I was working on a frost protection device for a while like @martin_schilliger, however, what seemed to be trivial at the beginning became a rather complex thing.
dry temperature does not work well, you need to measure the wet-bulb-temperature to be sure - which requires to know at least the humidity and pressure
sensors - the classic ones on the breakout boards do neither provide the needed accuracy nor do they support to be exposed to wind and weather outside on the field, real good ones cost lost of money
power consumption - you need to send every couple of minutes in order to allow quick reactions or check the results of actions taken like candles/fires etc
Here is a pic of one of my prototypes
The board is a Arduino MKRWAN 1300 and the sensor is a AM2305.
Of course you will see that the batteries & board are packed into a waterproof case while the sensor is attached outside in order to capture things quickly.
Just to note: this prototype was tested for several month but was never used in “production”. Neither the battery life time (known issue on power consumption of the MKRWAN 1300) nor the accuracy of the sensor were satisfactory
BUT: was a whole lot of fun to build this thing and I learned really a lot!
Very nice project!!! Thanks for sharing.
One question please: Did create a special “case” for the BME280 to protect it? It is not fully obvious from the pictures but seems it is mounted at the bottom of your box in a kind of pipe?
I bought the BME280 as well and want to test it but I do not want to expose it directly to wind/sun and above all rain. I saw that some people are very creative and eg printed a case (eg https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1523429), therefore would be very interested to learn about your solution.
I made some temporary solution so the sensor is not exposed. But I’m working on finding new solution. Just send some model to 3D printing because I don’t have one yet. Sensor cover should make sun and rain protection, and should be airily to get accurate measurements. Search on Thingiverse “Stevenson” or “stevenson screen”. There are few different dessigns, but noone is ideal.
