Journal of Engineering Science and Technology

Vol. 15, No. 6 (2020) 3588 - 3600

© School of Engineering, Taylor’s University

MONITORING TEMPERATURE, HUMIDITY AND CONTROLLING

SYSTEM IN INDUSTRIAL FIXED ROOM STORAGE BASED ON IOT

M. T. A. SEMAN*, M. N. ABDULLAH, M. K. ISHAK

School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]

Abstract
Humidity and temperature monitors have wide industrial applications in many areas
such as automobile industry, food processing and evaluation of plastic
encapsulations in IC packaging. However, most of these monitors had limited
functionality. Hence, this paper was proposed new features that can detect, notify,
record and control the humidity and temperature instantaneously in order to have
stable, controllable atmospheric conditions. This research was used of temperature
humidity sensor DHT-11 to detect level of humidity and temperature changes inside
the room. The data and information from DHT-11 sensor will be analysed
graphically on Blynk platform using NodeMCU. Humidifier will be attached at this
monitor to stabilize back the atmospheric conditions when a specific humidity level
must be maintained to prevent static electricity build up, preserve material
properties, and ensure a comfortable and healthy environment for workers or
residents in industries. In this paper, the value of temperature and humidity changes
can be seen through graph and gauge in Blynk software application. The relative
humidity level will be decrease as the temperature increase. Humidifier triggered
when the reading of temperature and humidity is less than 20% and more than 80%.
Through the mobile application, it can review and read the previous readings and
histories from the temperature and humidity sensor.
Keywords: Blynk application, Humidifier, Humidity and temperature, Monitoring
and controlling, NodeMCU.

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1. Introduction
Wireless communication had significant impact on daily life especially in aspect of
industry. The benefits of wireless communication technology are apparently with
low cost, convenience, ease of installation and high portability. One of the
important applications is to monitor the temperature and humidity of surroundings
without restricting the movement of user [1].
The proposed design focuses on the development of wireless temperature and
humidity monitoring prototype system with the initial emphasis on measuring the
temperature and humidity of surroundings. In many industries, parts of the
production and fabrication room will take place in adjustable air-conditioned clean
rooms. In food industry, the storage monitoring is to preserving the raw food in
certain period for sustainable the food safety and good well of quality [2]. Legal
requirements mean that specially prepared, air-conditioned rooms are essential for
processes such as semiconductor manufacturing, components fabricating and
electronics assembly to constantly regulate air humidity.
For comparable, consistent and functional results, those working in fabrication
room, production line and clean rooms require stable, controllable atmospheric
conditions. The temperature and humidity is particulars sense to influence the
viscosity and properties of materials, as well performed of chemical reactions.
Humidity is a primary initiator and booster of devastating effects on electronics and
a constant threat to production efficiency and product qualities. The necessity of
this system is to minimize manpower on controlling air temperature and humidity
of surroundings in industries as the effect of decrease the devastating effects on
electronic components. The system will send an alarm on Blynk platform through
NodeMCU and activate humidifier automatically when temperature and humidity
of certain atmosphere is out of the safety range even the user is out of that certain
atmosphere area [3]. Humidity and temperature of the room could be control and
designed microcontroller by using a DHT-11 sensor, Arduino and microcontroller
board [4-6]. However, DHT-22 sensor is accuracy and adequate for temperatures
between -40℃ to 80℃ with an accuracy of approximately 2℃ [7-9].
Undeniably, IoT based temperature and humidity monitoring effectively
decrease man power on controlling temperature and humidity and lend help in time
wasting of user [10]. In indirect way, it decreases cost of industries in fabricating
new electronic components as it guarantees a stable and controllable atmospheric
condition which slow down the devastating effects of electronic components.
Humidity and temperature have been a problem for many engineers in
industries especially to grasp because of temperature. Some electronic components
should be tested and kept under certain temperature to make sure the testing result
will be accurate and ensure its lifespan. In reality life, the coldness and the heat can
be felt by humans but the ideal temperature for the certain electronic components
cannot be determined as it was made with different materials. The second problem
is because of humidity. The moisture of the air may speed up the decasting effect
of the pins of electronic components. Therefore, it will affect the functionality of
the electronic components and brings losses in terms of money and manpower [11].
The moisture present in the air along with temperature has a long term and
decasting effect on man, machine and material. Every industry of the mechanised
world is affected by humidity and temperature both in terms of material and money.

