The appearance of the Arduino UNO, back in the 2010 time frame, really changed the landscape of easily programmable microcontrollers. The associated Arduino IDE, along with numerous libraries that were being published, made writing and uploading programs much easier (by a lot) than previously possible. Attaching various sensors, to measure things like pressure or acceleration, suddenly became very accessible.
When it came to measuring humidity, the DHT11 and DHT22 sensors dominated the market. These were super cheap, readily available, and had ready-to-go Arduino libraries. Tons of guides were published using these sensors as demos.
Fast forward to now. The microcontroller market has evolved significantly. While you can still buy an Arduino UNO, there are now much more powerful options available. Even powerful enough to allow running an interpretive language like CircuitPython. Also, single board computers, like the Raspberry Pi, which run a full Linux operating system, provide a totally different class of host controllers.
In this modern landscape, are the DHT11/22 still good cheap choices for measuring humidity? The answer is NO. In this guide we go into why that is by briefly looking at how the DHT11/22 sensors work. We then provide some information on modern alternatives that should generally be used instead of the DHT11/22.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
