Some people hike for the physical challenge. Others hike for fun. If you’re part of the latter and just trek to get your steps in or reconnect with nature, you might not want to invest heavily in fancy and expensive hiking gear. It’s still a good idea to know your numbers, though, and a budget-friendly DIY altimeter is perfect for the job.
An altimeter measures how high you are above sea level. It’s one of the must-bring tech gadgets for your hiking trips simply because it comes in handy for navigation and route planning. Plus, it can warn you about weather changes, too. Although you can also get the altitude and pressure from third-party apps on your phone, some of them don’t work offline. This can be a problem if you don’t have an internet connection during your hike.
So instead of solely relying on your phone, you can build yourself an altimeter using a Raspberry Pi Pico and a BME280 sensor.
What is the Pico Altimeter and how does it work?
The Pico Altimeter project on Hackster.io is a barometric altimeter, which relies on air pressure to estimate your current altitude and spot changes in the weather. In this project, the air pressure is read by a BME280 sensor. This tiny component can also detect the temperature and humidity of the surrounding area. After the BME280 gets the measurements, it then sends the data to the Raspberry Pi Pico it’s connected to.
Unlike most of the Raspberry Pi models currently available, the Pico isn’t a single-board computer. Instead, it’s a microcontroller like the Arduino that executes only one program — in this case, CircuitPython code for displaying the data from the BME280. However, you will need to connect the Pico to a computer to see the printed values for the temperature, humidity, air pressure, and altitude. That said, you can add a display and battery to the system, so you can really take it on your next hike.
All in all, the Pico Altimeter is an excellent weekend project to take on since it’s very beginner-friendly. Not only are there only two main components, but the script is pretty short and readily understandable, too.
