Humidor Monitor
As a newbie to the cigar experience, I needed to become familiar with what to buy and how to store them properly. The bigger cigars that I enjoy on the golf course require special attention.
My brother Frank generously gifted me a humidor that included a refillable humidity pod. Research indicated that cigars prefer surroundings that are warm and humid; ideally at around 70% humidity and around 21 C.
To make sure the conditions remain optimal for my babies, I created a solution that monitors their humidity and temperature, sends the data to the cloud for casual browsing, and triggers a text to me if the humidity drops below the threshold.
A temperature and humidity sensor was pinned to the inside of the humidor and lashed to a Wifi-aware Arduino board mounted on the back.
| Basic Program Flow |
|---|
| Connect to local WiFi |
| Read temperature and humidity sensor every 60 seconds |
| Send readings to Adafruit IO feed |
| IFTTT sees the Adafruit feed values and sends an SMS to my phone if the humidity dips below 70% |
| Project Toolkit | |
|---|---|
| Board | ESP8266 (WiFi) |
| Component(s) | DHT11 temperature humidity sensor module |
| Programming | Arduino native (C++) |
| Cloud mechanism | Adafruit IO |
| Text trigger | IFTTT |
Adafruit IO is made up of a code library for message send-and-receive services and customizable cloud dashboards. It includes a free service that I use in many of my projects.
IFTTT is named after the common programming construct of “if this then that”. It allows subscribers to stitch together and automate web-aware applications, device, and services. Its basic service is free. For example, it can be set up to send a text message whenever the International Space Station passes overhead. It has a million uses and is well worth checking out, even for non-developers.
