ESP32 Web Server with BME280 – Advanced Weather Station

In this tutorial you’re going to learn how to create a web server with the ESP32 to display readings from the BME280 sensor module. The BME280 sensor measures temperature, humidity, and pressure. So, you can easily build a mini and compact weather station and monitor the measurements using your ESP32 web server. That’s what we’re going to do in this project.

Before proceeding with this tutorial you should have the ESP32 add-on installed in your Arduino IDE. Follow one of the following tutorials to install the ESP32 on the Arduino IDE, if you haven’t already.

• Installing the ESP32 Board in Arduino IDE (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux instructions)

You might also like reading other BME280 guides:

• ESP32 with BME280 Sensor using Arduino IDE
• ESP8266 with BME280 using Arduino IDE
• ESP32/ESP8266 with BME280 using MicroPython
• Arduino Board with BME280

Watch the Video Tutorial

This tutorial is available in video format (watch below) and in written format (continue reading).

Parts Required

To follow this tutorial you need the following parts:

• ESP32 DOIT DEVKIT V1 Board – read ESP32 Development Boards Review and Comparison
• BME280 sensor module
• Breadboard
• Jumper wires

You can use the preceding links or go directly to MakerAdvisor.com/tools to find all the parts for your projects at the best price!

Introducing the BME280 Sensor Module

The BME280 sensor module reads temperature, humidity, and pressure. Because pressure changes with altitude, you can also estimate altitude. There are several versions of this sensor module, but we’re using the one shown in the figure below.

The sensor can communicate using either SPI or I2C communication protocols (there are modules of this sensor that just communicate with I2C, these just come with four pins).

To use SPI communication protocol, you use the following pins:

• SCK – this is the SPI Clock pin
• SDO – MISO
• SDI – MOSI
• CS – Chip Select

To use I2C communication protocol, the sensor uses the following pins:

• SCK – this is also the SCL pin
• SDI – this is also the SDA pin

Schematic

We’re going to use I2C communication with the BME280 sensor module. For that, wire the sensor to the ESP32 SDA and SCL pins, as shown in the following schematic diagram.

(This schematic uses the ESP32 DEVKIT V1 module version with 36 GPIOs – if you’re using another model, please check the pinout for the board you’re using.)

Installing the BME280 library

To take readings from the BME280 sensor module we’ll use the Adafruit_BME280 library. Follow the next steps to install the library in your Arduino IDE:

Open your Arduino IDE and go to Sketch > Include Library > Manage Libraries. The Library Manager should open.

Search for “adafruit bme280 ” on the Search box and install the library.

Installing the Adafruit_Sensor library

To use the BME280 library, you also need to install the Adafruit_Sensor library. Follow the next steps to install the library in your Arduino IDE:

Go to Sketch > Include Library > Manage Libraries and type “Adafruit Unified Sensor” in the search box. Scroll all the way down to find the library and install it.

After installing the libraries, restart your Arduino IDE.

Reading Temperature, Humidity, and Pressure

To get familiar with the BME280 sensor, we’re going to use an example sketch from the library to see how to read temperature, humidity, and pressure.

After installing the BME280 library, and the Adafruit_Sensor library, open the Arduino IDE and, go to File > Examples > Adafruit BME280 library > bme280 test.

/*********
  Complete project details at https://randomnerdtutorials.com  
*********/

#include <Wire.h>
#include <Adafruit_Sensor.h>
#include <Adafruit_BME280.h>

/*#include <SPI.h>
#define BME_SCK 18
#define BME_MISO 19
#define BME_MOSI 23
#define BME_CS 5*/

#define SEALEVELPRESSURE_HPA (1013.25)

Adafruit_BME280 bme; // I2C
//Adafruit_BME280 bme(BME_CS); // hardware SPI
//Adafruit_BME280 bme(BME_CS, BME_MOSI, BME_MISO, BME_SCK); // software SPI

unsigned long delayTime;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println(F("BME280 test"));

  bool status;

  // default settings
  // (you can also pass in a Wire library object like &Wire2)
  status = bme.begin(0x76);  
  if (!status) {
    Serial.println("Could not find a valid BME280 sensor, check wiring!");
    while (1);
  }

  Serial.println("-- Default Test --");
  delayTime = 1000;

  Serial.println();
}


void loop() { 
  printValues();
  delay(delayTime);
}

void printValues() {
  Serial.print("Temperature = ");
  Serial.print(bme.readTemperature());
  Serial.println(" *C");
  
