#829 BME280 5V Module

Examine the BME280 barometric pressure, temperature, and humidity sensor. Demonstrate its functionality with a common GY-BME280 5V module and an Arduino Uno with 128x32 OLED display.

Build

Notes

I purchased a BME280 5V sensor module “1-10pcs BME280 BMP280 5V 3.3V Digital Sensor Temperature Humidity Barometric Pressure Module I2C SPI for Arduino” (aliexpress seller listing) for SG$3.72 (Jan-2026).

See LEAP#830 BME280 3.3V Module for notes on the 3.3V version of the module

About the BME280

The BME280 is as combined digital humidity, pressure and temperature sensor based on proven sensing principles. Its small dimensions and low power consumption allow the implementation in battery driven devices such as handsets, GPS modules or watches.

The BME280 is register and performance compatible with the BMP280 digital pressure sensor.

The humidity sensor provides an extremely fast response time for fast context awareness applications and high overall accuracy over a wide temperature range.

The pressure sensor is an absolute barometric pressure sensor with extremely high accuracy and resolution and drastically lower noise than the Bosch Sensortec BMP180.

The integrated temperature sensor has been optimized for lowest noise and highest resolution. Its output is used for temperature compensation of the pressure and humidity sensors and can also be used for estimation of the ambient temperature.

BME280 can be operated in three power modes:

sleep mode
normal mode
forced mode

In order to tailor data rate, noise, response time and current consumption to the needs of the user, a variety of oversampling modes, filter modes and data rates can be selected.

bme280-ref

Absolute maximum ratings

Voltage at any supply pin (VDD): -0.3 to 4.25V
Voltage at any interface pin: -0.3 to VDD + 0.3V
Storage Temperature: -45 to +85°C
Pressure: 0 to 20 000 hPa

Specifications:

Sensor Supply Voltage: 1.71 - 3.6V DC
Interface Supply Voltage: 1.2 - 3.6V DC
Interface: I²C (up to 3.4MHz), SPI (up to 10 MHz)
Resolution:
- Humidity: 0.008 %RRH
- Temperature: 0.01 °C
- Pressure: 0.0018 hPa
Accuracy:
- Humidity: ±3 %RH
- Temperature: ±0.5 °C
- Pressure: ±0.12 hPa
I²C address:
- SDO LOW : 0x76
- SDO HIGH: 0x77
Interface selection:
- CSB LOW : SPI
- CSB HIGH (VDDIO): I²C

About the GY-BME280 5V Module

The BME280 is designed as a 3V device. The module I have includes a voltage regulator and level shifters to make it 5V compatible. Specifically:

3.3 LDO regulator
BSS138 FETs for level shifting the SCL and SDA signals
decoupling capacitors C1-C4
SDO pulled to ground, pre-selecting I²C address 0x76
CSB pulled high, pre-selecting the I²C interface
10kΩ resistor pull SDA and SCL lines high, eliminating the need for external pull-up resistors on the communication lines

module

Here’s the schematic for the breakout board:

module-schematic

Arduino Test Circuit Design

Since the module supports 5V, I’m going to test this with an Arduino Uno. Note:

pull-up resistors are not required on the I²C lines as they are built-in to the module
0.91” 128x32 white OLED LCD display module with SSD1306 Driver is attached to I²C for the display of readings

Designed with Fritzing: see Module5V.fzz.

schematic

bb_build

The Sketch

See Module5V.ino.

Adafruit_BME280_Library to directly communicate with the BME280
- Which uses https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_BusIO
- And uses the standard Wire and SPI libraries
u8g2lib monochrome graphics library to drive the OLED screen

Sketch behaviour:

during setup:
- initialises the BME280, OLED screen, and built-in LED
- displays a splash screen on the OLED
each loop:
- turns on the built-in LED during sampling
- samples readings and calculates altitude
- updates OLED display
- streams sample to serial port

Calculating the approximate altitude requires the current sea level pressure for one’s locale to be configured. I’m using an estimate from https://tides4fishing.com/sg/singapore/singapore/forecast/atmospheric-pressure that is typically 1010-1015 hPa. Hard-coding this is obviously not very convenient - a live feed of the actual value would be ideal!