First time at trying anything like this so be gentle.
I am an avid reptile keeper. I am wanting to create a unit that can take several different temperature measurements. Also humiditity. And a new one of air quality.
The vivs have several vents but very little air movement. I want to use an air quality sensor to check how “stale” the air gets and when it drops/raises above a set point activate a fan to move air in/out of one of the vents.
I want to have an oled screen displaying live data, but also be able to track the data when I am not at home.
I am thinking
Arduino UNO
Air quality sensor
Temp/humidity sensor
Temp sensor on lead
Oled screen
WiFi unit
Relay board
Motor
Can anyone make any suggestions etc
Also if possible I have seen the grove uv sensor. Does anyone know if this would give appropriate readings for reptiles
No idea on parameters for reptiles specifically.
Motor: that's for the fan? Just get a computer fan.
Relay: consider using an electronic switch, such as a MOSFET, for switching low-voltage peripherals.
Wifi: look at the ESP8266 based boards, such as the NodeMCU and WeMOS. They have WiFi built in. You may run short on I/O pins though.
Air quality sensor: which one do you have in mind? Which exact parameter are you looking at to determine air is "stale"?
Thank you for the reply. The air quality is a hard one. The best way I have seen is by measuring c02 concentration. But the sensor is bloody expensive. The air quality sensor I saw was one of the groves sensors.
Why not running those fans on a regular basis simply keeping the air fresh. And of course whenever the temperature/humidity becomes too high (assuming ambient is better).
Get a Wemos Mini as vwmarle suggested. This can replace the Uno and WiFi adaptor. The Wemos does not have many pins, but most of your sensors & display seem to be i2c so hopefully not an issue. You can always add more I/o pins on the i2c bus. Plus, unlike an Uno, the Wemos can plug into your breadboard instead of having a rat's nest of wires connecting the two while you are prototyping. If your router's WiFi signal is weak where the sensor will be positioned, get the Wemos Mini Pro and an external antenna.
For multiple temp sensors, use ds18b20. They use the 1-wire bus system and you can string many of them together, connecting back to a single pin on the Arduino/Wemos, while still being able to read each sensor individually.
For remote monitoring, have a look at the app called "Blynk". You can build an interface on your phone that picks up the sensor values and let's you remotely control outputs, overriding any automatic control performed by your Arduino sketch.