  // Convert temperature to Fahrenheit
  /*Serial.print("Temperature = ");
  Serial.print(1.8 * bme.readTemperature() + 32);
  Serial.println(" *F");*/
  
  Serial.print("Pressure = ");
  Serial.print(bme.readPressure() / 100.0F);
  Serial.println(" hPa");

  Serial.print("Approx. Altitude = ");
  Serial.print(bme.readAltitude(SEALEVELPRESSURE_HPA));
  Serial.println(" m");

  Serial.print("Humidity = ");
  Serial.print(bme.readHumidity());
  Serial.println(" %");

  Serial.println();
}

View raw code

Libraries

The code starts by including the needed libraries

#include <Wire.h>
#include <Adafruit_Sensor.h>
#include <Adafruit_BME280.h>

SPI communication

As we’re going to use I2C communication you can comment the following lines:

/*#include <SPI.h>
#define BME_SCK 18
#define BME_MISO 19
#define BME_MOSI 23
#define BME_CS 5*/

Note: if you’re using SPI communication, you need to change the pin definition to use the ESP32 GPIOs. For SPI communication on the ESP32 you can use either the HSPI or VSPI pins, as shown in the following table.

SPI	MOSI	MISO	CLK	CS
HSPI	GPIO 13	GPIO 12	GPIO 14	GPIO 15
VSPI	GPIO 23	GPIO 19	GPIO 18	GPIO 5

Sea level pressure

A variable called SEALEVELPRESSURE_HPA is created.

#define SEALEVELPRESSURE_HPA (1013.25)

This saves the pressure at the sea level in hectopascal (is equivalent to milibar). This variable is used to estimate the altitude for a given pressure by comparing it with the sea level pressure. This example uses the default value, but for more accurate results, replace the value with the current sea level pressure at your location.

I2C

This example uses I2C communication by default. As you can see, you just need to create an Adafruit_BME280 object called bme.

Adafruit_BME280 bme; // I2C

If you would like to use SPI, you need to comment this previous line and uncomment one of the following lines depending on whether you’re using hardware or software SPI.

//Adafruit_BME280 bme(BME_CS); // hardware SPI
//Adafruit_BME280 bme(BME_CS, BME_MOSI, BME_MISO, BME_SCK); // software SPI

setup()

In the setup() you start a serial communication

Serial.begin(9600);

And the sensor is initialized:

status = bme.begin(0x76); 
if (!status) {
  Serial.println("Could not find a valid BME280 sensor, check wiring!");
  while (1);
}

Printing values

In the loop(), the printValues() function reads the values from the BME280 and prints the results in the Serial Monitor.

void loop() { 
  printValues();
  delay(delayTime);
}

Reading temperature, humidity, pressure, and estimate altitude is as simple as using:

• bme.readTemperature() – reads temperature in Celsius;
• bme.readHumidity() – reads absolute humidity;
• bme.readPressure() – reads pressure in hPa (hectoPascal = millibar);
• bme.readAltitude(SEALEVELPRESSURE_HPA) – estimates altitude in meters based on the pressure at the sea level.

Upload the code to your ESP32, and open the Serial Monitor at a baud rate of 9600. You should see the readings displayed on the Serial Monitor.

Creating a Table in HTML

As you’ve seen in the beginning of the post, we’re displaying the readings in a web page with a table served by the ESP32. So, we need to write HTML text to build a table.

To create a table in HTML you use the <table> and </table> tags.

To create a row you use the <tr> and </tr> tags. The table heading is defined using the <th> and </th> tags, and each table cell is defined using the <td>and </td> tags.

To create a table for our readings, you use the following html text:

<table>
  <tr>
    <th>MEASUREMENT</th>
    <th>VALUE</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Temp. Celsius</td>
    <td>--- *C</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Temp. Fahrenheit</td>
    <td>--- *F</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Pressure</td>
    <td>--- hPa</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Approx. Altitude</td>
    <td>--- meters</td></tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Humidity</td>
    <td>--- %</td>
  </tr>
</table>

We create the header of the table with a cell called MEASUREMENT, and another called VALUE. Then, we create six rows to display each of the readings using the <tr> and </tr> tags. Inside each row, we create two cells, using the <td> and </td> tags, one with the name of the measurement, and another to hold the measurement value. The three dashes “—” should then be replaced with the actual measurements from the BME sensor.

