Yes, still working on my RC projects but something new popped up. For a while I have been looking for a way to isolate my garage. It gets cold in the winter and very humid in spring and fall. For this reason I keep all of my electronics in my house during those periods, both electronica parts and RC electronics. Otherwise they will rust or just fail.
Isolating my 2 garages is quit expensive just to preserve those items.
So, what if I create an isolated kabinet and keep only those cabinets within the range that prevents this from rusting etc?
What I DO know how to do:
Measure temperature and humidity
Send this information to a base station in the house.
Take action on events (turn something on or off when some limit has been reached).
What I do NOT know is:
What kind of heater system I have to use. I have been looking for 12V heater systems bot most of them are for cars and have a fixed temperature of 180C or higher.
The cabinet is way smaller than a car interior. Max interieur size each cabinet is 0.5 M3.
What kind of heater could I use, preferably with a variable heat.
In normal winters the temperature drops to max -5C. Max humidity 100% (you can see the moist).
I would like to keep the temp to at least 5C and humidity at around 60%.
I also know that I might need some fans to create a draft to reduce the humidity but what kind of safe heater system should I use. I just cant find the right one by googling. Ofcourse, Arduino has to control it.
You might look at the "gun safe heaters". They are intended to keep humidity from rusting firearms in an enclosed space, which sounds about the same as what you're trying to do. I don't know whether they come in 12 V models though.
Another option is one of those "Dri-Z-Air" chemical dehumidifiers. They would work pretty well in an enclosed space, but you do need to keep up with emptying the tank, otherwise they make a mess.
I use silica gel dessicant in very small enclosed spaces to control humidity. They are nice because you can rejuvenate them by baking them in the oven.
Hi,
If you are building an Insulated Box, you could heat it with just a light bulb, not a LED.
You may not need a very high wattage, so a lamp makes sense.
Or a number of high wattage resistors around the enclosure like this.
Although in NL it is hard to get any 60Watt+ lightbulbs
a 100W lightbulb is enough to bake cakes ("Easy Bake Oven"), and bulbs make it easy to connect up multiples to get the total wattage you need. It looks like a typical automotive tail-light bulb is in the 15-25W range (at 12V.) (One of the reasons that they're so attractive to replace with LEDs!)
If you are close to a boating supply store they sell some low wattage heaters that are always on, the one I have is 130 watts and about a foot or so in diameter and about 4 inches high.
There is a thing called heat tape for plumbing pipes so they don't freeze. It might outlast an incandescent bulb.
Have you tried a putting dehumidifier in the garage?
Can you seal your parts airtight? Use dessicant (silica gel or dry rice) to get that bit of humidity out.
I get zip-lock freezer bags up to 1 gallon size pretty cheap at grocery stores.
Most all of your parts should be safe down to -40 (-40 F and C are the same). If the air is dry, no need for heater.
Just yesterday I saw a show about speed skating in NL and how a way of life is threatened by global warming.
