Mike's Sensors

Notes from my experiences and research:

I don't know what I'm doing, but I sure have learned a lot this week.

I had to change DHT11 from original code to DHT22

DHT sensor that I have has 3 pins, while most of my references show 4 pins with one ignored

I fried (AKA "smoked") my first board when I connected 6 AA batteries to the pin that has a max of 20v (but turned out it has a limit of like 800milliamps. Ordered new board. Next time I'll try a different method of getting power when I need to move my board outside and off of the wall outlet USB cable (portable).

I originally ordered and tried to use some base ESP8266 boards, but had trouble configuring them so I ordered the ESP8266 with more features, the nodemcu version, which worked well with my Adriuno IDE interface.

The newer 1.3.0, DHT library would not work so I had to downgrade to version 1.2.3

My resources:

Power: http://henrysbench.capnfatz.com/henrys-bench/arduino-projects-tips-and-more/powering-the-esp-12e-nodemcu-development-board/

DHT sensor: https://learn.adafruit.com/dht/using-a-dhtxx-sensor

ESP8266 pin-outs: https://www.google.com/search?q=esp8266+nodemcu+pinout&espv=2&tbm=isch&imgil=PKy0YCoYeD7b6M%253A%253BhbDmrOrL5qJudM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.cnx-software.com%25252F2015%25252F10%25252F29%25252Fgetting-started-with-nodemcu-board-powered-by-esp8266-wisoc%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=PKy0YCoYeD7b6M%253A%252ChbDmrOrL5qJudM%252C_&usg=__D8RNs10bWnMNscml-OXkU6N4TkU%3D&biw=1280&bih=890&ved=0ahUKEwjE0fuf-7bTAhVMLyYKHXDdBH0QyjcILg&ei=pbj6WITrLMzemAHwupPoBw#imgrc=PKy0YCoYeD7b6M:

DHT Library Version: https://github.com/adafruit/DHT-sensor-library/issues/62

Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOj-PIqLaMM&index=49&list=WL

Original Code: https://github.com/mayooresan/NodeMCU-Thinkspeak/blob/master/dh11-NodeMCU-ThinkSpeak/dh11-NodeMCU-ThinkSpeak.ino

Example from ThingSpeak: https://thingspeak.com/channels/167330

My page from ThingSpeak: https://thingspeak.com/channels/261458

BreadBoard Power which I have not used yet, but likely will: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H6QNLEC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

ESP8266 NODEMCU version, which worked great for me: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010N1SPRK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Temperature and humidity sensor: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018JO5BRK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My original Ardiuno kit that I started with 10 days ago: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DGD2GAO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

ESP8266, the original boards that I still have yet to figure out how to configure: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EA3UJJ4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My batteries seemed to have died after about 20 hours. I'm going to incorporate some "sleep" process in my code so that the device is barely using any power most of the time.
I only want readings in frequently (15 minutes, or maybe even 60 minutes). For now I'm considering something like this: https://openhomeautomation.net/esp8266-battery/

Locking up freezing after deep sleep: After adding the "sleep" section to the code, my project would lock up when it tried to wake up from sleep (small red LED on ESP came on and remained on). To fix this, I ran a short jumper wire from GPIO16 to the the RST, and that fixed it ( Reference: https://bennthomsen.wordpress.com/iot/iot-things/esp8266-wifi-soc/esp8266-nodemcu-power-saving/ )

High Humidity Reported: I see my DHT22 sensor reporting higher and higher humidity. Yesterday I suspected lower battery voltage due to the ESP running 24/7 with wifi. I introduced "deep sleep". This morning I see high humidity coming back, slowly creeping toward 100%. I will be considering this reference as I investigate and work to resolve this problem: https://community.particle.io/t/wrong-reading-value-for-dh22-get-stuck-after-running-for-a-while/11271/10

Power, Battery, Solar: Something I'm thinking about... http://www.instructables.com/id/ARDUINO-ENERGY-METER/

Monitoring battery supply ideas: http://henrysbench.capnfatz.com/henrys-bench/arduino-projects-tips-and-more/arduino-max471-power-meter-tutorial/

I now see that during SLEEP my project uses 10milliamps, and when it's awake and transmitting via wifi to ThingSpeak it's using about 80milliamps (it is awake for this for about 15 seconds, every 15 minutes). I tested today with the new 5vdc 500milliamp solar panel and a Lithium ion 3.7 battery... seems to work... can't wait to get soldering iron and make a finished produce out of this. I need a static IP too.. will take care of that soon.

New Lithium ION battery was at 3.72 v right before I permanently connected the solar charger (still inside the house). Monitoring for a few days.

Power regulator board is not giving me more than 2vdc, but the batteries are clearly 4+... something must have gone wrong with this little Board. Still experimenting.

solar battery charger: this might be helpful... http://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Charged-Battery-Powered-Arduino-Uno/

Solar: Trying to get solar-battery working