Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Protecting Your Raspberry Pi from the Elements
Now is a good time to think where you will house the Raspberry Pi. Although the Raspberry
Pi is fairly robust, it's better to protect it from extremes of temperature or humidity. You
have a couple of options:
❍
Mount the Raspberry Pi near the bird box and run a long wire to supply it with power
and transmit data back via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
❍
Have your Raspberry Pi inside a building and run long wires from it to the LEDs and
phototransistors in your bird box.
You may ind a compromise is best, perhaps with your Raspberry Pi in a shed or outbuilding,
with medium-length wires running to your nest, and a data connection via Wi-Fi to your
broadband router.
If you mount your Raspberry Pi outside, you should use a waterproof box. You can buy these
boxes from most electrical distributors or hardware stores. hese enclosures typically have a rub-
ber gasket to make a waterproof seal with the lid. If you buy a box that has an IP rating of IP66,
you can be pretty sure that your Raspberry Pi will remain dry from water from the outside.
Often electronic product packaging contains sachets of silica gel to protect the item from humidity
during transit. Put a couple of these sachets in with your Raspberry Pi to keep the humidity in the
enclosure under control. You can revitalise silica gel by gently warming it to dry it out.
IP Rating
Enclosures may be given an IP rating that describes how much protection they give to their
contents. The IP rating consists of two numbers: The irst digit indicates the protection
against solid objects, such as tools, ingers and dust, and the second digit describes the
protection against liquids. The higher the numbers, the greater the protection offered and
the less that can enter the enclosure. For liquids, 1 ranges from protection from vertically
dripping water, 5 for protection from jets and 8 for continuous immersion in water.
If the manufacturer wants to provide a rating for only one digit,
X
is used for the other. For
example, an enclosure may be rated IPX6, meaning that it is protected against powerful
water jets, but nothing is claimed about the protection from solids.
If you've built a project with your Raspberry Pi and need to protect it, the IP rating is a good
way of knowing if a manufacturer's box will be up to the job.
