3d Filament Moisture monitor

thingiverse

I have been storing my filament in 5 gallon buckets for a few years now and I always replace the dessicant packets every once in a while to keep things dry. This will eventually be attached to my Red node server but it's just a simple display now which you can buy for $5 on amazon. Only practical if you hook it via IOT. I was working on a remote moisture monitor and just for the fun of it I threw it in one of my buckets to see what the humidity was inside the bucket after it was closed over night. I was shocked to see I was at 45 percent the next morning. So I threw out the dessicant packets and put in a couple of 40 gram SG-40 Silica Gel containers and tried it again. Ah, down to 4 percent so that's good. I had to dry out the spools I had in a oven and then replace them into the bucket and the humidity has stayed below 15 percent as I had hoped. I don't believe the packets would dry out your spools but they should remove the moisture in the air to prevent them from going bad. The jest of this is you don't know what the humidity in the bucket is unless you have a way to measure it with the lid closed so here is a simple little project that allows you to check your humidity level with the press of a button. The button is a common 6mm square switch used on just about everything with a keyboard. Using a WROOM ESP32 with display and a BME280 I2C module and code from https://randomnerdtutorials.com/ it was a hour project to assemble. I printed up a case and a simple mount for the Gel packs to mount inside the bucket. I have included a solid lid if you have a different board you might like to use. Here is a list of the parts I used, you probably have most of this stuff so the sensor and ESP32 are all you need to get going. As always look at the photo's to see the assembly. Have fun and keep your powder dry. Cheers Kisssys BME280 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085WCRS7C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ESP32 WROOM with display https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SN3GJ2R/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 3 AAA holder https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0156U82JY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 HYDROSORBENT SG_40 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015OTBKAA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 5 gallon can https://www.lowes.com/pd/United-Solutions-5-Gallon-Paint-Bucket/3734787 Bucket Lid https://www.lowes.com/pd/Encore-Plastics-12-in-White-Plastic-Bucket-Lid/50094688