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Aura is a smart weather forecast display for your home. It's open source, costs less than $20 to build, and assembles in seconds without any wiring or soldering.

You can find the full project instructions here. This page is only for installing the software on the ESP32 board.

Software Installation Instructions

  1. Connect your ESP32-2432S028R ILI9341 board (with 2.8in screen) to your computer's USB port.
  2. Click the 'Connect' button below. This will only work in Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
  3. When prompted to choose a port, choose “USB Serial”.
  4. Click 'Install Aura'.

Inverted Colors Fix

Some ESP32 boards store colors differently in RAM, so the screen shows up with the wrong colors. If you have that issue, install this version instead.

 

Help! Installation gets stuck at "Preparing to Install."

It should not take very long to get past the "Preparing to Install" step. If it is stuck, it means that the board is not connected to the computer correctly or the board is not going into update mode.

There are a variety of boards that have been produced and they may need slightly different approaches. Here are the most common solutions:

  1. In the list of ports, make sure you choose the one that says "USB Serial."
  2. Some boards need to be forced into flash mode by holding down the RST button while starting the installation.
  3. Some boards need to be forced into flash mode by pressing and holding BOOT button, pressing and releasing the RST button, then finally release thing BOOT button.
  4. Some boards with two USB ports (USB-C and USB Micro) will only accept being flashed by one of the ports, so try both. While many USB-C boards will flash just fine via the USB-C connection, some only will update over the USB Micro connection.
  5. Several users have reported that the cheap USB cable included with the board didn't work, but using a different USB cable worked.
Note: The linked picture of the back of the board is from Random Nerd Tutorial's article. Their site is great if you want to learn more about these boards.

Software Updates

To upgrade to the latest version, just re-install the software above.

  1. v1.2 - 12/24 hour time display option, fixed a bug with hourly forecast showing sun vs. moon icons at the wrong times.
  2. v1.1 - Added the current time to the screen.
  3. v1.0 - Initial release.