I’m looking at using an Arduino Nano BLE sense to use as a remote temp/press sensor and have a couple of questions before purchase the bits, that hopefully someone may be able to answer.
The first relates to the isolation of the temp sensor chip from the heat generated by the arduino’s processing. I have a sense HAT board for the Pi4 and there’s no way you could actually use that to monitor ambient temp as it is heated by the Pi4 that it’s sitting on.
The colocation on the arduino is convenient but not useful if it interferes with the readings. Can anyone provide any input on the usefulness of the onboard sensors for ambient measurements please? This impacts whether I get the sense board or the plain 33 plus a separate sensor like the pimeroni bme280.
I’d also like this to run on a Lipo battery - either 2400 or 6000 mAh. It’s not entirely clear what current the Arduino is likely to draw, so difficult to determine if worth going to the increased size & expense of the larger battery. I’ll be attempting to make use of sleep mode in the arduino, but not sure what this will equate to in battery usage. Any advice appreciated.
That’s very true, the heating of the board is definitely something to consider when using it as a temperature sensor. However, the plain 33 that you’ve linked is currently out of stock and not expected to return for some time. I don’t believe that the heating from the board will be as significant as that produced by the Pi 4 as unlike the 4 the Arduino is only running a simple and continuous script while the Pi (Particularly the 4 which has notorious heating which needs to be dealt with) is running a complicated operating system that requires random bursts of computing power, as such the BLE sense (which we currently have 4 in stock) should be applicable to your project.
The arduino will draw power based on the capacity at which it is operating, if you only scan for the temp and pressure infrequently the current draw should be minimal so either battery should work but the 6000 mAh will last more than twice as long as the 2400 mAh in either situation (low or high draw).
Thanks Bryce. I managed to track down a plain Nano BLE so I’m going to go that plus the seperate sensor. Likely a bit more messing around to get working, but I can mount it as far away from the board as I need to. I also ended up ordering the 6000mAh lipo, it will be interesting to see how long it goes between recharges
