samedi 11 juin 2016

Useful projects on Raspberry Pi - Smart Dehumidifier (Episode 101)

Model: Raspberry Pi 1 B+
Features: 4xUSB, 1xEthernet, HDMI


Today, like yesterday and the day before, I have been working on a little project that is very important to me.

Before I start writing about that project. To understand my point deeper, you need a little background.

My mother is a soapmaker. We make our own home-made artisanal soap, with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, Virgin Organic Coconut Oil, and essential oils.




I help her out whenever I can of course :)
We make the soaps the old-fashioned way, and we leave the soaps to cure at least 2 months before actually using it. (cold-processed)
For the soaps to cure in optimal conditions, I recently bought a dehumidifier.

But how would I know when to turn the dehumidifier on or off ? What I needed was some kind of sensor. So my project's aim is to make a 'smart' dehumidifier assembly that has to :
- Detect the relative humidity in the room
- And turn on whenever the humidity levels are too high
- And off to save current of course :)

So here is my assembly:
1. 1x Raspberry Pi 1 Model B +
2. 1x DHT11 (humidity and temperature detector) -ebay cheap!
3. 1x Dehumidifier
4. 1x 5V 220V Relay -ebay cheap
5. 1x USB Wifi module -ebay cheap

The relay's job is to control the mains via the raspberry pi, so everything is automated and I don't need to bother about humidity anymore.

So, till now I have managed to make the detector work, and still waiting for the relay to arrive (yes i bought from china on ebay)

Its detecting the temperature (in degrees celsius) and relative humidity(in percent) and all this is done in real time!

I will blog about the project again when its done in a DIY fashion so that everyone can do it the easy way.

I have to admit, that all these little devices are serious fun !

Codarren

- In case you want to take a look at our home-made soaps, feel free to visit
this link

- I'd love to get other's input on projects they would love to have in their homes (useful ones). 

- So please feel free talk about your useful project in the comment in the section below :)




4 commentaires:

  1. Interesting and useful project! By the way, how do you connect the dehumidifier to the relay, do you cut off the original plug? (if yes, will this not invalidate its warranty?)

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    Réponses
    1. Hello Roushdat! I have not figured that yet. Hehe.
      I have still not received the relay. There are some articles on how to do it that you can get on the internet. As soon as I get my hands dirty you will know more :D

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  2. Nice writing such a post which has been done with respect to the article writer lately. Good work which is the reason why I am here to work. The Dehumidifier HQ

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  3. Hi,
    Any pictures or logic (code) of the setup yet?
    If you can't unscrew the power plug and connect it to the relay then cutting it off will void the warranty.
    One of the way to make it work would be to either buy a controllable power socket (off the shelf) or build one https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/119 .

    With some remote controlled power socket, you could even skip the dirty part of playing with the mains. Though would require additional logic and disassembling (or copying the signal of) the remote control.

    If the Dehumidifier have a remote control then you're golden...
    You would only need to copy the signal from the remote control and use an infrared transmitter to send out those at desired time.

    An ESP8266 could also be used to replace the rpi (and the WiFi dongle) - also keeping the cost down

    Nice project btw :)
    Would really like to see the final product.

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