This project all started when I was browsing through YouTube and stumbled upon a technology connections video talking about humidifiers. I realized a lot of the symptoms humidifiers are supposed to fix I was suffering from, plus it’s winter so it’s bound to be even worse, so I checked the humidity in my room:
Ouch. This is well outside the 40-60% comfort zone recommended. Time to get to work..
The simplest option would’ve been to go to Walmart and buy one of those Vicks “Warm Mist” humidifiers you can find for like $15. They are a really simple design — they get water in the air quickly and effectively by boiling it.
However, this was a problem for me because of:
- Efficiency – These are boiling water continuously, they draw a lot of power to do so
- Heat – My room is already difficult to cool, adding another heat source would not be ideal
- No regulation – There’s no real way of regulating output besides getting purified water that doesn’t boil as much with electricity
I ended up deciding on an atomizer based solution because I could control them without much effort and they solved the efficiency and heat issues, plus they just look cooler when running 🙂
My first prototype was a bit rough, it consisted of a tiny atomizer module I had sitting around from an old acetone vapor smoother project and a water bottle. I used a slice of paper towel as a wick to pull water up to the module, letting it use the entire water bottle capacity without any risk of leaking.
I connected the atomizer up to a 6v power supply I had in my junk bin and let it run for a few days..
I quickly found out this would not be enough capacity in the slightest, with humidity in my room going basically nowhere. A second revision with a stronger module was needed..
I realized if I was using a stronger module, it would be a good idea to have some regulation system on it so my room doesn’t grow moldy from all the water in the air. This is where I dug out a TTGO T5 ESP32 E-Ink board I had from a few years ago. I originally bought it to have a rotating E-Ink nametag for events, but I didn’t end up using it enough to justify it, so this would be a perfect use for it.
I found a really old “Mist Maker” module and an Arduino relay board in my dad’s shop and combined this with a DHT22 sensor to measure air conditions and a 60mm 24v GDSTime fan to move air in and out without water splashing everywhere. I put all of this in a plastic shoe box / tupperware container and let it run, while continuously tweaking the code
//todo lol
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