You can save this text as table.html, drag the file into your browser and see what you have. The previous HTML text creates the following table.

The table doesn’t have any styles applied. You can use CSS to style the table with your own preferences. You may found this link useful: CSS Styling Tables.

Creating the Web Server

Now that you know how to take readings from the sensor, and how to build a table to display the results, it’s time to build the web server. If you’ve followed other ESP32 tutorials, you should be familiar with the majority of the code. If not, take a look at the ESP32 Web Server Tutorial.

Copy the following code to your Arduino IDE. Don’t upload it yet. First, you need to include your SSID and password.

/*********
  Rui Santos
  Complete project details at https://randomnerdtutorials.com  
*********/

// Load Wi-Fi library
#include <WiFi.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#include <Adafruit_BME280.h>
#include <Adafruit_Sensor.h>

//uncomment the following lines if you're using SPI
/*#include <SPI.h>
#define BME_SCK 18
#define BME_MISO 19
#define BME_MOSI 23
#define BME_CS 5*/

#define SEALEVELPRESSURE_HPA (1013.25)

Adafruit_BME280 bme; // I2C
//Adafruit_BME280 bme(BME_CS); // hardware SPI
//Adafruit_BME280 bme(BME_CS, BME_MOSI, BME_MISO, BME_SCK); // software SPI

// Replace with your network credentials
const char* ssid     = "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_SSID";
const char* password = "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_PASSWORD";

// Set web server port number to 80
WiFiServer server(80);

// Variable to store the HTTP request
String header;

// Current time
unsigned long currentTime = millis();
// Previous time
unsigned long previousTime = 0; 
// Define timeout time in milliseconds (example: 2000ms = 2s)
const long timeoutTime = 2000;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  bool status;

  // default settings
  // (you can also pass in a Wire library object like &Wire2)
  //status = bme.begin();  
  if (!bme.begin(0x76)) {
    Serial.println("Could not find a valid BME280 sensor, check wiring!");
    while (1);
  }

  // Connect to Wi-Fi network with SSID and password
  Serial.print("Connecting to ");
  Serial.println(ssid);
  WiFi.begin(ssid, password);
  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
    delay(500);
    Serial.print(".");
  }
  // Print local IP address and start web server
  Serial.println("");
  Serial.println("WiFi connected.");
  Serial.println("IP address: ");
  Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());
  server.begin();
}

void loop(){
  WiFiClient client = server.available();   // Listen for incoming clients

  if (client) {                             // If a new client connects,
    currentTime = millis();
    previousTime = currentTime;
    Serial.println("New Client.");          // print a message out in the serial port
    String currentLine = "";                // make a String to hold incoming data from the client
    while (client.connected() && currentTime - previousTime <= timeoutTime) {  // loop while the client's connected
      currentTime = millis();
      if (client.available()) {             // if there's bytes to read from the client,
        char c = client.read();             // read a byte, then
        Serial.write(c);                    // print it out the serial monitor
        header += c;
        if (c == '\n') {                    // if the byte is a newline character
          // if the current line is blank, you got two newline characters in a row.
          // that's the end of the client HTTP request, so send a response:
          if (currentLine.length() == 0) {
            // HTTP headers always start with a response code (e.g. HTTP/1.1 200 OK)
            // and a content-type so the client knows what's coming, then a blank line:
            client.println("HTTP/1.1 200 OK");
            client.println("Content-type:text/html");
            client.println("Connection: close");
            client.println();
            
            // Display the HTML web page
            client.println("<!DOCTYPE html><html>");
            client.println("<head><meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width, initial-scale=1\">");
            client.println("<link rel=\"icon\" href=\"data:,\">");
            // CSS to style the table 
            client.println("<style>body { text-align: center; font-family: \"Trebuchet MS\", Arial;}");
            client.println("table { border-collapse: collapse; width:35%; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; }");
            client.println("th { padding: 12px; background-color: #0043af; color: white; }");
            client.println("tr { border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 12px; }");
            client.println("tr:hover { background-color: #bcbcbc; }");
            client.println("td { border: none; padding: 12px; }");
            client.println(".sensor { color:white; font-weight: bold; background-color: #bcbcbc; padding: 1px; }");
            
