Good aftenoon team, I’m a mushroom farmer and I’d like to automate my grow room so I dont have to worry about it 24/7.
At the moment I use an Inkbirk Digital Humidity Controller IHC-200. The problem is its not accurate and always failing.
Ideally the new setup can be viewed remotely (so i know everything is ok and not have to worry about it all the time) and so I can alter the percentage levels at which the humidifier engages and disengages remotely.
The environment can be 100% humidity at times so it will have to be a W/proof sensor hense the SHT31 being enclosed. ( and apparently that sensor has an element under the sensor so you can 'bake off the water")
I have some info on a unit an American guy has made, details below,
The sensor is an SHT 31
He says he uses an ESP 32 Dev Kit
I2C Bus
With Mycodo
And Home Assistant Blue.
I’m an electrician by trade so no issue with wiring things up. I do not have any coding experience or building electronics experience.
Appreciate the help in advance.
Good to hear you’ve got the qualifications to be creating projects with mains power. The Inkbird units are definitely the most available turn-key bits around for this, it’s a shame that it’s not working out for you.
The ESP32 platform is definitely the most popular for internet-connected gadgets like the one you’re looking to make. I’m a fan of the Adafruit Feather line-up, as they have an ESP32 board, and a ton of add-ons that should help you do what you’re after:
The board itself:
A 250VAC relay board:
A screen with buttons for viewing data on-location or messing with settings when WiFi isn’t available
And finally, a board to connect all that together
Adafruit have a fantastic guide on their ESP32 feather, so take a look and see if you’re up to the task of coding up a web interface:
You might want to look into Adafruit IO if you don’t want to make up your own dashboard:
(This guide is using an ESP8266, effectively an older version of the ESP32, but should give you an idea of what you can do with it, and how easy/hard its gonna be
)
You’ll also need to get in touch with a licensed electrician for any 240V work. Aside from the fact mains wiring is quite lethal if you get it wrong, in the USA it’s legal for people to DIY mains wiring, but not in Aus.
I hope this points you in the right direction somewhat, let us know if you have any more questions!
-James
Hi James,
Thanks very much for the info. Do you know if I can use a SHT31?
Adafruit say I can use the SHT31-D But thats just the chip. I need the weather proof aspect of the SHT31.
Cheers Dave
Absolutely! You’ll likely just need to wire up some screw terminals to the prototyping area on the side-by-side board, something like this should do the trick:
Alternatively, if you want to wire up the connection externally, perhaps something like this will do the trick:
Or maybe just a gland if you don’t need a connection you can connect/disconnect:
