We saw a large number of environmental monitoring devices – wireless sensors throughout the house on hackday. All these sensors upload temperature and humidity data to a central server hidden in a closet. The system assembled by [Andy] from workshop is basically the same, but this time the server is designed as bright and bold as possible.
The use of mosquito, influxdb, node red and grafana (m.i.n.g) reminds [Andy] of the merciless light in Flash Gordon, which in turn inspired the shell for installing raspberry PI, hard disk and power supply. Some 3D printing details help to sell the appearance, and the painted metal mesh panel ensures sufficient air flow.
Although the server is really eye-catching, the sensor itself is worth seeing. You may think that the sensor is based on a member of the ESP family, but in this case, [Andy] chose raspberry Pi Pi Pi Kao. Since the project was released earlier than the wireless version of the board, he had to add an esp-01 and dth11 temperature and humidity sensors for communication.
For power, each sensor includes a 1200 MAH pouch battery and a pimoroni grease pad, but he points out that using Pico’s energy-saving mode poses some challenges. A perfboard puts all the components together, and the whole thing is put in a low-key 3D printing shell.
If you want to choose the esp8266 / esp32 route for wireless sensors, we have seen some very neat packages, which are worth seeing. Or, if you want to use something off the shelf, we really like the custom firmware developed for Xiaomi Bluetooth thermometer.