I'm thinking about moving my solar panel monitoring system outside so that it doesn't take up as much room in the living room. I've got an Arduino Yun that is taking readings and sending the data to a webserver.
Before I move it outside, I wanted to poll the group and see how worried I should be about the weather/elements affecting the electronic components. Is there a specific amount of moisture that would reduce the functionality?
My plan is to put the battery, charge controller, and Arduino into a plastic bin, but I didn't plan on making it airtight. With enough rain, a decent amount of humidity ( not water ), could potentially get in there. Just want to make sure I don't fry anything that I could protect with a more airtight set up.
zcapozzi:
Is there a specific amount of moisture that would reduce the functionality?
For sure! If you DUNK it completely in water it might stop working. Or it might survive.
My plan is to put the battery, charge controller, and Arduino into a plastic bin, but I didn't plan on making it airtight. With enough rain, a decent amount of humidity ( not water ), could potentially get in there. Just want to make sure I don't fry anything that I could protect with a more airtight set up.
Check the humidity specs in the data sheets. They're all perfectly viable in a rain forest.
I used to build rain gauge systems. Obviously designed to -get- wet. The cabinets we designed to have tight door seals, but not infinitely guaranteed because over use and time they -could- leak a bit. Nothing was mounted in the bottom of the cabinet just in case there was serious water intrusion. There was a drain hold drilled in each corner to account for likely tilt in a random direction, again to account for minor leakage.
You can mount everything in an appropriate size Rubbermaid container. -They're- designed to be sealed and waterproof. There's one simple thing to do to allow for potential leakage. Mount the I/O cables/connectors in the -bottom- of the container. With that water can't leak 'down-into' the container.
The only real concern you -do- have is oxidation over time, that adds resistance. That can happen at any plug/socket connection point, and in crimped wire connections. The fix for the plug/socket connection is the unplug-replug them twice a year. Unfortunately that also includes any socketed IC s you might have. The fix for those and the crimped connectors (not the plug/socket connectors) is to conformal coat them. The drawback is that it makes them -very- difficult to work on later -if- they need it.
Any liquid water on a powered up board will trash it eventually as the copper will
electrolyse away - humidity is not generally a big problem for low voltage stuff,
so long as there is no condensation at all. However long term exposure to high
humidity will accelerate corrosion.
Or it might survive.