Best humidity/temperature sensor & power supply to use

Hardware
1

Hi Folks,

I’m experimenting with building a remote humidity/temperature logger with a Spark Core. I’m using this sensor which I have used on previous Arduino projects without fault. http://www.freetronics.com.au/collections/modules/products/humidity-and-temperature-sensor-module#.VXEHHmTvPJw

Using it with the Core is not so reliable. It crashes and stops reading approximately once or twice per day and the only way to fix it is to pull power. The Core itself usually keeps working but obviously the readings are no longer accurate. I have added a 10k pullup resistor and while it seems to crash less often, it still crashes. As I said I’ve used these sensors & found them reliable previously but it doesn’t seem to play well with the Core. The two main differences I can see is that Arduino is 5v & Core is 3.3v and the DHT libraries are different.

Rather than trying to hack this to make it work I’d rather someone could point me to a sensor & library file that is known to work well with the Core. Can someone please point me to a working sensor?

Next up, I’m using an iphone charger to provide power for the core & sensor. Is there a better power supply I should be using & could this be contributing to the problem?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Cheers, Mark

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@Gibbomeister, a lot of folks have used the DHT22 without too many problems. The only library that has been found reliable is the piettetech_dht library in the web IDE. I actually power the device with 3.3v and no pull-up resistor and it works like a charm but adding a 4.7K resistor is a good idea. See if that works for you before giving up on this sensor :smile:

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3

Thanks for that. I am using a different library so I will give that one a try.

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4

The DHT22 is good if you use the PietteTech library.

I have found the sht15 to be better (since you are looking for the “best”)
The iphone chargers are good, but the ipad chargers are better (the power is cleaner).

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5

Another vote for the DHT22 combined with the PietteTech library. I'm putting those sensors in all my projects (which have been clocks lately) like candy, and haven't had a hiccup that I'm aware of.

They also supply ~2.1. More amps is never a bad thing!

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6

Thanks everyone, I have changed to the Piette Tech library and that seems to have solved most of my problems. It’s only been a few days but so far the reliability has improved dramatically.

Thanks again. :smile:

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