            // Web Page Heading
            client.println("</style></head><body><h1>ESP32 with BME280</h1>");
            client.println("<table><tr><th>MEASUREMENT</th><th>VALUE</th></tr>");
            client.println("<tr><td>Temp. Celsius</td><td><span class=\"sensor\">");
            client.println(bme.readTemperature());
            client.println(" *C</span></td></tr>");  
            client.println("<tr><td>Temp. Fahrenheit</td><td><span class=\"sensor\">");
            client.println(1.8 * bme.readTemperature() + 32);
            client.println(" *F</span></td></tr>");       
            client.println("<tr><td>Pressure</td><td><span class=\"sensor\">");
            client.println(bme.readPressure() / 100.0F);
            client.println(" hPa</span></td></tr>");
            client.println("<tr><td>Approx. Altitude</td><td><span class=\"sensor\">");
            client.println(bme.readAltitude(SEALEVELPRESSURE_HPA));
            client.println(" m</span></td></tr>"); 
            client.println("<tr><td>Humidity</td><td><span class=\"sensor\">");
            client.println(bme.readHumidity());
            client.println(" %</span></td></tr>"); 
            client.println("</body></html>");
            
            // The HTTP response ends with another blank line
            client.println();
            // Break out of the while loop
            break;
          } else { // if you got a newline, then clear currentLine
            currentLine = "";
          }
        } else if (c != '\r') {  // if you got anything else but a carriage return character,
          currentLine += c;      // add it to the end of the currentLine
        }
      }
    }
    // Clear the header variable
    header = "";
    // Close the connection
    client.stop();
    Serial.println("Client disconnected.");
    Serial.println("");
  }
}

View raw code

Modify the following lines to include your SSID and password between the double quotes.

const char* ssid     = ""; 
const char* password = "";

Then, check that you have the right board and COM port selected, and upload the code to your ESP32. After uploading, open the Serial Monitor at a baud rate of 115200, and copy the ESP32 IP address.

Open your browser, paste the IP address, and you should see the latest sensor readings. To update the readings, you just need to refresh the web page.

How the Code Works

This sketch is very similar with the sketch used in the ESP32 Web Server Tutorial. First, you include the WiFi library and the needed libraries to read from the BME280 sensor.

// Load Wi-Fi library
#include <WiFi.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#include <Adafruit_BME280.h>
#include <Adafruit_Sensor.h>

The next line defines a variable to save the pressure at the sea level. For more accurate altitude estimation, replace the value with the current sea level pressure at your location.

#define SEALEVELPRESSURE_HPA (1013.25)

In the following line you create an Adafruit_BME280 object called bme that by default establishes a communication with the sensor using I2C.

Adafruit_BME280 bme; // I2C

As mentioned previously, you need to insert your ssid and password in the following lines inside the double quotes.

const char* ssid     = "";
const char* password = "";

Then, you set your web server to port 80.

// Set web server port number to 80
WiFiServer server(80);

The following line creates a variable to store the header of the HTTP request:

String header;

setup()

In the setup(), we start a serial communication at a baud rate of 115200 for debugging purposes.

Serial.begin(115200);

You check that the BME280 sensor was successfully initialized.

if (!bme.begin(0x76)) {
  Serial.println("Could not find a valid BME280 sensor, check wiring!");
  while (1);

The following lines begin the Wi-Fi connection with WiFi.begin(ssid, password), wait for a successful connection and print the ESP IP address in the Serial Monitor.

// Connect to Wi-Fi network with SSID and password
Serial.print("Connecting to ");
Serial.println(ssid);
WiFi.begin(ssid, password);
while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
  delay(500);
  Serial.print(".");
}
// Print local IP address and start web server
Serial.println("");
Serial.println("WiFi connected.");
Serial.println("IP address: ");
Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());
server.begin();

loop()

In the loop(), we program what happens when a new client establishes a connection with the web server. The ESP is always listening for incoming clients with this line:

WiFiClient client = server.available(); // Listen for incoming clients

When a request is received from a client, we’ll save the incoming data. The while loop that follows will be running as long as the client stays connected. We don’t recommend changing the following part of the code unless you know exactly what you are doing.

if (client) { // If a new client connects,
  Serial.println("New Client."); // print a message out in the serial port
  String currentLine = ""; // make a String to hold incoming data from the client
  while (client.connected()) { // loop while the client's connected
    if (client.available()) { // if there's bytes to read from the client,
      char c = client.read(); // read a byte, then
      Serial.write(c); // print it out the serial monitor
      header += c;
      if (c == '\n') { // if the byte is a newline character
        // if the current line is blank, you got two newline characters in a row.
        // that's the end of the client HTTP request, so send a response:
        if (currentLine.length() == 0) {
          // HTTP headers always start with a response code (e.g. HTTP/1.1 200 OK)
          // and a content-type so the client knows what's coming, then a blank line:
          client.println("HTTP/1.1 200 OK");
          client.println("Content-type:text/html");
          client.println("Connection: close");
          client.println();

Displaying the HTML web page

The next thing you need to do is sending a response to the client with the HTML text to build the web page.

