Build guide
Building the WetterCube Fusion
The WetterCube Fusion is the large 7-inch weather display with environment sensors, Home Assistant and MQTT. All you need is a ready-made board: display, touch and backlight control are built onto it, no wiring is needed.
Important: WetterCube is a software project. I provide the software (firmware); you do the building yourself: you buy the matching board (for WetterCube and WetterCubePlus also the display), flash the firmware and design a case to your own taste. I try to offer matching cases for the individual cubes, but the focus is on the software. Finished devices are not offered. You find short build guides under Build guide.
In development: Fusion and Next are still in development (alpha). Errors can occur with the current versions.
WetterCube Fusion: Waveshare boards only. The software is only reliably supported on exactly these boards: the Waveshare ESP32-P4-WIFI6-Touch-LCD-7B and, as long as the P4 board is not yet supported, the Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-7B. Combined boards with a display often differ from vendor to vendor in display, touch or connectors.
Other boards are not supported and can cause problems. So buy exactly the named boards. As soon as more boards are available, board-specific versions are to be offered in the long term; there is no fixed date yet.
What you need
| Part | Type |
|---|---|
| Target board | Waveshare ESP32-P4-WIFI6-Touch-LCD-7B (7", 1024×600, MIPI-DSI; support in preparation) |
| Development board (today) | Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-7B (7", 1024×600, 16-bit RGB, 16 MB flash, 8 MB OPI PSRAM) |
| Power and flashing | USB-C data cable (short and thick) at the port labelled UART (“USB TO UART”), power supply of at least 5 V / 2 A |
| Case | optional, see below |
Assembly
The board is not wired. It has several USB ports. For flashing, log output and power use the USB port labelled UART (“USB TO UART”). This applies to the P4 board and to the S3 board. Use a short, thick USB-C data cable and a power supply of at least 5 V / 2 A.
Because of the display, the backlight and the current peaks when transmitting over Wi-Fi, a weak power supply or cable can cause Wi-Fi failures or a brownout reset. Serial monitor output (115200 baud) also comes through the UART port.
Flash the firmware
- Open the web installer (Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge only, because of WebSerial).
- Connect the board to the computer with a USB-C data cable at the port labelled UART (“USB TO UART”), choose “Install” and follow the instructions.
Careful: the installation erases the flash and with it settings and the Wi-Fi password. If you want to keep them, back up your settings in the web interface first.
Board not detected? Hold the BOOT button while you plug in the cable or press RESET, then release it: the board is now in download mode. Press RESET after flashing.
First setup
- On first start (or if the Wi-Fi is unreachable) the display shows a hint. The cube now opens its own Wi-Fi “WetterCube-Fusion-Setup”.
- On your phone (or PC) open the Wi-Fi settings, look for “WetterCube-Fusion-Setup” in the list of available networks and connect to it. If the phone says that the network has no internet access, stay connected anyway.
- The browser now opens the cube’s setup portal by itself. If that does not happen, open
http://192.168.4.1in the browser. - In the portal enter the credentials of your home Wi-Fi (choose the network, enter the password).
- Enter the location (city) without umlauts (
Munchen,Koln). - Choose the DWD region / federal state (used for pollen forecast and warnings).
- Save. The cube restarts, connects to your home Wi-Fi and loads the data. Afterwards connect your phone to your normal Wi-Fi again (this usually happens by itself).
Afterwards the device is reachable at http://wettercube-fusion.local. If the Wi-Fi connection fails at startup, the device tries twice, then shows the setup mode and afterwards automatically retries regularly.
Case
A matching case is in the works. A free 3D-print file will be added here; there will be a note on the blog.
What next
Language and region: The WetterCube project is currently only available in German. Because the weather data for warnings, pollen forecast and bio-weather comes from the German Weather Service (DWD), it currently only works completely in Germany. A translation into English and weather information usable worldwide are planned, but there is no fixed date yet.