bluetooth sensors — at most 4 external values can be shown on the display at once. You can disconnect your account any time with the Disconnect Netatmo button in the portal.

Netatmo is a registered trademark of Netatmo S.A. ATMOS is not affiliated with or endorsed by Netatmo; the logo is shown solely to identify compatibility.