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Although the portable digital temperature and humidity meter is already existed,
there is some limitation for the handheld device which is distance. The data through
the device can only be obtained whenever humans are there. It means that every
time the temperature and the humidity of a certain environment are needed, it
requires the presence of humans to handle [12]. Hence, it is unable to encounter
any problem happened to the electronic components and gadget and take any action
immediately to prevent further damage. Besides, the data obtained through the
meter cannot be reviewed back graphically.
As conclusion, this research able to implement the IoT technology in
monitoring and controlling the humidity and temperature for industrial fixed room
storage. Any person may access the system and monitor with an apps which has
been created. Thus, it enables the users to notice about the level of humidity and
temperature from anywhere anytime they want. Hence, the data can also be
recorded in a database where they are collected in every hour.

2. Methodology
2.1. Project development flow
Figure 1 shows the research development flow of the proposed temperature, humidity
monitoring and controlling system. The idea is to implement a complete temperature,
humidity monitoring and controlling system. The IoT technology was proposed based
on a problem statement to improve the lifespan of plastic encapsulations in IC
packaging. The required hardware components were purchased after the
identification of the hardware based on the functional requirements of the system.
Then, the temperature, humidity monitoring and controlling system was implemented
using the purchased hardware, and the required software will be developed at the
same time. Both hardware and software components were tested to ensure the
requirements of the system were met. If the system did not meet the requirements,
troubleshooting process will be carried out to find out the problems and possible
solutions to solve it. Otherwise, the temperature, humidity monitoring and controlling
system cannot be developed successfully.

2.2. Design specification

The temperature, humidity monitoring and controlling system must be sustainable
in terms of economic, social and industrial needs. In order to improve the efficiency
of the system as well as to meet the requirements of proposed solution, the design
specifications of this project are set as follows:
• Measure the temperature and humidity of the environment all the time.
• Able to display the readings on the LCD.
• Implement IoT to the system.
• Acquired data can be uploaded to or retrieved from an online database.
• Display on the phone apps and record the previous history.
The temperature and humidity of the surrounding were measured using DHT11
which is specifically designed for these two measurements. Once the temperature and
humidity are measured, the readings are displayed on the LCD for monitoring purpose.

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To implement the Internet of Things (IoT) in the system, NodeMCU is used.

The NodeMCU is an open source IoT platform comprises of a firmware which runs
on the ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC from Espress if system and a hardware which is based
on the ESP-12 module. This Wi-Fi function allows the wireless transmission
between the device and the online database. The acquired data from the temperature
and humidity sensor will be able to be uploaded to the online database.
Using any mobile applications available, the data from the online database can
be acquired and displayed. All the previous history also could be retrieved and
displayed graphically on the mobile application.

Fig. 1. Research flow.

2.3. System block diagram

Figure 2 shows the block diagram of temperature, humidity monitoring and
controlling system based on IoT technology. The temperature and humidity sensor
is the input used to get the surrounding temperature and humidity inside the room.
The NodeMCU works as the brain of the system that receives data from DHT11
sensor and upload them to the database.
The DHT11 comes with built-in temperature and humidity sensor, comprises of 16-
bit resolution output and the output is sent as serial data [13]. The sensor is a NTC
(Negative Temperature Coefficient) type, which means that the resistance decreases
with increasing temperature. It is factory calibrated and easy to interface with

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3592 M. T. A. Seman et al.

NodeMCU microcontroller. It uses low operating voltage from 3.5V to 5.5V with also
lower operating current not more than 0.3mA. The sensor can measure temperature from
0°C to 50°C and humidity from 20% to 90% with an accuracy of ±1°C and ±1% [14].

Fig. 2. Block diagram of temperature, humidity monitoring and controlling system.

The NodeMCU also acts as a Wi-Fi module which creates the wireless
communication between the hardware and the database. The obtained data are
stored in the online database and can be monitored by any mobile applications. The
16 × 2 LCD display is a unit used to display the data in real time.

