ESP32 inside fermentation fridge?

[RocketBrewer]

I have a couple Tilt Hydrometers that I use with Tilt Pi, but sometimes have difficulty getting readings through my stainless fermenters and fridge to the Pi. I found a great ESP32 Tilt Repeater project on GitHub that I believe will help a lot. I'm wondering if the moisture inside the fridge would be a problem for the ESP32. Could it be put in a small sealed plastic project box?

 

[crane]

I have a couple Tilt Hydrometers that I use with Tilt Pi, but sometimes have difficulty getting readings through my stainless fermenters and fridge to the Pi. I found a great ESP32 Tilt Repeater project on GitHub that I believe will help a lot. I'm wondering if the moisture inside the fridge would be a problem for the ESP32. Could it be put in a small sealed plastic project box?

Yes sir it can. A plastic enclosure that has minimal water resistance would most likely be fine. IP ratings are a little hard to follow for condensation, since they don't directly test for it. Some googling shows that IP21 or greater should be sufficient to stop condensation from getting in the enclosure. However, you can get small plastic enclosures that are IP67 rated for not too much $$. Digikey and mouser are a few places to look.

You will also want to consider a power connector that has a gasket or equivalent moisture resistance. Or just add some epoxy or silicone sealant to seal up the power connector to the enclosure.

 

[RocketBrewer]

Thanks @crane, I guess what I was most concerned with is, can the ESP32 survive sealed inside an enclosure inside the fermentation fridge. I don't know how much heat they can generate. Normally, they would never see higher than about 70 deg F, but I have run Kveik yeast up to 85 deg F. Will these generate much heat? I have some plastic project boxes that are not much bigger than a deck of cards. I figured I can seal everything up pretty well with silicone to keep moisture out.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I put four esp32-cam modules in quite small and totally tight plastic boxes and they survived a year so far. I did put a decent heat sink on the SOCs just on GPs/can't hurt...

Cheers!

 

[UncleD]

It should work fine. I have tested an ESP32 based hydrometer in a refrigerator to a WiFi route that is about 30 feet away and it works well. Without an external antenna, I've found the max proximity for the ESP32 to still work is about 40-50 feet. Of course this is my own experience.

 

[RocketBrewer]

Thanks for the input guys! I have programmed and tested the repeaters and they work! Now I just have to add some ac to dc converters to my controllers to power them. Hopefully, then I won't have to hang my TiltPi in front of my fermentation fridges.

 

[Bigdaddyale]

I have a couple Tilt Hydrometers that I use with Tilt Pi, but sometimes have difficulty getting readings through my stainless fermenters and fridge to the Pi. I found a great ESP32 Tilt Repeater project on GitHub that I believe will help a lot. I'm wondering if the moisture inside the fridge would be a problem for the ESP32. Could it be put in a small sealed plastic project box?

https://github.com/N3MIS15/ESP32-Tilt-Repeater

 

[RocketBrewer]

Yeah, that's the project I was referring to.