This week, we're going to do a simple DIY project that will be of interest to anyone involved in 3D printing. We're going to make a box for storing filaments while monitoring humidity.
When one does FDM 3D printing, one often has several spools of filament to vary the color or type of material of the printed part. These filament spools generally need to be stored in a dry place, especially for materials such as Nylon or TPU.
So we decided to make a box that allows 4 or 5 spools of filament to be stored in a dry place, and which also allows the humidity inside the box to be monitored using a Yocto-Meteo-V2.
Preparing the Yocto-Meteo-V2
To attach the Yocto-Meteo-V2 to the box, we split the board into two parts, so as to be able to move the sensor inside the box and keep the USB part on the outside.
As indicated in the documentation, there are two official methods for moving the sensor away, either using a flat cable, or using a Picoflex cable (available on our website).
The flat cable has the advantage of being more compact, but is more complicated, as the board must be soldered to the cable already in place. In contrast, the Picoflex is easier to install, as the cable can be detached from the board, but the plug is too large to fit into a YoctoBox-Sensor-Transp-Vents enclosure.
We used a hybrid technique, taking a Picoflex-U10 cable and cutting off one side to solder the cable directly to the sensor. This technique works, but stripping the cable and passing all the strands through the Yocto-Meteo-V2's sensor pad requires a bit of skill and a large magnifying glass. Note: cut the board in half using good-quality wire-cutting pliers and deburr both parts with sandpaper.
The parts to be cut
This solution allows us to fit the sensor into a YoctoBox-Sensor-Transp-Vents. For the rest of the Yocto-Meteo-V2, we used a YoctoBox-Short-Thick-Black.
The Yocto-Meteo-V2 in its enclosures
All that remains is to make a small hole in the side of the box for the cable to pass through, and four holes to screw the two enclosures together on either side of the box.
When we've checked that the Yocto-Meteo-V2 still works, we need to make the box as watertight as possible. To do this, we used bathroom silicone sealant. All the holes in the box need to be filled.
In our case, we also added sealant to the closing surface of the box, taking care to protect one side with cling-film to prevent the two parts from sticking together. Once dry, the cling film is removed and we have a tighter seal. Note that this step may not be necessary if you're using a better-designed/manufactured box than ours.
All openings are sealed with silicone sealant
Now that we've got a watertight box, all that's left to do is place the filament spools inside with as many moisture-proof bags as possible.
The finished box
And now...
Now that the box is finished, you can connect the Yocto-Meteo-V2 to the computer via USB and use the Yocto-Visualization application to monitor the humidity inside the box.
For now, we've simply connected the box to the computer, as it's right next to it, but there's nothing to stop you creating more complex systems by connecting the Yocto-Meteo-V2 to other modules, such as a YoctoHub-Wireless-n. Similarly, if you prefer to use another application, we have numerous posts explaining how to link our modules to other software, such as Home Assistant or Excel. We also have programming libraries that let you interact with Yocto-Meteo-V2 from most languages.