3. Design Methodology
The main tasks of this research are shown as follows:
• Design a user interface using the LCD.
• Acquire data using the temperature and humidity sensor.
• Upload data to the online database using NodeMCU.
• Develop a database application for user to monitor the temperature and humidity.
• Design a complete prototype of the system.
In measuring the surrounding temperature and humidity inside the room, the
temperature and humidity sensor is chosen because of its price. The sensing method
is to take data for every two seconds and send them to the NodeMCU. The NodeMCU
code is based on standard C programming language and it is written as below.
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <BlynkSimpleEsp8266.h>
#include "DHT.h"
#define DHTPIN 22
#define DHTTYPE DHT11
DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHTTYPE);
char auth[] = "XXXXXXX";
char ssid[] = "XXXXXXX";
char pass[] = "XXXXXXXXXXX";
void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);

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 Monitoring Temperature, Humidity and Controlling System in Industrial . . . . 3593

Blynk.begin(auth, ssid, pass);

dht.begin();
Serial.println("DHT11 test!");
}
void loop()
{
Blynk.run();
delay(2000);
float h = dht.readHumidity();
float t = dht.readTemperature();
if (isnan(h) || isnan(t) || isnan(f))
{
Serial.println("Failed to read from DHT sensor!");
return;
}
Serial.print("Humidity: ");
Serial.print(h);
Serial.print(" %\t");
Serial.print("Temperature: ");
Serial.print(t);
Serial.println(" *C ");
Blynk.virtualWrite(temp, t);
Blynk.virtualWrite(humid, h);
}
The schematic circuit and the microcontroller board are shown in Fig. 3. To
increase the efficiency and the effectiveness of the sensor, instead of using Perspex
as the main body frame, an eco-friendly cardboard is chosen. The size is minimized
to reduce the space used to place the prototype as well as reducing the
manufacturing cost while considering the quality and the rigidity of the prototype.
Several types of prototype have been tested to fulfil the customers’ need. The
finalized prototype is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 3. The schematic circuit.

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Fig. 4. Finalized design of prototype.

System operational flow

Figure 5 shows the system operational flow chart. To get started with Blynk app,
the user needs to create a new Blynk server account, create a new project with
author’s name, ID and password. During start up, the system will request the server
and the NodeMCU microcontroller to establish connection with the Blynk app.
After that, the microcontroller system waits for the serial data received from the
DHT11. When the system receives the serial data from DHT11, it will send the data
wirelessly to the Blynk server and display it on LCD. It will display the real time
of temperature and humidity.

4. Results and Discussion

4.1. Software test
The language used to build up the coding is C language. C language is a
common language used in coding, computer programming, structured
programming, and recursion.
The system is first programmed to read the readings from the temperature and
humidity sensor. Once it gets the reading from the sensor, it will start to evaluate
the temperature value and the humidity level either the temperature or the humidity
level are in the standard level. The expected result is shown in Table 1.
All the temperature and humidity values are sent to the online database through
the Blynk platform, so that all the data can be recorded and reviewed. The database
used is on firebase which is a mobile and a web application development platform.

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 Monitoring Temperature, Humidity and Controlling System in Industrial . . . . 3595

Fig. 5. System operational flow chart.

Table 1. Stimulation result of coding.
Temperature
Humidity (%) Condition
(℃)
10 < T < 40 35 < H < 90 Safe range
> 40 > 90 Alert (Both are HIGH)
> 40 < 35 Alert (Temp is HIGH & Humidity is LOW)
< 10 > 90 Alert (Temp is LOW & Humidity is HIGH)
< 10 < 35 Alert (Both are LOW)

4.2. Hardware test

Figure 6 shows the LCD display with the temperature and humidity values
displayed. The microcontroller interfaces the temperature and humidity sensor
(DHT 11) and a relay which is used to control the load (humidifier). Table 2 shows
the LCD display which corresponds to the system operations.

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From Fig. 7, as we know, the relative humidity level will decrease as the
temperature increase. Therefore, when the temperature is higher than 40℃, the
humidity level is lower than 35%, the relay will be set to HIGH in order to trigger the
humidifier to increase the humidity of the environment. Meanwhile, when the
temperature and the relative humidity level return back to standard range, the
humidifier will be turned off.

