I have recently started installing IT infrastructure in old agricultural buildings - including traditional style fruit cold storage cellar (underground, cold, very high humidity).
Ideal environment conditions for storing - for example - apples are rather difficult for electronics: constant temperature of 0-4 st. C and relative humidity (RH) of about 90% have to be maintained and monitored (temperatures lower than freezing point and greater than 5 st. C are undesirable) so I decided to enter this competition to improve my understanding of operating equipment in moist conditions.
Element14 generously provides us with competition kit that includes (mine is still waiting for customs clearance, so this is based on the official list):
- LattePanda V1 SBC
- Hammond 1554VA2GYCL enclosure (UV stabilized polycarbonate - designed for outdoor use)
- USB type A receptacle and plug (IP67/68 rated)
- RJ45 socket (IP67 rated)
- cable receptacle and plug with four contacts (IP67 rated)
- and several antenna connectors and adapters
What I am planning to do? To understand what happens inside the case placed in adverse environmental conditions I plan to prepare following setup:
- two (or three) ESP8266/ESP32 based, battery powered modules with temperature and humidity sensors,
- monitoring station running Linux, with Influxdb time-series database and Grafana for data visualization software,
To assess the benefits of properly sealed configuration, sensor modules will be installed in two (or three) enclosures:
- one similar to 1554VA2GYCL, IP65 rated, but with cover seal missing (simulating improperly sealed setup),
- one provided for the competition,
- and (optionally) one completely sealed IP65 rated one,
Those enclosures will be installed outdoors - and (as weather here unfortunately gets better with each passing day) if humidity level will be insufficient to get desired results, they will be moved to the dedicated environment with increased moisture level.
What I am trying to prove? Considering that typical electronics device has limited range of environmental conditions in which it can operate, I will try to assess the benefits of using Amphenol connectors for shielding equipment from hostile environment, while still providing necessary connectivity. At the end of the testing I hope I can show that properly sealed case can keep circuits inside within manufacturer specified range of environmental parameters, while improperly sealed one cannot. Using this knowledge I plan to prepare monitoring for my cold storage that will not be quickly destroyed by excessive humidity.