DHT22 goes to negative value at 50C

Hello,

I just bought this DHT22 module 2 days ago and at first everything seemed ok, the reading were quite accurate compared to my other temp sensors, but after testing it for its final purpose as a filament dryer it started acting up. Before reaching 50C the humidity rapidly drops until it reaches 1% and it stays there. After it reached 50 C the value drops to a negative number 1 or 2 reading at around 16C. This behaviour happens every time I heat it up, but it seems to be good below 40. I checked the connections, tried moving them while reading, a different library, different port, even a different arduino, but the same result with all of them.

Could this be a faulty unit? It seems more like a software issue to me, since it it happening all the time at 50, but I have no idea what is happening.

This is the first code I tested:

// Example testing sketch for various DHT humidity/temperature sensors
// Written by ladyada, public domain

// REQUIRES the following Arduino libraries:
// - DHT Sensor Library: https://github.com/adafruit/DHT-sensor-library
// - Adafruit Unified Sensor Lib: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Sensor

#include "DHT.h"

#define DHTPIN 2     // Digital pin connected to the DHT sensor
// Feather HUZZAH ESP8266 note: use pins 3, 4, 5, 12, 13 or 14 --
// Pin 15 can work but DHT must be disconnected during program upload.

// Uncomment whatever type you're using!
//#define DHTTYPE DHT11   // DHT 11
#define DHTTYPE DHT22   // DHT 22  (AM2302), AM2321
//#define DHTTYPE DHT21   // DHT 21 (AM2301)

// Connect pin 1 (on the left) of the sensor to +5V
// NOTE: If using a board with 3.3V logic like an Arduino Due connect pin 1
// to 3.3V instead of 5V!
// Connect pin 2 of the sensor to whatever your DHTPIN is
// Connect pin 3 (on the right) of the sensor to GROUND (if your sensor has 3 pins)
// Connect pin 4 (on the right) of the sensor to GROUND and leave the pin 3 EMPTY (if your sensor has 4 pins)
// Connect a 10K resistor from pin 2 (data) to pin 1 (power) of the sensor

// Initialize DHT sensor.
// Note that older versions of this library took an optional third parameter to
// tweak the timings for faster processors.  This parameter is no longer needed
// as the current DHT reading algorithm adjusts itself to work on faster procs.
DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHTTYPE);

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println(F("DHTxx test!"));

  dht.begin();
}

void loop() {
  // Wait a few seconds between measurements.
  delay(2000);

  // Reading temperature or humidity takes about 250 milliseconds!
  // Sensor readings may also be up to 2 seconds 'old' (its a very slow sensor)
  float h = dht.readHumidity();
  // Read temperature as Celsius (the default)
  float t = dht.readTemperature();
  // Read temperature as Fahrenheit (isFahrenheit = true)
  float f = dht.readTemperature(true);

  // Check if any reads failed and exit early (to try again).
  if (isnan(h) || isnan(t) || isnan(f)) {
    Serial.println(F("Failed to read from DHT sensor!"));
    return;
  }

  // Compute heat index in Fahrenheit (the default)
  float hif = dht.computeHeatIndex(f, h);
  // Compute heat index in Celsius (isFahreheit = false)
  float hic = dht.computeHeatIndex(t, h, false);

  Serial.print(F("Humidity: "));
  Serial.print(h);
  Serial.print(F("%  Temperature: "));
  Serial.print(t);
  Serial.print(F("°C "));
  Serial.print(f);
  Serial.print(F("°F  Heat index: "));
  Serial.print(hic);
  Serial.print(F("°C "));
  Serial.print(hif);
  Serial.println(F("°F"));
}

Does anybody has an idea what could be wrong?

ACK. I guess that it's caused by an overflow of a signed or too small unsigned variable in the library.

I disagree, I assume a faulty device or electrical noise from the surrounding hardware.

The library doesn't have an overflow or something similar in the range of 50°C and the negative flag is one bit in the protocol.

How long are the wires between the DHT22 and the Arduino?
Does the linked breakout board contain the pull-up resistor? If yes, is it possible that this resistor doesn't like the high temperatures? What resistance value does it have?

1 Like

I tried messing with the library with no success, using 2 very different library's with same resulting, so probably it is a hardware issue, but it is strange to me that it is always doing that at 50c.

During the first test there could have been some noise because it was very close to a heating wire wirh 17A flowing trough, but i tested later with a hair dryer outside the box and same result, wire is only 20cm for now so I doubt that is an issue.
I just checked the resistor and it is 5kohm, that seems right aswell.

I just wrote to the shop, maybe they will give me a new one, but if not I am going to take the sensor from the board and try if it works without it.

Thank to both of you for the ideas.

Can you post a log of the actual values you get?

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