Development of an Arduino-based Multi-Channel Temperature and Relative Humidity Data Acquisition System for Domestic and Industrial Applications

Abstract

Losses incurred during postharvest processes of food and other agricultural products in the rural and some urban areas of West African countries have been attributed to poor thermal conditions of the indoor air. The quality of these products at storage or after thermal processes such as drying, cooking, frying, etc. has been identified to be majorly dependent on the temperature and humidity of the air. The objective of this study was therefore to develop a low cost Arduino based multi-channel temperature and humidity data acquisition system for domestic and industrial applications. It comprises an ATmega 328P controller type, fourteen (14) DS18B20s temperature sensors, and six (6) DHT22 humidity sensors. The system was configured and programmed to log in readings every 30 minutes (30 min) on the SD card or through the Bluetooth module in Excel format directly into the computer. The results from the experiments conducted with this data acquisition system demonstrated reliability because they were within the reasonable and acceptable range for commercial logging devices.