Joey Castillo Gives the Republic of Zaqistan Its First Satellite-Connected IoT Weather Station

Joey Castillo, of Oddly Specific Objects fame, has been doing some making of an unusual kind: creating a weather station and installing it as part of a nation-building project in the Republic of Zaqistan.

"This is not gonna be like most of my projects. I don't know how long it's going to last, or if it's going to work at all," Castillo wrote shortly before the installation of the device. "Had a heart-to-heart with my friend whose de facto sovereign nation is going to host this weather station; told him of my trepidation, my fears that it might not work, that we might have to trek back out to the desert at a later date to fetch it and figure it out. His response: 'Dude. It's Zaqistan. People tackle the robots sometimes.' So I guess we'll just hope for the best!"

The above will need a little explanation for those unfamiliar with the Republic of Zaqistan: in 2005 New York sculptor Zaq Landsberg, the friend in question, purchased a chunk of the Utah desert at auction for just $610, then declared it a micronation and himself the president. Founded under the motto Quispiam Ex Nusquam, "something from nothing," the micronation has only monuments and a "border patrol gate" and citizens only on paper — aside from a family of robot guards, including a giant sentry which stands at the gate.

Now, Castillo's hardware has made it to Zaqistan too — giving the micronation its first weather station. Using a custom Feather-format development board built for ultra-low power draw and with solar harvesting capabilities, the Solar Feather Express, Castillo's weather station offers barometric pressure, temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, wind speed and direction, and both visible and UV light measurements.

With internet providers thin on the ground in Zaqistan, Castillo turned to a Swarm satellite transceiver for connectivity — testing it out locally prior to installation. "Set up a thing on a bench just south of campus and was immediately accosted by a gaggle of elementary school kids," Castillo wrote of said testing. "'What are you doing?' 'What’s that?' 'Is it going to go BOOM?' (The answers to which are 'I’m doing a science,' 'it’s going to talk to a satellite,' and 'no, but I can see how you got there…')"

"Today’s sunrise reflected off the Republic of Zaqistan’s Decennial Monument," Castillo wrote on the day of installation. "Nation building expedition was a huge success; we hoisted the flag, repaired and upgraded sculptures and monuments, replaced and repainted old worn signs, and I installed the Zaqistan weather station (which has a couple of bugs I added at the last minute, but nothing I can’t work around). More soon, but for now just so stoked about all we accomplished."

More information on the project is available on Castillo's Mastodon account; the live weather data is available on www.zaqistanlive.com.