Terrarium controller - v1.10 update
This project aims to solve problems with reptiles keeping environments such as temperatures, humidity, light schedules, misting schedules, feeding reminders, and more. You can read a bit more about this project in the following articles.
And now, let’s review a new revision of a project.
What's new
Smaller components 1206 -> 0805
Once I finished with version 1.9, I realized that there were only 2 ways to continue this project enhancement, either making the board bigger and breaking compatibility with old boards or going smaller in components. Lately, I was willing to try at least 0805 components to challenge myself, so the decision was easy. With this size of components I gained a significant amount of space, 1206 are giant in comparison to 0805.
For reference this are dimensions in mm for those package sizes:
- 1206 — 3.2 mm × 1.6 mm
- 0805 — 2.0 mm × 1.2 mm
One more relay
With more space available and a compacted design for relays, I could fit one more of them. Initially, I thought to add a dimmer, but sadly for this, I would need to make the board bigger.
Consolidated all control elements in the same place
Because this board was developed in iterations, many pieces were scattered around and were demanding to be reorganized and it finally happened. LEDs for the status of sensors, rx/tx, and power are located on the top of the board, and firmware notifications LED and reset/reboot buttons are on the bottom near the USB-C.
Fan with PWM control
This is a cool new feature of a controller. Why are fans needed for the terrarium? This is an interesting topic, sometimes there is too much heat and you need to extract it, so fans are handy. Fans can play more roles in the terrarium, they can do re-circulation of the air to prevent mold growth and will improve air quality. Also, fans can be used to generate extra air flow in more enclosed glass terrariums. The current version will support 2 x 5v fans with PWM control, for example, Noctua.
New logo
With all those new features I run out of space again and was forced to change the logo. An interesting finding for me is that Photoshop is very handy for footprint design, especially silkscreen, and logos. From now on my designs will be more beautiful.
PSU connector
Right before ordering this board, I found a solution for reducing the number of wires to only one per controller. It is possible now because there is a 5V 2A 10W AC to DC converter from hi-link. To implement it I need to be able to connect it to the AC lane of the controller and 5v power header. A new PSU module will be designed and ordered soon.
This project is possible only due to the kind support of JLCPCB, their high quality and low prices service. $2 for 1–8 layers PCB prototype; PCB Assembly $0 ,3D Printing starts at $1. $54 Coupons for new customers