Fig. 6. LCD readings.

Fig. 7. Graph of temperature against relative humidity.

Table 2. LCD display which corresponds to operations.

Temperature Humidity
Condition
(℃) (%)
10 < T < 40 35 < H < 90 Current temperature and humidity value
> 40 > 90 Temperature over 40℃ and humidity over 90%
> 40 < 35 Temperature over 40℃ and humidity below 35%
< 10 > 90 Temperature below 10℃ and humidity over 90%
< 10 < 35 Temperature below 10℃ and humidity below 35%

4.3. Mobile application test

The data from database is taken through the Blynk platform and displayed on the mobile
application. This IoT function allows us to get the temperature and humidity level

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through wireless communication no matter where we are. Figure 8 shows the real-time
database update of the application. The application will refresh itself every 3s.
Figure 9 shows that through the mobile application, reviewing and reading the
previous data and histories from the temperature and humidity sensor can be done.
This is another good function for the user to analyse and control the temperature and
the relative humidity of the warehouse smartly.

Fig. 8. Mobile application displays real-time value.

Fig. 9. Mobile application display the previous history.

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4.4. Comparison and performance analysis of sensors

The selected sensors to detect temperature and humidity are types of DHT11 and
DH22. Both of units are use in capacitive humidity sensor and a thermistor to
measure the surrounding air, and display a digital signal on the data pin for easily
sense by a microcontroller. This is good for small scale projects that just require a
basic data logging.
The DHT11 has a much cheaper, but at the cost of range and accuracy. The
DHT11 and DHT22 feature has the same pin out and power output. Both sensors
are easier to hook up, but in collecting the data, it can require some careful timing.
The DHT22 has a much expensive, and temperature measuring range is from -40°C
to 125°C with ±0.5°C accuracy. However, the DHT11 temperature range is from
0°C to 50°C with ±2°C accuracy.
There are two specifications reason where the DHT11 is better than the DHT22.
First, the sampling rate which for the DHT11 is 1Hz/1s, while the DHT22 sampling
rate is 0.5Hz/2s. Second, the DHT11 has smaller body size. The operating voltage of
both sensors is from 3V to 5V, while the max current used when measuring is 2.5mA.
Focusing on the temperature range, the sampling rate (speed of data sent to the
microcontroller), the unit pricing and sizing of making the DHT11 a good selected
to be used as the sensor.

5. Conclusions
The temperature, humidity monitoring and controlling system will serve as an
optimal solution for all the concerned parties such as electrical component storage
facilities, automobile manufacturers and food storage departments to improve their
efficiency in monitoring, controlling as well as managing the environmental
parameters such as temperature and humidity where these factors play an important
role in their productivity and finance. The system is capable of obtaining the
temperature and humidity of a space, thus providing a real time temperature and
humidity monitoring either using an application in a smartphone via WIFI over IoT,
a LCD display embedded in the system or a computer interface.
The application mentioned above keeps track of the temperature and humidity
readings as well, which helps the user to monitor these parameters in a graph.
Besides that, our system is also able to send an alert to the application if either one
or both of these parameters fall in the critical region; as well as making the
necessary step to bring back the particular parameter to safe region such as turning
on the humidifier if the humidity falls below the assigned value.
This research was built upon basic components. Further improvements can be
made to this project to increase its capability and efficiency such as temperature
control. With our system in place, it can eliminate the necessity of workers to
manually obtain the reading of these parameters and maintaining them frequently.
Many industries especially those require the controlled storages in which the
temperature and humidity plays an important role to ensure the lifespan and
efficiency of their products. The system will be a great help in boosting the
efficiency and reducing the cost.

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Abbreviations
DHT-11 Temperature and Humidity Sensors
DHT-22 Temperature and Humidity Sensors
ESP-12 Miniature Wi-Fi Module
Blynk Platform with IOS and Android Apps
NodeMCU Internet of Thing Platform
IoT Internet of Thing
LCD Liquid Crystal Display
NTC Negative Temperature Coefficient

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