Hello, I'd like to know how i'd get started if I wanted to build an arduino incubator.
I have a wine cooler I'd like to use as an incubator.
Basically, what I need is as follows:
I need to be able to detect CO2 levels in PPM,
I need to be able to detect temperature,
and i need to be able to detect humidity.
I will need to also have a fan wired up somehow, to circulate air which will be drawn in through a 99.9998% ULPA filter (I need almost absolute sterility for this incubator) and I also need it wired up to a thermoelectric peltier, so I can heat the incubator.
I want to be able to control the temperature using an up/down button or something, and i need a small screen that displays the CO2 levels in PPM, temperature in C/F (If both are not possible, i'd prefer F over C) and and humidity.
Oh, and there's also a light I need to hook up, but I could make that separate as it's just an LED hooked on to a switch, which isn't a big deal.
Is this possible? If so, what shields would I need to achieve this, and what sort of arduino would I need to buy?
(Ideally, i'd love to be able to connect this to a computer via ethernet so it can output said levels to an application or something or have it shoot me an email if the temperature or Co2 levels go above a certain amount)
Everything you've asked is completely possible, and there are multiple ways of achieving it. I've not checked to see if there's a CO2 sensor on a shield, but if there is and that's what you prefer, your project will be steered toward that.
There are certainly lots of different modules that can do what you need, and some temperature sensors can do humity as well. Once you've spent some time Googling those up you'll arrive at a combination that suits and it's time to move on from there. If you search for your sensor with the word Arduino you'll also likely find those with tutorials for usage, and in many cases pre-written software libraries to take some of the foundation work out and make things a little easier for you. The light is also very straightforward, but if you just want to turn it on with a switch it's up to you whether the Arduino is part of that equation or not.
For the display, you could go a simple 16x2 or 20x4 character LCD, or a Nokia LCD, or even TFT...there are lots of choices there. The character LCDs tend to be cheapest but can chew up a lot of IO pins. If you get one with an I2C backpack you'll be able to drive that with just two pins which can be a benefit for a small additional cost.
The peltier will need more power to drive it than the Arduino can provide, but the way around this is to control it rather than power it via the Arduino. That could be as simple as a relay (or relay shield) or a MOSFET in a small circuit of your own construction. It wasn't clear from your text if the fan will be on continuously or if you need the Arduino to control it too - but it will be similar to the peltier to control if you need that driven too.
For the ethernet, you could go a shield, or there are Arduino variants with the ethernet built in, or you could opt for Wifi...lots of options there too. An Arduino Uno will certainly be capable enough to drive the display and trio of sensors along with the peltier element. The email is certainly possible once you have some kind of interweb connection too, as is graphing levels to a service like Cosm where you can see what's going on remotely without needing to write your own application.
Hope this gives you some directions to start looking - once you've settled on the bits you're thinking of driving, there's always advice here if you get stuck putting it all together.
Additional thought - not sure if the environment you're creating inside your incubator will be kind to electronics - so if not, might be worth looking at shields to wire your sensors to rather than shields with the sensors mounted on them. That way you can keep the brains out in the real world, rather than inside the potentially harsh environment you will be controlling.
Thank you for your link, Wildbill, it will be very helpful and coveres most of everything I need.
All i would have to do is modify it so that it will output in text to an LCD instead of via serial.
We can forget the ethernet, I don't really want it anymore.
Also, you are right, I will need detached sensors, as I don't want the electronics to sit in the environment.
The sensors will go in a small hole or perhaps i'll just replace the light or something.
Anyways, thank you all for the help so far.
I will look into this, and post here again if I run into any trouble.