The web page is sent to the client using this expression client.println(). You should enter what you want to send to the client as an argument.

The following code snippet sends the web page to display the sensor readings in a table.

client.println("<!DOCTYPE html><html>");
client.println("<head><meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width, initial-scale=1\">");
client.println("<link rel=\"icon\" href=\"data:,\">");
// CSS to style the on/off buttons 
// Feel free to change the background-color and font-size attributes to fit your preferences
client.println("<style>body { text-align: center; font-family: \"Trebuchet MS\", Arial;}");
client.println("table { border-collapse: collapse; width:35%; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; }");
client.println("th { padding: 12px; background-color: #0043af; color: white; }");
client.println("tr { border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 12px; }");
client.println("tr:hover { background-color: #bcbcbc; }");
client.println("td { border: none; padding: 12px; }");
client.println(".sensor { color:white; font-weight: bold; background-color: #bcbcbc; padding: 1px; }");
 
// Web Page Heading
client.println("</style></head><body><h1>ESP32 with BME280</h1>");
client.println("<table><tr><th>MEASUREMENT</th><th>VALUE</th></tr>");
client.println("<tr><td>Temp. Celsius</td><td><span class=\"sensor\">");
client.println(bme.readTemperature());
client.println(" *C</span></td></tr>"); 
client.println("<tr><td>Temp. Fahrenheit</td><td><span class=\"sensor\">");
client.println(1.8 * bme.readTemperature() + 32);
client.println(" *F</span></td></tr>"); 
client.println("<tr><td>Pressure</td><td><span class=\"sensor\">");
client.println(bme.readPressure() / 100.0F);
client.println(" hPa</span></td></tr>");
client.println("<tr><td>Approx. Altitude</td><td><span class=\"sensor\">");
client.println(bme.readAltitude(SEALEVELPRESSURE_HPA));
client.println(" m</span></td></tr>"); 
client.println("<tr><td>Humidity</td><td><span class=\"sensor\">");
client.println(bme.readHumidity());
client.println(" %</span></td></tr>"); 
client.println("</body></html>");

Note: you can click here to view the full HTML web page.

Displaying the Sensor Readings

To display the sensor readings on the table, we just need to send them between the corresponding <td> and </td> tags. For example, to display the temperature:

client.println("<tr><td>Temp. Celsius</td><td><span class=\"sensor\">");
client.println(bme.readTemperature());
client.println(" *C</span></td></tr>");

Note: the <span> tag is useful to style a particular part of a text. In this case, we’re using the <span> tag to include the sensor reading in a class called “sensor”. This is useful to style that particular part of text using CSS.

By default the table is displaying the temperature readings in both Celsius degrees and Fahrenheit. You can comment the following three lines, if you want to display the temperature only in Fahrenheit degrees.

/*client.println("<tr><td>Temp. Celsius</td><td><span class=\"sensor\">");
client.println(bme.readTemperature());
client.println(" *C</span></td></tr>");*/

Closing the Connection

Finally, when the response ends, we clear the header variable, and stop the connection with the client with client.stop().

// Clear the header variable
header = "";
// Close the connection
client.stop();

Wrapping Up

In summary, in this project you’ve learned how to read temperature, humidity, pressure, and estimate altitude using the BME280 sensor module. You also learned how to build a web server that displays a table with sensor readings. You can easily modify this project to display data from any other sensor.

If you like this project you may also like the following tutorials:

• Build an All-in-One ESP32 Weather Station Shield
• ESP32 Publish Sensor Readings to Google Sheets (ESP8266 Compatible)
• ESP32 Data Logging Temperature to MicroSD Card
• ESP32 with Multiple DS18B20 Temperature Sensors

This is an excerpt from our course: Learn ESP32 with Arduino IDE. If you like ESP32 and you want to learn more, we recommend enrolling in Learn ESP32 with Arduino IDE course.

Thanks for reading.