My own design for a home environmental sensor
My hacked IKEA Vindriktning has problem: apart from my washing machine, it's the only full white thing I have at home (I checked!)
Thought about painting it black, but the pure hassle of taking it apart, masking, sanding, primer, painting, ... 😩
So why would I spend 2h doing this when I could spend 3 days learning 3D parametric modelling tools?
Things I wanted:
- Any color, as long as it's Black 🖤
- Small - the whole thing is ~45x45x80mm
- More interesting design
- MOAR SENSORS! Bosch BME280 provides Temp, HR% and Barometric pressure, BH1750 light sensor (for light automation via Home Assistant.
- The 2.5PM sensor to be replaced with a CO2 sensor (MH-Z19B in this case)
- Better airflow - current fan is noisy. Went with a larger 40x40
- Better MCU - ESP32 via a Lolin C3 Pico
- No screw design - front piece allows for inside access; all breakouts have rails or plastic pins for support. There are wholes for the fan in case it vibrates
C3 Pico will provide 5v and 3.3v for everything (it simply breaks out 5V from USB-C). If needed I'll add a MOSFET for speed control.
Front of the device is white fabric - which allows for diffused light to enter the light sensor, as well as for proper air flow (render sucks hard but I spent 5 minutes in it).
Bottom is hallow for a) airflow, b) RGBW LED which can provide additional feedback (air quality alarm, weather forecast, etc).
V2 will have
- a display (epaper, LCD, or maybe LED matrix behind fabric - unsure due to heat concerns)
- custom PCB to avoid the jumpwire mess that's yet to come (it's been a few years since I opened an EDA but it's a simple design).